Compare software

balenaEtcher vs mintstick: catalog facts
balenaEtcher	mintstick
Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. Balena sells separate commercial device…	Free Free to use; source published on GitHub by Linux Mint.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Linux
Hides system drives, so the classic wrong-disk accident is much harder Verifies the write by reading the media back	Simple graphical interface for writing ISO images to USB Also formats USB sticks
An Electron app doing a job a 200 KB tool could do No persistent storage or multi-boot; one image per stick	Linux only Few options beyond writing and formatting
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 October 1, 2026

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