Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Beyond Compare

Beyond Compare

Overview

What is Beyond Compare?

Beyond Compare from Scooter Software headquartered in Madison is a utility for comparing different version of documents and seeing the differences. It also allows changes to be merged and synchronized.

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

BeyondCompare is a powerful tool that is widely used in software development organizations for code diffing and file comparison. Users …
Continue reading

Beyond Compare

10 out of 10
January 18, 2020
Incentivized
As far as I know, Beyond Compare is used in the Engineering Department. It makes our life easier to compare multiple files or directories. …
Continue reading

Beyond Compare Review

9 out of 10
October 04, 2019
Incentivized
This product is mainly used by a select number of people at my company, those that have a specific need to look at configurations for …
Continue reading

Gets the job done

8 out of 10
October 04, 2019
Incentivized
We use it to compare files and make sure they match exactly in terms of content and format. This allows us to be confident when we make a …
Continue reading
Read all reviews
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is Beyond Compare?

Beyond Compare from Scooter Software headquartered in Madison is a utility for comparing different version of documents and seeing the differences. It also allows changes to be merged and synchronized.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

15 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is SonarQube?

SonarQube is a code quality and vulnerability solution for development teams that integrates with CI/CD pipelines to ensure the software you produce is secure, reliable, and maintainable.

What is Codacy?

Codacy automates code reviews and monitors code quality on every commit and pull request reporting back the impact of every commit or pull request, issues concerning code style, best practices, security, and many others. It monitors changes in code coverage, code duplication and code complexity.…

Return to navigation

Product Demos

AsGoodAsLove- "Beyond Compare" (demo)/c.5.2018.APG

YouTube

VirtZine #54 - "Beyond Compare Software Demo and Cloud Backup"

YouTube

BEYOND COMPARE (MEGATON)

YouTube
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Beyond Compare?

Beyond Compare Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Beyond Compare from Scooter Software headquartered in Madison is a utility for comparing different version of documents and seeing the differences. It also allows changes to be merged and synchronized.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.2.

The most common users of Beyond Compare are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(48)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

BeyondCompare is a powerful tool that is widely used in software development organizations for code diffing and file comparison. Users rely on BeyondCompare to compare files and folders of any format, extension, or size quickly and easily. With its long-standing reputation and over 20 years of experience, it has become a trusted choice for developers.

BeyondCompare simplifies the process of locating misplaced files or documents and provides a side-by-side viewer/comparer that displays various conditions such as same, orphans, newer, missing, etc. This functionality is highly appreciated by users as it helps them identify differences and navigate directly to them.

The tool offers a wide range of choices, including information, location, duplicates, and newest. This versatility makes it suitable for various tasks such as comparing directories between development and production servers in web design and development projects. Additionally, users in web coding, data entry, and graphic design departments rely on BeyondCompare for comparing code, spreadsheets, and combining documents from multiple sources.

Furthermore, BeyondCompare serves as a reliable source code diff tool that eliminates manual work and reduces the risk of human error. It is often preferred over the default mergetool utility included with Git for handling difficult merges in the development team. The tool is also used for recursively comparing directory structures and merging differing files into a single file.

BeyondCompare's usefulness extends beyond software development. It is commonly employed for operational tasks like comparing various formats such as plain text, folders, and structured data. Users appreciate its ability to look at configurations, validate registry settings, determine differences between files of any type, troubleshoot web-based applications by comparing configuration files, compare SQL code and DDL, and perform data validation tasks.

Additionally, BeyondCompare offers the capability to compare image differences, making it a versatile tool for ensuring content and format consistency during code comparison or other scenarios where visual comparison is required.

Overall, BeyondCompare has established itself as an essential tool for developers and professionals in various disciplines, facilitating efficient file comparison and code review processes while minimizing errors and saving valuable time.

Folder diffing feature: Users have found the folder diffing feature in Beyond Compare to be extremely helpful, allowing them to easily see differences in deeply nested folder structures. Several reviewers specifically mentioned this as a standout feature of the software.

Flexible diffing rules: The flexibility of the diffing rules in Beyond Compare has been praised by users. They appreciate being able to set rules to include or exclude files, folders, and lines from their comparisons. This customization option has received positive feedback from multiple reviewers.

Quick and accurate identification of differences: Reviewers have mentioned that one of the strong points of Beyond Compare is its ability to quickly and accurately identify differences between files. This efficient comparison process has been appreciated by several users who value time-saving features in the software.

Syntax Highlighting Needs Improvement: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the syntax highlighting feature of the software, stating that it is basic and requires additional installation or customization. They mention that the lack of precision in rules, attributes, and names can be problematic.

Outdated User Interface: Several reviewers have mentioned their disappointment with the old-looking user interface of the software. They feel that a more modern interface would be preferred to enhance user experience.

Performance Issues with Large Files: Many users have reported that the software can be slow when comparing folders with many files or large file sizes. This has caused frustration for those working on projects involving extensive data analysis or development tasks.

