- Comparison of file comparison tools
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Contents
General
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 Max Supported File Size Aqua Data Studio AquaFold Proprietary USD 399 (single license), with a free 14 day trial version available 2002 2010 Yes Yes Yes Anything with Java 180 Araxis Merge Araxis Ltd 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 Beyond Compare Scooter Software Proprietary USD 30 (std), 50 (pro) 1996 2011 (v3.3.3) Yes (Win95 and up) No Yes 4044 Changes[disambiguation needed ] Connected Flow Proprietary USD 49.99, with free demo 2010 (v1.5) No Yes (Mac OS X) No Code Compare Devart Proprietary Free. Pro version USD 49.95 2010 2011 (v2.70) Yes No No 218 Compare++ Coode Software Proprietary USD 29.95 with free 30-day trial 2010 2011 (v1.6) Yes[1] No No Compare It! Grig Software Proprietary USD 29.00 2000 (or before) 2010 (v4.2) Yes No No diff, diff3 AT&T BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, GPL, Proprietary - 1974 Yes Yes (Mac OS X) Yes Diff Checker Ahmad Sidiqi Proprietary Free 2010 2011 Yes Yes Yes DiffMerge SourceGear Proprietary Free 2003 2009 (v3.3.0) Yes Yes Yes 190 DLSuperC (Rewrite of mainframe SuperC/Super Compare) Don and Darrell Ludlow Shareware USD Various releases, Free to try, $19.95 to buy. One version os free for personal use. 1998 2005 (7.3 / 2.4b) Yes No No Ported from IBM mainframe SuperC Duplicate Annihilator Brattoo Propaganda Software 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 GPL Free 1994 2.81.4 Yes Yes (Mac OS X) Yes Anything with Emacs Ellié Computing Merge Ellié Computing Proprietary USD 40 (std) - 60 (pro) 2004 2011 (v2.4 build 155) Yes Yes Yes Solaris 10 x86 ExamDiff Pro PrestoSoft Proprietary USD 35, with a free version available (ExamDiff) 1998 2010 (v5.0.1.13) Yes (Win98 and up) No No 216 fc Microsoft 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 Proprietary USD 59 2000 2011 (v9.6) Yes Yes Yes Anything with Java IntelliJ IDEA Compare JetBrains Proprietary Part of application 2007 (v6.0.5) Yes Yes Yes jEdit JDiff plugin Various GPL Free 1998 1.9.0 Yes Yes Yes Anything with Java Kaleidoscope Sofa Proprietary EUR 29, with free 30-day demo 2010 2010 (v1.1.1) No Yes (Mac OS X) No KDiff3 Joachim Eibl GPL Free 2002 2011 (v0.9.96) Yes Yes (Mac OS X) Yes Unix supported by Qt Kompare Otto Bruggeman GPL Free 2005-11-29 (v3.5.0) No Yes (Mac OS X) Yes Lazarus Diff Lazarus GPL - 2000 2009 Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD Meld Stephen Kennedy GPL - 2002 2011-3-20 (v1.5.1) No Yes Yes BSD, Solaris Perforce P4Merge Perforce Freeware[2] - 2009.2 Yes Yes Yes Sun Solaris Pretty Diff prettydiff.com/ Freeware Free 2009 2010-12-10 Yes Yes Yes Online website Tkdiff [5] GPL Free 2003 (or before) 2007 (v4.1.4) Yes (Tcl) Yes (Tcl) Yes (Tcl) Anything with Tcl Total Commander Compare Christian Ghisler Proprietary Part of application 2010-12-17 (v7.56a) Yes No No UltraCompare IDM Computer Solutions Proprietary USD 49.95 (single license), with a free 30 day trial version available 2003 2011-04-11 (v8.10.0) Yes No Yes vimdiff Bram Moolenaar et al. GPL-compatible - 2001 2006-05-07 (v7.0) Yes Yes Yes Anything with vim WinDiff Microsoft Proprietary (with source code) Part of Platform SDK 1992 2003 ? (v6.1) Yes No No No WinMerge Dean Grimm GPL Free 1998 2009-06-09 (v2.12.4) Yes (Win95 and up) No No 5212 2 GiB OOP-DIFF Schneider Soft Proprietary Free 2010 2011 (v1.5.0) Yes (Win95 and up) No {mono .NET} No [6] UCC USC CSSE USC-CSSE Limited Public License Free 2009 2010-07 Yes Yes Yes {2.6.9} Sun Solaris Compare Features
Name Show in-line changes Directory comparison Binary comparison Moved lines 3-way comparison Merge Structured comparison[3] Aqua Data Studio Yes Yes 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 No No No No diff3 No No Yes (non-optional) Diff Checker Yes No No Yes No No DiffMerge Yes Yes Yes Yes Eclipse Compare Yes Yes Yes Ediff Yes Yes Yes[4] Yes Yes Ellié Computing Merge Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ExamDiff Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes[5] 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 KDiff3 Yes Yes Yes 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 Pretty Diff Yes No No Yes No No Yes Tkdiff Yes No No No No No Total Commander Compare Yes Yes Yes No Yes vimdiff Yes Yes (via DirDiff plugin) Yes UltraCompare Yes Yes Yes No Yes 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[6] API / Editor Features
