balenaEtcher vs USBImager
balenaEtcher
etcher.balena.ioUSBImager
bztsrc.gitlab.ioSide by side
| Figure | balenaEtcher | USBImager |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $143.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 1 |
| Spec score · Bootable USB Software | 8.7 (#1) | 8.2 (#5) |
| Founded | 2011 | 2020 |
| Linux support | The documentation lists Linux on most distributions for Intel 64-bit systems. | Linux distributions are supported through X11, GTK+, Ubuntu Debian packages, Arch AUR packages, and Raspberry Pi builds. |
| macOS support | The documentation lists macOS 10.13 and later on Intel and Apple Silicon. | macOS builds are supplied as native Cocoa binaries for Intel and ARM Macs. |
| Purpose | Etcher flashes OS images to SD cards and USB drives. | USBImager writes compressed disk images to USB drives and creates backups. |
| Support | The documentation directs users with problems to raise an issue on GitHub, where the balena.io team can help. | The README directs users to the GitLab issue tracker to report problems. |
| Windows support | The documentation lists Windows 10 and later for Intel 64-bit systems. | Windows builds use a native GDI interface, including a simplified write-only variant. |
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.
USBImager
USBImager is a free desktop utility for writing disk images to USB drives and creating backups. It reads raw images, compressed formats such as .gz, .bz2, .xz, and .zst, and archives including .zip, .tar, .cpio, and .pax. It can compare a written drive with the source image to verify the result, and create backups in raw or ZStandard compressed format. Images can also be sent to microcontrollers over a serial line. The app is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with a minimalist native interface and 18 language options. The maker says it is intended for people who may be uncomfortable with command-line tools, and that it tries to avoid overwriting the system disk. Synchronized writes are intended to ensure data is on disk when progress reaches 100%. The maker describes it as free of advertisements and privacy concerns and GDPR compatible. One stated limit is that xz compression dictionaries larger than 1 gigabyte are unsupported. The app is open source under the MIT license.