Users have made several recommendations for Beyond Compare based on their experiences with the tool. The three most common recommendations are as follows:

  1. Many users recommend Beyond Compare for comparing and merging code, as well as validating code with earlier versions. They find it effective in identifying differences in code and believe it is worth the price.

  2. Another common recommendation is to use Beyond Compare for general file comparison needs. Users find it easy to learn and use, and they believe it surpasses other tools they have tried in terms of functionality.

  3. Users also suggest integrating Beyond Compare into version management tools and text editors. They find it beneficial in automating tasks and reducing manual work, making it a valuable tool for developers working with Microsoft Office tools.

Overall, users find Beyond Compare useful for a variety of comparison tasks, such as comparing files, folders, images, and plain text. They recommend trying out the free trial before purchasing and encourage comparing it against its competition to determine which tool best suits individual needs.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-19 of 19)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Bushra Mansoor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Best for programmers, engineers to quickly compare different versions of the code before merging to master.
Helpful to work with large variety of file extensions. (i.e. txt, binary, excel etc.)
Not really helpful for managers/senior team members who are most likely aiming to have a report or summary of the overall changes.

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's simple to use and focused on one job, but it does it effectively! In my opinion, it is suitable for system administrators who have to compare scripting files and folders, but also software developers.
January 18, 2020

Beyond Compare

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Beyond Compare not only helps to solve business/ work problems, but it's also helpful in day-to-day work by providing you a lot of tools. As an example, it could even compare images.
October 04, 2019

Beyond Compare Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
File compare between configurations of differing systems is where this program shines and can reduce what would normally take many minutes or hours to show exactly where the differences are located. It is especially nice if you don't centrally manage servers to identify registry settings remotely on two servers and not have to expand all the keys manually but go right to where the problem is located.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Any programming team needs a tool like this. I've tried many, many, file diff tools, and this is the best one I've ever used, hands-down. It has been continuously improved over the years, and now supports new standards like Amazon S3. Creative teams (photography, video editing) will also find this useful. Web developers who need to sync between development, test, and production will use this often.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Anthony Aziz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BeyondCompare is useful anytime two pieces of data need to be compared. It's a tool in my set that I use after some text manipulation or regex to find differences in log files, hard-to-spot changes in large XML files, or just comparing code snippets.
Richard Davies | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's great for:
  • Comparing code between a development environment and a QA or production environment.
  • Comparing a directory with a copy or another version of that same directory (such as a restored backup).
  • Comparing two different versions of a code file.
  • Syncing changes between two files or directories.
It's not great for:
  • Situations where one or more sources don't exist on a local file system (such as comparing different versions of a file in a source code repository).
  • When you want to be able to do comparisons within another program, such as a programming IDE (i.e. Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc).
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It absolutely shines when it comes to comparing the textual content of two or more files. It also does well when comparing the contents of two or more directories (folders), synchronizing folders merging the content of multiple folders and merging two or more text files. I haven't actually done table compares, hex compares, MP3 compares, picture compares, or version compares, but if these work as well as the other features, then they are simple to use, intuitive, and quick. The ability to compare registries (a Windows construct for those who don't know what that is) has made my support work so much simpler. Great tool!
Mathieu Gaouette | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BeyondCompare is a really nice tool that should be used for professionals that do change management. Senior technical staff that revise other people's scripts will also benefit from such a tool.

The cost of the software makes it less appealing for large distribution in a company. Free alternatives such as WinMerge might be considered for other [types] of users that probably don't need as much functionality.
Cristian Bodnarasec | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BeyondCompare is the best file comparison tool we have used in our experience. It can compare any text format and even binaries. The folder comparison is a huge feature that helps a lot the software developers to debug/find issues in the code. BeyondCompare has proved to be much better also than the in-built file comparison from the file versioning tools we have used: VSS, SVN, SourceTree(Git).
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I love to quickly paste code or DDL directly into the text editor. Comparing thousands of lines is as quick as the blink of an eye. I have never figured out the folder or image compare. I'd like to see a video of how those are supposed to work.
Hernán Silva | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BeyondCompare is a superb tool not only for developers but also for power users of any kind. It works very well across operating systems for comparing all kinds of files and folders, especially code and media files.

I usually throw files with thousands (4000+) of lines or folders with thousands (3000+) to compare and the program will do it quickly.

I really don't think there is a scenario where BC is not the right tool for the task.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BeyondCompare is great for handling file differences for a large variety of file types. It is indispensable as a merge tool for version control systems, especially when dealing with difficult merges. And it also serves as an archive utility as it allows for the synchronization of folders.
Ralph Vanore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
it is perfect for comparing programming and development code. It handles many types of these files, .html, .php, .js, etc. You can even compare two InDesign files for differences. We deal with large amounts of XML data and BC easily helps us look at them and combine their contents eliminating any duplications.
Return to navigation