dhex vs REHex

dhex is a free hex editor for inspecting binary files and comparing two of them in diff mode. It uses a terminal interface built on ncurses and is listed for Linux and macOS; the maker also says it is known to run on HP-UX, FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X, IRIX, and Solaris. Search logs can help track changes between file iterations, and the editor supports themes that users can download or submit to the maker. Command-line search can find single words and quoted strings. The .dhexrc configuration file can set header colors, while a base-address option can help when loading partial memory dumps. A correlator introduced in version 0.64 can help match an object file to an executable for comparison. The maker provides downloads including version 0.69, listed as the latest update for the 0.6x branch and dated 19 January 2019. The maker warns that version 0.64 crashes at startup on some systems. dhex is free, with no free trial.

REHex is a free hex editor for reverse engineering and other work with binary data, available for Linux, macOS and Windows. It supports files larger than 1 TB, decodes integer and floating-point values, and displays machine-code disassembly inline. Users can compare whole files or selected regions side by side, map virtual addresses, and highlight or annotate byte ranges. Editing and analysis tools include bit editing, checksumming and bitmap visualization, along with common encodings such as ASCII, Unicode and ISO-8859-X. REHex imports and exports Intel HEX files. Binary Templates can annotate data automatically, while Lua scripting and plugins extend its functionality. Downloads include Windows installers and ZIP archives, a macOS DMG, and 32-bit and 64-bit Linux AppImages; packages are also documented for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, FreeBSD and openSUSE. The project identifies its license as GPL-2.0. The download page lists version 0.64.0, released on 2026-04-03, as the latest release. Bug reports and feature suggestions can be submitted as GitHub issues.