Meld icon
Meld icon

Meld

 414 likes

Meld is an open-source, Python-based visual diff and merge tool that allows you to compare and edit files, supports syntax highlighting, and integrates with version control systems like CVS, Subversion, and Mercurial for dynamic diff updates. It works offline, is lightweight, portable, and ad-free.

File comparison

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Country of Origin

  • AU flagAustralia

Platforms

  • Windows
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • Python
  • GTK
3.8 / 5 Avg rating (25)
414likes
27comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Lightweight

Features

  1.  Compare Source Code
  2.  Folder Comparison
  3.  Syntax Highlighting
  4.  Comparing folders
  5.  3 way merge
  6.  File Comparison
  7.  Ad-free
  8.  Works Offline
  9.  No registration required
  10.  One-click merging
  11.  Portable
  12.  Real Time Comparison

 Tags

  • merge-folders
  • merging

Meld News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

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Recent activities

  • App icon
    POX added Meld as alternative to Pretty Diff
    9 days ago
  • App icon
    TrustFish added Meld as alternative to Diff Checker
    2 months ago
  • braky updated Meld
    2 months ago
  • pharoabox and pongo liked Meld
    3 months ago
  • Maoholguin updated Meld
    5 months ago
  • danielmichel rated Meld  
    6 months ago
  • danielmichel, thejfex and KGerring liked Meld
    6 months ago
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Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Comment summary: Meld is praised for its visually appealing interface and ease of use, with users appreciating its free and open-source nature. However, it receives criticism for its performance, particularly with large files and directories, and limited functionality compared to alternatives like KDiff3 or Beyond Compare. Meld is cross-platform, but the Windows and Mac versions have usability issues. It lacks official MacOS support and experiences slow performance and occasional crashes, especially with large datasets.
Top Positive Comment
nabilredmann
Mar 26, 2019
2

Visually pretty ok. Functionality superb. Folder, files, merging - works like a charm. You MUST enter the preferences and turn on the features other tools have enabled by default. The color themes are not as good. is able to view git changes (can you commit and pull?) and can create patches.

Would love to see a more windows native theme - and a better color theme with more color styles (syntax is not colored with enough differences).

Diff bars are on the outside --- love to see them in the middle :)

Top Negative Comment
dukenukem7d
May 22, 2019
4

The interface is more basic compared to Beyond Compare and it's not possible to paste the path to compare files and folders

needmoremusic
Aug 3, 2023
0

Works OK if you're not doing anything too complicated or comparing anything too large. Not recommended for checking the state of your long-term large-data backup. Even just comparing a single music file takes absolute ages, and if it's entire folders full of them you might see random crashes or freezes, and it might even slow down the whole system. I suicided some neurons using it for a few days, but after a while I couldn't take it anymore and installed BeyondCompare for the sheer speed.

The major thing Meld has on BeyondCompare is it can copy from one side to the other without throwing mysterious errors if it's not started with sudo on Linux. Other than that it quickly becomes unbearable.

Sorin Sbarnea
May 25, 2023
-1

Sadly Meld in 2023 still does not have an official MacOS build and the fact that the unsupported build are not signed makes it impractical to use. With free Github Actions, the developers cannot claim that they don't have access for a mac for CI/CD purposes.

TBayAreaPat
Mar 29, 2023
0

Meld is similar to the program Diffinity, but on an average seems to lack the refinement. No Context Menu choice is a big drawback. Unlike Diffinity, I have an immediate urge to change settings.. The text shows big. The colors a bit louder. Very direct messages that must be clicked away.. such as when 2 files are identical. It does have an advantage.. it will wrap words.

mmv
Nov 22, 2021
0

Crossplatform, Free, Opensource, Highlight line difference.

Nuncio Bitis
Nov 3, 2021
1

Meld is OK for comparing files and directories only. What it doesn't do anymore is allow you to copy changes from one side to the other. For a few years now the "Copy to Left" and "Copy to Right" buttons have been greyed out on every system I've tried it on (Linux, Windows, Mac)

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7 of 27 comments

What is Meld?

Meld is a visual diff and merge tool. You can compare two or three files and edit them in place (diffs update dynamically). You can compare two or three folders and launch file comparisons. You can browse and view a working copy from popular version control systems such such as CVS, Subversion, Bazaar-ng and Mercurial. Written with Python and GTK.

Note: There are ports to Mac but the app doesn't "officially" run on Mac.

Official Links

Meld information

  • Developed by

    AU flagKai Willadsen
  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-2.0) and Free product.
  • Rating

    Average rating of 3.8 (25 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    48 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

File ManagementDevelopment

Our users have written 27 comments and reviews about Meld, and it has gotten 414 likes

Meld was added to AlternativeTo by Killy on Apr 8, 2009 and this page was last updated May 6, 2025.