Best File Compare Tools is a perfect file compare tool you are looking for. This is the best free file comparison software to find any differences between your files. Best File Compare Tool is available in software market to manage and manipulate big files effectively by comparing them with each other. It shows you the differences between two or more files, with a clear indication of what has been changed in every single line of code.
Are you curious about best file compare tools? Or about best tool for file comparison? Read this article on best free file compare tools. Even though most of us come to understand and appreciate the importance of backing up our important data periodically, less people are actually doing it. There are several reasons as to why people neglect backing up their data, and it seems that none of them is valid enough.
The best file compare tools used for comparing, syncing and merging files will help you do the job of file comparison in an easier way. It is also helpful for increasing your productivity.
Curious about best file compare tools? Or about best tool for file comparison? Read this article on best free file compare tools to find out how to get file comparison results comparing all important fields of files for easy visual access. Different software and online services can help you with that. But you need to know how much reliable they are and how safe it is to use them. So, let’s see what we have here.
Why Should You Compare Text?
When you’re working on your device every day, the files and documents pile up. The more they increase, the more the junk on your computer or tablet, which you need to work on.
You don’t want to miss any changes someone else makes or keep piling on the duplicate files – which is why you need to keep comparing the text on those files or documents regularly.
When you compare documents or text manually, it can be tedious – or downright impossible to do. You’re likely to miss out on some details so you may need to double-check if any changes have been made – even by hackers.
AptDiff
AptDiff is a freeware that’s now discontinued, but still available to download through some third-party websites. Despite being free, it’s an advanced and responsive file comparison tool for Windows. It lets you compare two files (text or binary) to check if any of them is a duplicate. It gets downloaded quickly and is pretty easy with no complications involved. From options to customize keyboard shortcuts, getting file backups, or personalizing the UI fonts and colors to supporting multiple languages, there’s a lot that it’s capable of.
Price: free
DiffMerge
Those looking for a file comparison tool would find DiffMerge much helpful due to its powerful features. The application visually compares files and even merges them on major platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux. Moreover, it graphically represents the modifications between the two files. Also, it features options like intra-line highlighting and complete support for editing. Similarly, it also shows the modifications (merging) between three files, graphically.
It enables the files to merge automatically whenever possible, and also allows complete control on the editing of the file generated. Furthermore, it compares the two folders side-by-side, while displaying which files are only present in a single file or in the other. It also shows the file pairs that are either similar or different.
Price: free
Diffuse
If you are looking for a simple, yet powerful graphical tool that helps to merge and comparing text files, Diffuse can be your best bet. It can easily compare random file parallelly while providing you the option to manually adjust line-matching and also the option to edit files directly.
Not just that, it can also recover amendment of files from Darcs, SVK, Monotone, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, RCS, Subversion, and CVS libraries for comparison and merging. What’s more? Line-matching can be manually amended by the user, option for syntax highlighting, or easy navigation of keyboard are some of its other major features to look out for.
Price: free
ExamDiff
It’s an easy to use file comparison tool, that allows you to compare to documents. Examdiff is a freeware that does not need you to mention both the filenames, but just entering the directory name for one of the files for comparison should be fine. Among its significant features are auto pick feature to remember matching files, automatic detection of file changes and notifying users to repeat the file comparison, quick selection of the two files to compare, drag and drop option to add one or two files in the program window, or easy editing of both the files.
There are any more features offered by this tool which you can explore on your Windows platform.
Price: free
Beyond Compare Version 3
Beyond Compare lets you easily compare files and folders, including text files (with syntax highlighting for HTML), Word Docs, and PDF files, among others. Available for Windows and Linux for $30 (standard edition) to $50 (pro edition).
Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope lets you compare text documents (including source code) and images. It has built-in integration with other programs, and can read .psd, .txt, .png, .jpg, and .html files. Available for Mac OS X for €29.
Workshare Compare
Workshare Compare is an enterprise-level document comparison tool that lets you compare Word documents and text-based PDFs. You can compare one document to multiple others. It’s available for Windows for $145 for a one-year subscription. There’s also a Basic version for $99/year that only compares Word documents.
Docu-Proof Enterprise
Doc-Proof works to compare XML, Word, text, and PDF files. It makes it possible to quickly compare fonts, sizes, deletions, insertions, spelling, and location.
Pics.io
Strictly speaking, Pics.io is a lot more than a mere instrument for file comparison. It’s a comprehensive app for cloud-based digital assets management (DAM). And it has all the related bells and whistles, such as collections, tagging, keywording, search, sharing, versioning, and many others.
One of the core functionalities of Pics.io is the Visual Diff tool. And it works ideally for comparing visuals: photos, all kinds of images, Sketch and other multi-page designs, PDFs, and video files. With Diff Tool, two similar visual files will be placed one over the other for better contrast, and you can move the slider sideways to compare them.
