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balenaEtcher vs Ventoy: catalog facts
balenaEtcher	Ventoy
Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. Balena sells separate commercial device…	Free Free and open source under GPLv3.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, Linux
Hides system drives, so the classic wrong-disk accident is much harder Verifies the write by reading the media back	Copy image files onto the stick instead of reformatting it for each one, and pick from a boot… Legacy BIOS plus IA32, x86_64, ARM64 and MIPS64EL UEFI, with MBR and GPT both supported
An Electron app doing a job a 200 KB tool could do No persistent storage or multi-boot; one image per stick	The preparation tool runs on Windows and Linux; there is no macOS installer Secure Boot needs the Ventoy key enrolled, an extra step on locked-down machines
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: GPL-3.0
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 20, 2026

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