Software Alternatives & Reviews

WiX (Windows Installer XML) VS Inno Setup

Compare WiX (Windows Installer XML) VS Inno Setup and see what are their differences

WiX (Windows Installer XML) logo WiX (Windows Installer XML)

WiX (Windows Installer XML) is a toolset that allows developers to build Windows installation packages through source codes.

Inno Setup logo Inno Setup

Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs.
  • WiX (Windows Installer XML) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-14
  • Inno Setup Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-31

WiX (Windows Installer XML) videos

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Inno Setup videos

Using the Inno Setup Wizard

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to WiX (Windows Installer XML) and Inno Setup)
Website Builder
21 21%
79% 79
Package Builder
18 18%
82% 82
Website Design
17 17%
83% 83
Package Distribution
23 23%
77% 77

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Inno Setup might be a bit more popular than WiX (Windows Installer XML). We know about 46 links to it since March 2021 and only 35 links to WiX (Windows Installer XML). 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.

WiX (Windows Installer XML) mentions (35)

  • Twenty years maintaining the WiX Toolset
    For those like me (I never used Windows) who do not know WiX; https://wixtoolset.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 23 days ago
  • Win32 App Isolation
    I actually like WiX[1] — it has a bit of a learning curve, but, so long as I'm building on Windows and don't stray far from the default UI flows, I haven't found an easier tool for creating Windows installers as part of a product build process, especially those that require Windows-specific bits like COM component registration, Windows service management, setting restrictive ACLs on installed components, etc. And... - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • packaging games
    For Windows, in the past, I’ve used the WiX toolset to create installers (https://wixtoolset.org/). Source: about 1 year ago
  • Can I publish and release a .NET Service with an installation executable on GitHub?
    Https://wixtoolset.org/ should be able to help you out there. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Production C++ software guide
    For windows - store: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/register/ - requirements: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/publish/publish-your-app/app-package-requirements?pivots=store-installer-msix - alternatively you can make MSIs and distribute them through your own website or another service. https://wixtoolset.org/ - publishing with chocolatey isn't a terrible option to help users... Source: about 1 year ago
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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
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing WiX (Windows Installer XML) and Inno Setup, 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.

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

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

Packin - Packin is a graphical Linux package creator wizard which compiles packages in the popular debian...

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.

InstallShield - If your software targets Windows, InstallShield is your solution.