Contents |
Basic general information about file comparison software.
Name | Creator | Software license | Cost | First public release date | Year of latest stable version | Windows | Macintosh | Linux | Other platforms | Used by[1] | Max Supported File Size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Araxis Merge | Araxis Ltd[2] | Proprietary | USD 129 (std) - 269 (pro) | 1993 | 2010.3947 for Windows (2011-06-08); 2010.3907 for Mac OS X (2010-07-21) | Yes | Yes | No | No | 503[3] | |
Beyond Compare | Scooter Software[4] | Proprietary | USD 30 (std), 50 (pro) | 1996 | 2011 (v3.3.3) | Yes (Win95 and up) | No | Yes | 4044[5] | ||
Code Compare | Devart | Proprietary | Free. Pro version USD 49.95 | 2010 | 2011 (v2.70) | Yes | No | No | 218[6] | ||
Compare++ | Coode Software[7] | Proprietary | USD 29.95 with free 30-day trial [8] | 2010 | 2011 (v1.6) | Yes[9] | No | No | |||
diff, diff3 | AT&T | BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, CDDL, GPL, Proprietary | - | 1974 | Yes | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | ported to most platforms as part of SCCS | > 2GB but less than 64 bits | ||
Duplicate Annihilator | Brattoo Propaganda Software[10] | Proprietary | USD 7.95 - 19.95, with a free demo | 2010 | 2011 | No | Yes | No | |||
Eclipse Compare | Eclipse | EPL | - | 2004 | Yes | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | Anything with Java | |||
Ediff | Michael Kifer[11] | GPL | Free | 1994 | 2.81.4 | Yes | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | Anything with Emacs | ||
ExamDiff Pro | PrestoSoft[12] | Proprietary | USD 35, with a free version available[13] | 1998 | 2010 (v5.0.1.13) | Yes (Win98 and up) | No | No | 216[14] | ||
fc | Microsoft[15] | Proprietary | Part of OS | 1987 | Yes (DOS) | No | No | ||||
FileMerge | Apple Inc. | Proprietary | Free (part of Apple Developer Tools) | 2005 (v2.2.1) | No | Yes (Mac OS X) | No | ||||
Guiffy SureMerge | Guiffy Software[16] | Proprietary | USD 59 | 2000 | 2011 (v9.6) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | ||
IntelliJ IDEA Compare | JetBrains[17] | Proprietary | Part of application | 2007 (v6.0.5) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
jEdit JDiff plugin | Various[18] | GPL | Free | 1998 | 1.9.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | ||
Kompare | Otto Bruggeman[19] | GPL | Free | 2005-11-29 (v3.5.0) | No | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | ||||
Lazarus Diff | Lazarus (software) | GPL | - | 2000 | 2009 | Yes | Yes | Yes | FreeBSD | ||
Meld | Stephen Kennedy[20] | GPL | - | 2002 | 2011-3-20 (v1.5.1) | Yes[21] | Yes | Yes | BSD, Solaris | ||
Perforce P4Merge | Perforce | Freeware[22] | - | 2009.2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sun Solaris | |||
Tkdiff | Tkdiff[23] | GPL | Free | 2003 (or before) | 2011-11-27 (v4.2) | Yes (Tcl) | Yes (Tcl) | Yes (Tcl) | Anything with Tcl | ||
Total Commander Compare | Christian Ghisler[24] | Proprietary | Part of application | 2010-12-17 (v7.56a) | Yes | No | No | ||||
vimdiff | Bram Moolenaar et al. | GPL-compatible | - | 2001 | 2006-05-07 (v7.0) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with vim | ||
WinDiff | Microsoft[25] | Proprietary (with source code) | Part of Platform SDK | 1992 | 2003 ? (v6.1) | Yes | No | No | No | ||
WinMerge | Dean Grimm[26] | GPL | Free | 1998 | 2009-06-09 (v2.12.4) | Yes (Win95 and up) | No | No | 5212[27] | 2 GiB | |
OOP-DIFF | Schneider Soft[28] | Proprietary | Free | 2010 | 2011 (v1.5.0) | Yes (Win95 and up) | No {mono .NET} | No | |||
UCC | USC CSSE[29] | USC-CSSE Limited Public License [30] | Free | 2009 | 2010-07 | Yes | Yes | Yes {2.6.9} | Sun Solaris |
Name | Show in-line changes | Directory comparison | Binary comparison | Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison[31] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Araxis Merge | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (Professional Edition only) | Yes | |
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (Pro only) | |
Code Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Code Compare Pro only) | Yes | Yes (Code Compare Pro only) | |
Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (C/C++,C#,Java,Javascript,CSS3) | |||
diff | No | Yes | partly | No | No | No | |
diff3 | No | No | Yes (non-optional) | ||||
Eclipse Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
Ediff | Yes | Yes | Yes[32] | Yes | Yes | ||
ExamDiff Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[33] | No | Yes | |
fc | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
FileMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (optional ancestor) | Yes | ||
Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
IntelliJ IDEA Compare | Yes | Yes | |||||
jEdit JDiff plugin | No | Yes | |||||
Kompare | Yes | No | No | ||||
Lazarus Diff | |||||||
