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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Araxis Merge | Araxis Ltd | Proprietary | USD 129 (std) - 269 (pro) | 1993 | 2012.4201 for OS X (31 May 2012); 2012.4198 for Windows (29 May 2012) | Yes | Yes | No | No | 503 | ||
| Beyond Compare | Scooter Software | Proprietary | USD 30 (std), 50 (pro) | 1996 | 2012 (v3.3.5) | Yes (Win95 and up) | No | Yes | 4044 | |||
| 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 | 2012 (v2.0) | Yes | 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 | 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 | |||
| ExamDiff Pro | PrestoSoft | Proprietary | USD 35, with a free version available | 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) | 2012 (v2.7.1) | No | Yes (Mac OS X) | No | |||||
| Guiffy SureMerge | Guiffy Software | Proprietary | USD 37.50(Pro), 75(eXpert) | 2000 | 2012 (v10.0) | 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 | |||
| Kompare | Otto Bruggeman | GPL | Free | Yes | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | ||||||
| Lazarus Diff | Lazarus (software) | GPL | - | 2000 | 2009 | Yes | Yes | Yes | FreeBSD | |||
| Meld | Stephen Kennedy | GPL | - | 2002 | 2012-4-3 (v1.5.4) | Yes | Yes | Yes | BSD, Solaris | |||
| Perforce P4Merge | Perforce | Freeware | - | 2009.2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sun Solaris | ||||
| Pretty Diff | Austin Cheney | GPL-compatible | Free | 2009 | 2012-07-05 | Yes (Web) | Yes (Web) | Yes (Web) | Node.js, Windows Script Host | |||
| Tkdiff | Tkdiff | GPL | Free | 2003 (or before) | 2011-11-27 (v4.2) | 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 | |||||
| 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 | ||
| UCC | USC CSSE | USC-CSSE Limited Public License | Free | 2009 | 2010-07 | Yes | Yes | Yes {2.6.9} | Sun Solaris | |||
| 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 |
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