Comparison of bootloaders explained

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

General information

Name	Developer / Publisher	Current version	Initial release date	Latest release date	License	Cost	Website / documentation
class="table-rh"	Acronis OS Selector	Acronis International GmbH
class="table-rh"	AiR-BOOT	Martin Kiewitz Ben Rietbroek
class="table-rh"	AKernelLoader
class="table-rh"	Barebox	Sascha Hauer the barebox community
class="table-rh"	BOOTBOOT	bzt
class="table-rh"	BootIt Bare Metal (formerly BootIt Next Generation)	TeraByte Unlimited
class="table-rh"	BootKey
class="table-rh"	BootManager
class="table-rh"	BootX (Apple)	Apple Inc.
class="table-rh"	BootX (Linux)	Benjamin Herrenschmidt
class="table-rh"	Clover (fork of rEFIt)	https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/graphs/contributors Multi Contributors]	5157			/BSD-2-Clause
class="table-rh"	Darwin Boot Loader	Apple Inc.
class="table-rh"	Das U-Boot	DENX Software Engineering
class="table-rh"	Easyboot	bzt
class="table-rh"	FreeBSD loader	FreeBSD
class="table-rh"	GAG	Raster Software
class="table-rh"	GRUB Legacy	GNU Project
class="table-rh"	GNU GRUB			1995
class="table-rh"	Grub2Win
class="table-rh"	GRUB4DOS
class="table-rh"	Gujin
class="table-rh"	systemd-boot / Gummiboot
class="table-rh"	iBoot	Apple Inc.
class="table-rh"	LILO
class="table-rh"	Limine	mintsuki	7.5.2
class="table-rh"	loadlin
class="table-rh"	MasterBooter
class="table-rh"	NTLDR	Microsoft		(Windows NT 3.1)
class="table-rh"	OpenCore	Acidanthera
class="table-rh"	OSL2000 Boot Manager
class="table-rh"	PLoP Boot Manager
class="table-rh"	quibble	maharmstone	20210111
class="table-rh"	RedBoot					mod (eCos license)
class="table-rh"	rEFInd (fork of rEFIt)	Roderick W. Smith	0.14.4.2			/BSD-3-Clause
class="table-rh"	rEFIt	Christoph Pfisterer	0.14			/BSD-3-Clause
class="table-rh"	Simpleboot	bzt
class="table-rh"	Smart Boot Manager
class="table-rh"	SPFdisk
class="table-rh"	SYSLINUX
class="table-rh"	TianoCore EDK II
class="table-rh"	Windows Boot Manager	Microsoft		(Windows Vista)
class="table-rh"	XOSL
class="table-rh"	FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader)
class="table-rh"	wolfBoot	wolfSSL	v2.0.2			and Commercial Licensing
Name	Developer / Publisher	Current version	Initial release date	Latest release date	License	Cost	Website / documentation

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

Name	Can reside in				Can boot from
	ESP (UEFI)	MBR	VBR	Floppy	Hard disk	Second Hard disk	Logical partitions	CD-ROM	Floppy	USB	Zip	LAN
	Acronis OS Selector
	AiR-BOOT
	AKernelLoader
	Barebox
	BOOTBOOT
	BootIt Bare Metal
	BootKey
	BootManager
	BootX (Apple)
	BootX (Linux)
	Clover
	Darwin Boot Loader
	Das U-Boot
	Easyboot
	FreeBSD loader
	GAG		(SafeBoot)
	GRUB Legacy
	GNU GRUB
	Grub2Win
	GRUB4DOS
	Gujin
	systemd-boot / Gummiboot
	iBoot
	LILO
	Limine
	loadlin
	MasterBooter
	NTLDR
	OpenCore
	OSL2000 Boot Manager
	PLoP Boot Manager
	quibble
	RedBoot
	rEFInd
	rEFIt (not maintained)
	Simpleboot
	Smart Boot Manager
	SPFdisk
	SYSLINUX
	Tianocore EDK II
	Windows Boot Manager
	XOSL
	FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader)
Name	Can reside in				Can boot from
	ESP (UEFI)	MBR	VBR	Floppy	Hard disk	Second Hard disk	Logical partitions	CD-ROM	Floppy	USB	Zip	LAN

