# InstallShield Reviews **Vendor:** Revenera **Category:** [Repository Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/repository-management) **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 22 ## About InstallShield Revenera InstallShield is the fastest easiest way to build Windows installers and MSIX packages and create installations directly within Microsoft Visual Studio. ## InstallShield Reviews ### 1. Best tool to create and update windows installer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ankush K. | Lead Consultant, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 05, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** I am using this tool for the last nine years, and it has all the customization and capabilities to handle complex application configurations. The tool will help beginners to learn and understand things from Microsoft docs as well. It has a good UI option to manage customization for beginners. Installshield is very easy to manage customizations using tables. The most powerful, capable, and widely used solution among installation developers worldwide. A quick and easy solution for creating reliable MSI installations. Installshield supports MSIX as well. Create Windows Server App Packages (WSA) from MSI Projects.Build InstallShield Projects in an Azure DevOps Pipeline **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** License cost is one of the downsides of installshield, which is one factor when deciding on a tool. **Recommendations to others considering InstallShield:** Installshield is a perfect tool to capture and edit windows installers. Beginners can learn rapidly with help links and start working with InstallShield. **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** Capturing and creating installer of legacy Apps Solving conflicts and permission issues Adding custom action for cleanup Upgrade old products using upgrade table itself Use VBScript for custom action and popup. Create Advanced Bootstrappers with Suite Installations. Create Traditional Installations and Microsoft App-V Packages from the Same build Process. DLL, EXE, VBScript, and JScript Custom Actions Advanced UI Editor Create Windows Installer Patches (MSP) Automated Patch Design\ Build InstallShield Projects in an Azure DevOps Pipeline Build InstallShield Projects in an Azure DevOps Pipeline ### 2. Easy to use, lots of possibilities **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Liran T. | DevOps Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 30, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** The InstallShield wizard is organized very well and it is really easy to navigate to find what you're looking for. The control over so many different aspects of the installer, like creating Custom Actions, manipulate different registry keys, prerequisite editor, which sometimes not working as expected can really give you total control of your installation. Even if you don't find how to do things inside InstallShield you can always use the InstallScript of the Custom Actions in order to try to work around the issue. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** I guess the learning curve of InstallShield is pretty steep. Lots of possibilities are great but sometimes it can be hard to grasp, like using AWS for the first time. Many services and you need to understand what you want to achieve and then find out how to implement it the best way possible **Recommendations to others considering InstallShield:** If you're looking for a great GUI-based Installer creator then Install shield is definitely a good application to check. Lots of different options (like Features, releases, upgrades, custom actions, IIS configuration, XML file changes, etc. It may take some time to learn and master by is doable and if any questions arise you can always check the forms or contact InstallShield support **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our system is Client based on different components like DB, Client, Application server, etc. Making the installer to each component is really convenient with InstallShield. One of the benefits is the "XML File Change" that enables the change of XML files during the installation process and so upgrades can be handled easier. ### 3. One of the best platforms I used for designing installers. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Legal Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2022 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** I used two types - Basic MSI and InstallScript. The best thing that I have known about this platform is the installer that's being designed can be tweaked the way desired. The SQL server screen designed the way is best. I did come across a bug in the SQL server screen of a old designed installer. But referring the community helped me fixing it easily without spending much time. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** Cannot change the design of multi-instance screen. As there are other out of the box screens already present but they can be tweaked not similar in the Multi-instance case. **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** Inbuilt SQL server screens is an absolute benefit in Server side applications and this can be used with minimal configuration as most of that has already been done. ### 4. InstallShield is an amazing tool to create installers with wide range of types and customization. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vinay S. | Technology Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 21, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** It gives the user ability to customize the installation and the option to use inbuild or custom functionality. It also provides the functionality for the multi-instance installer, which is currently unavailable in any of the other tools. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** The IntelliSense needs to be enhanced more as it would be more helpful during writing code and checking for errors. **Recommendations to others considering InstallShield:** InstallShield is the best product currently to create and manage installers., It provides various options to the user to create different types of installers based on the requirements. **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used the InstallShield for Creating the installers for our product. We have provided the installers with the functionality of the multi-instance installation. Also, we have implemented the Upgrade, Modify, Hotfix functionality to the user. We have made it easy for the user to manage the installation part of their system in the best possible way. Upgrade and modify the installation without the need to remove and install again. Also, multi-instance has provided the ability to the user to install multiple instances of the application on the same Windows system. Due to this, the user base of our application has drastically increased. ### 5. Amazing packaging tool. Loads of features to play around. Excellent release management system. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saket . | Senior Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 04, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** 1.Installshield according to me is one of the most feature rich and extremely fast packaging tool. 2.I used it to create installers for my company's windows product. Easy to learn. 