Alternatives to UNetbootin

Writes Linux distribution ISOs to a USB drive on Windows, macOS and Linux. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as UNetbootin.

  • Rufus

    Writes a bootable USB drive from an ISO, and can strip the Windows 11 install requirements while doing it.

    FreeOpen sourceWindows

    Rufus is Windows only and writes one image per drive with many filesystem and BIOS or UEFI options, plus checksum calculation.

  • balenaEtcher

    Writes an OS image to a USB stick or SD card, verifies every byte, and refuses to target your hard drive.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    balenaEtcher also runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, verifies writes and hides system drives, but offers no persistent storage.

  • Ventoy

    Prepare a USB stick once, then boot any ISO by copying the file onto it.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    Ventoy boots many ISOs from one stick by copying files onto it, supports over 1300 tested images, but has no macOS installer.

  • USBImager

    A minimal cross-platform app that writes compressed disk images to USB drives.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    USBImager is a very small cross-platform writer for Windows, Linux and macOS that writes compressed images without unpacking, with a deliberately minimal feature set and no persistence.

  • YUMI

    A multiboot USB creator that puts several operating systems and tools on one drive.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    YUMI puts several ISOs on one stick behind a boot menu and runs on Windows and Linux, but its several variants can be confusing.

  • Fedora Media Writer

    A tool that downloads Fedora images and writes them to USB flash drives.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Fedora Media Writer runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and downloads the image for you, but it is built around Fedora images rather than any ISO.

  • Impression

    A simple GNOME app for writing disk images to USB drives to make them bootable.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Impression is a simple GNOME app for writing bootable USB drives, available only on Linux and with fewer options than full-featured writers.

  • Popsicle

    A Linux utility from System76 that writes a disk image to several USB drives at once.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxCommand line

    Popsicle writes the same image to several USB drives in parallel on Linux, offering a GTK interface and a command-line version.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.