Best free disc burning software – write DVDs, CDs & Blu-rays

With the growing ubiquity of cloud storage in recent years, it’s hard to think why anyone would still see the need to write data to DVD discs. However, there are still plenty of use cases for it. Whether it’s to store, share or present data, burning DVDs is cheap and relatively easy, and the best thing is: the data will be accessible even if you’re not (gasp!) connected to the internet.

Here are our five favourite free DVD burning programs for those that don’t trust putting their private movies or images online, or simply prefer writing their data to physical media.

Ashampoo Burning Studio

The oddly-named Ashampoo Burning Studio is definitely one of the more advanced free DVD burner tools out there. And no, you can’t wash your hair with it. The application is well laid out, better designed than many other rival programs and has a good range of options for a free tool. However, support for different file formats isn’t the best when compared to some software, such as ImgBurn, and you don’t have as much control over how a disc is burned.

It’s also worth noting that you will have to request your personal activation key to permanently and fully activate the software. This can involve a bit of faffing around with temporary passwords, login requests and activation keys being sent to email addresses before you can install the software.

DVDStyler

If you’re looking for a feature-rich burning program then DVDStyler is a good choice. It’s quite the powerful tool considering it’s completely free to use, for example it can import videos in all the main formats and is clever enough not to re-encode MPEG and VOB files. It’s also got a clever DVD creation tool if you like to create our own custom disc images. While it’s not the most straightforward to use out of the bunch we tested, and will require some tinkering around to get the results you want, it is a good option for the slightly more technical users.

WinX DVD Author 

WinX DVD Author was for a long time a shareware product but recently became a free application. It was designed for home users wanting to back up their beloved video and image files by creating a personalised DVD. The main window boasts a VOB converter, a VOB to DVD compiler and a DVD disc burner, where they are listed clearly, allowing you to launch them individually.

The great thing about WinX DVD Author is that it includes a converter as well as a burner, meaning the software is more like a suite that includes a DVD authoring utility than just a simple lightweight DVD burning tool, so is a good choice for those looking for a multi-tasking application.

ImgBurn

ImgBurn might not be the nicest looking out of the bunch, but that doesn’t go to say it’s not got an impressive feature set. The app doesn’t just burn data to DVDs, but can work across a range of recordable media.

The software offers feature that means it can burn optical discs or create files on a hard drive for burning at a later date. It supports all kinds of image files (BIN, CDI, CDR, CUE, DVD, GCM, and so on) and can burn any one of these onto CD, DVD and Blu-ray with just three clicks.

While ImgBurn is quite the powerful program, the annoying thing is that upon running its setup file, it will install two other programs – that you probably won’t want – by default. Just make sure when installing that you deselect both the advertising add-ons. You’ll need to select ‘Custom Install (Advanced) to get rid of one of them.

BurnAware Free

BurnAware is an easy-to-use disc burner that boasts an impressive feature line-up considering it’s such a lightweight application. Not only can it burn data, DVD-video, Blu-ray, custom, MP3 and audio discs and images, but it can also compile disc files into images, create standard and boot ISO images, as well as erase and verify discs. Surprisingly, all these tools are laid out in a very intuitive way, meaning they are not overwhelming to work with, so the application is great for beginners.