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
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
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 | ; Proprietary | 1996 | 2025-12-18 | |
| Compare++ | Coode Software | ; Proprietary | 2010 | 2016-7-17 | |
| diff, diff3 | AT&T | ; BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, CDDL, GPL, Proprietary | 1974 | ||
| Eclipse | ; Eclipse Public License | 2004-07-21 | 2016-09-28 | ||
| Ediff | Michael Kifer | ; GPL | 1994 | 2.81.4 | |
| ExamDiff Pro | PrestoSoft | ; Proprietary | 1998 | 2025-10-01 | |
| Far Manager | Eugene Roshal ; FAR Group | ; Revised BSD license | 1996 | 2022-02-02 | |
| fc | Microsoft | ; Proprietary | ; Part of OS | 1987 | |
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Apple Inc. | ; Proprietary | ; | 1993 | 2014 |
| FreeFileSync | Zenju | ; GPLv3 | 2008 | 2023-10-23 | |
| Guiffy SureMerge | Guiffy Software | ; Proprietary | 2000 | 2025-05-06 | |
| IntelliJ IDEA | JetBrains | ; Proprietary | 2001 | 2019-08-20 | |
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Various | ; GPL | 1998 | 2020-09-03 | |
| Lazarus Diff | Lazarus (software) | ; GPL | 2000 | 2020-07-11 | |
| Meld | Stephen Kennedy | ; GPLv2+ | 2002 | 2024-03-24 | |
| Notepad++ (compare) | Various | ; GPLv3 | 2009 | 2015-01-06 | |
| Perforce P4Merge | Perforce | ; Proprietary | 2019 | ||
| Pretty Diff | Austin Cheney | ; MIT-compatible | 2009 | 2019-09-02 | |
| RCompare | AECS4U | ; MIT / Apache 2.0 | 2025 | 2025-01-26 | |
| Tkdiff | Tkdiff | ; GPLv2+ | 2003 | 2021-03-24 | |
| Total Commander | Christian Ghisler | ; Proprietary | 2020-03-25 | ||
| twdiff | Bare Bones Software, Inc. | ; Proprietary | ; with TextWrangler | 2012 | |
| vimdiff | Bram Moolenaar et al. | ; GPL-compatible | 2001 | 2016-10-03 | |
| WinDiff | Microsoft | ; Proprietary | ; Part of Platform SDK | 1992 | 2010-05-14 |
| WinMerge | Dean Grimm | ; GPL | 1998 | 2025-04-27 | |
| KDiff3 | Joachim Eibl and KDE SDK KDiff3 Team | GPL v2 | <2004 | 2023-01-13 | |
| Name | Creator | FOSS | Free | First public release date | Year of latest stable version |
Platform Support
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 | > 2GB | ||||
| Compare++ | |||||
| diff, diff3 | ported to most platforms as part of SCCS | > 2GB but less than 64 bits | |||
| Eclipse | Anything with Java | ||||
| Ediff | Anything with Emacs and diff | ||||
| ExamDiff Pro | |||||
| Far Manager | There's a beta-version of far2l, a Linux fork of FAR Manager v2 which also works on OSX/MacOS and BSD. | ||||
| fc | |||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | |||||
| FreeFileSync | |||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | Anything with Java | > 2GB | |||
| IntelliJ IDEA | |||||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | Anything with Java | ||||
| Lazarus Diff | FreeBSD | ||||
| Meld | BSD, Solaris | ||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | |||||
| Perforce P4Merge | Sun Solaris | ||||
| Pretty Diff | Node.js | ||||
| RCompare | > 2GB | ||||
| Tkdiff | Anything with Tcl | ||||
| Total Commander | |||||
| twdiff | |||||
| vimdiff | Anything with vim | ||||
| WinDiff | |||||
| WinMerge | 2 GB | ||||
| KDiff3 | as part of KDevelop or from or site as separate application. | Can be downloaded from or as separate stand-alone application from | FlatHub], or as GIT project or from/on . | Any other Unix with KDE/KF5, Qt5 and CMake, e.g. FreeBSD & NetBSD | ? |
| Name | Windows | Macintosh | Linux | Other platforms | Max supported file size |
The landscape of file comparison tools ranges from legacy command-line utilities like diff 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
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 | Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison | Manual compare alignment | ||
| Beyond Compare | |||||||||
| Compare++ | |||||||||
| diff | |||||||||
| diff3 | |||||||||
| Eclipse | |||||||||
| Ediff | |||||||||
| ExamDiff Pro | |||||||||
| Far Manager | |||||||||
| fc | |||||||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | |||||||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | |||||||||
| IntelliJ IDEA | |||||||||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | |||||||||
| Lazarus Diff | |||||||||
| Meld | |||||||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | - | ||||||||
| Perforce P4Merge | |||||||||
| Pretty Diff | |||||||||
| RCompare | |||||||||
| Tkdiff | |||||||||
| Total Commander | |||||||||
| vimdiff | |||||||||
| WinDiff | |||||||||
| WinMerge | |||||||||
| Name | Show in-line changes | Directory comparison | Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison | Manual compare alignment |
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
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 | ||||||
| Compare++ | ||||||
| diff | pipe to diff-highlight | |||||
| diff3 | ||||||
| Eclipse | ||||||
| Ediff | ||||||
| ExamDiff Pro | optional | |||||
| Far Manager | ||||||
| fc | ||||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | ||||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | ||||||
| IntelliJ IDEA | ||||||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | ||||||
| Lazarus Diff | ||||||
| Meld | ||||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | ||||||
| Perforce P4Merge | ||||||
| Pretty Diff | ||||||
| RCompare | ||||||
| Tkdiff | ||||||
| Total Commander | ||||||
| vimdiff | ||||||
| WinDiff | ||||||
| WinMerge | ||||||
| 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, while simpler tools provide basic text output or Unix patch format. Scripting support, where available, typically uses the platform's native scripting language.
Other features
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 | |||||||||
| Compare++ | |||||||||
| diff | with patch | with patch | |||||||
| diff3 | |||||||||
| Eclipse | CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Baazar | ||||||||
| Ediff | |||||||||
| ExamDiff Pro | |||||||||
| Far Manager | |||||||||
| fc | |||||||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | |||||||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | |||||||||
| IntelliJ IDEA | |||||||||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | |||||||||
| Lazarus Diff | |||||||||
| Meld | |||||||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | |||||||||
| Perforce P4Merge | |||||||||
| Pretty Diff | |||||||||
| RCompare | |||||||||
| Tkdiff | |||||||||
| Total Commander | |||||||||
| vimdiff | |||||||||
| WinDiff | |||||||||
| WinMerge | |||||||||
| 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 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
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 | |||||
| Compare++ | |||||
| diff | |||||
| diff3 | |||||
| Eclipse | |||||
| Ediff | |||||
| ExamDiff Pro | |||||
| Far Manager | |||||
| fc | |||||
| FileMerge (aka opendiff) | |||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | |||||
| IntelliJ IDEA | |||||
| jEdit JDiff plugin | |||||
| Lazarus Diff | |||||
| Meld | |||||
| Notepad++ (compare) | |||||
| Perforce P4Merge | |||||
| Pretty Diff | |||||
| RCompare | |||||
| Tkdiff | |||||
| Total Commander | |||||
| vimdiff | |||||
| WinDiff | |||||
| WinMerge | |||||
| Name | Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing |
Comparison granularity varies significantly across tools. Checksum-based comparison using CRC or cryptographic hashes 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.