Comparison of bootloaders
Different bootloaders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.
General information
| Name | Developer / Publisher | Current version | Initial release date | Latest release date | License | Cost | Website / documentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | Acronis International GmbH | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | $49.95 (personal use) $79.99 (commercial, per seat) $299.99 (server) |
Official website |
| Barebox | Sascha Hauer the barebox community |
? | ? | ? | GPL-2.0-only | No cost | Official website |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | MIT | No cost | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | Apple Inc. | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | bundled with macOS | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | Benjamin Herrenschmidt | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | No cost | ? |
| Clover (fork of rEFIt) | https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/graphs/contributors Multi Contributors] | 5157 | October 3, 2013 | 29 June 2024 | GPLv2/BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| Das U-Boot | DENX Software Engineering | 2026.01  |
5 January 2026 |
GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Official website | |
| GRUB Legacy | GNU Project | 8 May 2005 | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | |||
| GNU GRUB | GNU Project | 2.14[1] |
1995 | 14 January 2026 | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| Grub2Win | Drummerdp | 2.4.2.4 | 2010 | April 2, 2025 | GPLv3 | No cost | Official website |
| GRUB4DOS | 31 March 2009 | GPL-2.0-only[a] | Official website | ||||
| iBoot | Apple Inc. | iBoot-11881.62.2~1 | June 29, 2007 | December 9, 2024 | Proprietary | ||
| LILO | BSD-3-Clause | ||||||
| Limine | mintsuki | 10.5.0[3] |
April 6, 2020 | 11 December 2025 | BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| loadlin | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||||||
| NTLDR | Microsoft | July 27, 1993 (Windows NT 3.1) | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |||
| RedBoot | GPL-2.0-or-later (eCos license) | ||||||
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | Roderick W. Smith | 0.14.4.2 | March 14, 2012 | 6 April 2024 | GPL-3.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| rEFIt | Christoph Pfisterer | 0.14 | March 2, 2006 | 7 March 2010 | GPL-2.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| SYSLINUX | 6 October 2014 | GPL-2.0-or-later | |||||
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||||
| TianoCore EDK II | BSD-2-Clause | ||||||
| Windows Boot Manager | Microsoft | January 30, 2007 (Windows Vista) | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |||
| wolfBoot | wolfSSL | December 14, 2015 | August 2, 2025 | LGPL-3.0-or-later | Official website | ||
| XOSL | 20 August 2002 | GPL-2.0-only |
Technical information
Note: The column MBR (Master Boot Record) refers to whether or not the boot loader can be stored in the first sector of a mass storage device. The column VBR (Volume Boot Record) refers to the ability of the boot loader to be stored in the first sector of any partition on a mass storage device.
Storage medium support
| Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| BootKey | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| BootManager | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
| BootX (Apple) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iBoot | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Limine | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| loadlin | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NTLDR | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| SPFdisk | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ?
|
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| wolfBoot | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No |
| Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
| ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
Operating system support
| Name | Can boot | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |
| Acronis OS Selector | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
| GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Calls bootloader for some kernels | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| LILO | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) | ? |
| loadlin | with MEMDISK | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Limine | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Yes | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader |
| NTLDR | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Calls GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | ? | Calls Darwin bootloader[4] |
| RedBoot | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| SPFdisk | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | via mboot.c32 module | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | No | No | Windows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI only | Calls Windows Boot Manager[5] | Yes | ? | ? | UEFI only | Yes[5] |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| wolfBoot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| XOSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Can boot | ||||||||
| MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | macOS | |
File-system support
Non-journaled
| Name | FAT | Minix | ext2 | HFS | AFFS | F2FS | YAFFS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAT12 | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT | YAFFS1 | YAFFS2 | ||||||
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine[6][7] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLDR | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | Yes[a] | ? | ? | Yes[b] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Journaled
| Name | NTFS | ext3 | ext4 | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | JFS | XFS | UFS | UDF | HFS+ | BeFS | AFS | SFS | UBIFS | JFFS2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | patch[a] | Yes[b] | No | Yes[b] | Yes[b] | Yes[b] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[b] | No | Yes[b] | Yes[b] | Yes[b] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes[c] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLDR | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| rEFInd | Partial[d] | Yes[d] | Yes[d] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes[d] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Partial[e] | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Copy-on-write
| Name | btrfs | APFS | ZFS | NILFS | ReFS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| Barebox | No | No | No | No | No[8] |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No[8] |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No[8] |
| GRUB Legacy | No | No | No | No | No[8] |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| GRUB4DOS | No | No | No | No | No[8] |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| Limine[9][10] | No | No | No | No | No[8] |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No[8] |
| loadlin | No | No | No | No | No[8] |
| NTLDR | No | No | No | No | No[8] |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| rEFInd | Yes[a] | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| Syslinux | Yes | No | No | No | No[8] |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | No | ? | ? | No[8] |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | No[8] |
Read-only
| Name | cpio | tar | ISO 9660 | romfs | SquashFS | cramfs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes[a] | Yes |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes[b] | Yes |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | ? | ? | Yes[c] | ? | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | Yes[c] | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | No | No | Yes[d] | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | ? | ? | Yes[e] | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Other features
| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | x86 (PC) | Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others | TFTP | gzip | |
| GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) | Multiboot and others[11] | TFTP, HTTP[12] | gzip, xz[13] | |
| LILO | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | bzip2, gzip | |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), MIPS, PowerPC (OpenFirmware), SPARC v9 (OpenFirmware) | FreeBSD ELF kernel image, Multiboot (incomplete, for Xen image only)[14] | TFTP, NFS | gzip, bzip2 | |
| kexec (Linux) | Depending on user space | Depending on user space | x86, ARM, ARM64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, IA-64, IBM Z, RISC-V[15] | Linux bzImage, Multiboot, other ELF image | Depending on configuration and user space | N/a | The kexec system call can start another kernel, replacing the current running Linux, thus turning a Linux-based operating system into a fancy bootloader. |
| loadlin | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | gzip | |
| SYSLINUX | via cmd.c32 module | via lua.c32 module | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage,[16] Multiboot,[17] MBR image[18] | TFTP | gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ? | |
| Yaboot | No | No | PowerPC (Open Firmware) | Linux ELF image | TFTP | No | |
| RedBoot | Yes | yes (boot only) | ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite | ELF | TFTP, serial (X-modem) | gzip | |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | PowerPC, ARM, AVR32, Blackfin, ColdFire, IXP, Leon2, m68k, MicroBlaze, MIPS, NIOS, NIOS2, PXA, x86, RISC-V, StrongARM, SH2, SH3, SH4, ... | EFI, ELF, U-Boot image format, Linux zImage, raw | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lzma | |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | ARM, Blackfin, NIOS2, MIPS, x86, PowerPC | ELF, U-Boot image format | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo | |
| NTLDR | No | No | x86 (PC) | Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image | ? | ? | default bootloader on Windows NT |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | Portable Executable | ? | ? | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. |
| wolfBoot | ? | ? | ARM Cortex-M, ARM Cortex-R, ARM Cortex-A, Intel x86, RISC-V RV32, PowerPC, Renesas RH, TriCore | Raw binary, ELF, UEFI | TPM 2.0, PKCS#11. SPI, I²C, UART | Custom delta-update based on Bentley-Mcilroy compression algorithm | |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC | ? | ? | ? | clone of NTLDR |
| Limine | Yes | No | x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch[19][20] | Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage[21] | TFTP | gzip |