Comparison of file comparison tools: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 11:24, 14 September 2009

General

Basic general information about file comparison software.

Name	Creator	Software license	Cost	First public release date	Latest stable version	Windows	Macintosh	Linux	Other platforms
Altova DiffDog	Altova	Proprietary	USD 129 pro, 189 ent (single license), with a free 30 day trial version available		v2009	Yes (Win 2000, XP, 2003 Server, Vista)	No	No
Araxis Merge	Araxis Ltd	Proprietary	USD 129 (std) - 269 (pro)	1993	2009.3713 (May 18, 2009)	Yes	Yes	No
Beyond Compare	Scooter Software	Proprietary	USD 30 (std), 50 (pro)	1996	3.1.6 (August 11, 2009)	Yes (Win95 and up)	No	Yes (only 32-bit version available)
Columbo, (for tabular files)	NobHill Software	Proprietary	USD 49.95,with a free 30 day trial version available	2009	0.0.0.6(August, 2009)	Yes (Win95 and up)	No	No
Compare It!	Grig Software	Proprietary	USD 29	1998	4.1 (Mar 5, 2009)	Yes	No	No
csvdiff	Roland Schmitz	GPL	-	2006	1.7 (February 11, 2009)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Anything with Perl
DeltaWalker	Deltopia Inc	Proprietary	USD 40 (std), 76 (pro)	2007	2009 (1.8.6 Jan 29, 2009)	Yes	Yes	Yes
diff, diff3	AT&T	BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, GPL, Proprietary	-	1974		Yes	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes
Diff Commander	Nikeware	Proprietary	USD 29	2005	2.0 (Feb 26, 2007)	Yes	No	No
DiffDaff	cyberpromote	Freeware	-		1.0.0 (Jun 6, 2006)	Yes	No	No
DiffMerge	SourceGear	Proprietary	Free	2003	3.2.0 (May 29, 2008)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diffuse	Derrick Moser	GPL	-	2006	0.4.0 (Aug 17, 2009)	Yes	Yes (Source)	Yes	Anything with PyGTK
Eclipse Compare	Eclipse	EPL	-			Yes	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes	Anything with Java
ECMerge	Ellié Computing	Proprietary	from USD 30 (std) / USD 60 (pro) / floating licence	2005	2.2 (Jul 8, 2009)	Yes (Win98 and up)	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes	Sun Solaris
Ediff	Michael Kifer	GPL	-			Yes	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes	Anything with Emacs
ExamDiff Pro	PrestoSoft	Proprietary	USD 35, with a free version available (ExamDiff)	1998	4.0.2.11 (Jun 4, 2008)	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 (Mac OS X)	No
Guiffy SureMerge	Guiffy Software	Proprietary	USD 59	2000	9.0 (July 29, 2009)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Anything with Java
IntelliJ IDEA Compare	JetBrains	Proprietary	Part of application		6.0.5 (2007)	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit JDiff plugin	Various	GPL	Free	1998	1.9.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Anything with Java
KDiff3	Joachim Eibl	GPL	-	2002	0.9.94 (Jan 17, 2009)	Yes	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes
Kompare	Otto Bruggeman	GPL	-		3.5.0 (Nov 29, 2005)	Yes (Cygwin)	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes
Lazarus Diff	Lazarus	GPL	-	2000	2009	Yes	Yes	Yes	FreeBSD
LizardTF	Ian Cornwell	GPL	Free - part of LizardTF		0.1.3 (Jan 10, 2008)	Yes (Inc. 64bit)	No	No
MD5 File Comparison Tool	Derek Trauger	BSD 4-clause (equivalent)	-	2009	1.0.0	Yes	No	No
Meld	Stephen Kennedy	GPL	-		1.3 (Apr 18, 2009)	No	Yes (Mac OS X)	Yes
Perforce P4Merge	Perforce	Free for personal use	Free for personal use		2008.1 (Aug 27, 2008)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Sun Solaris
SmartSynchronize	SyntEvo	Proprietary	USD 52		2.5.1 (Mar 11, 2007)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Anything with Java
Softinterface Diff Doc	Softinterface	Proprietary	USD 199 (single license), with a free 30 day Doc' trial version available	2002	2007.3225 (Jun 06, 2007)	Yes (Windows 98-Vista and up)	No	No
SwiftCompare	Oorja Software	Proprietary	USD 27		1.1 (Jan 19, 2007)	Yes (Win98 and up)	No	No
SyncEXPnet	SyncEXP.net	Proprietary	USD 49	2002	3.7 (Feb 26, 2008)	Yes	No	No
Tkdiff	[4]	GPL	-		4.1.3 (Feb 20, 2006)	Yes (Tcl)	Yes (Tcl)	Yes (Tcl)	Anything with Tcl
TortoiseMerge	[5]	GPL	Part of TortoiseSVN		1.4.8 (February 16, 2008)	Yes (Win2k and up)	No	No
Total Commander Compare	Christian Ghisler	Proprietary	Part of application		7.01 (Jun 21, 2007)	Yes	No	No
UltraCompare	IDM Computer Solutions	Proprietary	USD 29.95		5.0 (May 18, 2007)	Yes	No	No
vimdiff	Bram Moolenaar et al.	GPL-compatible	-	2001	7.0 (May 7, 2006)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Anything with vim
Visual Comparer	Nikeware	Proprietary	USD 29		1.60 (Feb 26, 2007)	Yes	No	No
WinDiff	Microsoft	Proprietary (with source code)	Part of Platform SDK			Yes	No	No
WinMerge	Dean Grimm	GPL	-	1998	2.12.0 (March 5, 2009)	Yes (Win95 and up)	No	No
xxdiff	Martin Blais	GPL	-	2000	3.2 (Jun 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	Yes	Yes	Anything with Java
Name	Creator	Software license	Cost	First public release date	Latest stable version	Windows	Macintosh	Linux	Other platforms

