Free NSIS Alternatives

    The best free alternative to NSIS is Inno Setup, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to NSIS and many of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to NSIS are WiX (Free, Open Source), Advanced Installer (Freemium), IzPack (Free, Open Source) and Venis GUI for NSIS (Free).

    This page was last updated Jan 27, 2021
    1. 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.
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      Almost everyone thinks Inno Setup is a great alternative to NSIS.
    2. 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.

    4. Advanced Installer

      • Freemium • Proprietary
      • Windows
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        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.
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      • IzPack

        • Free • Open Source
        • Mac
        • Windows
        • Linux
        • Java
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        IzPack is a one-stop solution for packaging, distributing and deploying applications. It is fully cross-platform and generates a single installer. As such, it is an alternative to native solutions such as platform-specific installers and package managers.
      • 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.
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      • Wix#

        • Free • Open Source
        • Windows
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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.
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        • Makeself

          • Free • Open Source
          • Mac
          • Linux
          • BSD
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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.
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        • Professional installer software is an essential component for any software developer. The ideology behind the CreateInstall installer is based on two main principles. Complete control over the installation process and unlimited scalability.
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        • Debreate is a utility to aid in building Debian packages (.deb). The goal behind Debreate is to make developing for Debian based Linux distributions more appealing, with an easy to use interface for packaging applications, artwork, media, themes, etc.
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        • Spend your time developing your creations not building the installers. Download the fully functional freeware version of Install Creator and create your first installation in less than one minute!
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        Showing 10 of 37 alternatives