Main Takeaways
- Kaleidoscope offers macOS users a native file comparison tool with image comparisons and git integration.
- Helix P4Merge provides a free multi-platform solution with colored areas for easy file comparison.
- Beyond Compare is a highly configurable tool with integration options for remote file comparisons and custom settings.
As a writer or programmer, you often need to compare different versions of the same code or text file to see what has changed. However, finding out what these changes are is not a simple task. The File Compare tool shows the differences between two (or more) files and helps you merge them. Each of these macOS apps provides a visual interface for examining and managing file changes.
1. The problem
Unlike many other comparison tools, Kaleidoscope is a macOS-only app, giving it a native feel and integration with the operating system that others lack.
Upon startup, Kaleidoscope walks you through its features, with a visual guide to view each one. It also includes sample files for comparison, which you can use to quickly explore the app and its interface.
Kaleidoscope has features for diffs, merges, image comparison and merge, and folder comparison. If you are a developer, you will appreciate the application's integration with git. This includes support for exploring the change set, the full file history, and easily comparing branches.
download:Kaleidoscope ($8/month subscription; free trial available)
2. Helix P4Merge
Helix P4V is an enterprise-level cross-platform ecosystem of version control software. Its P4Merge application — P4Merge for Diff & Merge — is a free download focused on file comparisons.
P4Merge displays files side by side, linking relevant parts of each file with colored areas, just like a Sankey diagram. This is a common approach to side-by-side comparison that helps you identify the important parts of each file.
P4Merge also provides image comparison, syntax highlighting, and file revision history if you use it with a P4 suite.
download:Helix P4 Diff and Merge (Free)
3. It can't be compared.
Beyond Compare is a powerful and configurable tool for comparing and merging files. The application maintains a balance between features and performance with an easy-to-use interface.
As with most modern file comparison applications, Beyond Compare can show differences between images or directory structures, as well as files.
The app uses a familiar style of highlighting differences by font and character, but you can customize a lot of its behavior. The color scheme, comparison rules, syntax highlighting, and many other features can be configured.
Beyond Compare integrates with several third parties including Dropbox, Google Drive, and S3. You can use these to perform remote file comparisons just as easily as you can perform local comparisons.
download:Beyond Compare (from $35; free trial available)
4. Deltawalker
DeltaWalker is a visual compare and merge tool with an easy-to-use interface that uses just a few menu buttons. It relies more on visual parameters to help you find differences. It supports Office files, Java archives, ZIP, XML, and more. You can even use DeltaWalker to compare two PDF files.
The application integrates with other applications via the CLI, including SourceTree, Visual Studio, and DreamWeaver. The vertical colored bar in the right panel displays a summary with a thumbnail visual map of all the differences. This is useful for longer files or those with many differences.
You can export the file comparison report in HTML format or in the standard debug format. The latter format contains the differences between one or more pairs of different files, which is useful for application developers.
download:DeltaWalker (from $39.95; free trial available)
5. Araxis integration
Araxis Merge is a sophisticated merge and merge tool. It works with a wide range of file formats, including text files, Office files, and PDF files. This makes the application suitable for many creative professionals.
Araxis Merge clearly highlights changed lines and uses color coding to separate change types, such as changes, insertions, and deletions. The status bar displays a summary of these changes.
The interface allows you to create tags to indicate which lines you have modified. You can add a bookmark to remind yourself or place a comment to jot down important information. This is great for files that contain many separate changes.
You can also drag and drop text blocks into either panel to edit the corresponding file. Araxis Merge analyzes and saves changes in the background, so you can undo the result at any time.
download:Araxis Merge (from $129; free trial available)