Ventoy vs Rufus: Multiboot USB or One Install Drive?

Pick Ventoy if you want one USB drive that holds many ISO files and boots any of them from a menu, or you need to make the drive on Linux. Pick Rufus if you want a single, carefully prepared install drive on Windows, especially a Windows 11 installer where you want to change setup options such as the TPM and Secure Boot checks.

Both are free, open source under the GNU GPL version 3, and both make bootable USB drives from ISO files. They work in very different ways, though: Ventoy installs a boot menu once and then you just copy files, while Rufus writes one image to the drive each time.

Ventoy vs Rufus at a glance

What is the main difference between Ventoy and Rufus?

Ventoy turns the USB drive into a multiboot drive; Rufus makes a single-purpose boot drive. That is the choice that matters most.

Ventoy describes itself as "an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files". You install it on the drive once. After that, its guide says "all the things needed is to copy the iso files to the USB". When you boot from the drive, Ventoy shows a menu of every image on it. You can keep Windows, several Linux distributions and rescue tools on one stick and add or remove them like normal files.

Rufus is "a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives". You pick a drive and one ISO, press Start, and Rufus prepares the drive for that image. To switch to another operating system, you run it again and rewrite the drive.

We checked this on 6 November 2026 in the Rufus FAQ. To the question "Do you plan to add multiboot support?", the answer is a plain "No". The developer explains that multiboot setups are custom sysadmin work and suggests sticking to a single boot drive and recreating it as needed. If you want several ISOs on one stick, Rufus is not the tool, by design.

Which one is safer for your data?

Both erase the USB drive the first time, so back it up before you start either one.

Ventoy's guide warns that "the USB drive will be formatted and all the data will be lost after install". After that first install, adding an ISO is just a file copy, and the main partition still works as normal storage. Rufus deletes all partitions every time it creates a drive. Its FAQ says this is deliberate: starting from a clean slate is the best way to make sure the drive will boot.

Ventoy can also be installed on a local disk, SSD or SD card, not just USB, but by default its Windows tool only lists USB drives to prevent mistakes.

Which is better for a Windows 11 install drive?

Rufus is the stronger choice for Windows installers. After you press Start with a Windows image, Rufus opens a Windows User Experience dialog. Its FAQ says the options to bypass the TPM and Secure Boot checks of Windows 11 are in that dialog, and that you must run Rufus on Windows 8 or later to see them. Rufus can also create Windows To Go drives, which run Windows directly from USB, and DOS boot drives for flashing a BIOS.

Ventoy can boot Windows ISOs as well and supports Windows auto installation through its plugin system, but its strength is breadth: its site says 1400+ image files have been tested and more than 90% of the distributions on DistroWatch are supported.

Do Ventoy and Rufus work with Secure Boot?

Both do, with different trade-offs. Ventoy has supported Secure Boot by default since version 1.0.76, but the first time you boot it on each computer with Secure Boot on, you have to enroll a key once. Ventoy's documentation also says its default policy is to "fully bypass secure boot", meaning any EFI file can boot without a check, unless you change that in its settings. On some machines it does not work and you have to turn Secure Boot off.

Rufus says you should no longer have to disable Secure Boot for its UEFI:NTFS boot loader from Rufus 3.17 onward, because those loaders are Secure Boot signed. On some systems you may also have to enable the "3rd party UEFI CA" option for Secure Boot in your firmware. Ventoy's guide mentions the same setting for some computers.

Can you use them on Linux or macOS?

Ventoy runs on Windows and Linux. Linux users get a GTK or Qt app, a web-based interface, or a command line script. Rufus is Windows only. Its FAQ says there are no plans to port it to Linux or macOS because it is built closely around Windows APIs. Neither runs on macOS.

Which should you choose?

• You carry many ISOs (installers, live systems, rescue disks): Ventoy.
• You are on Linux: Ventoy.
• You want to test lots of Linux distributions: Ventoy, since adding one is a file copy.
• You need one Windows 11 install drive with setup tweaks: Rufus.
• You need Windows To Go or a DOS drive for a BIOS update: Rufus.
• You want a portable tool with no install: Rufus, which runs straight from the downloaded file.

For other bootable USB tools, such as balenaEtcher, UNetbootin and YUMI, see our Ventoy alternatives.

FAQ

Is Ventoy better than Rufus?

Not overall. Ventoy is better for a multiboot drive with many ISOs. Rufus is better for one carefully prepared install drive, especially for Windows 11.

Are Ventoy and Rufus free?

Yes. Both are free and open source under the GNU GPL version 3 or later. Rufus does not even take donations; its developer points people to the Free Software Foundation instead.

Can Rufus put more than one ISO on a USB drive?

No. The Rufus FAQ says there are no plans to add multiboot support. Use Ventoy or another multiboot tool for that.

Do I need to reinstall Ventoy when a new distro comes out?

No. Ventoy's site says there is no need to update Ventoy when a new distro is released. You just copy the new ISO to the drive.