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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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

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

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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

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Product Demos

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

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

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BEYOND COMPARE (MEGATON)

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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).
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Comparisons

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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)
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Bushra Mansoor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Beyond Compare for daily use in order to quickly compare code files. Its one of the oldest and most mature tool available in the market. All of our engineering team rely on Beyond Compare when we need to have an overall comparison. The plus point of Beyond Compare is the support for Excel sheet comparison and binary file comparison.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my company, I develop software and sometimes I use BC to compare the source code of similar modules belonging to different software applications. So I can quickly evaluate the missing procedures in some applications and add or update them more quickly. Another use of BC is to evaluate similar XML record paths and find out which differences need to be corrected. BC is great for these types of problems. BC is fantastic because it can also compare the image differences!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've been a user of Beyond Compare (BC) for over 20 years. I use it nearly every day to compare files, folders, network drives. I search for a file and BC will ignore (when needed) folder structure making easy to locate misplaced files or documents. BC is a side to side viewer/comparer of names for anything on a drive. It is very visible, showing the same, orphans (left or right side), newer, missing, etc., all useful conditions. Information, location, duplicates, newest are among the many choices. Sessions are remembered. BC does such an excellent job, I've never had a need to reach for another "Beyond Compare" software. I know of nothing it does not do.
January 18, 2020

Beyond Compare

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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. And it is the best in the industry. It saves us a lot of time in the code review process and also in all the steps of the software development life cycle.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I utilize Beyond Compare for validation purposes - specifically our source systems’ data feed in comparison with the actual data stored within our data warehouse. This software offers a rudimentary solution for data comparison.
October 04, 2019

Beyond Compare Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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 system setup. It is extremely useful for looking at any file type to determine what the differences are and quickly pinpoint lines that are not consistent. It is also used to validate registry settings between production systems.
October 04, 2019

Gets the job done

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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 process change or to determine what may have changed if we have issues.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Beyond Compare is used within our development teams to provide a robust comparison solution amongst text files as well as for use in recursively comparing directory structures on disk. Not only does Beyond Compare highlight differences between files, it also provides easy to understand merging capabilities, making it very simple to merge differing files into a single file.
Anthony Aziz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Beyond Compare is a useful tool for operational tasks. We use it to compare various formats, include plain text, folders, and other structured data. It also works really great as a source code diff tool. Using it to compare eliminates manual work and reduces the risk of human error in long lists/data sets.
Richard Davies | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use BeyondCompare for a variety of tasks related to web design and development. I frequently use it to compare directories between our development and production web servers. It's also great for general purpose file comparisons, such as comparing a backup file or directory to the actual file or directory to determine if anything has changed. Overall, it's a great utility that any sysadmin, developer, or power user should have.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I work in our QA department, and all of the Systems Administrators (Microsoft Windows) use BeyondCompare when troubleshooting configuration files for web-based applications. What are the differences between this configuration file and that one? Load both of them into BeyondCompare for text searching and - bingo! - any differences stand out like a sore thumb.
Mathieu Gaouette | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As far as I know, it is not used by whole department but rather some specific people all over the organisation. I know that BeyondCompare has a lot of functionnalities but the ones that I've used the most were script compare and folder compare. I have also used it some time ago in order to promote changes. The software makes it easy to identify differences and apply changes to either the base file or the compare file.
Cristian Bodnarasec | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using BeyondCompare in the software development organization for file comparison. Often we have to compare files quickly and easily. These files can be not only source code, but other kinds of files, like xml, xsl, xls, even binaries. We have tools that process binary files required by the business and sometimes we need to compare them to debug some production issues.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
First off, let me disclose that I use Beyond Compare every day in my job as a DBA and SQL programmer. I recommend it to users every opportunity I get. I can't believe we haven't purchased an Enterprise license for it yet (I think one exists). We just have individual users requisition it from their respective department heads. Seems like something we need to buy en masse. It is my go-to choice for comparing SQL code, DDL, and just about anything.
Hernán Silva | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use BeyondCompare mostly for code diffing and also for personal matters. In my day-to-day job, BeyondCompare is an essential tool in my toolset that allows me to see differences between files and folders no matter the format, extension or size.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BeyondCompare was used by our development team mostly as a diff tool for use with Git version control. It is a far better solution than the default mergetool utility included with Git and makes handling difficult merges easier to deal with.
Ralph Vanore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In our department of web coders, data entry and graphic design, we use it for everything from comparing code to massive spreadsheets. We can compare almost any file types and entire folders of files. We we receive documents from multiple sources we can easily combine them using BeyondCompare saving us countless hours or going line by line. The highlighted areas of the display make is simple to see where the differences are and move directly to them.
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