Pros
- Side by side comparison of visuals to see the subtlest changes such as brightness or saturation
- Working with any formats you need, designer files included (Adobe XD, Sketch, or AI), plus videos and PDFs
- Powerful version control in case revisions pile up over time
- Commenting to discuss file changes with colleagues
Cons
- A bit of a learning curve
Pricing: $18 per user per month, though there are also pricing plans suitable for team users.
Meld
Free and open-source, Meld is a great comparison app to see the difference between two or three files and merge them. The compare software allows you to navigate between contrasts easily. As usual, the changes get marked with a different color. Also, use the regex text feature to ignore the differences you want to leave untouched.
This file comparison software will also come in handy to compare folders. Feel free to compare two (or even three!) media libraries to see differences file by file. Alter files on the fly, and once you notice that something’s missing, don’t hesitate to open the folder directly from Meld to fix things.
Pros
- Comparing two or three files at once
- Edit or merge files right in the file comparison app
- Support for folder comparison
- Basic file management when comparing directories
Cons
- Needs download and installation
- Clunky interface, and sometimes, the app is difficult to operate as Meld is designed for tech-savvy users
- Available for Windows and Linux only
Pricing: Free
Araxis
Araxis is a professional tool that was specifically designed for comparing various files. With the help of Araxis, you can instantly identify all the differences between the two documents. You can accept some of these changes, edit, and merge when it’s necessary. And what I personally find really cool is that you can synchronize and merge entire folder trees with all the files within.
Such versatile functionality makes Araxis a great tool for a broad range of professionals – software developers, quality control managers, legal and publishing professionals. In other words, it’s perfect for everybody who deals with text-based documents.
Pros
- Ideal tool for text comparison: source code, web pages, XML, and all common office files such as Word, Excel, PDFs, and RTF
- Editing and merging files on-site
- Comparing as many as three files at a time with Araxis Pro
Cons
- Not so good for comparing visual file formats – the app knows how to make a binary comparison between two images, but the results appear rather bulky and redundant
- Requires installation on your desktop computer
Pricing: $119 as a one-time payment
KDiff3
Kdiff3 allows you to upload up to 3 files to compare at a time. It shows up a prompt where you need to load the files you want to compare. You can view the files next to each other on the interface later. All you need to do is to scroll through to view all of them at once.
The program compares or merges two or three text input files or directories, and also displays the results line by line and by each character (!). Moreover, it offers an automatic merge-option and an inbuilt editor for easy solving of merge-conflicts.
Furthermore, it provides support for Unicode, UTF-8, and other codecs, and also KIO on KDE that lets you access ftp, sftp, fish, smb, and more.
Among its other major features are, printing of differences, alignment of lines manually, and merging of version control history automatically. The best thing is, it comes with a responsive graphical user interface.
Price: free
WinMerge
WinMerge is an open source differencing and merging tool for Windows. It shows comparisons visually and makes it easy to merge documents.
Araxis Merge
Araxis Merge is a three-way document comparison, merging, and folder synchronization tool. It can be used to compare source code, web pages, XML, and other text files, as well as Word and Excel documents, PDFs, and RTF files. It’s available for both Windows and Mac OS X for $129 for the Standard version and $269 for the Professional version.
Changes
Changes lets you sync folders, compare both code and prose, and even compare right inside a variety of text and code editors (including Coda and TextWrangler). Changes are available for Mac OS X for $49.95 for a single license.
CodeCompare
CodeCompare is a source code comparison tool built on the .NET framework that includes support for syntax highlighting, Visual Studio integration, three-way merge, version control integration, and folder synchronization. Basic functionality is free, but there’s also a Pro version for $49.95.
Compare++
Compare++ has built-in analysis functions for C/C++, C#, Java, CSS3 and more. It’s available for Windows for $29.95 for a single user.
Diffchecker
Diffchecker is an online text comparison tool with a simple yet straightforward layout. It compares the text you paste on it in two side-by-side panels, which find the differences and display the original and changed version of your text.
Diffchecker saves differences and allows you to share them on other platforms, like social media, or copy the link it provides so you can share somewhere else.
With the software, you can compare the text for free, or use the paid desktop app that works with Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.
The tool also has a cloud-hosted feature and SVG viewer, which help when creating the terminal or cloud-hosted diffs.
You can compare text online and save time and effort that you’d otherwise have used trying to get it done manually.
Compare Files With a Single Click
Whether you need to view the changes to any document or want to find differences between codes, a file comparison tool can make your job easier. Thanks to the above-mentioned sites, you can compare files online.
However, in some occupations, like programming, writing, or law, you are often required to compare files. In this case, it’s a good idea to consider desktop apps as they offer far more features and work offline too.
Conclusion
File Compare Tools are programs designed to compare files from a remote location or from the local system. When you need to find out whether a file has been modified on your computer or on the network, a file comparison tool is what you need.
We often need to compare different versions of files, find differences between files, or organize similar versions of files. For instance, you may want to compare database dumps, XML files, text documents, audio/video files. If so, then you will probably be interested to read this article. It discusses best free file comparison tools.