Comparison of bootloaders

Last updated

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.

Contents

General information

NameDeveloper / PublisherCurrent versionInitial release dateLatest release date License CostWebsite / 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]5157October 3, 201329 June 2024 GPLv2/BSD-2-Clause No cost Official website

Source repository

Das U-Boot DENX Software Engineering2025.07  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 7 July 2025  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 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 Project2.12 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg 199520 December 2023 GPL-3.0-or-later No cost Official website
Grub2Win Drummerdp2.4.2.42010April 2, 2025 GPLv3 No cost Official website
GRUB4DOS 31 March 2009 GPL-2.0-only [a] Official website
iBoot Apple Inc. iBoot-11881.62.2~1June 29, 2007December 9, 2024 Proprietary
LILO BSD-3-Clause
Limine mintsuki9.5.0 [3]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg April 6, 202014 July 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. Smith0.14.4.2March 14, 20126 April 2024 GPL-3.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause No cost Official website
rEFIt Christoph Pfisterer0.14March 2, 20067 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
XOSL 20 August 2002 GPL-2.0-only
NameDeveloper / PublisherCurrent versionInitial release dateLatest release date License CostWebsite / documentation
  1. While most parts of GRUB4DOS are under GPL-2.0-or-later, the whole software is limited to GPL-2.0-only due to incorporating some code from Linux. [2]

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

NameCan reside inCan boot from
ESP (UEFI) MBR VBR Floppy Hard disk Second Hard disk Logical partitions CD-ROM Floppy USB Zip LAN
Acronis OS Selector ???YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes?
Barebox YesYesNo?YesYesYesYesYesYesNoYes
BootKey ?NoNoYesNoNoNoYesYesYesNoNo
BootManager ?YesNoNoYes??????No
BootX (Apple) YesNoNoNoYesNoNoYesNoYesYesYes
BootX (Linux) NoNoNoYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYes
Das U-Boot YesYes??YesYesYesYesYesYesNoYes
GRUB Legacy NoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
GNU GRUB YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
GRUB4DOS ?NoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
iBoot Yes???Yes??No????
LILO YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes?
Limine YesYesNoNoYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYes
loadlin ?NoNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
NTLDR ?NoYesYesYes?NoNoYesYes??
RedBoot ?NoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
rEFInd YesNoNoNoYesYes?Yes?Yes?Yes
rEFIt (not maintained)YesNoNoNoYesYes?No?Yes?No
SPFdisk ?YesYesYesYesYes??Yes???
SYSLINUX NoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
systemd-boot / Gummiboot YesNoNoNoYesYesYes??Yes??


Windows Boot Manager YesNoYesNoYesYes?YesYesYesYes?
XOSL ?NoNoYesYesYesYesYes?No?No
NameCan reside inCan boot from
ESP (UEFI) MBR VBR Floppy Hard disk Second Hard disk Logical partitions CD-ROM Floppy USB Zip LAN

Operating system support

NameCan boot
MS-DOS Windows 9x/Me Windows NT series before Vista Windows Vista/7/8/10 Linux ReactOS MenuetOS *BSD Mac OS X
Acronis OS Selector YesYesYesYesYes??YesYes
Barebox ????Yes????
BootKey YesYesYesYesYes????
BootManager YesYesCalls 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 YesYesCalls NTLDRCalls Windows Boot ManagerYesCalls FreeLoader YesCalls bootloader for some kernelsYes
GNU GRUB YesYesCalls NTLDRCalls Windows Boot ManagerYesCalls FreeLoader YesYesYes
iBoot ????????Yes
LILO ?YesCalls NTLDRYesYes??Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...)?
loadlin with MEMDISK NoNoNoYesNoNo??
Limine Calls bootloaderCalls bootloaderCalls bootloaderCalls bootloaderYesCalls bootloaderCalls bootloaderCalls bootloaderCalls bootloader
NTLDR YesYesYesNoCalls GRUB4DOS???Calls Darwin bootloader [4]
RedBoot YesYesCalls NTLDRCalls Windows Boot ManagerYesCalls FreeLoader YesYesYes
rEFInd (fork of rEFIt)??YesYesYes??YesYes
rEFIt (not maintained)??YesYesYes??YesYes
SPFdisk YesYes???????
SYSLINUX YesYesCalls NTLDRCalls Windows Boot ManagerYes?Yesvia mboot.c32 module ?
systemd-boot / Gummiboot NoNoWindows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI onlyCalls Windows Boot Manager [5] Yes??UEFI onlyYes [5]
Windows Boot Manager ?YesCalls NTLDRYesCalls GRUB or LILO????
XOSL YesYesYesYesYes????
NameCan boot
MS-DOS Windows 9x/Me Windows NT series before Vista Windows Vista/7/8/10 Linux ReactOS MenuetOS *BSD Mac OS X

