12 Best Rufus Alternatives For Windows, Linux & macOS
Looking for the best alternative to Rufus. Here is a curated list of 12 best alternatives to Rufus for Windows, Linux, and macOS that you can use right now.
Rufus is one of the most popular tools for creating bootable USB drives on Windows. But sometimes you may be looking to create bootable USB on Linux or macOS, unfortunately, Rufus is not available for these operating systems.
And sometimes, Rufus doesn't work and unable to create a working bootable USB. Moreover, you might be looking for some other features that Rufus doesn't offer.
So, you must know other tools similar to Rufus for creating bootable USB flash drives that offer more features like integrity check, cross-platform support, etc.
There are many free, fast, and simple to use utilities available that works like Rufus, some of them are even open source.
So, in this article, we will look at some of the best Rufus alternatives for Windows, Linux, and macOS for creating bootable USB drives.
1. Etcher
Etcher is one of the best Rufus alternatives for creating bootable USB drives for creating installation media.
It is an open-source project and in some ways works better than Rufus.
The best feature of etcher is validated flashing which verifies the system image and the installation drive before flashing.
This is a great time saver as sometimes we create an installation media only to later found out that either the system image or USB flash drive is corrupted.
Its simple and elegant UI makes it's more user friendly. Moreover, unlike Rufus, it is a cross-platform utility.
Etcher is fast and lets you can create bootable installation media for all operating systems. As it is open-source software, the support is perfect and new amazing features are faster than most of the other alternatives in the list.
All in all the best Rufus alternative for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
2. UNetBootin
UNetbootin is one of the best alternatives to Rufus. It is a cross-platform alternative to Rufus that you allow you to create USB live drives for Linux without burning the CD.
With UNetBootin you can create bootable USB for any Linux distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, Debian, and many others.
For creating a bootable Linux USB drive, you can either provide your own downloaded iso file or choose from the list, and UnetBootin will automatically download the iso and continue with the process of creating bootable USB.
You need to select the downloaded USB or preferred Linux distro and select the target device. The process takes just a few minutes.
Its simple and straightforward UI combined with really amazing speed makes it a great Rufus alternative for Linux for creating bootable USB quickly.
One major disadvantage of using UNetbootin is that it only allows you to create Linux based USB drives only. It can only be used for creating Linux installation media.
3. PowerISO
PowerISO is more than just a bootable USB creation tool. It has a lot of features useful feathers like mounting disks, virtual drive, edit, compress and convert ISO files.
PowerISO is a powerful alternative to Rufus for Windows. It also supports shell integration, context menu, and much more.
It supports almost all CD / DVD / BD-ROM image file formats including ISO, BIN, NRG, CDI, DAA, and more. It is a fast alternative to Rufus.
PowerISO is only available for Windows operating system. All in all, PowerISO is one of the best Rufus alternatives for Windows.
4. YUMI
YUMI aka Your Universal Multiboot Installer is a multiboot USB creator that lets you create multiboot bootable USB flash drives containing multiple operating systems, antivirus utilities, penetration testing tools, and much more.
The best part about YUMI is that it uses syslinux to boot extracted distributions stored on the USB flash drive and if necessary reverts back to using grub to Boot Multiple ISO files from USB.
Moreover, YUMI stores all the files in a separate multiboot folder, and unlike other Rufus alternatives, it lets you use the remaining storage space on the USB.
YUMI works the same as the Universal USB Installer but it allows you to add multiple operating systems on a single USB drive.
It supports both Windows and Linux system images and thus you can create a bootable USB drive using both Linux and Windows ISO files. YUMI is the best Rufus alternative for Windows.
5. Universal USB Installer
Universal USB Installer is built especially for creating Linux operating system based USB drives but that doesn't stop us from using it for creating Windows installation media.
It is easy to use software that works great for creating bootable USB drives. It regularly adds support for new and various other Linux distros.
UUI lets users create a bootable live USB flash drive using an ISO image from supported Linux distros as well as Microsoft Windows installer, system tool.
