Comparison of file comparison tools
This article compares computer software tools that compare files, and in many cases directories or folders, whether it is their main purpose or as part of more general file management.
General
[edit]Basic general information about file comparison software. This section provides an overview of the fundamental characteristics and platform availability of various file comparison tools. The information is split into two tables for better readability: basic software information and platform support details.
Basic Information
[edit]The following table presents core information about each file comparison tool, including the developer, licensing model, initial release date, and the most recent stable version. This allows for quick comparison of the maturity, availability, and licensing constraints of each tool.
| Name | Creator | FOSS | Free | First public release date | Year of latest stable version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Compare | Scooter Software[1] | No; Proprietary | No | 1996 | 2025-12-18 (v5.1.7) |
| Compare++ | Coode Software[2] | No; Proprietary | No | 2010 | 2016-7-17 (3.0.1.0b) |
| diff, diff3 | AT&T | Yes; BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, CDDL, GPL, Proprietary | Yes | 1974 | |
| Eclipse (compare) | Yes; Eclipse Public License | Yes | 2004-07-21 | 2016-09-28 (4.6.1 (Neon.1)) | |
| Ediff | Michael Kifer[3] | Yes; GPL | Yes | 1994 | 2.81.4 |
| ExamDiff Pro | PrestoSoft[4] | No; Proprietary | No | 1998 | 2025-10-01 (Build 16.0.1.10) |
| Far Manager (compare) | Eugene Roshal (original); FAR Group | Yes; Revised BSD license | Yes | 1996 | 2022-02-02 (v3.0 build 5959) |
| fc | Microsoft[5] | No; Proprietary | Yes; Part of OS | 1987 | |
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Apple Inc. | No; Proprietary | Yes; (part of Apple Developer Tools) | 1993 (part of NEXTSTEP 3.2[6]) | 2014 (v2.8) |
| FreeFileSync[data missing] | Zenju | Yes; GPLv3 | Yes | 2008 | 2023-10-23 (v13.2) |
| Guiffy SureMerge | Guiffy Software[7] | No; Proprietary | No | 2000 | 2025-05-06 (v12.4) |
| IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | JetBrains[8] | No; Proprietary | No | 2001 | 2019-08-20 (2019.2.1) |
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Various[9] | Yes; GPL | Yes | 1998 | 2020-09-03 (5.6.0) |
| Lazarus Diff | Lazarus (software) | Yes; GPL | Yes | 2000 | 2020-07-11 (2.0.10) |
| Meld | Stephen Kennedy[10] | Yes; GPLv2+ | Yes | 2002 | 2024-03-24 (3.22.2) |
| Notepad++ (compare) | Various | Yes; GPLv3 | Yes | 2009 | 2015-01-06 (1.5.6.6) |
| Perforce P4Merge | Perforce | No; Proprietary | Yes | 2019 (2019.1/1815056) | |
| Pretty Diff | Austin Cheney[11] | Yes; MIT-compatible | Yes | 2009 | 2019-09-02 (101.2.6) |
| RCompare | AECS4U[12] | Yes; MIT / Apache 2.0 | Yes | 2025 | 2025-01-26 (v0.1.0) |
| Tkdiff | Tkdiff[13] | Yes; GPLv2+ | Yes | 2003 (or before) | 2021-03-24 (v5.2.1) |
| Total Commander (compare) | Christian Ghisler[14] | No; Proprietary | No | 2020-03-25 (v9.51) | |
| twdiff (TextWrangler Diff Helper)[data missing] | Bare Bones Software, Inc.[15] | No; Proprietary | Yes; with TextWrangler | 2012 (1.0 (v22)) | |
| vimdiff | Bram Moolenaar et al. | Yes; GPL-compatible[16] | Yes | 2001 | 2016-10-03 (v8.0.0022) |
| WinDiff | Microsoft[17] | No; Proprietary | Yes; Part of Platform SDK | 1992 | 2010-05-14 (v6.1.7716.0) |
| WinMerge | Dean Grimm[18] | Yes; GPL | Yes | 1998 | 2025-04-27 (v2.16.48)[19] |
| KDiff3[data missing] (part of KDE SDK,[20] as well as a plug-in to KDE Dolphin file manager)[21][22] | Joachim Eibl and KDE SDK KDiff3 Team[23] | Yes GPL v2 | Yes | <2004 (v0.9.86) | 2023-01-13 (v1.10) |
| Name | Creator | FOSS | Free | First public release date | Year of latest stable version |
Platform Support
[edit]This table details the operating system compatibility and file size limitations for each comparison tool. Cross-platform availability is particularly important for teams working in heterogeneous computing environments. The maximum supported file size can be a critical factor when comparing large datasets, disk images, or media files.
