Free InstallShield AlternativesSoftware Installers and other similar apps like InstallShield

The best free alternative to InstallShield is Inno Setup, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to InstallShield and many of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to InstallShield are NSIS, WiX, DCP Setup Maker and Advanced Installer.

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InstallShield is designed to enable development teams to be more agile, collaborative and flexible when building reliable...

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InstallShield alternatives page was last updated Feb 5, 2025
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  1. Inno Setup icon
     113 likes
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    Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.

    51 Inno Setup alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Wine

    Inno Setup VS InstallShield

     
    Comments about Inno Setup as an Alternative to InstallShield
    Guest
    Negative Dec 18, 2023
    0

    It is quite different and doesn't open the files created by InstallShield

    Guest
    Positive Jan 28, 2020
    2

    was able to create setup for an app in less than 2 mins

    InstallShield Icon
    Inno Setup icon
    • Most users think Inno Setup is a great InstallShield alternative.

    • Inno Setup is the most popular Windows alternative to InstallShield.

    • Inno Setup is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to InstallShield.

    • Inno Setup is Free and Open SourceInstallShield is Paid and Proprietary
  2. NSIS icon
     67 likes
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    NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a professional open source system to create Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore very suitable for internet distribution.

    51 NSIS alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com

    NSIS Features

    1.  Support for scripting
    2.  Portable

    NSIS VS InstallShield

     
  3. WiX icon
     20 likes
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    The Windows Installer XML (WiX) is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. The toolset supports a command line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to build MSI and MSM setup packages.

    39 WiX alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows

    WiX Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  WixPie IDE
    3.  WixEdit

    WiX VS InstallShield

     
  4. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Powerful simple-to-use application to generate stable and multi-platform installers. Its intuitive user interface and exceptional ease of use makes it very easy to build complex desktop or web installers with large amounts of files.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Country of Origin

    • MA flagMorocco

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Wine

    DCP Setup Maker Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Nuget

    DCP Setup Maker VS InstallShield

     
    • DCP Setup Maker is the most popular Mac & Linux alternative to InstallShield.

    • DCP Setup Maker is Free and Open SourceInstallShield is Paid and Proprietary
  5. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Advanced Installer is a powerful and easy to use setup authoring tool which offers full Windows Installer support and more. You can configure every aspect of your installer through a simple graphical user interface or through its command line.

    42 Advanced Installer alternatives

    License model

    • FreemiumProprietary

    Country of Origin

    • RO flagRomania
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Windows

    Advanced Installer VS InstallShield

     
  6. Velopack icon
     1 like
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    Velopack is an installation and auto-update framework for cross-platform desktop applications. It's opinionated, extremely easy to use with zero config needed. With just one command you can be up and running with an installable application, and it's lightning fast for...

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux

    Velopack Features

    1.  Auto Update

    Velopack VS InstallShield

     
  7. Wix# icon
     5 likes
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    WixSharp enables creating MSI files or WiX source code by using C# source code. Upon execution, the C# code is transformed into a MSI file or WiX source code. Thanks to C# features such as inheritance, it becomes easy to create installers.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows

    Wix# VS InstallShield

     
  8. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Squirrel is both a set of tools and a library, to completely manage both installation and updating your Desktop Windows application, written in either C# or any other language (i.e., Squirrel can manage native C++ applications).

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows

    Squirrel.Windows VS InstallShield

     
  9. IzPack icon
     9 likes
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    IzPack is a one-stop solution for packaging, distributing and deploying applications.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Country of Origin

    • FR flagFrance
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Java

    IzPack VS InstallShield

     
  10. Makeself icon
     3 likes
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    makeself.sh is a small shell script that generates a self-extractable tar.gz archive from a directory. The resulting file appears as a shell script (many of those have a .run suffix), and can be launched as is.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • FR flagFrance
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Makeself Features

    1.  No registration required
    2.  Command line interface

    Makeself VS InstallShield

     
  11. InstallForge icon
     6 likes
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    InstallForge is a very easy-to-use and flexible tool for creating fast installation packages for Windows.

    25 InstallForge alternatives

    License model

    • FreeProprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Wine

    InstallForge Features

    1.  exe
    2.  Serial number protection

    InstallForge VS InstallShield

     
  12. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    The packaging formats used by different distributions of Linux can be a pain point for software developers wishing to release their projects in an easily consumable way. Debian and Ubuntu rely on .deb packages, while Fedora and RedHat both use .rpm style packaging systems.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • OpenSolaris

    Effing Package Management! VS InstallShield

     
12 of 34 InstallShield alternatives