File-system support

Non-journaled

NameFAT Minix ext2 HFS AFFS F2FS YAFFS
FAT12 FAT16 FAT32 exFAT YAFFS1 YAFFS2
Acronis OS Selector ???????????
Barebox YesYesYes?NoYesNoNoNo??
BootX (Apple) ???????????
BootX (Linux) ???????????
Das U-Boot YesYesYes??Yes?????
FreeLoader (ReactOS)YesYesYes??Yes?????
GNU GRUB 2 YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes??
GRUB Legacy YesYesYesNoYesYesNoNoNo??
Grub2Win ???????????
GRUB4DOS YesYesYesNoYesYesNoNoNo??
iBoot ???????????
LILO ???????????
Limine [6] [7] YesYesYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
loader (FreeBSD)YesYesYes??Yes?????
loadlin YesYesYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
NTLDR ?YesYes??NoNoNoNo??
RedBoot ???????????
rEFInd Yes [a] ??Yes [b] ?????
rEFIt ???????????
Syslinux YesYesYesNoNoYesNoNoNo??
systemd-boot / Gummiboot ???????????
Windows Boot Manager ??YesYes??No????
XOSL ???????????
yaboot ?????YesYes????

Journaled

Name NTFS ext3 ext4 ReiserFS Reiser4 JFS XFS UFS UDF HFS+ BeFS AFS SFS UBIFS JFFS2
Acronis OS Selector ???????????????
Barebox ?YesYes??????????YesYes
BootManager ???????????????
BootX (Apple) ???????????????
BootX (Linux) ???????????????
Das U-Boot ?YesYesYes???Yes?????YesYes
FreeLoader (ReactOS)Yes??????????????
GNU GRUB 2 YesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes??
GRUB Legacy NoYespatch [a] Yes [b] NoYes [b] Yes [b] Yes [b] NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Grub2Win ???????????????
GRUB4DOS YesYesYesYes [b] NoYes [b] Yes [b] Yes [b] ???????
iBoot ???????????????
LILO ???????????????
Limine NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
loader (FreeBSD)???????????????
loadlin Yes [c] NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
NTLDR YesNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
RedBoot ??????????????Yes
rEFInd Partial [d] Yes [d] Yes [d] ??????Yes [d] ?????
rEFIt ???????????????
Syslinux YesYesPartial [e] NoNoNoYesYesYesNoNoNoNoNoNo
systemd-boot / Gummiboot ???????????????
Windows Boot Manager YesNoNoNoNoNoNoNo?NoNoNoNoNoNo
XOSL ???????????????
yaboot ?YesYes????????????


Copy-on-write

Name btrfs APFS ZFS NILFS ReFS
Acronis OS Selector ?????
Barebox NoNoNoNo?
BootManager ?????
BootX (Apple) ?????
BootX (Linux) ?????
Das U-Boot ??Yes??
FreeLoader (ReactOS)Yes????
GNU GRUB 2 YesNoYesYes?
GRUB Legacy NoNoNoNo?
Grub2Win ?????
GRUB4DOS NoNoNoNo?
iBoot ?????
LILO ?????
Limine [8] [9] NoNoNoNo?
loader (FreeBSD)??Yes??
loadlin NoNoNoNo?
NTLDR NoNoNoNo?
RedBoot ?????
rEFInd Yes [a] ????
rEFIt ?????
Syslinux YesNoNoNo?
systemd-boot / Gummiboot ?????
Windows Boot Manager ?No???
XOSL ?????
yaboot ?????

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 YesYesYesYesYes?
GRUB Legacy ??Yes [c] ???
Grub2Win ??????
GRUB4DOS ??Yes [c] ???
iBoot ??????
LILO ??????
Limine NoNoYesNoNoNo
loader (FreeBSD)??????
loadlin NoNoYes [d] ???
NTLDR ??????
RedBoot ??????
rEFInd ??Yes [e] ???
rEFIt ??????
Syslinux ??Yes???
systemd-boot / Gummiboot ??????
Windows Boot Manager NoNoYesNoNoNo
XOSL ??????
yaboot ??????

