Compare text files or entire directory hierarchies, export and apply patches, and perform non-destructive find and replace operations on text files.




Meld is described as 'Open-source tool for dynamic file and folder comparisions, syntax highlighting, offline functionality, and version control integration' and is a very popular Diff Tool in the file management category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Meld for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Web-based and BSD apps. The best Meld alternative is WinMerge, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Meld are Beyond Compare, KDiff3, P4Merge and Araxis Merge.
Compare text files or entire directory hierarchies, export and apply patches, and perform non-destructive find and replace operations on text files.






Free, open-source diff and merge tool for macOS and Linux — WinMerge's battle-tested engine with a native Qt 6 interface.






DiffALL compares any two media files and pinpoints every difference. Upload expected and actual — video, audio, images, subtitles (SRT/VTT), or text/JSON — and get a similarity score in seconds.



Free AI-powered text and file comparison tool. Compare PDF, Word, Excel, JSON, YAML, CSV, XML and Markdown online. End-to-end encryption, real-time collaboration, AI explanations. No installation needed.



Pretty Diff is a language aware code comparison tool, beautifier, minifier, and parser for a variety of web oriented languages.

Offers free folder or snapshot comparison on Windows, identifies added, removed, modified, and unchanged files, provides detailed file inspection, supports light and dark themes, and enables Pro features like snapshot creation, CSV and HTML report export for sharing.



Diffract is a purpose-built desktop diff tool that handles far more than plain text. A single app compares text, binary (hex view), images, PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, ZIP/tar archives, and Git commits - all in a multi-tab interface.




NextDiff is a free file and folder comparison program for Windows that highlights differences between text files, source code, logs, and folders in a side-by-side view.

Diff Checker compares two snippets of text, source code, JSON or full files and highlights every change side-by-side. Everything runs locally inside the browser extension—no data ever leaves the user’s machine—so it suits security-sensitive workflows.



