The Best balenaEtcher AlternativesTop Bootable USB Creators and other similar apps like balenaEtcher

balenaEtcher is described as 'Ideal for creating bootable USBs and SD cards, ensuring safe, cross-platform use. Open-source, lightweight, and portable with a user-friendly interface' and is a leading bootable usb creator in the os & utilities category. There are more than 50 alternatives to balenaEtcher for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Flathub and PortableApps.com apps. The best balenaEtcher alternative is Rufus, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like balenaEtcher are Ventoy, UNetbootin, YUMI exFAT and dd.

filter to find the best alternatives

balenaEtcher alternatives are mainly Bootable USB Creators, but if you're looking for Disk Imaging Tools or Linux Distros you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Android Tablet + Create bootable USB and Linux + Create bootable USB. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to balenaEtcher.
balenaEtcher iconbalenaEtcher
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Ideal for creating bootable USBs and SD cards, ensuring safe, cross-platform use. Open-source, lightweight, and portable with a user-friendly interface.

More about balenaEtcher
More about balenaEtcher
balenaEtcher alternatives page was last updated Feb 13, 2025
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Alternatives
  1. Rufus icon

    Rufus

     1505 likes
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    Formats USB drives to FAT, NTFS, exFAT, and more, while creating bootable USBs from diverse ISOs. Supports MS-DOS/FreeDOS with no external files and offers BIOS or UEFI mode, including bad block check. Ideal for systems lacking an OS or flashing BIOS and lightweight, ad-free.

    67 Rufus alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • FR flagFrance
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    Rufus screenshot 1
    Rufus screenshot 2
    Rufus screenshot 3

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Optimal performance

    Features

    1.  Create bootable USB
    2.  Portable
    3.  Burn iso
    4.  Windows To Go
    5.  UEFI Support
    6.  Write ISO to SD card
    7.  Create bootable Image
    8.  Create BIOS bootable drive
    9.  Create UEFI bootable drive
    10.  GNU/linux-libre
    11.  USB to FAT
    12.  USB to NTFS

    Rufus VS balenaEtcher

     
    Comments about Rufus as an Alternative to balenaEtcher
    Top Positive Comment
    Paul
    Apr 2, 2020
    2

    Probably the best software to burn an OS image on a USB drive if you're using Windows.

    Most Recent Comment
    DL300
    Positive •Sep 11, 2022
    0

    I am convinced BalenaEtcher is recommended by people who have never used it. I have never even witnessed it successfully complete a write. Rufus has always worked.

    Guest
    Positive •Sep 18, 2021
    1

    It works best and has features needed most.

    Show more comments
    3 of 10 comments
    balenaEtcher Icon
    Rufus icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Rufus is a great balenaEtcher alternative.

    • Rufus is the most popular Windows alternative to balenaEtcher.

    • Rufus is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to balenaEtcher.

    • Rufus is Free and Open SourcebalenaEtcher is also Free and Open Source
    • Rufus is LightweightbalenaEtcher is not according to our users
  2. Ventoy icon

    Ventoy

     343 likes
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    Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.

    45 Ventoy alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • CN flagChina

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Ventoy screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Multi boot
    2.  Create bootable USB
    3.  Multiboot USB
    4.  Create Multiboot USB
    5.  UEFI Support
    6.  Persistent Storage
    7.  Portable
    8.  Multi-windows
    9.  VHD Boot
    10.  Command line interface
    11.  Ad-free

    Ventoy VS balenaEtcher

     
    Comments about Ventoy as an Alternative to balenaEtcher
    Top Positive Comment
    Aas
    Sep 30, 2022
    5

    balenaEtcher had some privacy issue in the past. Ventoy doesn't "phone home". Why an USB image creator needs to send some data out anyway?

    Most Recent Comment
    Guest
    Positive •Nov 24, 2023
    0

    Ventoy only needs a one time setup and all bootable ISOs are just placed in your USB drive. Also your USB drive keeps being a storage device when you're in your OS

    Jeremy Leik
    Positive •Jun 8, 2022
    2

    Ventoy is a great tool. I had used YUMI extensively before Ventoy came out. What is great about Ventoy is the cross-platform support and the fact that your ISO image stay intact on your USB stick. Being able to have a large 256GB USB stick with Ventoy on it also gives it an edge against tools like Balena Etcher (one image per USB) or Rufus (ISO images are not intact).

    As a bonus, Ventoy can create USB sticks that will work with BOTH UEFI and BIOS.

    Show more comments
    3 of 5 comments
    balenaEtcher Icon
    Ventoy icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Ventoy is a great balenaEtcher alternative.

    • Ventoy is the most popular Linux alternative to balenaEtcher.

    • Ventoy is Free and Open SourcebalenaEtcher is also Free and Open Source
    • Ventoy is LightweightbalenaEtcher is not according to our users
  4. UNetbootin icon

    UNetbootin

     748 likes
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    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.

