Advanced Installer vs fpm

Advanced Installer is a Windows authoring tool for building packages that install, update, and configure software products. It creates MSI, EXE, and MSIX packages; listed output formats also include APPX, App-V, MST, and ThinApp. Command-line packaging, silent installation, auto-updates, and delta updates are supported. Continuous integration support includes Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, TeamCity, and Bamboo. The Architect edition can repackage legacy installations and provides MECM and Intune integration for packaging and deployment workflows. Freeware features are available without a license for Simple projects; licensed features require a valid license. Professional costs $399 a year, Enterprise costs $1,399 a year, and Enterprise Team costs $3,599 a year for five users. One-time purchase options are listed at $599 per user for Professional and $2,399 per user for Enterprise. Non-freeware features have a 30-day trial, but trial-built packages are for testing only. The current application requires Windows 10 or 11; produced MSI or EXE installers are listed for Windows 7 or newer and Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer.

fpm is a free, open-source command-line tool for creating packages for existing package systems. It accepts sources such as local directories, npm packages, CPAN modules, Python packages, Ruby gems, and existing RPM or Debian packages. Outputs include Debian, RPM, FreeBSD, macOS, Arch Linux, Alpine, Solaris, Snap, tar, zip, shell archive, and other listed formats. fpm can convert an RPM package to Debian, remove files, change metadata or dependencies, and strip pre, post, or maintainer scripts. It is written in Ruby and installed with `gem install fpm`; Ruby must be installed first, and some formats need additional system tools. Docker is documented as a way to run fpm without installing those tools locally. Building an osxpkg package requires macOS. The tool supports Linux, macOS, and self-hosted use. Documentation is described as a work in progress and not extensive. The listed release is version 1.18.0, released August 26, 2026. The license is identified as MIT-like.