Zipping, archiving, and compressing are processes in which files are being packed in a folder in order to facilitate an easy way to store and send the files.
Data compression or source encoding is the process of saving encoding information which only uses up few bits.  The compressed data can be read only by the applications that can also send and received that type of data. This means that in order to decompress the compressed data, the sender and the receiver must have compatible applications.
Advantages and disadvantages of data compression

One of the best things about the use of compression is that it reduces the consumption of resources such as transmission bandwidth and hard disk space.  However, there are also disadvantages with this.  One is that the receiver must have the same application as that of the sender.  In most cases, the receiver, in order to open the file, has to install the applications.  Aside from being time-consuming, there are instances that one has to spend money to be able to install the application.  For instance, in order to have a sophisticated video compression scheme that could allow one to watch a video while it is being decompressed, he or she has to spend a large amount of cash to purchase the software.
What is archiving?

Archiving also works the same way with data compression.  This process also involves the combination of files together into an archive file.  The purpose is also to reduce the size of files when storing or sending them.  The process of making an archive is called packing or archiving, and the opening of the archive file is called unpacking or extracting.

There are various formats that support the the compressing and archiving of files.  One of these is the .7z.  This is a compress archive format that supports various data compression and pre-processing filters.  This file compression format has the capacity to compress large files up to 16 billion GB.  Next is the .rar, which was developed by Eugene Roshal.  One of the notable features of this file format is its ability to split archives into volumes.  The .zip format has a notable feature of allowing the files to be stored uncompressed.  There is also the .tar or tape archive.  This format is only an archive form.  It only serves to collate files into one large file.  This format is often used with .gz or GNU zip.  This is the opposite of .tar.  The .gz format only has compressing capability.