Operating system support

Name	Can 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
	AiR-BOOT
	AKernelLoader
	Barebox
	BOOTBOOT
	BootIt Bare Metal
	BootKey
	BootManager
	BootX (Apple)
	BootX (Linux)
	Clover
	Darwin Boot Loader
	Das U-Boot								(FreeBSD)
	Easyboot	(FreeDOS)						(KolibriOS as well)	(FreeBSD, OpenBSD)
	FreeBSD loader								(FreeBSD, TrueOS)
	FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader)			^[1]
	GAG
	GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS
	GNU GRUB
	Grub2Win								(FreeBSD)
	Gujin
	systemd-boot / Gummiboot				^[2]
	iBoot
	LILO								(FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...)
	loadlin
	Limine
	MasterBooter
	NTLDR									^[3]
	OpenCore
	OSL2000 Boot Manager
	PLoP Boot Manager
	quibble
	RedBoot
	rEFInd (fork of rEFIt)
	rEFIt (not maintained)
	Simpleboot
	Smart Boot Manager
	SPFdisk
	SYSLINUX
	Tianocore EDK II								(FreeBSD,OpenBSD)
	Windows Boot Manager
	XOSL
Name	Can 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

Name	FAT				Minix	ext2	btrfs	HFS	APFS	AFFS	F2FS	ZFS	NILFS	YAFFS
	FAT12	FAT16	FAT32	exFAT										YAFFS1	YAFFS2
Acronis OS Selector
AiR-BOOT
AKernelLoader
Barebox
BOOTBOOT
BootIt Bare Metal
BootKey
bootload
BootManager
BootX (Apple)
BootX (Linux)
Clover
Darwin Boot Loader
Das U-Boot
Easyboot
extipl
FreeLoader (ReactOS)
GAG
GNU GRUB 2
GRUB Legacy
Grub2Win
GRUB4DOS
Gujin
systemd-boot / Gummiboot
iBoot
LILO
Limine
loader (FreeBSD)
loadlin
LOLO
MasterBooter
Multiple Boot Manager
NTLDR
OpenCore
OSL2000 Boot Manager
PLoP Boot Manager
quibble
RedBoot
rEFInd	<	---exFAT--->
rEFIt
Simpleboot
Smart Boot Manager
SPFdisk
Syslinux
Tianocore EDK II
Windows Boot Manager
XOSL
yaboot

Journaled

Name	NTFS	ext3	ext4	ReiserFS	Reiser4	JFS	XFS	UFS	UDF	HFS+	BeFS	AFS	SFS	UBIFS	JFFS2
Acronis OS Selector
AiR-BOOT
AKernelLoader
Barebox
BOOTBOOT
BootIt Bare Metal
BootKey
bootload
BootManager
BootX (Apple)
BootX (Linux)
Clover
Darwin Boot Loader
Das U-Boot
extipl
FreeLoader (ReactOS)
GAG
GNU GRUB 2
GRUB Legacy
Grub2Win
GRUB4DOS
Gujin
systemd-boot / Gummiboot
iBoot
LILO
Limine
loader (FreeBSD)
loadlin
LOLO
MasterBooter
Multiple Boot Manager
NTLDR
OpenCore
OSL2000 Boot Manager
PLoP Boot Manager
quibble
RedBoot
rEFInd
rEFIt
Simpleboot
Smart Boot Manager
SPFdisk
Syslinux
Tianocore EDK II
Windows Boot Manager
XOSL
yaboot

Read-only

Name	cpio	tar	ISO 9660	romfs	SquashFS	cramfs
Acronis OS Selector
AiR-BOOT
AKernelLoader
Barebox
BOOTBOOT
BootIt Bare Metal
BootKey
bootload
BootManager
BootX (Apple)
BootX (Linux)
Clover
Darwin Boot Loader
Das U-Boot
extipl
FreeLoader (ReactOS)
GAG
GNU GRUB 2
GRUB Legacy
Grub2Win
GRUB4DOS
Gujin
systemd-boot / Gummiboot
iBoot
LILO
Limine
loader (FreeBSD)
loadlin
LOLO
MasterBooter
Multiple Boot Manager
NTLDR
OpenCore
OSL2000 Boot Manager
PLoP Boot Manager
RedBoot
rEFInd
rEFIt
Simpleboot
Smart Boot Manager
SPFdisk
Syslinux
Tianocore EDK II
Windows Boot Manager
XOSL
yaboot

