Broad but weak
Often readable by older ZIP tools, but its legacy design is unsuitable for valuable secrets.
Bottom line
Use AES-256 for confidential archives when every recipient has compatible software. Use ZipCrypto only when legacy extraction compatibility is more important than strong protection. ZipCrypto is an old compatibility mechanism and should not protect sensitive data.
Use-case selector
What matters most?
The comparison in one view
Stronger, less universal
Strong encryption when implemented correctly, but recipients need AES-capable ZIP software.
Format matters too
These formats can add stronger password processing and encrypted headers, with narrower native support.
AES-256 is not the whole answer
Archive security also depends on password strength, key derivation, authenticated encryption or integrity behavior, header encryption, software implementation, and how the password is delivered. A short reused password remains a weak point even when the cipher is AES-256.
