Diffchecker vs icdiff

Diffchecker compares text, code, and data in a browser or offline with its desktop app, highlighting additions, removals, and edits. Text comparisons can use side-by-side or unified views, adjustable precision, custom ignore rules, syntax highlighting, real-time editing, and change merging. Listed comparison options also include documents, images, spreadsheets, and folders, with features such as OCR, redlines, formula detection, and batch comparison. Basic is free, but some tools have monthly use limits: unified view and real-time editing each allow five tries, while character-level differences and merge changes each allow ten. Pro + Desktop costs $15 a month per user and includes offline comparisons with desktop apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Legal costs $20 a month per user and adds iManage integration and comparison-setting profiles. Enterprise costs $40 a month per user with annual billing, and includes SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, and dedicated support. Browser comparisons stay in the browser unless saved and shared; Desktop comparisons run locally. The site states browser traffic is TLS-encrypted and its security program is ISO/IEC 27001 certified.

icdiff is a free, open-source command-line program for comparing two files in a side-by-side terminal view. It emphasizes small changes within existing lines that may be difficult to spot with standard diff, rather than replacing diff for every situation. Users can highlight changes with foreground or background colors and customize the color map. Display options include line numbers, labels, whole-file output, whitespace highlighting, line truncation, and recursive directory comparison. The tool works with Git, Subversion, and Mercurial and supports two-way comparisons, not three-way merges. Installation methods listed by the maker include pip, apt, Homebrew, AUR, and Nix. It runs on Linux and macOS as a command-line tool that can be placed on the PATH. Input and output default to UTF-8, with command-line encoding options. Screen-width autodetection is Unix-only, and exclude-lines cannot be combined with line numbers.