So, if you are looking for an alternative to Rufus, then Universal USB installer is a great option both in terms of simplicity and performance.
6. LinuxLive USB Creator
LiveLinux USB Creator is a free and open-source software for Windows that lets you create bootable, portable, and virtualized USB stick running Linux distro of your choice.
It supports several Linux distros and its automatic integrity check feature checks for a corrupt ISO automatically.
The best part is that it has a built-in virtualization feature that lets you test Linux distros without rebooting the Windows operating system machine. Moreover, LiveLinux USB creator also lets you create live Linux persistent USB.
SmartClean allows you to properly uninstall any previous live USB installation and SmartDownload allows you to download any Linux distro with a single click.
You can also use the remaining space of the USB for storage. So, if you are looking for a great, simple yet effective alternative to Rufus then give LiveLinux USB Creator a try,
7. Windows USB/DVD Tool
Windows USB/DVD Tools is a free and lightweight software for creating bootable installation media for windows operating system.
It is an official tool for Windows by Microsoft for creating Windows 10, 8, 7, or XP installation media.
It is simple and straightforward tools for creating a bootable USB drive and it is a perfect Rufus alternative. It is fast and really simple to use utility.
8. Windows Media Creation Tool
Windows Media creation tool is another free and official tool by Microsoft for creating bootable Windows 10 installation media with just a few clicks.
You can choose the option to download Windows 10 iso and create the installation media automatically or create an ISO image of Windows 10 and save it for later use.
Windows Media Creation Tool is specifically provided for creating Windows 10 installation media.
You do not need to select any option manually apart from the one mentioned above. This tool will automatically take care of everything from compatibility to downloading the latest Windows 10 image.
So, if you want to create a bootable Windows 10 USB drive, then this tool is a perfect alternative to Rufus. It's fast and straightforward.
9. RMPrepUSB
RMPrepUSB is another simple and yet great tool for creating a bootable USB drive on Windows operating system.
You can create installation media for all types of operating systems be it Windows or any Linux distros like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or other popular Linux distributions.
It allows you to quickly test, partition, format, format, install a boot manager, and much more. You can also create multiboot USB and even test it using RMPrepUSB.
It is a fast and lightweight utility for Windows users. All in all, another great alternative to Rufus for Windows.
10. Diskmaker X
Diskmaker X is one of the best Rufus alternatives for macOS. It is a simple and lightweight utility for creating a bootable macOS image on USB flash drive.
The process is straightforward, as soon as you launch the application, it tries to find the OS X Install the program with Spotlight and provide the option to build a bootable installation disk.
So, with just a few clicks, you have OS X/macOS installer. In simple words, one of the best alternatives to Rufus for macOS.
11. WoeUSB
WoeUSB is one of the best Rufus alternatives for Ubuntu and other Linux distros. It allows you to create a Windows USB installer in Linux operating system.
The package two programs one is WoeUSB and the other is WoeUSBGUI.
WoeUSB is a command-line utility that allows you to create a bootable Windows installation USB drive from an ISO image using Linux commands.
WoeUSBGUI is a graphical user interface (GUI) for WoeUSB which is based on WxWidgets.
It is an open-source, simple, and fast utility that supports images of all versions of Windows.
12. Win32 Disk Imager
Win32 Disk Imager is another great software similar to Rufus. It is an open-source utility for creating bootable ISO images easily.
Win32 Disk Imager allows you to create bootable USB and supports system images of all operating systems.
With this utility, you can write your ISO files into CDs, DVDs, SD cards, and USB drives. Win32 Disk Imager is available for Windows operating system only.
Conclusion: Use The Best Rufus Alternative
That's all! These were the best alternatives to Rufus for creating bootable USB drives.
There are many options mostly all are free, some are cross-platform and some are even open source. You can use any of these Rufus alternatives for Windows, Linux, and macOS operating system.
Do let me know which one you prefer. If you know any other software similar to Rufus, then let us know in the comment section.
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Hi, I am Prince Sumberia, a full stack web developer and tech blogger. I love contributing to open source projects and developing cool stuff for the web.