What is WinMerge?
- Jul 05, 2017 File Compare’s Switches and Parameters /B – This switch will perform a binary comparison. /C – If you need to do a case insensitive comparison, use this switch. /A – This switch will make FC show only the first and last lines for each group of differences. /U – Use this switch to compare files as Unicode text files. /L – This will compare your files as ASCII text.
- Download Compare Folders for macOS 10.8 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Folder comparison for the rest of us: simple, fast and accurate. Compare at a glance two folders, even with thousands of files, taking into account file and subfolders content, creation & modification dates, permissions and more.
WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.
Screenshot
See the screenshots page for more screenshots.
Nov 24, 2009 Compare is the real smart code diff tool. It can do language-aware structured comparison and ignore comment or pure formatted change. It can compare moved functions, auto-align structured sections and even compare similar functions in different files.
Features
WinMerge is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions. WinMerge can be used as an external differencing/merging tool or as a standalone application.
In addition, WinMerge has many helpful supporting features that make comparing, synchronising, and merging as easy and useful as possible:
General
- Supports Microsoft Windows XP or newer
- Handles Windows, Unix and Mac text file formats
- Unicode support
- Tabbed interface
File Compare
- 3-way File Comparison New!
- Visual differencing and merging of text files
- Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap
- Highlights differences inside lines
- Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes
- Location pane shows map of files compared
- Moved lines detection
Folder Compare
- Regular Expression based file filters allow excluding and including items
- Fast compare using file sizes and dates
- Compares one folder or includes all subfolders
- Can show folder compare results in a tree-style view
- 3-way Folder Comparison Work in progress
Image Compare New!
- Support many types of images
- Can highlight the differences with blocks
- Overlaying of the pictures is possible
Version Control
- Creates patch files (Normal-, Context- and Unified formats)
- Resolve conflict files
Other
- Shell Integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions)
- Archive file support using 7-Zip
- Plugin support
- Localizable interface
- Online manual and installed HTML Help manual
WinMerge 2.16.6 - latest stable version
WinMerge 2.16.6 is the latest stable version, and is recommended for most users.
Project News
- WinMerge 2.16.4 (stable) released2019-08-02
- WinMerge 2.16.2 (stable) released2019-04-04
- WinMerge 2.16.0 (stable) released2018-11-27
- A sign of life from WinMerge2018-01-29
- WinMerge 2.14.0 (stable) released2013-02-03
Support
If you need support, look at our support page for more information how you can get it.
Developers
WinMerge is an open source project, which means that the program is maintained and developed by volunteers.
In addition, WinMerge is translated into a number of different languages. See our information on translating WinMerge into your own language.
FileMerge
Being part of its developer toolset, Apple's own merge tool comes at no additional costs. It might not be the most elegant tool, but it's definitely a solid one that does the job of comparing & merging text.
Beyond Compare
Originally a product for Microsoft Windows, the Beyond Compare team has contributed a fine diff tool to the Mac platform. Like Araxis Merge and DeltaWalker, it goes beyond (pun intended) comparing simple text and also allows diffing Word and PDF contents. In its 'Pro Version', it also supports merging.
Araxis Merge
One of the few diff tools that works with more than just text and image files, Araxis Merge lets you also compare office documents (like MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or ODF). It comes in standard and professional editions, and for people working on both macOS and Windows, it's great to know that a single license is valid for both platforms.
Compare Files Software For Mac Pro
NEW: Image Diffing in Tower! Our popular Git client Tower now supports Image Diffing for a variety of formats (including PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, JPEG2000, and HEIC). In both the Working Copy and various History / Changeset views, you can now see the actual images - and how they were changed! Try it yourself - for free!
DeltaWalker
Just like Araxis, the DeltaWalker app also lets you compare office files. However, it goes one step further by letting you compare file archives like ZIP, JAR, and TAR files. Also, if you're regularly performing comparisons on a folder basis, DeltaWalker shines with a great performance in this area. DeltaWalker supports macOS, Windows and Linux.
Kaleidoscope
Although it has changed hands (i.e. owners) multiple times, Kaleidoscope is still one of the best diff & merge tools for the Mac. Its beautiful user interface and great image diffing capabilities are what set it apart. Kaleidoscope is also available for the iPad.
Free Alternatives
In case you're looking for a free alternative to the standard FileMerge app, you should also have a look at P4Merge and DiffMerge.
Both can't compare in terms of features and user interface with their commercial competitors - but make for a valid alternative on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Compare Files Software For Mac Windows 7
Compare Files Software For Mac Free
Integrations
Another aspect to watch out for is integrations: before choosing your favorite tool, you should make sure that it plays nicely with the rest of your tool chain. I can already confirm that all of the mentioned tools work seamlessly at least with Tower, our own Git client.
If you don't need the power of a dedicated Diff tool application, the integrated diff views in Tower might be absolutely sufficient for you:
In case you don't know Tower: it's the Git desktop client for Mac and Windows that helps thousands of developers and designers to easily & productively work with the Git version control system. Try it 30 days for free!
Conclusion
Diff & merge apps are amongst the most underestimated tools. But a good one can be really helpful in a lot of situations. Try one of the above and see for yourself!
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