Side by side

CDEmu vs RaiDrive

Both stand on virtual drive software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

CDEmu

Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted

CDEmu provides Linux optical-drive emulation, image mounting and device-management clients at no charge. Check the bus permissions for your setup, and note that recording emulation is experimental.

Visit CDEmu

RaiDrive provides drive access to a wide list of storage services, with video streaming and plan-dependent controls. The free Standard plan has 8 Drives and advertisements; listed paid monthly prices are tied to a 3-year commitment.

Visit RaiDrive

The facts

	CDEmu	RaiDrive
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	No
Runs on	Linux, Self-hosted	Linux, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	See the plans
Plans published	1	8
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	cdemu.sourceforge.io	raidrive.com
On virtual drive software	#6 of 24	#10 of 24

CDEmu: what it does well

Free software under GNU GPL version 2 or later.
Supports a broad range of optical image formats.
Emulated media can be mounted with automounting.
Offers both command-line and GTK clients.
Experimental CD-R and DVD+R recording emulation.

What to know first

Third-party distribution packages are not verified by maintainers.
System-bus use requires special permissions.
Session-bus use needs access to the VHBA control device.

RaiDrive: what it does well

Mounts cloud storage as a computer drive
Streams cloud videos without downloading the whole file
Lists connections to cloud, WebDAV, SFTP, and FTP services
Paid plans include unlimited drives and license sharing

What to know first

Standard free plan is limited to 8 Drives
Standard includes advertisements
Standard writable services are limited to those listed
Paid monthly prices shown require a 3-year commitment

Alternatives to CDEmu Alternatives to RaiDrive The whole list