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balenaEtcher vs ImageUSB: catalog facts
balenaEtcher	ImageUSB
Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. Balena sells separate commercial device…	Free Free to download and use.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows
Hides system drives, so the classic wrong-disk accident is much harder Verifies the write by reading the media back	Writes one image to many USB drives concurrently Bit-level copies that preserve slack space and the MBR
An Electron app doing a job a 200 KB tool could do No persistent storage or multi-boot; one image per stick	Writing CD ISO images directly may not produce a bootable drive on every system Closed source
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Closed source
License: Apache-2.0	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.