Is Rufus or Ventoy better?

Neither clearly leads. Rufus starts at Free and Ventoy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Rufus or Ventoy?

Rufus starts at Free and Ventoy at Free.

Does Rufus or Ventoy run on more platforms?

Rufus runs on Windows. Ventoy runs on Windows, Linux.

Can I use Rufus for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Rufus best used for?

Rufus is most often used for writing a linux or windows installer to a usb stick, creating live usb media with a persistent partition, recovering a machine that will not boot from its internal drive. Of those, writing a linux or windows installer to a usb stick and creating live usb media with a persistent partition are not what Ventoy is typically brought in for.

What can Rufus do that Ventoy cannot?

Rufus covers Bootable USB creation, No installation, Partition scheme control, Windows install customisation. Ventoy covers In-place ISO boot, Persistent overlays, Plugin configuration, Secure Boot support.

Utilities · head to head

Rufus vs Ventoy

Rufus

Utilities

Create bootable USB drives on Windows

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Ventoy

Utilities

Multiboot USB creator that boots ISO files copied onto an ordinary partition

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Rufus windows only, with no macOS or Linux build; Ventoy the repository ships prebuilt binaries that are difficult to reproduce from source, so several Linux distributions refuse to package it and security teams in regulated organisations will usually reject it.
They diverge on capability: Rufus covers Bootable USB creation, Ventoy covers In-place ISO boot.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Rufus and Ventoy actually diverge.

Attributes where Rufus and Ventoy differ
Attribute	Rufus	Ventoy
Platforms	Windows	Windows, Linux

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Utilities).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Rufus

Bootable USB creation
No installation
Partition scheme control
Windows install customisation

Only in Ventoy

In-place ISO boot
Persistent overlays
Plugin configuration
Secure Boot support
Multi-format boot
Non-destructive install

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Rufus

Writing a Linux or Windows installer to a USB sticknot Ventoy
Creating live USB media with a persistent partitionnot Ventoy
Recovering a machine that will not boot from its internal drivenot Ventoy

Ventoy

Field technicians who need one stick carrying several Windows and Linux installers plus a rescue environmentnot Rufus
Labs that reimage machines weekly and want to swap a single ISO rather than rewrite the drivenot Rufus
Testing a new distribution release without destroying the existing set of imagesnot Rufus
Unattended installation runs where answer files sit beside the ISOs on the same partitionnot Rufus

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Rufus

Windows only, with no macOS or Linux build
Single-purpose: it writes drives and does nothing else
Some of its Windows setup bypass options work around vendor requirements and may not survive future releases

Ventoy

The repository ships prebuilt binaries that are difficult to reproduce from source, so several Linux distributions refuse to package it and security teams in regulated organisations will usually reject it.
Development depends on one maintainer, so a period of inactivity leaves compatibility fixes for new distribution releases unaddressed with no second party able to cut a release.
Secure Boot works only after enrolling the Ventoy certificate through MokManager at the machine, which is a manual step at every device and is blocked outright on locked-down corporate firmware.
A small number of images still fail to boot in place and need workarounds, so a technician can discover mid-job that the one ISO they need is the one that does not work.
The data partition is exFAT by default, which means no file permissions and no journal, so a stick pulled during a copy can corrupt the whole image set rather than one file.

Pricing, plan by plan

Rufus

Free

RufusFree
- Full functionality
- No usage limits
- Community support

Ventoy

Free

VentoyFree
- Full feature set with no paid edition
- GPLv3 licence
- Windows and Linux installers

Which should you pick?

Choose Rufus if

You need bootable usb creation.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Windows.
You also want no installation.

Rufus review

Choose Ventoy if

You need in-place iso boot.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Windows, Linux.
You also want persistent overlays.

Ventoy review

Questions people ask

Is Rufus or Ventoy better?: Neither clearly leads. Rufus starts at Free and Ventoy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Rufus or Ventoy?: Rufus starts at Free and Ventoy at Free.
Does Rufus or Ventoy run on more platforms?: Rufus runs on Windows. Ventoy runs on Windows, Linux.
Can I use Rufus for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Rufus best used for?: Rufus is most often used for writing a linux or windows installer to a usb stick, creating live usb media with a persistent partition, recovering a machine that will not boot from its internal drive. Of those, writing a linux or windows installer to a usb stick and creating live usb media with a persistent partition are not what Ventoy is typically brought in for.
What can Rufus do that Ventoy cannot?: Rufus covers Bootable USB creation, No installation, Partition scheme control, Windows install customisation. Ventoy covers In-place ISO boot, Persistent overlays, Plugin configuration, Secure Boot support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Rufus: Is Rufus free?

Yes, open source under the GPL.

Ventoy: Can I still use the USB stick for ordinary file storage?

Yes. The data partition mounts as normal removable storage and files that are not bootable images are simply ignored by the menu.

Rufus: Does Rufus run on macOS or Linux?

No, it is Windows only. balenaEtcher is the usual cross-platform equivalent.

Ventoy: Do I need to reinstall Ventoy when a new distribution version comes out?

No. Delete the old ISO and copy the new one. You only rerun the installer to upgrade Ventoy itself.

Rufus: Why choose Rufus over the built-in tools?

It is faster than most alternatives and gives explicit control over partition scheme and target system, which matters when a machine will not boot from default media.

Ventoy: Is it safe to use in a company that audits open source?

Often not. The unreproducible prebuilt binaries in the repository are a genuine audit finding and have blocked approval at organisations with supply chain review.

Rufus vs Ventoy

Rufus

Ventoy

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Rufus

Only in Ventoy

What people use each for

Rufus

Ventoy

Where each one falls short

Rufus

Ventoy

Pricing, plan by plan

Rufus

Ventoy

Which should you pick?

Choose Rufus if

Choose Ventoy if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Rufus

More on Ventoy

Keep looking

Other head to heads