Software Alternatives & Reviews

Inno Setup VS InstallShield

Compare Inno Setup VS InstallShield and see what are their differences

Inno Setup logo Inno Setup

Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs.

InstallShield logo InstallShield

If your software targets Windows, InstallShield is your solution.
  • Inno Setup Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-31
  • InstallShield Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-30

Inno Setup videos

Using the Inno Setup Wizard

More videos:

  • Review - Setup Nasıl Hazırlanır ? | Inno Setup Detaylı Kullanım

InstallShield videos

InstallShield - Build an Installer

More videos:

  • Review - A quick look at InstallShield 2013

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Inno Setup and InstallShield)
Website Builder
73 73%
27% 27
Package Builder
65 65%
35% 35
Website Design
76 76%
24% 24
Package Distribution
60 60%
40% 40

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Inno Setup seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 46 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Inno Setup mentions (46)

  • [Rant] Your Software Isn't the Only One Our Company Uses FFS
    I’ve had to do this before and it some what sucks but if you do have a look at Inno Setup. Source: 5 months ago
  • Tauri v1.3 — NSIS installer, security audit & External API Access
    Use Inno Setup. It's comparably sized, VSCode uses it and GOG.com uses customized builds of it (it's open-source but written in Delphi), and it has a much more declarative (though still extensible) approach that does do stuff like uninstall tracking by default. Source: 12 months ago
  • In the year 2023, what is the best way to deploy/distribute a WPF Application?
    We eventually settled on a combination of InnoSetup with InnoSetuo Dependency Installer and NetSparkle which offered a much cleaner experience and use of AzureAD Authentication for Azure Storage Blobs (for updates) as well as InTune Deployments with proper version detection. Source: about 1 year ago
  • is there like an application etiquette or something?
    You don't typically make these things yourself from scratch, you use a tool that does it for you. E.g. InnoSetup: https://jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php. Source: about 1 year ago
  • [Windows] Looking for open source program made to install other archived programs and create uninstaller for them
    The two most popular such installers are Inno Setup and NSIS. Inno is much easier to use (and will handle most tasks automatically), while NSIS creates somewhat smaller installers (but requires you to basically micromanage everything). Source: about 1 year ago
View more

InstallShield mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of InstallShield yet. Tracking of InstallShield recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Inno Setup and InstallShield, you can also consider the following products

Advanced Installer - Advanced Installer is a Windows installer authoring tool for installing, updating, and configuring your products safely, securely, and reliably.

NSIS - NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a professional open source system to create Windows...

InstallForge - A very simplistic and streamlined program for creating installation files.

CreateInstall - Professional installer software is an essential component for any software developer.

3DP Chip - Enumerates main hardware (mainboard, processor, sound, network, graphics) and offers driver...

InstallAware - Windows Installer InstallAware provides free installation (MSI) authoring, MSI compression, and MSI repackaging solutions. Tools include: InstallAware for Windows Installer, Setup Squeezer for MSI, and Setup Squeezer for InstallShield.