| Name | Windows | Macintosh | Linux | Other platforms | Max supported file size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | > 2GB (64 bits) | |
| Compare++ | Yes[24] | No | No | ||
| diff, diff3 | No | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | ported to most platforms as part of SCCS | > 2GB but less than 64 bits |
| Eclipse (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | |
| Ediff | Yes[a] | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | Anything with Emacs and diff | |
| ExamDiff Pro | Yes (WinXP and up) | Yes (in Wine) | Yes (in Wine) | ||
| Far Manager (compare) | Yes | No | No | There's a beta-version of far2l,[25] a Linux fork of FAR Manager v2 which also works on OSX/MacOS and BSD. | |
| fc | Yes (DOS) | No | No | ||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | No | Yes (Mac OS X) | No | ||
| FreeFileSync[data missing] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | > 2GB |
| IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | |
| Lazarus Diff | Yes | Yes | Yes | FreeBSD | |
| Meld | Yes[26] | Yes | Yes | BSD, Solaris | |
| Notepad++ (compare) | Yes[27] | No | No | ||
| Perforce P4Merge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sun Solaris | |
| Pretty Diff | Yes (Web) | Yes (Web) | Yes (Web) | Node.js | |
| RCompare | Yes | Yes | Yes | > 2GB (64 bits) | |
| Tkdiff | Yes (Tcl) | Yes (Tcl) | Yes (Tcl) | Anything with Tcl | |
| Total Commander (compare) | Yes | No | No | ||
| twdiff (TextWrangler Diff Helper)[data missing] | No | Yes | No | No | |
| vimdiff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with vim | |
| WinDiff | Yes | No | No | No | |
| WinMerge | Yes (Win95 and up) | Yes (in wine[28]) | Yes (in wine[28]) | 2 GB | |
| KDiff3[data missing] (part of KDE SDK,[29] as well as a plug-in to KDE Dolphin file manager)[30][31] | Yes as part of KDevelop KDE SDK download site or from Windows store or KDE download site (most recent version) as separate application. | Yes Can be downloaded from KDE SDK download site or as separate stand-alone application from KDE download site | Yes Install from your Linux distribution repositories, or as AppStream, from [1], or as GIT project KDE Gitlab[32] or from/on [2].[33] | Any other Unix with KDE/KF5, Qt5 and CMake, e.g. FreeBSD[34] & NetBSD[35] | ? |
| Name | Windows | Macintosh | Linux | Other platforms | Max supported file size |
The landscape of file comparison tools ranges from legacy command-line utilities like diff (1974) to modern cross-platform applications with graphical interfaces. Open-source solutions such as Meld, WinMerge, and RCompare provide viable alternatives to commercial offerings like Beyond Compare and ExamDiff Pro. Cross-platform support has become increasingly common, with many tools now available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, though some platform-specific tools like FileMerge and fc remain tied to their respective ecosystems.