Meld | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
OOP-DIFF | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Perforce P4Merge | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||
Tkdiff | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Total Commander Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||
vimdiff | Yes | Yes (via DirDiff plugin) | Yes | ||||
WinDiff | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |
WinMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
UCC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
Name | Show in-line changes | Directory comparison | Binary comparison | Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison[34] |
Name | GUI | CLI | Scripting | Horizontal / Vertical | Syntax Highlighting | Reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Araxis Merge | Yes | Yes | Yes | both | since Araxis Merge 2007 | XML, HTML, Slideshow, diff |
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | both | Yes | XML, HTML, CSV, Text, Unix Patch |
Code Compare | Yes | Yes | both | Yes | ||
Compare++ | Yes | Yes | both | Yes | HTML, Text(combined or side-by-side) | |
diff | No | Yes | horizontal | |||
diff3 | No | Yes | horizontal | |||
Eclipse Compare | Yes | vertical | Yes | |||
Ediff | Yes | No | both | Yes | ||
ExamDiff Pro | Yes | Yes | optional | Yes | UNIX, HTML, Diff | |
fc | No | Yes | horizontal | |||
FileMerge | Yes | Yes | vertical | Yes | No | |
Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | both | Yes | HTML | |
IntelliJ IDEA Compare | Yes | vertical | Yes | |||
jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | both | Yes | |||
Kompare | Yes | vertical | No | |||
Lazarus Diff | Yes | Yes | ||||
Meld | Yes | horizontal | Yes | No | ||
Perforce P4Merge | Yes | Yes | vertical | No | No | |
Tkdiff | Yes | |||||
Total Commander Compare | Yes | optional | ||||
vimdiff | Yes | Yes | vim script | both | Yes | HTML |
OOP-DIFF | Yes | Yes | No | both | No | No |
WinDiff | Yes | Yes | horizontal | No | ||
WinMerge | Yes | Yes | vertical | Yes | CSV, Tab-delimited, HTML, XML | |
UCC | Yes | Yes | vertical | Yes | Text, CSV | |
Name | GUI | CLI | Scripting | Horizontal / Vertical | Syntax Highlighting | Reports |
Some other features which did not fit in previous table
Name | ZIP support | FTP support | Version Control browsing | Patch creation | Patch application | Patch preview | Unicode support | XML-aware |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Araxis Merge | No | Yes | Perforce[35], Subversion[36], Visual SourceSafe[37], AllChange[38] | UNIX diff | No | No | Yes[39] | Partial[40] |
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes[41] | Yes | No | Yes | ||
Code Compare | Yes | |||||||
Compare++ | SVN, CVS, Git, Microsoft TFS, Perforce, VSS using command line | Yes | ||||||
diff | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
diff3 | No | No | No | |||||
Ediff | Yes | Yes | RCS, CVS, SVN, Mercurial, git (anything supported by Emacs' VC-mode)[42] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
ExamDiff Pro | Yes[43] | Yes[44] | normal diff only | Yes | ||||
fc | No | No | No | |||||
FileMerge | No | supported by OS | No | No | No | |||
Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes[45] | |||||
jEdit | Yes | Yes | Subversion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Kompare | Yes | |||||||
Lazarus Diff | ||||||||
Meld | CVS, Subversion, Git | Yes | Yes | |||||
Perforce P4Merge | No | Yes | ||||||
Tkdiff | No | No | CVS, RCS, Subversion | No | No | No | No | No |
Total Commander Compare | Yes | Yes | ||||||
vimdiff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
WinDiff | No | No | No | No | ||||
WinMerge | Yes | No | Mercurial[46], Subversion[47], Visual Source Safe, Rational ClearCase[48] | Yes | Yes | |||
UCC | Yes | No | Yes | |||||
Name | ZIP support | FTP support | Version Control browsing | Patch creation | Patch application | Patch preview | Unicode support | XML-aware |
What aspects can be / are compared?
Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Araxis Merge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Code Compare | |||||
Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
diff | Yes | No | No | No | Optional |
diff3 | |||||
Eclipse Compare | |||||
Ediff | |||||
ExamDiff Pro | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
fc | No | Optional | |||
FileMerge | No | No | No | Optional | |
Guiffy SureMerge | filesystem dependent | Yes | Yes | ||
IntelliJ IDEA Compare | |||||
Kompare | Yes | ||||
Lazarus Diff | |||||
Meld | |||||
Perforce P4Merge | N/A | No | No | No | Yes |
Tkdiff | |||||
Total Commander Compare | Optional | Optional | |||
vimdiff | No | No | No | No | Yes |
WinDiff | No | No | when different | Yes | Optional |
WinMerge | No | No | Optional | Optional | |
UCC | No | No | Yes | No | |
Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing |