MD-5 is a message-digest algorithm used for authenticating messages as well as content verification and digital signatures. It processes a variable-length message into a fixed-length output of 128 bits. It is most commonly used to verify that a file is unaltered by comparing a hash of the source file with a newly created hash of the destination file. MD-5 is also used in in a wide variety of protocols and applications such as SSH, SSL, and IPSec.

SHA-1 stands for Secure Hash Algorithm Version 1.0. It is a widely used hash function which takes an input and produces a 160-bit (20-byte) hash value known as a message digest. Although slower, SHA is more secure than MD-5 due to a variety of reasons. First, it produces a larger digest, 160-bit compared to 128-bit, so a brute force attack would be much more difficult to carry out. Also, no known collisions have been found for SHA.

SHA-256 stands for Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit. SHA-256 algorithm generates an almost-unique, fixed size 256-bit (32-byte) hash. Hash is so called a one way function. This makes it suitable for checking integrity of your data, challenge hash authentication, anti-tamper, digital signatures, and blockchain.

SHA-224 is a 224-bit one-way hash function. It is based on SHA-256, but it uses a different initial value and the result is truncated to 224 bits.

SHA-512, or Secure Hash Algorithm 512, is a hashing algorithm used to convert text of any length into a fixed-size string. Each output produces a SHA-512 length of 512 bits (64 bytes).

SHA-384 is a 384-bit one-way hash function. It is based on SHA-512, but it uses a different internal constants and 128 bits of the result are discarded, leaving 384 bits.

SHA-3 (Secure Hash Algorithm 3) is the latest member of the Secure Hash Algorithm family of standards, released by NIST on August 5, 2015. Although part of the same series of standards, SHA-3 is internally different from the MD5-like structure of SHA-1 and SHA-2. SHA-3 (and its variants SHA3-224, SHA3-256, SHA3-384, SHA3-512), is considered more secure than SHA-2 (SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512) for the same hash length. For example, SHA3-256 provides more cryptographic strength than SHA-256 for the same hash length.

SHA-3 is not as widely used as SHA-2 because SHA-2 is mostly seen as perfectly adequate technology. One big advantage for SHA-3 is that it can be implemented faster. SHA-3 internally uses a parallel mode of operation, which an implementation can exploit to speed-up the processing. However, for most applications, the speed of the hash function just isn't a major factor.

RIPEMD (RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest) is a family of cryptographic hash functions developed in 1992 (the original RIPEMD) and 1996 (other variants). Its design was based on the MD4. RIPEMD-160 is a strengthened version of the RIPEMD algorithm which produces a 128 bit hash digest while the RIPEMD-160 algorithm produces a 160-bit output. While RIPEMD functions are less popular than SHA-1 and SHA-2, they are used in Bitcoin and Bitcoin-based cryptocurrencies.