Compare features
[edit]This section examines the core comparison capabilities offered by each tool. These features determine how effectively the software can identify, display, and help resolve differences between files and directories.
| Name | Show in-line changes |
Directory comparison | Binary
comparison |
Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison[b] | Manual compare alignment | Image
compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Files and Folders) | Yes (Pro only) | Yes | Yes | |
| Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (C/C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, CSS3) | ||||
| diff | No | Yes | Partial | No | No | No | |||
| diff3 | No | No | Yes (non-optional) | ||||||
| Eclipse (compare) | Yes | No (only ancestor) | Yes | No | |||||
| Ediff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
| ExamDiff Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[36] | Yes (ExamDiff Pro Master only)[37] | Yes | manual synchronization | ||
| Far Manager (compare) | Yes (Via plugin)[38] | Yes | Yes | Yes (Via plugin)[38] | No | No | |||
| fc | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (optional ancestor) | Yes | ||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | No | Yes | ||||||
| Lazarus Diff | |||||||||
| Meld | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | line alignment, unlink scroll | ||
| Notepad++ (compare) | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ||
| Perforce P4Merge | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Pretty Diff | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
| RCompare | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Tkdiff | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| Total Commander (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | resync comparison | No |
| vimdiff | Yes | Yes (via DirDiff plugin) | Yes | Yes | |||||
| WinDiff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | |||
| WinMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (via Options) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Name | Show in-line changes |
Directory comparison | Binary
comparison |
Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison[b] | Manual compare alignment | Image
compare |
The comparison feature set varies significantly across tools. Directory comparison and in-line change visualization are nearly universal among modern tools, while advanced features like three-way comparison, merge capabilities, and image comparison are primarily found in full-featured applications such as Beyond Compare, WinMerge, and IntelliJ IDEA. Basic command-line tools like diff and diff3 focus on text comparison fundamentals, while specialized tools offer structured comparison for programming languages and binary file formats.
API / editor features
[edit]This section covers the user interface options, scripting capabilities, and presentation features available in each tool. These characteristics determine how users can interact with the software and integrate it into automated workflows.
| Name | GUI | CLI | Scripting | Horizontal / vertical | Syntax highlighting | Reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | XML, HTML, CSV, Text, Unix Patch |
| Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | HTML, Text(combined or side-by-side) | |
| diff | No | Yes | Horizontal | Yes pipe to diff-highlight[39] | ||
| diff3 | No | Yes | Horizontal | |||
| Eclipse (compare) | Yes | Vertical | Yes | |||
| Ediff | Yes | Yes | elisp | Both | Yes | |
| ExamDiff Pro | Yes | Yes | optional | Yes | UNIX, HTML, Diff | |
| Far Manager (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| fc | No | Yes | Horizontal | |||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Yes | Yes | Vertical | Yes | No | |
| Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Java API | Both | Yes | HTML, Text, Unix Patch |
| IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Yes | Vertical | Yes | ||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | Both | Yes | |||
| Lazarus Diff | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Meld | Yes | No | Yes | No | ||
| Notepad++ (compare) | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | No | |
| Perforce P4Merge | Yes | Yes | Vertical | Yes | No | |
| Pretty Diff | Yes | Yes | JavaScript | Both | Yes | XHTML |
| RCompare | Yes | Yes | No | Both | Yes | JSON |
| Tkdiff | Yes | |||||
| Total Commander (compare) | Yes | Both | No | No | ||
| vimdiff | Yes | Yes | vim script | Both | Yes | HTML |
| WinDiff | Yes | Yes | Horizontal | No | Text | |
| WinMerge | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | CSV, Tab-delimited, HTML, XML | |
| Name | GUI | CLI | Scripting | Horizontal / vertical | Syntax highlighting | Reports |
Most modern comparison tools provide both GUI and CLI interfaces, enabling use in both interactive and automated scenarios. Syntax highlighting is widely supported across graphical tools, enhancing readability when comparing source code. Report generation capabilities vary considerably, with commercial tools like Beyond Compare and ExamDiff Pro offering multiple export formats (XML, HTML, CSV), while simpler tools provide basic text output or Unix patch format. Scripting support, where available, typically uses the platform's native scripting language (e.g., Elisp for Ediff, JavaScript for Pretty Diff, Java API for Guiffy).