3.Also the installscript functionality was very useful to create my own custom functions. 4.The language itself was very easy , quite similar to C. 5.The product i used to make installer were having its all requirement fulfilled by Installshield(IIS,Windows services,registry,text file,ini,xml edit,SQL,upgrade installers etc.) 6.Regular updates. Hence.Installsheld never gave me any reason to look for another packaging tool. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** 1.The windows service creation module should allow the property name to be used in the identity field of the service to automate the name for all the services I create. 2.The whole interface can seem quite complex to the new users as the features are pretty extensive. Nevertheless, this is a good tool. **Recommendations to others considering InstallShield:** Installshield is gonna fulfil all requirements for all windows based applications, so in my opinion, one does not need to look further. **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used InstallShield to create the installers for the below-mentioned products. 1. IIS-hosted application. This application was hosted in IIS, had four app pools and virtual directories, had ten windows services, used registry, interacted with SQL server database. Also, after completion, specific changes were needed to be made inside the config files related to SQL or log level attributes. 2.Upgrade installer - This was the upgrade installer that replaced all dlls with the newer dlls, executed recent SQL queries and stored procedures. 3.Adapter installer- Similar to IIS-hosted application but smaller and with fewer files. 4.Pre-requisite installer- Ran before the application installer to install all required pre-requisites. ### 6. Installshield : Does most of the basic boiler plate work but not free. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Siddharth P. | Lead Software Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 03, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** As mentioned, it takes care of all the boiler plate stuff while creating an installer. On the other hand, if you consider the other options they are either paid or not that user friendly. It is a fast GUI based installer creating tool which also helps customization upto some level using either custom actions or scripts. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** It is not free. It does not provide full flexibility which can be used if WiX is used. WiX is free but there is a huge learning curve for any individual. Having used both, I would suggest to go for Installshield as there are integration you can include but size of installer may increase. **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating installers quickly, especially in cases where most of the logic is same and you just need to include a new installer with an upcoming release. ### 7. Best tools for Microsoft products packaging and delivery **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** RAJAVEL U. | Technical Lead, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 19, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** Custom script and custom execution sequence and way we handle uninstall is the best way **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** Hard to debug and analyze why new introduced module package is little bit difficult ,, IIS UI configuration is little bit annoying **Recommendations to others considering InstallShield:** Only best options available in the market with ZERO quality competitor **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** Aligning every productizing version, handling multiple version and their upgrades ### 8. I have worked in application packaging for a Japanese product **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohan Sundar . | Project Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 11, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** Easy to use,better than compeititors in market, Can be easy to use for complex products requiring huge packaging, workflows can be configued using releaseflags. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** Documentation to be improved,customization could be difficult sometime, Apllication debugging is difficult, IDE can be improved like other IDE's ( Visual studio etc ), has to be in standard of other IDE's, Custom actions are little complex **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** Application packaging where dlls can be used in case some functionaliies cant be supported by Install Shield. Customers are happy with Install shield based packaging ### 9. It is the best of all available in the market for packaging and delivering monolithic application. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 07, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** I worked for more than two years in InstallShield 2018. I feel it is the best among all available in the market for packaging and delivering the monolithic application. APIs are user-friendly and feature-oriented. Importing third party dll is much easy, compare to other tool. (I used c++ dlls and multiple batch files). There support desk is good. **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** Some improvement can be done on the scripting part. I remember when I was using it "Double" and "int" were doing the same job. Documentation of the available API is required. **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were packaging software with all necessary 3rd party dlls and 3rd party software. ### 10. Best packaging tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sumit M. | Senior Full Stack Devops Tools Architect, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 08, 2021 **What do you like best about InstallShield?** User Experience and API, Rollback, Registry and File Redirection **What do you dislike about InstallShield?** We encountered lots of BSOD issues while we were using Installshield in NVIDIA for graphic drivers **Recommendations to others considering InstallShield:** It's an excllent packaging tool for any sort of it industry **What problems is InstallShield solving and how is that benefiting you?** 64 bit Migration Unicode Migration Display and Graphic Driver Installers Developing Installers for Printer Fleet Management and Others ## InstallShield Discussions - [What is InstallShield used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-installshield-used-for) - 1 comment - [View InstallShield pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/installshield/reviews/installshield-review-4843252?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-12+13%3A30%3A20+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=7a09d306-4ca3-42a2-921b-dc7f6f04b59f&secure%5Btoken%5D=6defa7b84bf2d131e22d109bf3fb6a00ff9756f50f0cc01c11315036ec136b7d&format=llm_user) ## InstallShield Features **Functionality** - Package Management - Integration - Code Analysis - Vulnerability Checks **Management** - Package Access Control - Package Tracking - Automation - Rollback ## Top InstallShield Alternatives - [Harness Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/harness-platform/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (277 reviews) - [UserVoice](https://www.g2.com/products/uservoice/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (232 reviews) - [npm](https://www.g2.com/products/npm/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (81 reviews)