Other features

NameAdvanced commandScriptableSupported architectureSupported executableSupported protocolSupported decompressionOthers
GRUB Legacy YesNox86 (PC) Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and othersTFTPgzip
GRUB 2 YesYesx86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) Multiboot and others [10] TFTP, HTTP [11] gzip, xz [12]
LILO NoNox86 (PC)Linux zImage, Linux bzImage?bzip2, gzip
loader (FreeBSD)YesYesx86 (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) [13] TFTP, NFSgzip, bzip2
loadlin NoNox86 (PC)Linux zImage, Linux bzImage?gzip
SYSLINUX via cmd.c32 modulevia lua.c32 modulex86 (PC)Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, [14] Multiboot, [15] MBR image [16] TFTPgzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ?
Yaboot NoNoPowerPC (Open Firmware)Linux ELF imageTFTPNo
RedBoot Yesyes (boot only)ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLiteELFTFTP, serial (X-modem)gzip
Das U-Boot YesYesPowerPC, 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, rawTFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol)bzip2, gzip, lzma
Barebox YesYesARM, Blackfin, NIOS2, MIPS, x86, PowerPCELF, U-Boot image formatTFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol)bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo
NTLDR NoNox86 (PC)Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image??default bootloader on Windows NT
Windows Boot Manager NoNox86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) Portable Executable ??Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up.
FreeLoader (ReactOS)NoNox86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC???clone of NTLDR
Limine YesNox86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch [17] [18] Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage [19] TFTPgzip
NameAdvanced commandScriptableSupported architectureSupported executableSupported protocolSupported decompressionOthers

Notes

  1. Daniel Kiper (20 December 2023). "GRUB 2.12 released" . Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  2. "stage2/dosstart.S". GitHub. 2014-10-12. Retrieved 2021-06-24. Since we have copied the Linux kernel code and the Linux kernel follows GPL2, so only GPL2 is adoptable and it rules here.
  3. "Release 9.5.0". 14 July 2025. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  4. "Chain0 - OSx86".
  5. 1 2 Rod Smith, "Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux: Using gummiboot", 5 November 2012.
  6. Larabel, Michael (2025-02-17). "Limine 9.0 Bootloader Drops EXT4 File-System Support". Phoronix . Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  7. Schürrmann, Tim (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme". Linux-Magazin . Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  8. Larabel, Michael (2025-02-17). "Limine 9.0 Bootloader Drops EXT4 File-System Support". Phoronix . Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  9. Schürrmann, Tim (2025-02-17). "Bootloader Limine 9.0.0 entfernt Unterstützung für Ext-Dateisysteme". Linux-Magazin . Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  10. "GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Supported kernels". GNU. Free Software Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  11. "GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Device syntax". GNU. Free Software Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 2021-06-24. If you enabled the network support, the special drives (protocol[,server]) are also available. Supported protocols are 'http' and 'tftp'.
  12. "GNU GRUB Manual 2.02: Features".
  13. WHR. "An experiment to make a Multiboot-compliant kFreeBSD i386 image". SourceForge. Rivoreo. Retrieved 2021-06-24. Since 10.3-RELEASE, the BTX loader included in distribution supports Multiboot, but only for Xen (the Xen image is a Multiboot-compliant kernel). ... Because this multiboot support in BTX loader is designed for Xen only, it requires the first Multiboot module be original kFreeBSD image. Trying to load a Multiboot kernel without loading any Multiboot modules would resulted in BTX loader complaining 'No FreeBSD kernel provided, aborting'.
  14. "Can SYSLINUX Handle Large Kernels?". Syslinux Wiki. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  15. "Mboot.c32 - Syslinux Wiki". www.syslinux.org. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  16. "Comboot/chain.c32". Syslinux Wiki. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  17. Larabel, Michael (2024-08-03). "Limine 8.0 Bootloader Released With LoongArch Support". Phoronix . Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  18. Schürrmann, Tim (2024-08-06). "Alternativer Bootloader Limine 8.0.1 unterstützt LoongArch64-Systeme". Linux-Magazin . Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  19. Holwerda, Thom (2024-08-04). "Limine: a modern, advanced, portable, multiprotocol bootloader and boot manager". OSNews . Retrieved 2025-03-07.