Compare Suite vs Diffract

Compare Suite is a Windows file comparison tool for office professionals, developers, and webmasters. It compares Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, web pages, and plain text, and can produce reports with comments attached to differences. Spreadsheet comparisons show absolute or percentage changes in numbers and date differences in days. PDF comparison extracts text, so scanned PDFs need OCR before their text can be compared. The software can compare and synchronize local or remote folders, compare files over FTP, and inspect ZIP or RAR archives without unpacking them. Command-line automation and integrations with third-party document management systems and tools are also listed. The maker says processing happens locally and opened files remain on the PC. The free Light plan covers basic file comparison; paid one-time licenses are $70, paid once for Standard and $140, paid once for Professional. A fully functional 30-day evaluation is available. Windows 10 or Windows 7 is listed as a minimum requirement; Word and Excel comparisons require Microsoft Word and Excel, and Office 365 is not supported.

Diffract is a desktop tool for comparing code, folders, documents and binary files on Linux, macOS and Windows. Text and code comparisons include syntax highlighting for more than 30 languages, word-level changes, moved-block detection and collapsible unchanged regions. Folder comparisons traverse directory trees, show added, removed and modified files, and allow inspection of file contents. The command-line interface supports standard, Myers and patience diff algorithms for scripts, Git hooks and CI pipelines. Pro adds three-way Git merge conflict resolution, document comparisons for PDF, Word and Excel, semantic code comparison, and Git history and commit browsing. The Free tier includes unlimited file and directory comparisons, desktop and CLI tools, three algorithms, and hex or binary comparison. The maker says comparisons run locally and files stay on the computer. Free is $0 forever and permits commercial use, but not redistribution. Pro costs $34, paid once per seat; its license key specifies a seat count and version ceiling, and includes all v1.x updates. A full refund can be requested within 30 days of purchase.