From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] General
Basic general information about file comparison software.
|
Creator |
Software license |
Cost |
First public release date |
Latest stable version |
Windows |
Macintosh |
Linux |
| Araxis Merge |
Araxis Ltd |
Proprietary |
USD 129 (std) - 269 (pro) |
1993 |
6.5.2318 (20 December 2006) |
Yes |
No (under development) |
No |
| Beyond Compare |
Scooter Software |
Proprietary |
USD 30 |
|
2.4 (Mar 6, 2006) |
Yes (Win95 and up) |
No |
No |
| ECMerge |
Ellié Computing |
Proprietary |
from USD 12 / floating licence (ActiveX also available on demand) |
2005 |
2.0 (Nov 16, 2006) |
Yes (Win98 and up) |
No (can be done if asked) |
Yes (also Sun Solaris) |
| Compare It! |
Grig Software |
Proprietary |
USD 29 |
|
3.86 (November 25, 2005) |
Yes |
No |
No |
| diff |
Douglas McIlroy |
Free |
- |
1974 |
|
Yes |
Yes (OS X) |
Yes |
| diff3 |
|
Free |
- |
|
|
Yes |
Yes (OS X) |
Yes |
| Diff Commander |
Nikeware |
Proprietary |
USD 29 |
2005 |
2.0 (July 17, 2006) |
Yes |
No |
No |
| DiffDaff |
cyberpromote |
Freeware |
- |
|
1.0.0 (June 6, 2006) |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Eclipse Compare |
|
Free |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
| Ediff |
Michael Kifer |
GPL |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
| ExamDiff Pro |
PrestoSoft |
Proprietary |
USD 35, with a free version available (ExamDiff) |
1998 |
3.4.2 (May 26, 2006) |
Yes (Win98 and up) |
No |
No |
| fc |
Microsoft |
Proprietary |
Part of OS |
|
|
Yes (DOS) |
No |
No |
| FileMerge |
AppleComputer, Inc. |
Proprietary |
Free (part of Apple Developer Tools) |
|
2.2.1 (2005) |
No |
Yes (OS X) |
No |
| Guiffy SureMerge |
Guiffy Software |
Proprietary |
Single user USD 75 / Mutli-user USD 50 per user |
2000 |
7.4 (September 25, 2006) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| IntelliJ IDEA Compare |
JetBrains |
Proprietary |
Part of application |
|
5.1.1 (April 7, 2006) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| KDiff3 |
Joachim Eibl |
GPL |
- |
2002 |
0.9.91 (Nov 1, 2006) |
Yes |
Yes (OS X) |
Yes |
| Kompare |
Otto Bruggeman |
GPL |
- |
|
3.5.0 (November 29, 2005) |
Yes (Cygwin) |
No |
Yes |
| Meld |
Stephen Kennedy |
GPL |
- |
|
1.1.3 (Jan 9, 2006) |
No |
Yes (OS X) |
Yes |
| SmartSynchronize |
SyntEvo |
Proprietary |
USD 39 |
|
1.5.1 |
Yes (Java) |
Yes (Java) |
Yes (Java) |
| SwiftCompare |
Oorja Software |
Proprietary |
USD 27 |
|
1.1 (Jan 19, 2007) |
Yes (Win98 and up) |
No |
No |
| TkDiff |
[1] |
GPL |
- |
|
4.1.3 (February 20, 2006) |
Yes (Tcl) |
Yes (Tcl) |
Yes (Tcl) |
| TortoiseMerge |
[2] |
GPL |
- |
|
1.2.6 (October 31, 2005) |
Yes (Win2k and up) |
No |
No |
| Total Commander Compare |
Christian Ghisler |
Proprietary |
Part of application |
|
6.54a (February 16, 2006) |
Yes |
No |
No |
| vimdiff |
Bram Moolenaar et al |
GPL-compatible |
- |
2001 |
7.0 (May 7, 2006) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Visual Comparer |
Nikeware |
Proprietary |
USD 29 |
|
1.50 (October 15, 2005) |
Yes |
No |
No |
| WinDiff |
Microsoft |
Proprietary (with source code) |
Part of Platform SDK |
|
|
Yes |
No |
No |
| WinMerge |
Dean Grimm |
GPL |
- |
1998 |
2.6.4 (January 17, 2007) |
Yes (Win95 and up) |
No |
No |
| xxdiff |
Martin Blais |
GPL |
- |
2000 |
3.2 (June 30, 2006) |
Yes (ver. 2.9) |
Yes (source) |
Yes (source) |
| zsCompare |
Zizasoft |
Proprietary |
USD 35 (lite) USD 99.95 (std) USD 199.95 (pro) |
2004 |
3.03 (July 6, 2006) |
Yes (Java) |
Yes (Java) |
Yes (Java) |
|
Creator |
Software license |
Cost |
First public release date |
Latest stable version |
Windows |
Macintosh |
Linux |
[edit] Features
|
GUI |
CLI |
Horizontal / Vertical |
Non-linear compare |
3-way comparison |
Directory comparison |
ZIP support |
FTP support |
Merge |
Patch creation |
Syntax Highlighting |
Reports |
| Araxis Merge |
Yes |
Yes (and Full Automation API) |
both |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes (UNIX diff) |
No |
Yes XML/HTML/HTML/Slideshow reports, UNIX diff |
| Beyond Compare |
Yes |
|
optional |
|
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
| ECMerge |
Yes |
Yes (+ActiveX available) |
optional |
|
Yes (optional, and ancestor can be hidden) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes (v 2.0) |
Yes |
Yes (3 formats, also for directories) |
