Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Raspberry Pi Imager VS Easy2Boot

Compare Raspberry Pi Imager VS Easy2Boot and see what are their differences

Raspberry Pi Imager logo Raspberry Pi Imager

We’ve made a simpler way to image your microSD card with Raspbian, the official Raspberry Pi operating system, and other operating systems.

Easy2Boot logo Easy2Boot

Flexible and configurable USB drive multiboot solution which also supports UEFI booting including Secure Boot.
  • Raspberry Pi Imager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-15
  • Easy2Boot Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-28

Just add (or delete) .ISO, .VHD, .IMG, etc, and MBR or UEFI-boot. Secure UEFI boot also supported (does not use MOK Manager). Linux+persistence supported. Unattended install of Windows 7/8/10 + driver install + applications supported (SDI_CHOCO).

True Secure Boot using Partition image files which physically swap in a FAT32 partition image containing your Secure Boot payload - you then reboot to that new partition (so no blacklist/MOK Manager issues).

eBooks (PDF) available on E2B, grub4dos, Getting started with Ventoy, etc.

Easy2Boot

$ Details
free
Platforms
Windows Linux VirtualBox
Release Date
2018 March
Startup details
Country
United Kingdom
State
Oxfordshire
City
Oxford
Founder(s)
Steve Si
Employees
1 - 9

Raspberry Pi Imager features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Easy2Boot features and specs

  • Secure Boot
    Supports UEFI Secure Boot (no MOK Manager needed)
  • Easy to Set-up and use
    Add or delete ISOs, IMG, VHD, IMA
  • Automate Windows installs, inc. drivers and apps
    Install XP from ISO

Raspberry Pi Imager videos

Official Raspberry Pi Imager Review

More videos:

  • Review - Raspberry Pi Imager 1.6 2021 - First Look
  • Tutorial - How to Use the Raspberry Pi Imager (Including Helpful Tip)

Easy2Boot videos

Add Payload files

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Setting up an Easy2Boot v2 Legacy+Secure-boot UEFI multiboot drive
  • Tutorial - Install Windows XP from a USB Flash Drive with Easy2Boot
  • Tutorial - Make a UEFI\MBR Multiboot USB drive for Hirens, Windows Install & linux ISOs, etc. using Easy2Boot

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Raspberry Pi Imager and Easy2Boot)
Bootable USB
21 21%
79% 79
Utilities
22 22%
78% 78
Cyber Security
100 100%
0% 0
Boot Disk Utilities
15 15%
85% 85

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Raspberry Pi Imager and Easy2Boot.

What makes your product unique?

Easy2Boot's answer:

  1. Boots Linux ISOs by physically mapping ISO file to a partition. This is a more generic way of booting.
  2. Can Secure UEFI Boot 2024 computers by switching in a FAT32 image partition file of your Windows or Linux, etc. ISO. You then reboot from that partition. This means it supports Secure Boot without using shims, MOK Manager, certificates, etc.
  3. Contains three menu systems, grub4dos (legacy), agFM (based on grub2 grubfm - legacy and UEFI), Ventoy for Easy2Boot (branch of Ventoy).
  4. The USB drive can be converted to an official Ventoy drive (latest release of Ventoy can be used).
  5. Install XP with mass storage drivers automatically added from an XP ISO.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Easy2Boot's answer:

It has a steep learning curve, so really for use by techies who need one USB drive which supports a range of payloads. Many types of payloads are supported - Win98, XP, floppy disk images, DOS images, partition images (useful for Secure Boot). Online chat help (free). Series of PDF eBooks available.

How would you describe your primary audience?

Easy2Boot's answer:

Keen amateurs to professional techs. Over 2 million downloads.

What's the story behind your product?

Easy2Boot's answer:

E2B started off as a grub4dos legacy-only boot menu system.

Support for XP ISO install with automatic mass storage driver was added (later also included in WinSetupFromUSB with permission)

Later a modified version of a1ive's grub2-based grubfm was added to support UEFI booting

Later Ventoy for Easy2Boot was added (branch of Ventoy for use on an E2B drive)

Later, support for converting the USB drive into an official Ventoy-only USB drive - this allows the latest version of Ventoy to be used, if required, instead of the slightly older 'Ventoy for Easy2Boot' compiled version.

Easy2Boot is regaining popularity as it supports true Secure Boot of multiple payloads from one USB drive.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Easy2Boot's answer:

grub4dos, grub2, grubfm and Ventoy (all open source on github). Some VB6 apps to help in the preparation of the USB drive, etc, are written by the developer (not available on github). Once the USB drive is prepared, all software is open source or contains text readable source batch code.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Easy2Boot's answer:

Repair shops, schools, Universities, amateur computer enthusiasts, companies.

User comments

Share your experience with using Raspberry Pi Imager and Easy2Boot. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Raspberry Pi Imager and Easy2Boot

Raspberry Pi Imager Reviews

14 Rufus alternatives for Linux, Mac, and windows
This is the official imager application developed by the Raspberry Pi foundation. Raspberry Pi foundation is well known for its tiny card-sized Single Board Computers. The foundation has released this app on all three Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms. Raspberry Pi Imager supports installing Raspberry PI OS. This OS on SD cards acts as a bootable drive to plug into their...

Easy2Boot Reviews

14 Rufus alternatives for Linux, Mac, and windows
As per their website, Easy2Boot or E2B has had over a million downloads. It supports three menu systems for an easy bootable process

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Easy2Boot should be more popular than Raspberry Pi Imager. It has been mentiond 4 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.

Raspberry Pi Imager mentions (1)

  • Is the Raspberry Pi image out of date?
    "start4.elf is not compatible This board requires newer software Get the latest software from https://raspberrypi.com/software/". Source: over 3 years ago

Easy2Boot mentions (4)

  • easy2boot freezes
    Recommended XP ISOs are listed on the 'Tested Payloads' page of easy2boot.xyz site. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Anyone of you dealt with corrupted NVME?
    Last time I built a multi tool using YUMI but it was for legacy BIOS, not UEFI (clearly been a few years). https://easy2boot.xyz/ seems to be what I'm seeing reccomended for creating UEFI multiboot USBs these days, but I don't have personal experience with it and I would save that project for another day. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Including AHCI Drivers on ISO?
    If you want to use your own iso and ntlite doesn't work for you, try easy2boot (https://easy2boot.xyz/). It basically patches the iso on-the-fly with its own AHCI drivers (for x86 only) and ramdisk driver (which stores the iso file in ram so installation process is very fast). The AHCI driver is not up to date (compared to those on win-raid) but at least it works on my z97 motherboard so it should work for you. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Another Windows 11 experience post. Tweaking for a more Deck-like experience!
    There's also Easy2Boot, which is pretty flexible and includes Ventoy. Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Raspberry Pi Imager and Easy2Boot, you can also consider the following products

Rufus - Rufus is a piece of software that allows you to transform a portable drive, like a flash drive or other USB drives, into a bootable drive that can be used for a variety of purposes. Read more about Rufus.

Balena Etcher - Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.

YUMI - YUMI (Your USB Multiboot Installer), is a tool that allows you to boot multiple ISO files from one USB drive.

Win32 Disk Imager - Create and restore image backups of disk drives.

Clonezilla - Clonezilla is a suite of software that's designed to allow you to back-up and image new hard drives with your data.

Universal USB Installer - Universal USB Installer aka UUI is a Live Linux Bootable USB Creator that allows you to choose from a selection …