Other features
[edit]This section catalogs additional specialized features that extend beyond basic comparison functionality. These capabilities often distinguish professional-grade tools from basic utilities, particularly in areas such as archive handling, remote file access, version control integration, and specialized file format support.
Some other features which did not fit in previous table
| Name | ZIP support | FTP support | SFTP support | Version control browsing | Patch creation | Patch application | Patch preview | Unicode support | XML-aware |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | SVN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Compare++ | SVN, CVS, Git, Microsoft TFS, Perforce, VSS using command line | Yes | |||||||
| diff | No | No | No | Yes | Yes with patch | Yes with patch | No | No | |
| diff3 | No | No | No | ||||||
| Eclipse (compare) | Yes CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Baazar | Yes | |||||||
| Ediff | Yes | Yes | RCS, CVS, SVN, Mercurial, git (anything supported by Emacs' VC-mode)[40] | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| ExamDiff Pro | Yes[41] | Yes[42] | normal diff only | Yes | |||||
| Far Manager (compare) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
| fc | No | No | No | ||||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | No | supported by OS | No | No | No | ||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[c] | ||||
| IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lazarus Diff | |||||||||
| Meld | CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Baazar | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | No | Yes[43] | Git, Subversion (compare against base) | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
| Perforce P4Merge | No | Yes | |||||||
| Pretty Diff | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| RCompare | ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ, TGZ, 7Z | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Tkdiff | No | No | CVS, RCS, Subversion | No | No | No | No | No | |
| Total Commander (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| vimdiff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
| WinDiff | No | No | No | No | |||||
| WinMerge | Yes | No | Mercurial,[44] Subversion,[45] Visual Source Safe, Rational ClearCase[46] | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Name | ZIP support | FTP support | SFTP support | Version control browsing | Patch creation | Patch application | Patch preview | Unicode support | XML-aware |
Integration with version control systems is a key differentiator among file comparison tools, with many supporting Subversion, Git, Mercurial, and CVS. Archive support varies widely: Beyond Compare, RCompare, and several other tools can compare compressed archives directly without extraction, while basic utilities typically lack this capability. Remote file system access (FTP, SFTP) is primarily found in commercial tools and full-featured applications. Unicode support has become standard in modern tools, though legacy utilities like WinDiff and basic diff lack comprehensive character encoding support. Patch creation and application capabilities are common among developer-oriented tools, supporting workflows based on the traditional Unix diff/patch model.
Aspects
[edit]This section examines the specific file and directory attributes that each tool can compare. Beyond simple content comparison, these criteria enable more nuanced analysis of file differences, particularly important when synchronizing files across different file systems, time zones, or platforms.
What aspects can be / are compared?
| Name | Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| diff | Yes | No | No | No | Optional |
| diff3 | |||||
| Eclipse (compare) | |||||
| Ediff | |||||
| ExamDiff Pro | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Far Manager (compare) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| fc | No | Optional | |||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | No | No | No | Optional | |
| Guiffy SureMerge | filesystem dependent | Yes | Yes | ||
| IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | |||||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | |||||
| Lazarus Diff | |||||
| Meld | |||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Perforce P4Merge | N/a | No | No | No | Yes |
| Pretty Diff | N/a | No | No | No | Optional |
| RCompare | Yes | BLAKE3 | Yes | No | Optional |
| Tkdiff | |||||
| Total Commander (compare) | Optional | Yes (in synchronize only) | Optional | ||
| vimdiff | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| WinDiff | No | No | when different | Yes | Optional |
| WinMerge | No | No | Optional | Optional | |
| Name | Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing |
Comparison granularity varies significantly across tools. Checksum-based comparison using CRC or cryptographic hashes (such as BLAKE3 in RCompare) provides reliable content verification independent of timestamps, though not all tools support this feature. File modification date comparison is widely available but can be problematic when files are transferred across time zones or between different file systems. Advanced tools like Beyond Compare, ExamDiff Pro, and Compare++ offer daylight saving time compensation to handle timestamp discrepancies caused by DST transitions. Character casing options allow tools to perform case-insensitive comparisons, useful when comparing files from case-sensitive and case-insensitive file systems or when case differences are not semantically significant.
