# Comparison of bootloaders

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 |
| Acronis OS Selector | Acronis International GmbH | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | $49.95 (personal use) $79.99 (commercial, per seat) $299.99 (server) | Official website |
| AiR-BOOT | Martin Kiewitz Ben Rietbroek | ? | ? | ? | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| AKernelLoader | ? | ? | ? | ? | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| Barebox | Sascha Hauer the barebox community | ? | ? | ? | GPL-2.0-only | No cost | Official website |
| BOOTBOOT | bzt | ? | 2017 | 14 December 2023 | MIT | No cost | Source repository Official website |
| BootIt Bare Metal (formerly BootIt Next Generation) | TeraByte Unlimited | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | $39.95 | Official website |
| BootKey | ? | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | ? | ? |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | MIT | No cost | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | Apple Inc. | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | bundled with macOS | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | Benjamin Herrenschmidt | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | No cost | ? |
| Clover (fork of rEFIt) | https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/graphs/contributors Multi Contributors] | 5157 | October 3, 2013 | 29 June 2024 | GPLv2/BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website Source repository |
| Darwin Boot Loader | Apple Inc. | ? | ? | ? | APSL-2.0 | No cost | Official Website (Archived) |
| Das U-Boot | DENX Software Engineering | 2023.01 | | 9 January 2023 | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| Easyboot | bzt | ? | 2023 | 20 February 2024 | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | Source repository |
| FreeBSD loader | FreeBSD | | | | BSD license | No cost | |
| GAG | Raster Software | 4.10 | ? | 10 August 2008 | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| GRUB Legacy | GNU Project | | | 8 May 2005 | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | |
| GNU GRUB | GNU Project | 2.12 | 1995 | 20 December 2023 | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| Grub2Win | | | | | GPLv3 | | |
| GRUB4DOS | | | | 31 March 2009 | GPL-2.0-only | | Official website |
| Gujin | | | | 9 January 2013 | GPL-2.0-only | | Official website |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | | | | | LGPL-2.1-or-later | | |
| iBoot | Apple Inc. | iBoot-11881.62.2~1 | June 29, 2007 | December 9, 2024 | Proprietary | | |
| LILO | | | | | BSD-3-Clause | | |
| Limine | mintsuki | 9.1.3 | April 6, 2020 | 13 March 2025 | BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| loadlin | | | | | GPL-2.0-or-later | | |
| MasterBooter | | | | | GPL-2.0-only | No cost | Source repository |
| NTLDR | Microsoft | | July 27, 1993 (Windows NT 3.1) | | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |
| OpenCore | Acidanthera | | May 4, 2019 | | BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Source repository |
| Ozmosis | The Hermit Crabs Lab | 167X-MASS (unofficial 167X-XMAX) | 2013 | 25 December 2015 | CCPL 3.0 License | No cost | Binary repository |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | | | | 12 February 2017 | Proprietary | | |
| PLoP Boot Manager | | | | 15 April 2013 | Proprietary | No cost | Official website |
| quibble | maharmstone | 20210111 | February 13, 2020 | 29 March 2023 | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
| RedBoot | | | | | GPL-2.0-or-later (eCos license) | | |
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | Roderick W. Smith | 0.14.4.2 | March 14, 2012 | 6 April 2024 | GPL-3.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| rEFIt | Christoph Pfisterer | 0.14 | March 2, 2006 | 7 March 2010 | GPL-2.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
| Simpleboot | bzt | ? | 2023 | 10 October 2023 | MIT | No cost | Documentation Source repository |
| Smart Boot Manager | | | | | GPL-2.0-or-later | | |
| SPFdisk | | | | | GPL-2.0-or-later | | |
| SYSLINUX | | | | 6 October 2014 | GPL-2.0-or-later | | |
| TianoCore EDK II | | | | | BSD-2-Clause | | |
| Windows Boot Manager | Microsoft | | January 30, 2007 (Windows Vista) | | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |
| XOSL | | | | 20 August 2002 | GPL-2.0-only | | |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader) | | | | | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Documentation |
| wolfBoot | wolfSSL | v2.0.2 | December 4, 2018 | 16 April 2024 | GPL-2.0-or-later and Commercial Licensing | No cost | Official website |
| Name | Developer / Publisher | Current version | Initial release date | Latest release date | License | Cost | Website / documentation |
* ↑ While most parts of GRUB4DOS are under GPL-2.0-or-later, the whole software is limited to GPL-2.0-only due to incorporating some code from Linux.

## 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 reside in | Can reside in | Can reside in | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from |
| Name | ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| AiR-BOOT | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AKernelLoader | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| BOOTBOOT | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| BootIt Bare Metal | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| BootKey | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| BootManager | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
| BootX (Apple) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clover | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| Darwin Boot Loader | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Easyboot | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| FreeBSD loader | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| GAG | ? | Yes (SafeBoot) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Grub2Win | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gujin | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| iBoot | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Limine | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| loadlin | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MasterBooter | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| OpenCore | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| PLoP Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| quibble | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| Simpleboot | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Smart Boot Manager | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SPFdisk | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tianocore EDK II | ? | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes |
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| XOSL | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader) | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Name | Can reside in | Can reside in | Can reside in | Can reside in | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from | Can boot from |
| Name | ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN |

