Visual Diff Tools Revisited

Jeff Atwood

11 Dec 2004 — 1 min read — Comments

Back in June, I mentioned that my favorite visual differencing tool was Araxis Merge. A co-worker recently recommended that I try out Beyond Compare, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and spent an hour playing with it. It’s definitely comparable to Araxis Merge. And in a lot of ways, it’s better. But the real kicker is this:

Araxis Merge single license: $129. 5 or more, $83 each
Beyond Compare single license: $30. 5 or more, $17 each

Fatality.

It’s better than Araxis Merge and it’s one-third the price! Beyond Compare is the kind of finely crafted software that inspires you to register it. Give the 30-day trial version a shot and I bet you’ll feel the same way.

BC not only matches Merge in terms of visual differencing features, but it also doubles as a kick ass project deployment tool. I like Unleashit, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

Because of the deep multiple license discount, we decided to buy five licenses for work. That’s still $44 less than one copy of Araxis Merge! If you also decide to register BC, don’t forget to download the filetype specific comparison plugins, too.

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