Weighing a CrossOver alternative? CrossOver is excellent, mature software with a subscription-shaped price. This is the honest comparison — including the cases where we'd still tell you to buy CrossOver.
Credit where it's due first. CodeWeavers has employed Wine developers for over two decades and pushes their work upstream. If you've ever run a Windows app on Linux or a Mac, you've benefited from CrossOver whether you paid for it or not.
Bourbon uses CrossOver source Wine itself, open source builds via cxbuilder, as its second runtime for fragile 32 bit tools. So this isn't a comparison where we pretend the other product is bad.
The pricing difference
CrossOver is $74 a year, or $494 for a lifetime license. Bourbon 26 is $29.99 once. That's the headline, and for most individuals it's the deciding factor.
Here's the nuance though. A CrossOver subscription buys a year of updates, and their support is real. You can file a bug about a specific application and an actual human who works on Wine might look at it. If your livelihood depends on one Windows app behaving, that's worth money.
| CrossOver | Bourbon 26 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $74/yr, $494 lifetime | $29.99 once |
| Renewals | Yearly for updates | None |
| Platforms | macOS, Linux, ChromeOS | macOS on Apple Silicon |
| Installs Steam for you | No | Yes |
| Commercial support | Yes | Discord community |
| Console and PC streaming | No | Chiaki and Moonlight |
| Routes native Mac games to Mac Steam | No | Yes |
| Upstream Wine contribution | Substantial | Uses it |
Pricing checked June 2026 at codeweavers.com.
The scope difference
CrossOver is a general purpose Windows compatibility product across three operating systems, with a big tested application database covering productivity software and commercial support behind it.
Bourbon is narrower on purpose. Apple Silicon Macs, gaming as the center of gravity. That focus buys things a general tool doesn't do, like Steam installed and shimmed during setup, per game runtime presets, a games compatibility database, and console and PC streaming through Chiaki and Moonlight in the same app.
It also means Bourbon does less. No Linux version, no support contract, no staff engineer to escalate your specific app to.
Which one should you buy
Go CrossOver if you're running Linux or ChromeOS as well as a Mac, or you need a support contract with a name on it. Those are real reasons and we won't pretend otherwise.
Go Bourbon 26 if you're on an Apple Silicon Mac. Same Wine foundation underneath, plus Steam installed and shimmed for you, five renderers assigned per game, native Mac titles routed to the real Mac Steam client, and streaming built in for anything translation can't touch. CrossOver does the translation part and stops. One payment against $74 every year.
Bottom line
CrossOver is broader across operating systems and comes with paid support. On a Mac, though, Bourbon covers more of what you'll actually hit: translated games, native Mac games and streamed games, all in one app, for $29.99 once instead of $74 a year. Unless you need Linux or a support contract, it's the easier answer.
Buy Bourbon 26, $29.99