### Operating system support

| Name | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot |
| Name | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| AiR-BOOT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AKernelLoader | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BOOTBOOT | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootIt Bare Metal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Clover | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Darwin Boot Loader | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
| Easyboot | Yes (FreeDOS) | No | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes (KolibriOS as well) | Yes (FreeBSD, OpenBSD) | No |
| FreeBSD loader | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD, TrueOS) | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS Boot Loader) | Yes | Yes | Partial | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| GAG | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Calls GRUB or LILO | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | No |
| GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Calls bootloader for some kernels | Yes |
| GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Grub2Win | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | Calls Clover |
| Gujin | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | No | No | Windows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI only | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | ? | UEFI only | Yes |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| LILO | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) | ? |
| loadlin | with MEMDISK | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Limine | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Yes | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader |
| MasterBooter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| NTLDR | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Calls GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | ? | Calls Darwin bootloader |
| OpenCore | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| PLoP Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| quibble | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| RedBoot | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| rEFIt (not maintained) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Simpleboot | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? | Partial | ? |
| Smart Boot Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| SPFdisk | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SYSLINUX | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | via mboot.c32 module | ? |
| Tianocore EDK II | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes (FreeBSD,OpenBSD) | Yes |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot | Can boot |
| Name | 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 | FAT | FAT | FAT | Minix | ext2 | btrfs | HFS | APFS | AFFS | F2FS | ZFS | NILFS | YAFFS | YAFFS |
| Name | FAT12 | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT | Minix | ext2 | btrfs | HFS | APFS | AFFS | F2FS | ZFS | NILFS | YAFFS1 | YAFFS2 |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AiR-BOOT | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AKernelLoader | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| BOOTBOOT | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootIt Bare Metal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| bootload | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Clover | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Darwin Boot Loader | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Easyboot | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| extipl | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GAG | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Gujin | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| LOLO | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| MasterBooter | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Multiple Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| OpenCore | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| PLoP Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| quibble | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Simpleboot | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Smart Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SPFdisk | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Tianocore EDK II | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
* ↑ https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd#Installing_the_rEFInd_Boot_Manager
* 1 2 rEFInd Features

#### Journaled

| Name | NTFS | ext3 | ext4 | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | JFS | XFS | UFS | UDF | HFS+ | BeFS | AFS | SFS | UBIFS | JFFS2 |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AiR-BOOT | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AKernelLoader | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| BOOTBOOT | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootIt Bare Metal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| bootload | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Clover | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Darwin Boot Loader | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| extipl | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GAG | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | patch | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gujin | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| LOLO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| MasterBooter | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Multiple Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| OpenCore | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| PLoP Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| quibble | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| rEFInd | Partial | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Simpleboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Smart Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SPFdisk | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Tianocore EDK II | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
* ↑ Debian patch
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 GNU GRUB 0.97 manual
* ↑ Requires a TSR, such as NTFSDOS
* 1 2 3 4 rEFInd Features
* ↑ https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Filesystem#ext

#### Read-only

| Name | cpio | tar | ISO 9660 | romfs | SquashFS | cramfs |
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AiR-BOOT | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| AKernelLoader | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| BOOTBOOT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| BootIt Bare Metal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| bootload | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Clover | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Darwin Boot Loader | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| extipl | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GAG | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| GRUB Legacy | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Gujin | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Limine | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| LOLO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| MasterBooter | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Multiple Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OpenCore | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| PLoP Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFInd | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Simpleboot | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Smart Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SPFdisk | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Tianocore EDK II | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
* ↑ https://git.lumina-sensum.com/LuminaSensum/barebox/blob/master/Documentation/filesystems/squashfs.rst
* ↑ https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/commit/c51006130370b48b7eb5a93ada745385aa27f6bf
* 1 2 http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/stage2/fsys_iso9660.c?h=grub-legacy
* ↑ Requires DOS support / TSR, such as MSCDEX
* ↑ rEFInd Features

### Other features

| Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
| GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | x86 (PC) | Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others | TFTP | gzip | |
| GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) | Multiboot and others | TFTP, HTTP | gzip, xz | |
| LILO | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | bzip2, gzip | |
| loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | 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) | TFTP, NFS | gzip, bzip2 | |
| loadlin | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | gzip | |
| LOLO (Logic PD) | Yes | Yes | 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 | via cmd.c32 module | via lua.c32 module | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, Multiboot, MBR image | TFTP | gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ? | |
| AKernelLoader | No | No | x86 (PC) | ELF, Binary | ? | ? | |
| BOOTBOOT | Yes | No | 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 | Yes | No | 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 | No | No | PowerPC (Open Firmware) | Linux ELF image | TFTP | No | |
| RedBoot | Yes | yes (boot only) | ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite | ELF | TFTP, serial (X-modem) | gzip | |
| Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes | 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 | Depending on user space | Depending on user space | x86, ARM, ARM64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, IA-64, IBM Z, RISC-V | Linux bzImage, Multiboot, other ELF image | Depending on configuration and user space | — | 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 | No | No | x86 (PC) | Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image | ? | ? | default bootloader on Windows NT |
| Simpleboot | Yes | No | 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 | Yes | Yes | ARM, RISC-V, x86 | EFI | HTTPS | ? | UEFI reference implementation |
| Windows Boot Manager | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | Portable Executable | ? | ? | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. |
| FreeLoader (ReactOS) | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC | ? | ? | ? | clone of NTLDR |
| extipl | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | IBM IPL upper compatible |
| Multiple Boot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| bootload (Technologic Systems) | ? | ? | ARM | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary |
| Limine | Yes | No | x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch | Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage | TFTP | gzip | |
| wolfBoot | No | No | ARM, RISC-V, PowerPC, x86 | Binary, ELF32/ELF64, Multiboot2 | No | No | Open-source, OS-agnostic (run alongside 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 |