Free InstallShield Alternatives
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 50 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, Advanced Installer, WiX and InstallForge.
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.
Inno Setup vs InstallShield opinions
was able to create setup for an app in less than 2 mins
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.
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.
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 vs InstallShield opinions
WiX is a website designer, not a Windows application installer.
InstallForge is a very easy-to-use and flexible tool for creating fast installation packages for Windows.
IzPack is a one-stop solution for packaging, distributing and deploying applications.
Easy-to-use software installer program for 32 & 64-bit Windows applications. Actual Installer Free & Professional Editions. Supports all installation features - Install, Update, Uninstall.
Venis is a, NOW 100% FREE, Visual Environment for Nullsoft Install System (NSIS). The Venis IX environment makes creating and maintaining NSIS install scripts quick and easy.
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.
No screenshots yetWixSharp 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.
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