Time zone effects
[edit]When files are transferred across time zones and between Microsoft FAT and NTFS file systems, the timestamp displayed by the same file may change, so that identical files with different storage histories are deemed different by a comparer that requires the timestamps to match. The difference is an exact number of quarters of an hour up to 95 (same minutes modulo 15 and seconds) if the file was transported across zones; there is also a one-hour difference within a single zone caused by the transition between standard time and daylight saving time (DST). Some, but not all, file comparison and synchronisation software can be configured to ignore the DST and time-zone differences.[d] Software known to have daylight-saving compensation is marked in the Aspects table.
See also
[edit]- File comparison
- File synchronization
- Comparison of file synchronization software
- List of disk cloning software
- Comparison of disk cloning software
- Comparison of hex editors
Notes
[edit]- ^ Ediff requires a diff utility to function. As of December 2017, diff is not bundled with Emacs or Windows, so use of Ediff in a Windows environment requires installation of both Emacs and a diff implementation like GNU diff.
- ^ a b Compare logical sections (class, methods).
- ^ UTF8, UTF16, MBCS, SJIS, over 150 file encoding and character set formats.
- ^ Example: "Beyond Compare" help describes a user setting "timezone differences - ignores timestamp differences that are multiples of an exact hour."
References
[edit]- ^ Scooter Software
- ^ "Coode Software". Archived from the original on 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
- ^ Michael Kifer
- ^ PrestoSoft
- ^ Microsoft
- ^ NeXT Product Marketing (Fall 1993). "What's New in Release 3.2?". NEXTSTEP in Focus. 3 (4). NeXT Computer, Inc. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
- ^ Guiffy Software
- ^ JetBrains
- ^ jedit.org
- ^ Stephen Kennedy
- ^ Pretty Diff
- ^ RCompare
- ^ tkdiff
- ^ Christian Ghisler
- ^ Bare Bones Software, Inc.
- ^ vim license
- ^ Microsoft
- ^ Dean Grimm
- ^ "Release v2.16.42.1 * WinMerge/Winmerge". GitHub.
- ^ "KDE SDK Project Page". KDE Invent: KDE SDK. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "KDiff3". KDE Applications. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "The KDiff3 Handbook". docs.kde.org. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "KDE KDiff3". Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ Compare++ Operating system information
- ^ "Far2l". GitHub. 26 July 2022.
- ^ Meld/Windows
- ^ Notepad++ compare plugin
- ^ a b WinMerge in Wine
- ^ "KDE SDK Project Page". KDE Invent: KDE SDK. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "KDiff3". KDE Applications. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "The KDiff3 Handbook". docs.kde.org. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "KDevelop / KDevelop * GitLab (full KDevelop project)". GitLab. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "Using KDiff3 as a Git Diff and Merging Tool". docs.kde.org. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "FreeBSD/Setup/Ports - KDE Community Wiki". community.kde.org. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ "pkgsrc.se | The NetBSD package collection". pkgsrc.se. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ^ Examdiff
- ^ Examdiff
- ^ a b Visual Compare
- ^ "Git/Contrib/Diff-highlight at master * git/Git". GitHub.
- ^ gnu.org Support-for-Version-Control
- ^ through a plug-in
- ^ through a plug-in
- ^ Notepad++ FTP plugin
- ^ "tortoisehg / stable / wiki / FAQ --". Bitbucket.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ "Using WinMerge with other tools - WinMerge 2.12 Manual". Winmerge.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-10. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ "About". WinMerge. Archived from the original on 2010-07-03. Retrieved 2010-07-06.