Top 8 CD Burners for You: Free & Paid, Windows & Mac
Although storing music in digital format in the cloud is convenient and hassle-free, you may still feel uneasy: what if my files are lost due to network interruptions, system failures, or improper management? After all, it's just a string of data.
At this point, you have no choice but to turn to a physical, classic music storage device—the CD. Although it is no longer as widely used as it was before the advent of digital formats, its large capacity and reliable storage still make it a preferred choice for many audiophiles as an audio storage medium. Additionally, storing music on CDs and keeping them separate means that hackers, malware, or viruses can never harm the content through the internet.
Not to mention, playing CDs on a turntable still delivers an unparalleled musical experience.
It seems you need a CD burner to accomplish the task of storing music on discs. Don't worry, we've already selected the 8 best CD writers from the market for you.
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Part 1. 8 Best CD Burners in 2025
CDBurnerXP
Supported OS: Windows
CDBurnerXP has a very simple and clean user interface. It can not only burn audio files in formats such as AAC, MP3, ALAC, FLAC, OGG, and WAV to CDs, but also supports the creation of DVDs, HD-DVDs, and even Blu-ray discs. Considering that users from all over the world will use this CD burner for PC, it also provides a multilingual interface.
Main Features
• Burn CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.
• Switch between multiple languages for the user interface.
• Create ISO discs.
• Integrated CD player for playing music.
Ashampoo Burning Studio Free
Supported OS: Windows
With a clear and simple user interface, it also offers CD encryption, allowing you to set a password for your CDs to protect your data.
Main Features
• Burn audio, video, PDF, and other files.
• Erase or format CDs for reuse.
• Create protection for discs by setting a password.
• Clone and back up discs.
• Easily edit videos to be burned, such as trimming and rotating.
Express Burn
Supported OS: Windows, Mac
Finally, there's one that supports Mac systems. The biggest feature of Express Burn is hidden in its name—extremely fast burning speed. It can burn CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs in just a few minutes.
Plus, it's a great tool for creating top-notch discs, with dozens of menu templates included. You can also use this laptop CD burner to back up the contents of discs.
Main Features
• Create professional-quality CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.
• Burn data as ISO, Hybrid, or UDF files.
• Provide dozens of disc menu templates.
Nero Burning ROM
Supported OS: Windows
Many music enthusiasts care about the cover art of their CD albums, and Nero Burning ROM can burn CDs while retaining the album cover art, song titles, and album information. This is ideal for users who want to enjoy album artwork and information on their computers or car CD players.
Another surprising feature is that this CD burning tool can also create password-protected DVDs, ISOs, and Blu-ray discs. Its usage steps are also very simple, making it ideal for beginners.
Main Features
• Burn CDs, ISO, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.
• Preserve album covers, file names, and information.
• Automatically enhance video or audio quality during the burning process.
• Protect your data security with 256-bit encryption and password protection features.
BurnAware
Supported OS: Windows
BurnAware is a free compact disc burner. Its core function is to burn CDs, but this time we want to highlight another useful feature—recovering data from unplayable discs.
It also comes with many presets. If you are a beginner, you can simply apply these presets to quickly create CDs, DVDs, or ISO files.
However, the above advanced features are only available in the paid version.
Main Features
• Burn directories, text, images, music, and videos to discs.
• Copy and back up discs.
• Recover data from unplayable discs.
• Erase discs.
Burn
Supported OS: Mac
If you are a Mac user, you should definitely try this CD burner developed specifically for Mac. It is free and not only can burn CDs, DVDs, etc., but also create interactive menus for these discs. You can choose themes from presets or design your own from scratch.
Another point worth mentioning is that Burn also allows you to convert video and audio formats and manually adjust file parameters.
Main Features
• Burn CDs, DVDs, and DivX discs.
• Create disc menus using presets.
• Convert file formats, adjust size and quality.
DeepBurner Free
Supported OS: Windows
A new concept—the portable CD burner—has emerged. DeepBurner Free is one such example. It is considered portable because it not only burns CDs on a PC but also offers a mobile app version compatible with smartphones. You can even store it on a portable hard drive or USB drive for on-the-go use. Simply plug it into any device to start using it.
Main Features
• Burn CDs, data CDs, DVDs, and bootable discs.
• Customize CD covers and inserts.
• Can be used as a mobile app or carried via a USB flash drive.
True Burner
Supported OS: Windows
Sometimes you may run out of blank CDs and have to use old discs with useless content to store new audio files. To gain more storage space, you may need to erase the existing content first—True Burner is your best assistant. It can easily erase CDs, DVDs, DD+RW, and BD-RE.
Its simple drag-and-drop interface makes it ideal for beginners. Additionally, True Burner checks the required disk space before burning to prevent insufficient space issues. After burning, you can preview the results.
Main Features
• Burn CDs, DVDs, ISO files, and Blu-ray discs.
• Erase any type of optical disc.
Part 2. Bonus: Best Audio Editor on Desktop: Vidmore Video Converter
Everyone wants the audio they burn to a CD to be as complete and perfect as possible. If your source material needs some polishing, you can edit it before starting the burning process.
We recommend using Vidmore Video Converter to enhance your audio. First, this software supports almost all popular audio formats and is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems. You will never encounter compatibility issues. Second, it offers a complete set of audio trimming and volume adjustment tools, and allows you to add fade-in or fade-out effects to your music. In its toolbox, you can even find a dedicated Noise Remover to eliminate any background noise in your audio.
Additionally, Vidmore Video Converter allows you to convert audio to more compatible formats and compress file sizes to avoid issues with files being too large to fit on a CD. From every angle, it is the perfect audio processor.
Part 3. FAQs of CD Burners
How to burn a CD?
First, you need to choose a suitable CD and DVD burner. Then, prepare your audio material. Open the burner, upload the material, select the type of CD you want to create, and set the cover or playlist. Finally, click the rip button.
Can VLC burn CDs?
Yes. Simply upload the audio files to VLC Media Player and organize the song order. Then, click the burn button in the bottom-right corner to start burning the music to a CD.
Are CD burners legal?
This depends on the purpose of the CD. If it is for personal listening or collection, there is no issue. However, if you attempt to sell CDs containing copyrighted songs, it may violate the law.
Conclusion
This article recommends 8 CD burners. Each has its own advantages and is compatible with different operating systems, but they all share the common features of fast burning, simple operation, and suitability for beginners.
If the source material you want to burn is not perfect, you can also consider using the Vidmore Video Converter recommended in this article to process the audio.