Compare Features

Name	Show Δ < whole line	Directory comparison	Binary comparison	Moved lines	3-way comparison	Merge
Altova DiffDog	Yes	Yes	Yes		No	Yes
Araxis Merge	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes (Professional Edition only)	Yes
Beyond Compare	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (Professional Edition only)	Yes (Pro only)
Compare It!	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
csvdiff		No			No	No
DeltaWalker	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes (Oro only)	Yes
diff	No	Yes			No
diff3	No	No			Yes (non-optional)
Diff Commander
DiffDaff	No	Yes			No	No
DiffMerge	Yes	Yes			Yes	Yes
Diffuse	Yes	No			Yes (n-way comparison)	Yes
Eclipse Compare		Yes			Yes	Yes
ECMerge	Yes	Yes			Yes (optional, and ancestor can be hidden)	Yes
Ediff		Yes			Yes	Yes
ExamDiff Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes		No	Yes
fc	No	No	Yes		No	No
FileMerge	Yes (alternate color within line diff)	Yes	Yes		Yes (optional ancestor)	Yes
Guiffy SureMerge		Yes				Yes
IntelliJ IDEA Compare					Yes	Yes
jEdit JDiff plugin					No	Yes
KDiff3		Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
Kompare		Yes	No		No
Lazarus Diff
LizardTF		Yes	v.stamps		Yes	Yes
Meld	Yes	Yes	No		Yes (optional)	Yes
Perforce P4Merge	Yes	No	No		Yes	Yes
SmartSynchronize		Yes			Yes	Yes
Softinterface Diff Doc		Yes			No	No
SwiftCompare		Yes			No	Yes
Tkdiff					No
TortoiseMerge		No			Yes	Yes
Total Commander Compare	Yes	Yes	Yes		No	Yes
UltraCompare	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
vimdiff	Yes	Yes (via DirDiff plugin)			Yes
Visual Comparer
WinDiff	Yes	Yes	No		No	No
WinMerge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
xxdiff	Yes	Yes			Yes	Yes
zsCompare		Yes			No	Yes
Name	Show Δ < whole line	Directory comparison	Binary comparison	Moved lines	3-way comparison	Merge