Name GUI CLI Scripting Horizontal / Vertical Syntax Highlighting Reports Aqua Data Studio Yes No HTML 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 DiffMerge Yes No vertical No Yes Eclipse Compare Yes vertical Yes Ediff Yes No both Yes Ellié Computing Merge Yes Yes Yes ECMAScript optional Yes XML, HTML, CSV, Text, Unix patch 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 Meld Yes horizontal Yes No Perforce P4Merge Yes Yes vertical No No Pretty Diff Yes API ECMAScript both No HTML Tkdiff Yes Total Commander Compare Yes optional UltraCompare Yes Yes No both No diff/text vimdiff Yes Yes vim script both Yes HTML OOP-DIF 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 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 XML-aware Araxis Merge No Yes Perforce[7], Subversion[8], Visual SourceSafe[9], AllChange[10] UNIX diff No No Yes[11] Partial[12] Beyond Compare Yes Yes Yes[13] 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 No No diff3 No No No DiffMerge No No No Yes[14] Ediff Yes Yes RCS, CVS, SVN, Mercurial, git (anything supported by Emacs' VC-mode)[15] Yes Yes Yes Ellié Computing Merge Yes Yes CVS, VSS, SubVersion, Perforce, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar using command line client Yes Yes with interactive preview Yes Yes Yes[16] ExamDiff Pro Yes[17] Yes[18] normal diff only Yes fc No No No FileMerge No supported by OS No No No Guiffy SureMerge Yes Yes Yes[19] jEdit Yes Yes Subversion Yes Yes Yes Yes KDiff3 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 UltraCompare Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No vimdiff Yes Yes Yes Yes WinDiff No No No No WinMerge Yes No Mercurial[20], Subversion[21], Visual Source Safe, Rational ClearCase[22] Yes Yes UCC Yes No Yes Name ZIP support FTP support Version Control browsing Patch creation Patch application Patch preview Unicode support XML-aware Aspects
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 DiffMerge platform dependent No Yes No Yes Eclipse Compare Ediff Ellié Computing Merge Yes Yes Yes Yes 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 Yes Kompare Yes Lazarus Diff Meld Perforce P4Merge N/A No No No Yes Tkdiff Total Commander Compare Optional Optional UltraCompare platform dependent Yes Yes No 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 See also
References
- ^ Compare++ Operating system information
- ^ Perforce Free License
- ^ Compare logical sections (class, methods)
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Compare logical sections (class, methods)
- ^ 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
- ^ Merge doesn't implement any infoset-level XML diff, but it can reformat XML (and HTML) files to make comparisons easier. This reformatting is purely visual and doesn't alter the content of the files [3].
- ^ Using Beyond Compare with Version Control Systems
- ^ DiffMerge Developer replies to UNICODE questions
- ^ [4]
- ^ by pretty-printing XML text
- ^ through a plug-in
- ^ through a plug-in
- ^ UTF8, UTF16, MBCS, SJIS, over 150 file encoding and character set formats
- ^ "tortoisehg / stable / wiki / FAQ —". Bitbucket.org. http://bitbucket.org/tortoisehg/stable/wiki/FAQ#how-can-i-use-winmerge-as-my-visual-diff-tool. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ "Using WinMerge with other tools - WinMerge 2.12 Manual". Winmerge.org. http://winmerge.org/docs/manual/VersionControl.html. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ "About". WinMerge. http://winmerge.org/about/. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
Categories:- File comparison tools
- Software comparisons
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