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.
- Software Installer
- Paid • Proprietary
- 51 Inno Setup alternatives
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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Windows
- Wine
Comments about Inno Setup as an Alternative to InstallShield
was able to create setup for an app in less than 2 mins
- 51 NSIS alternatives
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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Windows
- PortableApps.com
NSIS Features
- 39 WiX alternatives
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.
WiX Features
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
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
Morocco
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Wine
DCP Setup Maker Features
- 42 Advanced Installer alternatives
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.
License model
- Freemium • Proprietary
Country of Origin
Romania
EU
Platforms
- Windows
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
- Free • Open Source
Platforms
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
Velopack Features
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
- Free • Open Source
Platforms
- Windows
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
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
France
EU
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Java
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
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
France
EU
Platforms
- Mac
- Linux
- BSD
Makeself Features
- 25 InstallForge alternatives
InstallForge is a very easy-to-use and flexible tool for creating fast installation packages for Windows.
License model
- Free • Proprietary
Platforms
- Windows
- Wine
InstallForge Features
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
- Free • Open Source
Platforms
- Mac
- Linux
- BSD
- OpenSolaris
It is quite different and doesn't open the files created by InstallShield