Yes |
Yes customizable XML/HTML reports, UNIX diff |
| diff |
No |
Yes |
horizontal |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yesfs |
|
|
|
|
| diff3 |
No |
Yes |
horizontal |
No |
Yes (non-optional) |
No |
No |
Yesfs |
|
|
|
|
| DiffDaff |
Yes |
No |
optional |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
|
|
|
| Eclipse Compare |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ediff |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ExamDiff Pro |
Yes |
Yes |
optional |
|
No |
Yes |
Yes (through a plug-in) |
Yes (through a plug-in) |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes, UNIX, HTML, and printable diff reports |
| Guiffy SureMerge |
Yes |
Yes (and API) |
both |
|
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes HTML 4.01 / CSS - W3C validated |
| IntelliJ IDEA Compare |
Yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| fc |
No |
Yes |
horizontal |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
|
| FileMerge |
Yes |
No (just launches the GUI) |
vertical |
|
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
No |
| KDiff3 |
Yes |
Yes |
both |
|
Yes |
Yes |
(on KDE via KIO) |
(on KDE via KIO) |
Yes |
|
|
|
| Kompare |
Yes |
|
vertical |
|
No |
Yes |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
| Meld |
Yes |
Yes |
vertical |
|
optional |
Yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SmartSynchronize |
Yes |
Yes |
vertical |
|
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
|
| SwiftCompare |
Yes |
|
|
|
No |
Yes |
No (In the next release) |
No (In the next release) |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
| TkDiff |
Yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| TortoiseMerge |
Yes |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| Total Commander Compare |
Yes |
|
optional |
|
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
|
|
| vimdiff |
Yes |
Yes |
both |
|
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| WinDiff |
Yes |
Yes |
horizontal |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
| WinMerge |
Yes |
Yes |
optional |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes XML/HTML/CSV reports |
| xxdiff |
Yes |
Yes |
optional |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
|
|
| zsCompare |
Yes |
Yes |
horizontal |
|
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
|
GUI |
CLI |
Horizontal / Vertical |
Non-linear compare |
3-way comparison |
Directory comparison |
ZIP support |
FTP support |
Merge |
Patch creation |
Syntax Highlighting |
Reports |
[edit] Aspects
What aspects can be / are compared?
|
Filename casing |
CRC |
Filedate |
Daylight saving |
Character casing |
| Araxis Merge |
|
|
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
| Beyond Compare |
No |
Yes |
optional |
optional |
Optional |
| ECMerge |
Yes (parametered) |
Yes (CRC32/MD5) |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional, also filesize) |
Optional |
| diff |
optional |
|
|
|
Optional |
| diff3 |
|
|
|
|
|
| DiffDaff |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Eclipse Compare |
|
|
|
|
|
| Ediff |
|
|
|
|
|
| ExamDiff Pro |
No |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
| Guiffy SureMerge |
Yes (filesystem dependend) Plus, support of Unicode file/folder names |
|
Yes (optional) |
|
Yes (optional) |
| IntelliJ IDEA Compare |
|
|
|
|
|
| fc |
No |
|
|
|
Optional |
| FileMerge |
No |
No |
No |
|
Optional |
| KDiff3 |
Yes |
No |
Yes (optional) |
No |
Optional |
| Kompare |
Yes |
|
|
|
|
| Meld |
Yes (filesystem dependend) |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| SmartSynchronize |
|
|
|
|
|
| SwiftCompare |
|
Yes |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
| TkDiff |
|
|
|
|
|
| TortoiseMerge |
|
|
|
|
|
| Total Commander Compare |
|
|
optional |
|
Optional |
| vimdiff |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| WinDiff |
No |
No |
when different |
Yes |
Optional |
| WinMerge |
No |
No |
Optional |
|
Optional |
| xxdiff |
|
|
|
|
|
| zsCompare |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (Adler32, CRC32) |
Yes (optional) |
Yes (optional) |
Optional |
|
Filename casing |
CRC |
Filedate |
Daylight saving |
Character casing |
[edit] Software libraries
- Perl (found on CPAN)
- Algorithm::Diff
- Array::Diff
- Text::Diff
- XML::Diff