    55 UNetbootin alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • CA flagCanada

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • PortableApps.com
    Welcome screen
    Discontinued

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

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Create bootable USB
    2.  Persistent Linux
    3.  Automatic downloading
    4.  Download ISO Images
    5.  Portable
    6.  Windows To Go
    7.  Ad-free
    8.  Portable Linux
    9.  Burn iso

    UNetbootin VS balenaEtcher

     
    Comments about UNetbootin as an Alternative to balenaEtcher
    Guest
    Negative •May 5, 2016
    2

    I cannot choose Winshit 10

    Guest
    Negative •Jun 16, 2022
    0

    It doesn't appear to just write images to disk

    balenaEtcher Icon
    UNetbootin icon

    • Most users think UNetbootin is a great balenaEtcher alternative.

    • UNetbootin is the most popular Mac alternative to balenaEtcher.

    • UNetbootin is Free and Open SourcebalenaEtcher is also Free and Open Source
    • UNetbootin is Privacy focused and LightweightbalenaEtcher is not according to our users
  5. YUMI exFAT icon

    YUMI exFAT

     282 likes
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    The YUMI exFAT (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) media creation tool can be used to automatically create an exFAT bootable USB flash drive containing multiple operating systems, antivirus utilities, disc cloning, diagnostic tools, and more.

    47 YUMI exFAT alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    • Wine
    • WineBottler
    YUMI exFAT screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Create Multiboot USB
    2.  Multiboot USB
    3.  Create bootable USB
    4.  Can install to internal hard drives/ssds
    5.  Persistent Storage
    6.  UEFI Support
    7.  Portable
    8.  Multi boot
    9.  Multi-windows

    YUMI exFAT VS balenaEtcher

     
  6. dd icon

    dd

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

    37 dd alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD

    dd Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Burn iso
    3.  Write ISO to SD card
    4.  Create image

    dd VS balenaEtcher

     
    Comments about dd as an Alternative to balenaEtcher
    Most Recent Comment
    Paul
    Positive •Apr 2, 2020
    1

    A good command-line alternative that comes with Unix-based operating systems. It's what I use on my MacBook to burn Linux ISO images on my USB drive.

    Guest
    Positive •Jul 22, 2022
    0

    It's application free, and already, always installed in system !

    sharmaganesha2
    Positive •Oct 9, 2020
    0

    It's command line. That means it does not have garbage inside the program. But it might freak some people out. But Literally, you have Git Bash so you can use DD on Windows.

    The usage:

    $ lsblk /dev/sdb 28G /dev/sda 931G $ dd if=popos.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress

    It's really nice.

    balenaEtcher Icon
    dd icon

    • Almost everyone thinks dd is a great balenaEtcher alternative.

    • dd is Free and Open SourcebalenaEtcher is also Free and Open Source
  7. Win32 Disk Imager icon

    Win32 Disk Imager

     84 likes
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    A utility that can write a raw backup image of your hard drive to a removable device or vice versa.

    45 Win32 Disk Imager alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Win32 Disk Imager screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Disk to image file conversion

    Win32 Disk Imager VS balenaEtcher

     
    Comments about Win32 Disk Imager as an Alternative to balenaEtcher
    TheDcoder
    Positive •Mar 18, 2017
    1

    A lot smaller and more native to the Windows platform than Etcher

    Guest
    Negative •Jun 18, 2019
    -4

    Win32 Disk Imager, despite its name, does not "create" disk images: it only writes/mounts pre-existing .img files to flash storage.

    balenaEtcher Icon
    Win32 Disk Imager icon

    • Most users think Win32 Disk Imager is a great balenaEtcher alternative.

    • Win32 Disk Imager is Free and Open SourcebalenaEtcher is also Free and Open Source
    • Win32 Disk Imager is LightweightbalenaEtcher is not according to our users
  9. Universal USB Installer icon

    Universal USB Installer

     177 likes
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    Universal USB Installer is a Live Linux USB Creator that allows you to choose from a selection of Linux Distributions to put on your USB Flash Drive. The Universal USB Installer is easy to use. Simply choose a Live Linux Distribution, the ISO file, your Flash Drive and, Click...

    45 Universal USB Installer alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Universal USB Installer screenshot 1

    Universal USB Installer Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Persistent Linux
    3.  No need to format
    4.  Portable Linux
    5.  Multiple languages

    Universal USB Installer VS balenaEtcher

     
  10. LinuxLive USB Creator icon

    LinuxLive USB Creator

     125 likes
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    LiLi USB Creator is a free software for Windows that allows you to create a bootable Live USB key with a Linux on it.

    45 LinuxLive USB Creator alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • FR flagFrance
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Windows
    The GUI of the program
    Discontinued

    Site says app is no longer maintained.

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Create UEFI bootable drive
    2.  Portable Linux
    3.  Dark Mode
    4.  Portable
    5.  Ad-free
    6.  No registration required
    7.  No Tracking
    8.  Works Offline
    9.  USB to FAT

    LinuxLive USB Creator VS balenaEtcher

     
8 of 53 balenaEtcher alternatives