Text Diff Online
Open two files or paste two texts to see what changed, line by line, with the changed words marked. Side by side or inline, with next and previous change and a .patch to save. No account and no upload.
Folder Compare & Folder Diff for VS Code and Cursor, free
- Compares two whole folders: changed, only left, only right and same, with size and time per file. 10,000 files a side take 1 to 2 seconds.
- Double-click a file for its diff: text in the VS Code diff editor, Word as Markdown, Excel and CSV as rows, PDF as text, other files as hex.
- Copy to right or left, delete to the Trash, export as Markdown, CSV or HTML, and compare a folder with a Git branch or tag.
Optional Zovo Pro, USD 19 once: sync folders, a report of document changes, and three-way compare and merge. 3 free tries for each.
Drop two files here
or
Any text: code, config, logs, CSV, Markdown, subtitles. Pick both files at once, or one and then the other. Up to 50 MB a file.
Open this in VS Code or Cursor
The free Folder Compare extension compares two whole folders inside VS Code and Cursor: Left and Right trees with one status per file, a double-click opens the right diff for each file (code and text in the VS Code diff editor, Word as Markdown, Excel and CSV as rows, PDF as text, other files as hex), plus copy, delete, export and compare with a Git branch.
Free, MIT license. About Folder Compare for VS Code.
Zovo Pro
Sync folders, a report of document changes, and three-way merge. Zovo Pro, USD 19 once.
In the Folder Compare extension, Zovo Pro syncs two folders (both ways, or mirror one side, after a full plan of every copy and delete), writes one Markdown report of the text changes inside every changed Word, Excel, CSV, Parquet and PDF file, and runs a three-way compare and merge from a common base. Each Pro tool works 3 times for free. One payment covers the Pro tools in 22 Zovo extensions. Everything that is free stays free.
After a card payment you get a key on the page. With GitHub Sponsors you sign in from the extension. Details on the Zovo Pro page.
Related tools
- Hex Viewer & Binary Viewer on the VS Code Marketplace (also on Open VSX). Opens any file as hex, edits bytes and compares two files, even files of many GB.
- DOCX Viewer & DOC Viewer. Shows Word files as pages in VS Code, with a dark mode.
- Hex Viewer for VS Code. Opens any file as hex in VS Code, edits bytes and compares two files.
- PDF Viewer with dark mode. Reads PDFs in VS Code with dark pages, search and an outline.
- Hex Viewer Online, free in your browser.
- CSV Viewer Online, free in your browser.
- DOCX Viewer Online, free in your browser.
Questions
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. The page reads both files inside this tab and compares them there. Its Content Security Policy sets connect-src to none, so the page cannot send your text anywhere. The diff code (jsdiff) loads from cdn.jsdelivr.net at a pinned version, and your browser checks the hash of every file before running it. Your files are never sent there.
How do I compare two files?
Choose both files at once in the file dialog, or drop them on the page together. The older file goes on the left; Swap sides turns it around. You can also open one file, then the other with Open file above the right box, or paste text into either box. The diff updates as you type.
What do the colors mean?
Red lines with a minus sign were removed from the original, green lines with a plus sign were added in the changed text. A changed line shows its old and new version next to each other, with the words that changed marked inside the line. Unchanged lines around each change stay visible, and longer unchanged runs fold into a button that shows them.
Can it ignore whitespace, case or line endings?
Yes. Ignore whitespace treats lines as equal when they differ only in spaces and tabs, Ignore case when they differ only in upper and lower case, and Ignore line endings (on by default) when one file uses CRLF and the other LF. The page says when the line endings differ, and when a file has no newline at the end.
What is in the .patch file?
A unified diff with 3 lines of context around each change, the format of diff -u and git diff. It is made in your browser from the lines you see and goes to your downloads. You can apply it with patch or git apply.
How big can the files be?
Up to 50 MB and a million lines a side. Lines that are the same at the start and the end are skipped before the diff, and the lining up runs in small steps so the tab stays responsive. If two texts differ in too many places to line up within 6 seconds, the page shows the changed middle part as removed and added lines and says so. The view draws the first 20,000 rows; the .patch has every change.
Can it compare Word, Excel, PDF or binary files?
No, this page compares plain text and tells you when a file is binary, Word, Excel or PDF. The free Folder Compare extension for VS Code opens Word files as Markdown, Excel and CSV files as rows and PDF files as text side by side, and shows other files as hex lines around every range of bytes that differs.
What is free and what is Zovo Pro?
Everything on this page is free. In the Folder Compare extension, comparing folders, every file diff, filters, copy, delete, export, the Git compare and saved compares are free with no limit. Syncing folders, the report of document changes and three-way merge are Zovo Pro, with 3 free tries each. One USD 19 payment covers the Pro tools in every Zovo extension.