BootIt Bare Metal vs rEFInd
BootIt Bare Metal
terabyteunlimited.comrEFInd
rodsbooks.comSide by side
| Figure | BootIt Bare Metal | rEFInd |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Boot Manager Software | 8.3 (#4) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Purpose | BootIt Bare Metal manages partitions, installs and boots multiple operating systems, and backs up or restores partitions and drives. | rEFInd is a boot manager forked from rEFIt that scans for boot loaders and helps users choose an operating system or utility at startup. |
| Support | Support resources include a user guide, knowledge base, tutorials, change log, email support, and sponsored user forums. | The maker invites users with problems or comments to email [email protected]. |
Plans
In their own words
BootIt Bare Metal
BootIt Bare Metal has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
rEFInd
rEFInd is a free boot manager, forked from rEFIt, that scans for boot loaders and lets users select an operating system or utility at startup. It is intended for EFI-based computers, not older BIOS-based machines, and works with EFI 1.1 and UEFI 2.x. It can find EFI loaders, BIOS/CSM/legacy loaders, and boot options saved in firmware NVRAM. For Linux, rEFInd can detect kernels with EFI stub support, locate initrd files, and read kernel options from a refind_linux.conf file. It supports text and graphical operation, with configurable resolution, backgrounds, icons, and fonts. It can communicate with Shim to authenticate boot loaders using valid UEFI Secure Boot keys, Shim keys, or Machine Owner Keys. Included filesystem drivers cover ext2/3, ext4, Btrfs, ReiserFS, HFS+, and ISO-9660; the NTFS driver is not compiled by default. Downloads include ZIP, RPM, Debian, CD-R image, and USB flash drive image packages. Installation scripts and manual procedures cover Linux, macOS, and Windows. The maker describes it as beta-quality, with uneven testing across architectures.