The best DVD burning software of 2026

BurnAware is the free burner to install first on a Windows PC. The Free edition burns data, audio and video discs, makes and burns ISO images, backs a disc up to an ISO file and creates bootable and multisession discs. It handles every common disc type, including Blu-ray, double-layer discs, 100 GB BDXL discs and M-Disc, the archival discs sold for long-term storage. Version 19.4 came out on September 17, 2026, so it is still maintained, which is more than you can say for some old free favorites.

The free edition has limits worth knowing. It comes as a 32-bit program only, it is licensed for personal use, and it cannot copy one disc to another or split a large folder across several discs. Premium ($29.95) adds those two, a 64-bit version and a video DVD converter. Professional ($39.95) adds data recovery from damaged discs, an audio grabber, a command-line burner, a tool for burning one ISO on several drives at once, and a license for business use.

Both paid editions are perpetual licenses with a year of free updates, and you can add lifetime updates at checkout. Each has a 7-day trial.

BurnAware makes plain video DVDs, but it has no menu designer. For home movies with a title screen and chapters, pair it with DVDStyler or pick Roxio Creator NXT.

Ashampoo Burning Studio covers almost every reason a home user still buys a disc burner, in one window. Version 27 burns, copies and backs up data to CD, DVD and Blu-ray, with backup plans that run on a schedule, remind you when the next one is due and restore an archive in one click. It can spread a large backup across several discs, compress it and protect it with a password.

On the video side it makes movies and slideshows and burns them to disc with animated menus, and it copies Blu-ray discs. It also rips audio CDs, designs covers and labels, works with ISO and CUE/BIN images and has a recovery tool for scratched discs. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, including the ARM versions.

The price is low. Sub & Save costs $10 a year with every upgrade included and can be cancelled at any time, and a one-time license for version 27 costs $50. Upgrades from an older version cost $10. You get a 30-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

If you only need to burn data and audio, Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE does that at no cost, along with disc copying, ISO images, audio CD ripping and password-protected backups. It needs a one-time registration. The free version burns video only from folders that are already prepared, so menus need the paid program.

Nero Burning ROM is one of the best-known names in disc burning and is still sold, now as Nero Burning ROM 2027 for Windows 10 and 11. It burns and copies CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs, burns ISO images and makes audio CDs with sound filters.

Two things set it apart. The first is SecurDisc 4.0, Nero's backup format, which adds 256-bit encryption, a digital signature, a password and extra copies of your data on the disc so a scratch is less likely to lose a file. You choose how much redundancy to add. If you archive tax records, client files or family photos to disc and want them locked, that is a better reason to buy Nero than its name.

The second is audio. Nero rips CDs to MP3, AAC, FLAC and APE and fills in song and album details and cover art from Gracenote, which saves an evening of typing track names for anyone digitizing a CD collection.

Nero showed us its price in euros only, so we cannot give a US price. The product page lists no free trial; it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee instead. Nero also sells the program inside its larger Nero Platinum Suite, so check which one you are buying before you pay.

Nero has no menu designer in Burning ROM, so for video DVDs look at Roxio or Ashampoo.

If the discs you make are home movies for a relative's DVD player, Roxio Creator NXT is the strongest Windows choice. Creator NXT 9 and Creator NXT Pro 9 include MyDVD, Roxio's disc authoring app, with more than 100 menu templates and a Template Designer for building your own menus and chapters. It can also put HD video onto a standard DVD.

Burning comes from Roxio Burn 4 in Creator NXT 9 and WinZip Secure Burn 5 in the Pro edition. Either one burns up to 50 GB to a single Blu-ray disc, spans large files across several CDs or DVDs and copies DVDs and USB drives. Creator runs on Windows 11 and 10, and MyDVD needs a 64-bit system.

Blu-ray video discs with menus need a separate Blu-ray plug-in that you buy inside the program, so budget for it if Blu-ray is the point. Roxio's product page shows a buy button but no price, and it does not mention a trial, so check the price in the store before you commit.

Roxio also sells Easy CD & DVD Burning 2, a smaller package for Windows 7 through 11 that burns data, audio and video discs, makes ISO files, digitizes LPs and cassettes and includes MyDVD with about 20 menu templates. It suits anyone who wants menus but not the rest of the Creator suite.

Mac owners have fewer choices than Windows users, and Wondershare DVD Creator is the easiest of them for turning phone videos and photo slideshows into a disc that plays on a TV. It runs on macOS 10.10 or later and on Windows, burns to DVD, a DVD folder or an ISO file, and comes with more than 100 static and moving menu templates.

Blu-ray discs are a Windows feature: the Windows version burns BD-R, BD-RE and BD-25, 50 and 100 discs, and the Mac version does not. The product page lists Windows 10 and older versions and does not name Windows 11, so Windows 11 users should run the trial first.

The trial is a test drive only. It puts a watermark on burned DVDs, offers 3 menu templates instead of 100+, and leaves out one-click burning, chapters and ISO-to-DVD burning. Its data disc and CD burner show ads.

On the Windows store page, a 1-year subscription was $39.95 (regular price $49.95) and a perpetual license $55.95 (regular price $79.95) when we checked; Wondershare runs sales often, so expect these to move. Mac prices sit on a separate page that did not show them to us.

Toast is the long-running Mac disc burner, and Roxio still sells Toast 20 Titanium and Toast 20 Pro. Titanium makes video DVDs with more than 20 menu templates, burns HD video to DVD and offers Blu-ray burning as a paid plug-in. Pro includes the Blu-ray plug-in for burning, copying and converting Blu-ray discs, and more than 100 DVD and Blu-ray menu templates. It runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

The catch is the system list. Roxio's product page names macOS Mojave through Sonoma as supported, and Apple's own guide is already at macOS 27. If your Mac runs a newer version than Sonoma, Toast may still work, but Roxio does not say so, and the page mentions no trial to find out before paying. It shows a 30-day money-back guarantee instead, so keep your receipt.

The product page also showed no price when we checked. On a Mac that Toast supports, it is still the most complete package for DVD and Blu-ray; on a current Mac, start with Wondershare DVD Creator's trial or the free DVDStyler.

DVDStyler is the free answer to the question most people searching for a DVD burner are asking: how do I put these videos on a disc that plays in a DVD player, with a menu? It is open source under the GPL, it costs nothing, and it has no paid tier.

You design the menu yourself, placing buttons, text and pictures anywhere on the screen and choosing fonts, colors and sizes, or start from one of the ready-made templates. You can import your own background picture. It accepts AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGG and WMV files, and works with MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, MP2, MP3 and AC-3 audio and video.

The current stable version is 3.2.1, with a 3.3 beta also on the download page. There are installers for Windows and for macOS 10.15 Catalina or later; on Linux you build it from source or follow the Ubuntu guide.

DVDStyler does one job. It will not copy discs, make Blu-ray video or back up your files, so keep BurnAware or Ashampoo alongside it for those. Expect a plainer interface than the paid programs and some trial and error with menus the first time.