balenaEtcher vs UNetbootin
balenaEtcher
etcher.balena.ioUNetbootin
unetbootin.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | balenaEtcher | UNetbootin |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $143.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 1 |
| Spec score · Bootable USB Software | 8.7 (#1) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Purpose | Etcher flashes OS images to SD cards and USB drives. | UNetbootin creates bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. |
| Support | The documentation directs users with problems to raise an issue on GitHub, where the balena.io team can help. | The FAQ directs users to GitHub Issues for bug reports and GitHub Pull Requests for patches. |
Plans
balenaEtcher
- balenaCloud FreeFree
- balenaEtcherFree
- balenaCloud Prototype$159 a month
- balenaCloud Pilot$329 a month
- balenaCloud Production$1,439 a month
- balenaCloud Prototype$1,720 a year
- balenaCloud Pilot$3,588 a year
- balenaCloud Production$15,588 a year
- balenaCloud EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
balenaEtcher
balenaEtcher flashes operating system images to SD cards and USB drives, and can create USB installation media from bootable ISOs. Its three-step interface requires no command line. After flashing, it confirms completion to help users check that a card can boot and is not corrupted. To reduce the risk of choosing the wrong target, it warns users and hides system drives by default. Flashing erases the entire target drive and replaces its data. Etcher runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows: listed support covers most Linux distributions on Intel 64-bit systems, Windows 10 and later on Intel 64-bit systems, and macOS 10.13 and later on Intel and Apple Silicon. It can directly flash Raspberry Pi devices that support USB device boot mode. Etcher is free and open source. It does not configure persistent storage for live USB drives, and Windows images may need special boot preparation that Etcher is not designed to perform.
UNetbootin
UNetbootin creates bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, allowing installation without burning a CD. It can download a supported distribution or use a Linux ISO already on the computer, and the listed targets are a USB drive or hard disk. Built-in downloads include Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, Linux Mint, and FreeBSD, as well as system utilities such as Parted Magic and SystemRescueCD. The site says most Linux ISO files should work, though some require extra boot options or changes, and some cannot boot from USB as-is. Non-Linux operating system ISOs should not be expected to work because they use a different boot mechanism. UNetbootin is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is free; donations are accepted. The source code is available on GitHub under GNU GPL Version 2 or above. Linux download options include an Ubuntu PPA, 32-bit and 64-bit binaries, packages for several distributions, and source code.