If you ask tech savvy users for CD burning software recommendations they usually propose Nero Burning Rom as the commercial software to pick but chance is that they will list five to ten free CD burning software programs. Not all of the free alternatives to Nero provide all the features that Nero comes with but most do a very fine job when it comes to basic CD, DVD and Blu-Ray burning tasks.
But money is not the only issue for most users. Nero has become bloated over time with lots of additional burning tools that most users do not need. The free CD burning alternatives are usually lightweight and tend to concentrate on the popular operations that most users do when burning CDs.
ImgBurn
The review could probably end here as ImgBurn is a complete CD burning software. It supports a wide variety of disk images, most Microsoft operating systems, video CDs, DVDs, HD DVD and Blu-Ray disks as well as audio CDs.
The only drawback is that its usage can be complicated at the beginning. The developers are however offering guides on their website (linked from the burning software) which guide the user in completing specific tasks.
- Supported disk formats: BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.
- Unicode support: Yes
- Operating Systems: Windows 95+ including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Video: Video CD, Video DVD, HD DVD Video and Blu-Ray Video support
- Audio CDs: Yes, burn directly from AAC, APE, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MP4, MPC, OGG, PCM, WAV, WMA and WV formats
ImgBurn is a lightweight software that offers CD burning operations for the majority of users out there. It offers a wizard and manual CD burning mode.
CDBurner XP
CDBurner XP is another popular CD burning software. It supports the same amount of disk types that ImgBurn supports including various types of CD and DVD disks but also HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks.
Usage is a little bit easier than that of ImgBurn but the limited amount of supported disk image formats makes it unusable for some users who need to work with those formats.
- Supported disk formats: ISO but can also convert nrg and bin to ISO.
- Unicode support: Yes
- Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/2008/Windows 7
- Video: Video CD, Video DVD, HD DVD Video and Blu-Ray Video support
- Audio CDs: Yes, burn directly from mp2, mp3, wav, bwf,ogg, flac, wma, aiff, wv, ape, mpc, mp4 and m4a formats
- other features: lightscribe support, command line options, cover printing
InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder is an Open Source CD burning software that is provided as a portable version and an installer. The interface is similar to that of CDBurner XP with its two pane explorer like interface.
The free CD burning software has limited disk format support and does not offer the means to burn HD or Blu-Ray videos.
- Supported disk formats: ISO, BIN, CUE
- Unicode support: Yes
- Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003/2008, 32-bit and 64-bit editions
- Video: Video CD and Video DVD support (?)
- Audio CDs: Yes, burn directly from .wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3 formats
- other features: Open Source, portable version
Explore & Burn
The burning software comes with Windows Explorer integration from where the burning operations are started. This makes the program comfortable to use but it also means that several features are missing from the program.
- Supported disk formats: ISO, IMG
- Unicode support: Yes
- Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003/2008, 32-bit and 64-bit editions
- Video: Video CD and Video DVD support (?)
- Audio CDs: Yes
Ashampoo Burning Studio Free
This is a free version of a commercial software from Ashampoo. It offers a solid functionality and support for a limited number of disk image formats.
- Supported disk formats: ISO, CUE, BIN
- Unicode support: Yes
- Operating Systems: Windows 2K / XP / Vista and Windows 7
- Video: Create Video CDs and Video DVDs, burn CD, DVD and Blu-Ray video disks.
- Audio CDs: Yes, support of WAV, MP3, FLAC, WMA and Ogg Vorbis
- other features: audio CD ripper
download Ashampoo Burning Studio Free
Verdict:
ImgBurn is the free CD burning software with the largest support of different disk image formats and audio formats making it an ideal solution for users who want the greatest compatibility.
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