This paper presents an extensive experimental study of the state-of-the-art of XML compression tools. The study reports the behavior of nine XML compressors using a large corpus of XML documents which covers the different natures and scales of XML documents. In addition to assessing and comparing the performance characteristics of the evaluated XML compression tools, the study tries to assess the effectiveness and practicality of using these tools in the real world. Finally, we provide some guidelines and recommendations which are useful for helping developers and users for making an effective decision for selecting the most suitable XML compression tool for their needs.