Uncle Rick's Guide to
Visual HTML Diff Products
These are products that can show you the differences between sets of HTML files. Most of them can display two HTML files side-by-side for comparison, with various kinds of highlighting of differences. All run on the Windows platform. Most are ho-hum but functional, and some are much more expensive than others for what they can do. A small number are OK for the money; some are way overpriced for their functionality.
Why this page? I was looking for a program to do diffs on HTML files and be able to show the HTML visually as well showing as the source code. What I really wanted seems to be beyond the state of current products. I was searching for something that could compare two HTML files, side-by-side, at the source code level, but only highlight differences at the token level, ignoring line wrapping and stuff like that which isn't significant to the HTML parser. Nobody quite gets to the level of perfection I was hoping for, but a few of these programs are livable. Here is a little mock-up of what I was looking for (but it would stretch them out to coordinate the lines or something like that):
Only two programs came close enough to be worth having a look at: HTMLMatch, the first one in the list below, and CS-HTMLDiff, the second one in the list below.
This list isn't comprehensive, but gives a synopsis of the products that I personally downloaded and tried out. I'm a programmer myself, and I'm just giving you just my gut reactions. I tested on a Windows XP machine, your mileage may vary, you're on your own, etc. I don't update this page on any particular schedule, but once in a while I may update it if I hear about a change in one of the products.
Note: Just so you know: I don't update this page very often, and don't have lots of time to look at new products. Last minor update Sept 26, 2007, but I haven't looked at most of these products in a long time.
http://www.htmlmatch.com
"HTMLMatch"
This program is pretty good. It handles side-by-side diffs for source level and
text level (meaning, the text that the user sees), and also does visual diffing
with cross-through and highlighting. The side-by-side source diff is pretty
reasonable, but isn't quite perfect yet. However,
the side-by-side source diff mode has a one-liner window at the bottom that can
highlight intra-line differences when you click on lines in the main window, so
that's fairly useful for pinpointing differences. UI is OK, and in 1.2 (beta) is much
improved. It does have drag/drop UI. It can diff one file on the web and one
local, or both on the web, or both local, which is very cool. This program is probably the best
overall value, and it's shareware, with a 30-day fully-featured trial. These developers are also responsive! They saw this page,
which I never advertised anywhere, and asked me to give some detailed feedback.
So I ran it and gave them all the gorey details. They went off and took it to
heart. I got a look at their new HTML Match 1.2 (beta version), and
it's much improved over the previous version. It's now really quite
usable, so if I were you I'd wait for it. At this price, it may be the only
such product worth buying. Update Sept 2007: they are now
on version 1.2.9 with UTF- support, and the price is lower.
Price: $27.95
http://www.componentsoftware.com/products/HTMLdiff/
"CS-HTMLDiff for Windows"
Handles HTML diffs with cross-through and highlighting.
Shows the HTML source or visual display with changes highlighted inline.
No side-by-side diffing, which is a big minus. If you don't need to look at the
source HTML but just care about visual changes, this would be an OK product.
This product works OK with only a few anomalies in what it thinks are
differences. UI is a bit clunky and too modal for my taste. No drag/drop, and I
couldn't copy/paste out of the filename fields, which was odd. This program can diff files on the web
and on disk, both. Looking at the UI, you'd think both files must be local or
both must be on the web, but there's a monumentally unintuitive feature that
allows you to type "http://blahblah" as a "filename" in "file" mode, and have it
go to the web! That works but, is really un-obvious UI design. They should get
rid of the mode and scan the name to see if it's a filename or a URL.
Price: $100 (5-pack license is $300)
http://www.allyoursoftware.com/en/compare/index.html
"Compare and Merge 1.4"
Claims usability to resolve HTML diffs, but really not very.
UI is OK. Pretty usable and supports drag/drop.
No visual HTML diffing, compares as text.
Price: $20 shareware
http://www.softinterface.com
"DiffDoc"
Works OK. Handles HTML, Word, Text. Shows a lot of weird RTF
source tags and crap in the merged files. Yucky.
Side-by-side and merged views available, but poorly
implemented. UI really sucks: awkward & baffling; no drag/drop. Overpriced.
Price: Standard $150 (5-pack license is $350)
Pro $350 (handles MS Word diffing)
http://www.codepedia.com/zone16/cat654/23599.htm
http://www.scootersoftware.com
"Beyond Compare 2.0.1"
Simple side-by-side diff. Typical UI. No drag/drop.
No visual HTML diffing.
Price: $30 shareware
http://www.htmlcompare.com
"HTML Compare"
Demo doesn't handle files over 10k which made it useless for me to test.
Shows the highlighted diffs in a browser window, so it has the capability of
providing a visual-level diff, but only merged view available, no side-by-side.
Way overpriced.
Price: $150
http://www.drasbek.com
http://www.bluechillies.com/details/8681.html
"Diff'n'Merge V 1.3"
Ran the CPU to 99% and didn't work the first time (selecting
is really awkward). On second launch it bombed when trying
to compare HTML files. I call it unusable.
Price: $40
http://www.foldermatch.com
"FolderMatch"
Comprehensive tool. The diff part is OK; side-by-side, and
it contains many other tools. Installs some crap
into C:\Windows directory -- yuck! No visual HTML diffing.
(They also have a comprehensive list of competitor products which is really nice.)
Price: $35 (2-9 pack is $30 each)
http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.html
"Araxis Merge 6.0"
Simple side-by-side diff. Typical UI. No drag/drop.
No visual HTML diffing. A bit overpriced.
Price: $125
http://www.guiffy.com/features.html
"Guiffy 5.0"
Demo requires registration; they send temporary reg key.
Runs OK. Simple side-by-side diff of text files. In Java.
Oddity: have to hit the "compare" button twice. Possibly the
cheapest of the higher priced products.
No visual HTML diffing.
Price: $75 (3-user license pack $150)
http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff
"Examdiff 1.6"
Simple side-by-side diff. Typical UI.
Supports drag/drop. No Visual HTML diffing. For free, it's a good value for a
simple side-by-side differ; for $35 the one below might be a little better.
Price: Free (but the Pro version is $35)
http://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp.htm
"Compare It!"
Simple side-by-side diff. Typical UI. No drag/drop.
No visual HTML diffing. A good bargain at this price.
Price: $23
http://www.formulasoft.com
http://www.softandco.com/Development/Utilities/a/7244/Active%20File%20Compare.html
Simple side-by-side diff. Typical UI. No drag/drop.
No visual HTML diffing. The "HTML diff report" is useless.
Supports HTML and other programming language syntax highlighting, but doesn't
use that to advantage in providing diffs.
Price: $30
Last update September 26, 2007