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.
Name Creator FOSS Free First public release date Year of latest stable version Windows Macintosh Linux Other platforms Max supported file size Beyond Compare Scooter SoftwareScooter Software ; Proprietary 1996 2026-09-24 (v5.2.6) > 2GB (64 bits) Compare++ Coode Software ; Proprietary 2010 2016-7-17 (3.0.1.0b) Compare++ Operating system information diff, diff3 AT&T ; BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, CDDL, GPL, Proprietary 1974 (Mac OS X) ported to most platforms as part of SCCS > 2GB but less than 64 bits Eclipse (compare) ; Eclipse Public License 2004-07-21 2016-09-28 (4.6.1 (Neon.1)) Anything with Java Ediff Michael KiferMichael Kifer ; GPL 1994 2.81.4 (Mac OS X) Anything with Emacs and diff ExamDiff Pro PrestoSoftPrestoSoft ; Proprietary 1998 2026-05-25 (Build 17.0.1.0) (WinXP and up) (in Wine) (in Wine) Far Manager (compare) Eugene Roshal (original); FAR Group ; Revised BSD license 1996 2022-02-02 (v3.0 build 5959) There's a beta-version of far2l, a Linux fork of FAR Manager v2 which also works on OSX/MacOS and BSD. fc MicrosoftMicrosoft ; Proprietary ; Part of OS 1987 (DOS) FileMerge (aka opendiff) Apple Inc. ; Proprietary ; (part of Apple Developer Tools) 1993 (part of NEXTSTEP 3.2) 2014 (v2.8) (Mac OS X) FreeFileSync Zenju ; GPLv3 2008 2023-10-23 (v13.2) IntelliJ IDEA (compare) JetBrainsJetBrains ; Proprietary 2001 2019-08-20 (2019.2.1) jEdit JDiff plugin Variousjedit.org ; GPL 1998 2020-09-03 (5.6.0) Anything with Java Lazarus Diff Lazarus (software) ; GPL 2000 2020-07-11 (2.0.10) FreeBSD Meld Stephen KennedyStephen Kennedy ; GPLv2+ 2002 2024-03-24 (3.22.2) Meld/Windows BSD, Solaris Notepad++ (compare) Various ; GPLv3 2009 2015-01-06 (1.5.6.6) Notepad++ compare plugin Perforce P4Merge Perforce ; Proprietary 2019 (2019.1/1815056) Sun Solaris Pretty Diff Austin CheneyPretty Diff ; MIT-compatible 2009 2019-09-02 (101.2.6) (Web) (Web) (Web) Node.js Tkdiff Tkdifftkdiff ; GPLv2+ 2003 (or before) 2021-03-24 (v5.2.1) (Tcl) (Tcl) (Tcl) Anything with Tcl Total Commander (compare) Christian GhislerChristian Ghisler ; Proprietary 2020-03-25 (v9.51) twdiff (TextWrangler Diff Helper) Bare Bones Software, Inc.Bare Bones Software, Inc. ; Proprietary ; with TextWrangler 2012 (1.0 (v22)) vimdiff Bram Moolenaar et al. ; GPL-compatiblevim license 2001 2016-10-03 (v8.0.0022) Anything with vim WinDiff MicrosoftMicrosoft ; Proprietary ; Part of Platform SDK 1992 2010-05-14 (v6.1.7716.0) WinMerge Dean GrimmDean Grimm ; GPL 1998 2026-04-27 (v2.16.56) (Win95 and up) (in wineWinMerge in Wine) (in wine) 2 GB KDiff3 (part of KDE SDK, as well as a plug-in to KDE Dolphin file manager) Joachim Eibl and KDE SDK KDiff3 Team GPL v2 <2004 (v0.9.86) 2023-01-13 (v1.10) as part of KDevelop KDE SDK download site or from Windows store or KDE download site (most recent version) as separate application. Can be downloaded from KDE SDK download site or as separate stand-alone application from KDE download site Install from your Linux distribution repositories, or as AppStream, from , or as GIT project KDE Gitlab or from/on . Any other Unix with KDE/KF5, Qt5 and CMake, e.g. FreeBSD & NetBSD ? Name Creator FOSS Free First public release date Year of latest stable version Windows Macintosh Linux Other platforms Max supported file size
Compare features
Name Showin-linechanges Directory comparison Moved lines 3-way comparison Merge Structured comparison Manual compare alignment Beyond Compare (Files and Folders) (Pro only) Compare++ (C/C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, CSS3) diff diff3 (non-optional) Eclipse (compare) (only ancestor) Ediff ExamDiff Pro Examdiff (ExamDiff Pro Master only)Examdiff Far Manager (compare) (Via plugin)Visual Compare (Via plugin) fc FileMerge (aka opendiff) (optional ancestor) IntelliJ IDEA (compare) jEdit JDiff plugin Lazarus Diff Meld Notepad++ (compare) Perforce P4Merge Pretty Diff Tkdiff Total Commander (compare) vimdiff (via DirDiff plugin) WinDiff WinMerge (via Options) Name Showin-linechanges Directory comparison Moved lines 3-way comparison Merge Structured comparison Manual compare alignment
API / editor features Name GUI CLI Scripting Horizontal / vertical Syntax highlighting Reports Beyond Compare Compare++ diff pipe to diff-highlight diff3 Eclipse (compare) Ediff ExamDiff Pro optional Far Manager (compare) fc FileMerge (aka opendiff) IntelliJ IDEA (compare) jEdit JDiff plugin Lazarus Diff Meld Notepad++ (compare) Perforce P4Merge Pretty Diff Tkdiff Total Commander (compare) vimdiff WinDiff WinMerge Name GUI CLI Scripting Horizontal / vertical Syntax highlighting Reports
Other features 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 (compare) CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Baazar Ediff gnu.org Support-for-Version-Control ExamDiff Pro through a plug-in through a plug-in Far Manager (compare) fc FileMerge (aka opendiff) IntelliJ IDEA (compare) jEdit JDiff plugin Lazarus Diff Meld Notepad++ (compare) Perforce P4Merge Pretty Diff Tkdiff Total Commander (compare) vimdiff WinDiff WinMerge Name ZIP support FTP support SFTP support Version control browsing Patch creation Patch application Patch preview Unicode support XML-aware
Aspects What aspects can be / are compared? Name Filename casing CRC Filedate Daylight saving Character casing Beyond Compare Compare++ diff diff3 Eclipse (compare) Ediff ExamDiff Pro Far Manager (compare) fc FileMerge (aka opendiff) IntelliJ IDEA (compare) jEdit JDiff plugin Lazarus Diff Meld Notepad++ (compare) Perforce P4Merge Pretty Diff Tkdiff Total Commander (compare) (in synchronize only) vimdiff WinDiff WinMerge Name Filename casing CRC Filedate Daylight saving Character casing
Time zone effects 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. Software known to have daylight-saving compensation is marked in the Aspects table.
See also File comparison File synchronization Comparison of file synchronization software List of disk cloning software Comparison of disk cloning software Comparison of hex editors
Notes
References