WinMerge icon
WinMerge icon

WinMerge

 546 likes

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.

File Comparison

License model

  • Free • Open Source

Application types

Country of Origin

  • US flagUnited States

Platforms

  • Windows
  • PortableApps.com
  • Wine
3-way File Comparison
Folder Comparison Results
+4
Folder Compare Tree View
WinMerge alternatives  
4.6 / 5 Avg rating (14)
546likes
23comments
64alternatives
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features
  1.  Folder Comparison
  2.  Diff detection
  3.  File Comparison
  4.  Merge Files
  5.  Image-Diff
  6.  Shell integration
  7.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
  8.  Ad-free
  9.  Portable
  10.  Directory sync
  11.  Compare Text

 Tags

  • merge-folders
  • compare-xlsx
  • compare-pptx
  • compare-pdf
  • compare-docx
  • merging

WinMerge News & Activities

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WinMerge information

  • Developed by

    US flagThingamahoochie Software

  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-2.0) and Free product.

  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.6 (14 ratings)

  • Alternatives

    64 alternatives listed

  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

File Management, Development

GitHub repository

  •  7,514 Stars
  •  867 Forks
  •  431 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jun 17, 2025 
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Popular alternatives

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Our users have written 23 comments and reviews about WinMerge, and it has gotten 546 likes

WinMerge was added to AlternativeTo by Andrea on Apr 6, 2009 and this page was last updated Feb 17, 2021.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Comment summary: WinMerge is praised for its functionality, being user-friendly and useful for file comparison, but some users mention it lacks features such as 3-way comparisons and difference reporting found in paid tools like Beyond Compare. Despite being free and undergoing recent updates, some users find it slower and less updated compared to competitors. Its ability to run on different platforms, including Ubuntu, and its active development are appreciated.
Top Positive Comment
munteanzeno
★
★
★
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★
May 13, 2020
3

3 pane compare. Extremely useful for resolving conflicts when programming.

Hexaae
★
★
★
★
★
Aug 12, 2023
0

Decent compare tool, but as of today Diffinity (free) is much better.

TBayAreaPat
★
★
★
★
★
Oct 20, 2022
0

A great program for those who want to get into intensive file merging. I do, however, think that there should be a simplified method for merely appending one file to another.

BJ
★
★
★
★
★
Apr 20, 2021
0

Just needed to find why two folders had different qty of items. WM found the "missing" files in a couple of seconds. Easy-peasy.

hced
★
★
★
★
★
Dec 1, 2020
0

Versatile and fast! Fires up in milliseconds.

Chris
★
★
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Jul 28, 2020
0

Works well with comparing folders and files.

RemovedUser
★
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★
Apr 13, 2020
0

Very good app, unfortunately it doesn't have the capability to output difference reports like BC. In most engineering environments this is a must.

[Edited by NuncioBitis, April 13]

Show more comments
7 of 23 comments

What is WinMerge?

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. 32 languages. With the xdocdiff-Plugin you even can compare Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and some more files.

Since version 2.16 it's a a mirror release of a fork WinMerge JP icon WinMerge JP.

Features Visual differencing and merging of text files. Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap. Handles DOS, Unix and Mac text file formats. Unicode support (as of version 2.8.0, UTF-8 files are correctly read without a BOM). Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes. Location pane shows map of files compared. Highlights differences inside lines in file compare. Can also generate HTML report with differences highlighted. Regular expression based file filters in directory compare allow excluding and including items. Moved lines detection in file compare. Ability to ignore whitespace and letter case changes. Creates patch files. Shell integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions). Rudimentary Visual SourceSafe and Rational ClearCase integration. Archive file support using 7-Zip icon 7-Zip . Plug-ins. Language localization via plain-text PO files. Online manual and installed HTML help manual. Generates normal, context, and unified patches.

Official Links

AppStores & Other Links