API / Editor Features

Name	GUI	CLI	Scripting	Horizontal / Vertical	Syntax Highlighting	Reports
Altova DiffDog	Yes	Yes		both	Yes	XML, UNIX Diff
Araxis Merge	Yes	Yes	Yes	both	since Araxis Merge 2007	XML, HTML, Slideshow, diff
Beyond Compare	Yes	Yes	Yes	optional	Yes	XML, HTML, CSV
Compare It!	Yes	Yes	No	both	Yes	HTML, Text, diff
csvdiff	No	Yes			No	Yes
DeltaWalker	Yes	Yes		both	No	HTML, XML
diff	No	Yes		horizontal
diff3	No	Yes		horizontal
Diff Commander
DiffDaff	Yes	No		optional
DiffMerge	Yes	No		vertical	No	Yes
Diffuse	Yes	Yes		vertical	Yes
Eclipse Compare	Yes			vertical	Yes
ECMerge	Yes	Yes	ECMAScript	optional	Yes	XML, HTML, CSV, Text, Diff
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
KDiff3	Yes	Yes		both
Kompare	Yes			vertical	No
Lazarus Diff	Yes				Yes
LizardTF	Yes	No		both
Meld	Yes	Yes		vertical	Yes	No
Perforce P4Merge	Yes	Yes		vertical	No	No
SmartSynchronize	Yes	Yes		vertical
Softinterface Diff Doc	Yes	Yes		both	Yes	.doc, HTML, CSV
SwiftCompare	Yes				Yes	Yes
Tkdiff	Yes
TortoiseMerge	Yes	Yes			No	No
Total Commander Compare	Yes			optional
UltraCompare	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Unix diff
vimdiff	Yes	Yes	vim script	both	Yes	No
Visual Comparer
WinDiff	Yes	Yes		horizontal	No
WinMerge	Yes	Yes		vertical	Yes	CSV, Tab-delimited, HTML, XML
xxdiff	Yes	Yes		optional
zsCompare	Yes	Yes		horizontal
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	Version Control browsing	Patch creation	Patch application	Patch preview	Unicode support
Altova DiffDog	Yes	Yes	CVS	Yes			Yes
Araxis Merge	No	Yes	Perforce^[1], Subversion^[2], Visual SourceSafe^[3], AllChange^[4]	UNIX diff			Yes^[5]
Beyond Compare	Yes	Yes		Yes			Yes
Compare It!
csvdiff	No	No		No
DeltaWalker	Yes	Yes		Yes			Yes
diff	No	Yes^fs		Yes
diff3	No	Yes^fs
Diff Commander
DiffDaff	No	No
DiffMerge	No	No		No			Partial^{[clarification needed]}
Diffuse							Yes
ECMerge	Yes	Yes	CVS (1.11-, 1.12+), evolution, Perforce, Subversion, Visual SourceSafe	Yes	Yes	Yes	UTF8, UTF16 LE/BE, UTF32 LE/BE
Ediff		Yes		Yes
ExamDiff Pro	Yes^[6]	Yes^[7]		normal diff only			Yes
fc	No	No		No
FileMerge	No	supported by OS		No			No
Guiffy SureMerge	Yes			Yes			Yes^[8]
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Subversion	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KDiff3	on KDE via KIO	on KDE via KIO					partial^[9]
Kompare				Yes
Lazarus Diff
LizardTF			Team Foundation Server				Yes
Meld			CVS, subversion, mercurial, git, bzr, darcs, monotone	Yes			Yes
Perforce P4Merge							Yes
SmartSynchronize	No	No		No			Yes
Softinterface Diff Doc
SwiftCompare	No	No
Tkdiff
TortoiseMerge	No	No		No
Total Commander Compare	Yes
UltraCompare
vimdiff	Yes	Yes		Yes			Yes
Visual Comparer
WinDiff	No	No		No			No
WinMerge	Yes	No	Mercurial^[10], SubVersion^[11], Visual Source Safe, Rational ClearCase^[12]	Yes			Yes
xxdiff	No	No
zsCompare	Yes	No		Yes
Name	ZIP support	FTP support	Version Control browsing	Patch creation	Patch application	Patch preview	Unicode support

fs: Through filesystem (or filesystem plug-ins).

Aspects

What aspects can be / are compared?

	Filename casing	CRC	Filedate	Daylight saving	Character casing
Altova DiffDog			Yes	Yes	Yes
Araxis Merge			Yes	Yes	Yes
Beyond Compare	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compare It!
csvdiff	Yes				Yes
DeltaWalker	platform dependent		Yes	Yes	Yes
diff	Yes				Yes
diff3
Diff Commander
DiffDaff	No	No	No	No	Yes
DiffMerge	platform dependent	No	Yes	No	Yes
Diffuse
Eclipse Compare
ECMerge	Yes	CRC32/MD5	Yes	Yes	Yes
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
KDiff3	Yes	No	Yes	No	Optional
Kompare	Yes
Lazarus Diff
LizardTF
Meld	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Perforce P4Merge
SmartSynchronize
Softinterface Diff Doc
SwiftCompare		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tkdiff
TortoiseMerge
Total Commander Compare			Optional		Optional
UltraCompare
vimdiff	No	No	No	No	Yes
Visual Comparer
WinDiff	No	No	when different	Yes	Optional
WinMerge	No	No	Optional		Optional
xxdiff
zsCompare	Yes	Adler32, CRC32)	Yes	Yes	Optional
	Filename casing	CRC	Filedate	Daylight saving	Character casing

References

^ Araxis Merge's Perforce File System Plugin
^ Subversion Araxis Merge's File System Plugin
^ Araxis Merge's Visual SourceSafe File System Plugin
^ Araxis Merge's AllChange File System Plugin
^ exact support depends on operating system, windows or OSX
^ through a plug-in
^ through a plug-in
^ UTF8, UTF16, MBCS, SJIS, over 150 file encoding and character set formats
^ cannot identify UTF-8 files as unicode unless they have a BOM mark in the beginning
^ [1]
^ [2]
^ [3]

Software libraries

Perl (found on CPAN)
- Algorithm::Diff
- Array::Diff
- Text::Diff
- XML::Diff

[1] Araxis Merge's Perforce File System Plugin

[2] Subversion Araxis Merge's File System Plugin

[3] Araxis Merge's Visual SourceSafe File System Plugin

[4] Araxis Merge's AllChange File System Plugin

[5] xact support depends on operating system, windows or OSX

[6] through a plug-in

[7] through a plug-in

[8] UTF8, UTF16, MBCS, SJIS, over 150 file encoding and character set formats

[9] t identify UTF-8 files as unicode unless they have a BOM mark in the beginning

[10] [1]

[11] [2]

[12] [3]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

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