Other features

Name	Advanced command	Scriptable	Supported architecture	Supported executable	Supported protocol	Supported decompression	Others
GRUB Legacy			x86 (PC)	Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others	TFTP	gzip
GRUB 2			x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware)	Multiboot and others^[4]	TFTP, HTTP^[5]	gzip, xz^[6]
LILO			x86 (PC)	Linux zImage, Linux bzImage		bzip2, gzip
loader (FreeBSD)			x86 (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)^[7]	TFTP, NFS	gzip, bzip2
loadlin			x86 (PC)	Linux zImage, Linux bzImage		gzip
LOLO (Logic PD)			ARM7, ARM9, ARM11, Cortex-A8, StrongARM, SH, ColdFire	ELF, binary, BIN (WinCE), SREC	TFTP		Supported devices: MCF54xx, MCF5329, MCF5373, LLH7A400, LLH7A404, LLH79520, LLH79524, LSH7727, LSH7750, LSH7760, PXA270, PXA320, IMX31, IMX27, OMAP35xx, OMAP37xx
SYSLINUX			x86 (PC)	Linux zImage, Linux bzImage,^[8] Multiboot,^[9] MBR image^[10]	TFTP	gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ?
AKernelLoader			x86 (PC)	ELF, Binary
BOOTBOOT			x86-64 (PC, UEFI, El Torito CDROM, BSS Expansion ROM, UEFI Option ROM), ARM AArch64 (Raspberry Pi 3 and up)	ELF64 / PE32+	serial	gzip	comes with a multiplatform, dependency-free bootable hybrid image creator (FOSS)
Easyboot			x86-64 (BIOS, UEFI), ARM AArch64 (Raspberry Pi 3 and up)	ELF32, ELF64, PE32+/COFF, a.out, Multiboot2, MZ, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, FreeBSD BTX, OpenBSD ELF kernel image		gzip	comes with a multiplatform, dependency-free bootable hybrid image creator (FOSS), Multiboot2 extensions (clean 64-bit, higher-half, embedded-tags-free, EDID and SMP support)
Yaboot			PowerPC (Open Firmware)	Linux ELF image	TFTP
RedBoot			ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite	ELF	TFTP, serial (X-modem)	gzip
Das U-Boot			PowerPC, 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, raw	TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol)	bzip2, gzip, lzma
Barebox			ARM, Blackfin, NIOS2, MIPS, x86, PowerPC	ELF, U-Boot image format	TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol)	bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo
Linux kexec			x86, ARM, ARM64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, IA-64, IBM Z, RISC-V^[11]	Linux bzImage, Multiboot, other ELF image			The kexec system call can start another kernel, replacing the current running Linux, thus turning a Linux-based operating system into a fancy bootloader.
NTLDR			x86 (PC)	Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image			default bootloader on Windows NT
Simpleboot			x86-64 (PC, UEFI)	Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, ELF32 / ELF64 / COFF / PE32+ with Multiboot2		any	comes with a multiplatform, dependency-free image creator (FOSS), supports 64-bit higher-half kernels with Multiboot2
TianoCore EDK II			ARM, RISC-V, x86	EFI	HTTPS		UEFI reference implementation
Windows Boot Manager			x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake)	Portable Executable			Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up.
FreeLoader (ReactOS)			x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC				clone of NTLDR
extipl							IBM IPL upper compatible
Multiple Boot Manager
bootload (Technologic Systems)			ARM				Proprietary
Limine			x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM	Multiboot 1 and 2, Stivale 1 and 2, Linux zImage and bzImage	TFTP	gzip
wolfBoot			ARM, RISC-V, PowerPC, x86	Binary, ELF32/ELF64, Multiboot2			Open-source, OS-agnostic (run along-side RTOS, Linux or bare-metal), ARM TrustZone-M support, Hardware Security Module support (including TPM 2.0), Integrity and authenticity verification of firmware images. Roll-back to previous image, Encryption, Self-update
Name	Advanced command	Scriptable	Supported architecture	Supported executable	Supported protocol	Supported decompression	Others

Notes and References

1. http://www.reactos.org/newsletter-37 - Freeloader can load Windows Server 2003 directly, as long as it is on a FAT32 partition
2. Rod Smith, "Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux: Using gummiboot", 5 November 2012.
3. Web site: Chain0 - OSx86.
4. Web site: GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Supported kernels . GNU . Free Software Foundation, Inc. . 2021-06-24.
5. Web site: GNU GRUB Manual 2.06: Device syntax . GNU . Free Software Foundation, Inc. . 2021-06-24 . If you enabled the network support, the special drives (protocol[,server]) are also available. Supported protocols are ‘http’ and ‘tftp’..
6. Web site: GNU GRUB Manual 2.02: Features.
7. Web site: WHR . An experiment to make a Multiboot-compliant kFreeBSD i386 image . SourceForge . Rivoreo . 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'..
8. Web site: Can SYSLINUX Handle Large Kernels? . Syslinux Wiki . 2021-06-24.
9. Web site: Mboot.c32 - Syslinux Wiki. www.syslinux.org. en. 2018-10-12.
10. Web site: Comboot/chain.c32 . Syslinux Wiki . 2021-06-24.
11. Web site: Documentation for Kdump - The kexec-based Crash Dumping Solution . The Linux Kernel Archives . 2021-06-24 . text/plain.