balenaEtcher Alternatives for Linux

There are many alternatives to balenaEtcher for Linux if you are looking for a replacement. The best Linux alternative is Ventoy, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to balenaEtcher and many of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to balenaEtcher are UNetbootin, dd, MultiBootUSB and USBImager.

balenaEtcher alternatives are mainly Bootable USB Creators but may also be Disk Imaging Tools or Hard Disk Diagnostic Tools. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of balenaEtcher.

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balenaEtcher

565

Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator

Mac
Windows
Linux

balenaEtcher is a free and open-source image burner with support for Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux. It makes USB and SD card...

Learn more about balenaEtcher

Ventoy
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Windows
Linux
41 alternatives to Ventoy
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.
Suggest and vote on features
Ventoy Features
1. PortableVentoy can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
2. LightweightVentoy consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
Multi boot
Multiboot USB
Create Multiboot USB
UEFI Support
Persistent Storage
Multi-windows
VHD Boot
Ventoy vs balenaEtcher opinions
pros, cons and recent comments
Aas
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?
Positive comment•
1

leik1jd
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.
Positive comment•
1

Guest
Everything balenaEtcher can do Ventoy can do better and more. Plus they 'ignore' Mac, haha.
Positive comment•
2

Guest
Everyone who wants to try linux from windows. Ventoy is the best option. Why? Because Ventoy will let you put two iso on the drive. No Burning or wiping out entire disk. Only direct iso copy and paste. If you want to try linux, simply put linux iso and for safe back to windows put a windows 10 iso.
Positive comment•
1
UNetbootin
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Linux Distro
Mac
Windows
Linux
PortableApps.com
50 alternatives to UNetbootin
UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) is a cross-platform utility that can load Linux and other distributions to a partition or USB drive. It loads distributions either by downloading listed Linux and BSD like distributions, a variety of system utilities and rescue disks ISO...
Suggest and vote on features
UNetbootin Features
1. PortableUNetbootin can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
2. Ad-freeUNetbootin doesn't contain any form of external advertising.
3. Privacy focusedUNetbootin is considered a privacy friendly alternative.
4. LightweightUNetbootin consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
Persistent Linux
Automatic downloading
Download ISO Images
Windows To Go
Burn iso
Portable Linux
UNetbootin vs balenaEtcher opinions
Most users think UNetbootin is a great alternative to balenaEtcher.
Guest
It doesn't appear to just write images to disk
Negative comment•
0

Guest
I cannot choose Winshit 10
Negative comment•
0
dd
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Mac
Linux
BSD
28 alternatives to dd
dd, that stands for ‘data duplicator’, is a command-line utility for Unix mainly used for copying and converting data.
Suggest and vote on features
dd Features
1. Command line interfacedd either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Burn iso
Write ISO to SD card
Create image
Add a screenshot

dd vs balenaEtcher opinions
Almost everyone thinks dd is a great alternative to balenaEtcher.
Guest
It's application free, and already, always installed in system !
Positive comment•
0

sharmaganesha2
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.
Positive comment•
0

POX
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.
Positive comment•
1
MultiBootUSB
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Windows
Linux
39 alternatives to MultiBootUSB
MultiBootUSB is a software to create multi boot live Linux on a removable media i.e USB disk. It is similar to UNetbootin but many distros can be installed, provided you have enough space on the disk.
Suggest and vote on features
MultiBootUSB Features
1. Command line interfaceMultiBootUSB either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Multiboot USB
Multi OS
Create Multiboot USB
Install Syslinux
Boot HDD Partition
Discontinued
The project seems no longer developed and the official website is no longer available. Last version, 9.2.0, released in April 2018, can be still downloaded from GitHub.

MultiBootUSB vs balenaEtcher opinions
Almost everyone thinks MultiBootUSB is a great alternative to balenaEtcher.
USBImager
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Disk Imaging Tool
Mac
Windows
Linux
Raspberry Pi
10 alternatives to USBImager
USBImager is a really really simple GUI application that writes compressed disk images to USB drives and creates backups.
Suggest and vote on features
USBImager Features
Write ISO to SD card
ARM support
Raspberry Pi Development
USBImager vs balenaEtcher opinions
pros, cons and recent comments
prog_uk
Small, simple and does everything it needs to without any unnecessary bells and whistles.
Positive comment•
0

docampoangel
Is like etcher but installed occupies 508,43 KiB in disk, instead 500MB of spyware and electron crap.
Positive comment•
0

rescuezilla
USBImager is a 300 kilobyte download compared to balenaEtcher's 80+ megabyte. They're both cross-platform (Windows/macOS/Linux). The reason is USBImager is a native app while balenaEtcher is an Electron app.

balenaEtcher is still a bit more user-friendly, but USBImager is by far the best cross-platform alternative right now.
Positive comment•
1
WoeUSB
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Linux
22 alternatives to WoeUSB
WoeUSB is a simple tool that enable you to create your own usb stick windows installer from an iso image or a real DVD. It is a fork of Congelli501 s WinUSB.
Suggest and vote on features
WoeUSB Features
1. Command line interfaceWoeUSB either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Bootable Windows Flashdrive's
Create UEFI bootable drive
Graphical User Interface
WoeUSB vs balenaEtcher opinions
pros, cons and recent comments
Guest
Good for windows images.
Positive comment•
0
Disks
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Hard Disk Diagnostic Tool
Benchmark Tool
Linux
15 alternatives to Disks
A GNOME utility for dealing with storage devices.
Suggest and vote on features
Disks Features
Write ISO to SD card
Disk Monitoring
Support for S.M.A.R.T. data
Disks vs balenaEtcher opinions
pros, cons and recent comments
TheTrader
Native interface, preinstalled, not bloated. If you use Gnome, there is no point in installing balenaetcher.
Positive comment•
1

Guest
It has always works great, and it comes as default on many linux OSes.
Positive comment•
0
MultiSystem
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Linux
37 alternatives to MultiSystem
MultiSystem is an awesome Linux tool for creating multiboot USB drives, developed by François Fabre (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/). It uses Grub2 instead of Grub Legacy, and can be run from within any Linux distribution to create a Custom Multiboot USB containing your...
Suggest and vote on features
MultiSystem Features
Create multiple OS boot
Linux-based
Create Multiboot USB
Mutli-image handling
Multiboot USB
Multiple languages
ROSA Image Writer
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Mac
Windows
Linux
40 alternatives to ROSA Image Writer
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...
Suggest and vote on features
ROSA Image Writer Features
Create bootable Image
Discontinued
Last update was in 2016.

ROSA Image Writer vs balenaEtcher opinions
SUSE Studio ImageWriter
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Bootable USB Creator
Windows
Linux
37 alternatives to SUSE Studio ImageWriter
Utility for writing raw disk images & hybrid isos to USB keys.
Suggest and vote on features
SUSE Studio ImageWriter Features
Small-footprint
SUSE Studio ImageWriter vs balenaEtcher opinions
pros, cons and recent comments
Ranogard
Etcher requires me to download 57.42 MiB from the Arch repos. Whereas the SUSE ImageWriter only needs 0.11 MiB. This is a factor of 522x!

This is because Etcher is incredibly bloated by electron and their ads. Yet, the SUSE ImageWriter does the same thing and managed to create a bootable Manjaro live USB for me.

I think Etcher is nothing but ridiculous compared to this.
Positive comment•
0