Likelihood to Recommend Beyond Compare is extremely good at the task of comparisons, whether that is text file comparisons or folder comparisons. It does a great job of easily highlighting the differences for users, and giving them the option of merging (in the case of text files) or synchronizing (in the case of folders.) In either case, no one on my team has ever had any reason to reach for another different tool.
Read full review It is mainly because of its features and reliability. Even when dealing with large drives, after the analysis step, it can identify the changes that occurred between the backup or synchronization drive and the master drive and presents to the use the choices of what should be done about the changes. The user can accept the changes or tweak which the backup or synchronization will do. The SW will remember those decisions for future activities on the same drives.
Read full review Pros Folder diffing. It allows you to see differences in deeply nested folder structures. File diffing. It allows you to see differences in files no matter their complexity. Diffing rules. It allows you to set rules to include/exclude files, folders and lines from your comparison. Read full review Quickly analyzes the drives and compares files and dates to give a complete picture Gives you complete control over what to do with files that are similar but my not be matching. (same name, different size or date) Read full review Cons For date formatting discrepancies the software does not automatically mark the dates as equivalent; for instance ‘2019/10/15’ vs. ‘15-OCT-2019’. This would be considered a difference. The columns/report must be ordered similarly. If extra data is available in one file, it should be removed or extra rows will be marked as differences. For spreadsheet comparison, the user must save the file on the proper tab and then “recompare” within the tool. There is no way to switch between sheets in the software. Read full review Can't sync to Sharepoint 2016 at this time. Which is a problem since we are on 2016 already. Read full review Usability Again, given the intuitive nature of this program, there is barely any learning curve needed. It is simple, reliable, accurate, and just one of those tools you always have with you and rarely think about until you don't have it. Then it is a case of OMG what was I thinking? This program is just very easy to use, and that makes it more valuable to me than some of my other software tools that cost significantly more.
Read full review Support Rating I have never needed support for this product other than learning how to use a new feature I was not familiar with. User forums and user groups that have used this product for their own purposes have always sufficed for anything that I needed help using with the product. Some of the features could be a little better outlined, but overall very easy to use.
Read full review Alternatives Considered We've tried many:
Code Compare , Meld, UltraCompare, and WinMerge. None of them have the depth of features and speed to handle the work we throw at Beyond Compare. The multi-tabbed interface allows us to sync multiple servers at the same time. It understands multiple file types, metadata, and encodings. It's the best tool for the job.
Read full review For reliability, GoodSync is beyond comparison. Some of the other tools I tried either fail through the backup/synchronization process, leaving one with unknown status of what has been backed up and what has not, wasting an inordinate amount of time because one has to repeat the whole process. Goodsync, even if it stops because of power glitches can easily pick up where it left after performing the analysis
Read full review Return on Investment It's made it quick and easy to compare and synchronize directories when restoring a backup or copying code from one environment to another one. There are times when it would be a painstaking task to manually compare or sync two different directories, but BeyondCompare made it a trivial task. Read full review This has saved many hours of work because occasionally the flash drives die, break, fail or get left behind somewhere. The time to get all the files and software back in working order would take a day or two. By keeping several of them identical with GoodSync, work goes on without missing a beat. Read full review ScreenShots