EasyBCD vs rEFInd
EasyBCD
neosmart.netrEFInd
rodsbooks.comSide by side
| Figure | EasyBCD | rEFInd |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Boot Manager Software | 8.3 (#6) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Maker | NeoSmart Technologies says it is a private software research and development firm serving consumers, small and medium businesses, and OEMs or computer manufacturers. | The primary author and maintainer is Roderick W. Smith. |
| Purpose | EasyBCD is a Windows bootloader editor and dual-boot configurator. | 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 | NeoSmart directs technical support inquiries to its support forums and says premium technical support may be purchased through sales. | The maker invites users with problems or comments to email [email protected]. |
Plans
In their own words
EasyBCD
EasyBCD is a Windows bootloader editor for setting up multiboot systems and changing boot menus. It can configure systems involving Windows, Linux, macOS, and BSD, and boot from USB drives, ISO images, and virtual disks. Users can add, rename, remove, configure, and reorder boot entries, including entries for recovery utilities or safe mode. The tool can back up and repair a bootloader, and its NeoGrub scripting can hide partitions, change active flags, and support complex boot setups. EasyBCD supports BIOS and UEFI. Personal, non-commercial use is free; the Commercial plan costs $39.99 as a one-time purchase. NeoSmart advises care when modifying boot settings and says EasyBCD cannot fix a PC that will not boot, directing users to EasyRE for that situation. The latest release listed in the changelog is version 2.4.0.237, dated November 28, 2018.
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.