Rufus Alternatives for Mac

Rufus is not available for Mac but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The best Mac alternative is balenaEtcher, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Rufus and many of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Rufus are UNetbootin, dd, macUSB and Deepin Boot Maker.

filter to find the best alternatives

Rufus alternatives are mainly Bootable USB Creators, but if you're looking for Disk Imaging Tools or ISO Creators you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Windows, Mac, Windows + Free, Mac + Create bootable USB, Ubuntu + Create bootable USB and Android + Disc Burner. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Rufus.
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Alternatives list

  1. balenaEtcher icon
     669 likes

    A free, open-source tool for burning images to USB and SD cards. Compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. Features validated burning, avoiding accidental wipes, offers a sleek interface, is lightweight and portable, making it ideal for users at any skill level.

    63 balenaEtcher alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
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    36
    balenaEtcher vs Rufus Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    espectalll
    9

    It's simple, it's easy, it's slick, and it's multiplatform, May not be for everyone, but surely is for most people.

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    59

    Cannot select between gpt and mbr partition styles

    Sebastian
    Positive
    0

    I love this software! Easy to use and works great.

    3 of 36 comments
    • balenaEtcher is Free and Open SourceRufus is also Free and Open Source
  2. UNetbootin icon
     765 likes

    Cross-platform tool for making bootable USB and Live USB drives, featuring a built-in downloader for Linux ISO images and rescue disks, supporting BSD and various utilities. No installation required, it runs directly and offers compatibility and community support for many distributions.

    59 UNetbootin alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • PortableApps.com
     
    |
    13
    Discontinued

    Last commit to the repository was on Jun 28, 2023, and latest version is from Feb 4, 2021.

    UNetbootin vs Rufus Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    Kandi
    18

    Easy to use. Supports a huge variety of platforms

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    13

    does not do UEFI mode does not recognize external hdd/ sdd does not do windows bootable drives and have issues even with some linux distros does not do multiple booting images on single drive

    Guest
    Negative
    1

    UNetbootin is for Linux Distributions. Rufus is for creating bootable USBs in general, independant from the target OS.

    3 of 13 comments
    • UNetbootin is Free and Open SourceRufus is also Free and Open Source
  3. dd icon
     103 likes

    dd, that stands for ‘data duplicator’, is a command-line utility for Unix mainly used for copying and converting data.

    42 dd alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
    |
    6
    dd vs Rufus Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    3

    It's the only one that seems to be able to create BSD flash drives

    cvanelli
    Negative
    -15

    crappy command line only program.

    Guest
    Positive
    1

    Considering this has been developed since 1974, it is very good at what it does.

    3 of 6 comments
    • dd is Free and Open SourceRufus is also Free and Open Source
  4. macUSB icon
     13 likes

    macUSB is a free and open-source macOS app for creating bootable USB media for macOS, Linux, and Windows. It is designed as an all-in-one tool that guides the user through the entire process step by step, while supporting both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Homebrew
     
  5. Deepin Boot Maker is a boot maker developed by Deepin Technology Team. It is simple in interface and easy to operate. It helps users to easily make deepin boot disk.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
    |
    1
    Deepin Boot Maker vs Rufus Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    1

    easy to use and run perfectly on mac

    • Deepin Boot Maker is Free and Open SourceRufus is also Free and Open Source
  6. Optical drives are rapidly disappearing from our computers of all kinds, and consequently installing operating systems from USB flash disks is becoming increasingly popular. ISO images of the ROSA Linux distribution were originally intended for burning to DVD disks, but they can...

    47 ROSA Image Writer alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
    |
    2
    Discontinued

    Last update was in 2016.

    ROSA Image Writer vs Rufus Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Easy to use, multi-platform

    Guest
    Positive
    -3

    its quick stable & versatile no errors on any I made

    • ROSA Image Writer is Free and Open SourceRufus is also Free and Open Source
  7. A tool to create a bootable live USB drive with an edition of Fedora. Not only can Fedora Media Writer write an image to your flash drive, it can also download it for you. It offers official editions (Server, Workstation), Fedora spins (KDE Plasma Desktop, Xfce Desktop, Cinnamon...

    51 Fedora Media Writer alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
     
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    1
    Fedora Media Writer vs Rufus Comments
    Interstellar_1
    Positive
    0

    Works well for flashing any linux ISO on any operating system, not only Fedora. I find it to be slightly more reliable than balena etcher, and very simple to use.

    • Fedora Media Writer is Free and Open SourceRufus is also Free and Open Source
  8. USBImager icon
     24 likes

    USBImager is a really really simple GUI application that writes compressed disk images to USB drives and creates backups.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Raspberry Pi
     
  9. WinDiskWriter icon
     14 likes

    Prepare bootable USB drives for Windows on macOS with support for UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes. Patches Windows 11 to bypass TPM and Secure Boot requirements, requires just an image file and USB. Offers a quick, user-friendly process for PCs and Intel Macs.

    44 WinDiskWriter alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  10. Disk Utility icon
     47 likes

    Disk Utility is the name of a utility created by Apple for performing disk-related tasks in Mac OS X. These tasks include:

    39 Disk Utility alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
    |
    2
    Disk Utility vs Rufus Comments
    Guest
    Negative
    0

    Cannot flash/burn iso into flash drive

    Guest
    Negative
    -1

    You cannot flash an iso image to a flash drive

    • Disk Utility is Free and ProprietaryRufus is Free and Open Source
    • Disk Utility is a Disk Imaging Rufus is a Create bootable USB
  11. MeowUSB icon
     7 likes

    Create Windows USB on a Mac MeowUSB simplifies the process of creating a bootable Windows USB on your Mac.

    39 MeowUSB alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
12 of 20 Rufus alternatives