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What are the best free 3-way merge tools for Windows?

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KDiff3 vs WinMerge vs Vim

 vs P4Merge vs DiffMerge vs Sublimerge vs Intellij IDEA vs Meld vs Sublime Merge vs SublimeMerge vs SmartSynchronize vs AraxisMerge vs Beyond Compare

Specs

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Windows, Linux, Mac

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Windows

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Free and Open Source

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Linux, macOS, Windows, Cygwin

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Vim License

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0

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Vim

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Windows; Mac; Linux

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Free

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License

Apache 2.0

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Platforms

Linux; Windows; Mac (unofficial)

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Free and Open Source

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Pricing

FREE evaluation without time limit, $99 for personal license (including updates for 3 years), $75 per seat and year for business license, $168 for personal license bundle including Sublime Text (3 years of updates)

Features

Line Staging, Syntax Highlighting, Image Diffs, Merge Tool, Git Flow Integration, Submodule Management, Themes, Custom Commands

Trial Period

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Platforms

Linux, Mac, Windows

License

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Pricing

$99 personal, $75/year business

Features

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Unlimited

Platforms

OSX, Linux, Windows

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Windows, Mac

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Pros + Cons

Pro
 Open source

Comment

Pro
 Allows manual alignments

For complicated merges, the automatic matching of any tool can get confused. A few manual corrections help a lot.
Comment

Pro
 Manual editing without losing rest of merges

Comment

Pro
 Cross-platform

Comment

Pro
 Easy toggling of showing/ignoring whitespace changes

Comment

Pro
 Can compare directories

It is able to compare whole directory trees.
Comment

Pro
 Supports 3 way merges

For modern version control systems, 3way merge support is a basic requirement, but many other open source diff viewers do not adequately handle 3way merges.
Comment

Pro
 Free and open source

KDiff3 is completely free to download and use. It's also open source released under the GPL.
Comment

Con
 Project doesn't appear to be being maintained.

Comment

Pro
 Keyboard shortcuts for most operations

Comment

Con
 UI is ugly

Comment

Pro
 Context menu shortcut

You can right-click a folder/file and the options: Save <file> for later Compare with will be available, making launching KDiff3 really convenient.
Comment

Pro
 Supports editing merged files directly

In addition to comparing two files it also allows you to edit the merge result right in place.
Comment

Con
 Cannot edit diffed files directly

Only the merge output can be edited.
Comment

Pro
 Preprocessing before calculating differences

There are options that may pre-process compared files before Kdiff3 actually do a comparison - to ignore for example automatically generated dates and/or revision numbers added by commit hooks.
Comment

Pro
 Supports manual code aligning

With selecting code in one window and hitting Ctrl+Y, then selecting some other code in second window and also hitting Ctrl+Y you can manually align the code.
Comment

Pro
 Diff by character not by lines

On comparing two files, difference is shown by characters; not by lines.
Comment

Pro
 Deep Windows support

Supports Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/2012.
Comment

Pro
 Regular Expression based file filters allow excluding and including items

Comment

Pro
 Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap

Comment

Con
 Windows only

Comment

Pro
 Good detection of moved lines

Detects when a block of lines has been moved in the file and shows the relation.
Comment

Pro
 Open source

WinMerge is Open-Source-Software licensed unter the GNU General Public License.
Comment

Pro
 Update added 3-way diffs/merge

Can now merge 3 files or folders.
Comment

Pro
 Moved lines detection

Comment

Pro
 Location pane shows map of files compared

Comment

Pro
 Resolve conflict files

Comment

Pro
 Archive file support using 7-Zip

Comment

Pro
 Good navigation

Keyboard shortcuts (and toolbar buttons) to navigate to next (previous) difference, side panel shows a map of the files with changed lines and allows to jump to a given place.
Comment

Pro
 File edition

You can quickly copy changed lines (or files in folder comparison) in both directions with keyboard shortcuts. You can edit the files as well, with syntax highlighting of some languages.
Comment

Pro
 Filters

Can filter out files for folder comparison, lines for file comparisons, with regular expressions. Options also allow to ignore whitespace differences, white lines, case change, line-ending changes, etc.
Comment

Pro
 Compare folders and files

Can show what files has been changed in a folder, allows comparing files in tabs.
Comment

Pro
 Good shell integration

Select two files and compare them. Alternatively, select one file, navigate elsewhere, select the other file to compare. Also supports drag'n'drop of files / folders from Explorer. History of past comparisons.
Comment

Pro
 Free & Open source

Winmerge is a free and open source tool.
Comment

Pro
 Lightweight, quick startup

Binary is less than 3 MB, so it starts quickly.
Comment

Pro
 In line comparison

Can show differences within a line.
Comment

Pro
 Supports comparing folders

WinMerge can compare both folders and files.
Comment

Con
 Development is spotty

The latest version (2.16.0) was released in November 2018. Before that the last official release was made in 2013. The 2.16.0 is actually one of the two forks (Winmerge-v2-jp) that were kept maintained throughout the years, it just got named as the official release. The other fork, WinMerge2011 is still being actively developed too. It's on par with the historical version, and has additional features such as showing only differences and a 64-bit version. An 'official' list of forks is maintained here.
Comment

Pro
 Shell integration

It supports 64-bit Windows versions.
Comment

Pro
 Creates patch files

Supports Normal-, Context- and Unified formats.
Comment

Pro
 Can show folder compare results in a tree-style view

Comment

Pro
 Compares one folder or includes all subfolders

Comment

Pro
 Fast compare using file sizes and dates

Comment

Pro
 Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes

Comment

Pro
 Highlights differences inside lines

Comment

Pro
 Visual differencing and merging of text files

Comment

Pro
 Tabbed interface

Comment

Pro
 Handles Windows, Unix and Mac text file formats

Comment

Pro
 Unicode support

Comment

Pro
 Localizable interface

Comment

Pro
 Plugin support

Comment

Pro
 Rudimentary Visual SourceSafe and Rational ClearCase integration

Comment

Con
 Does not do 3-way diffs/merges

Cannot merge 3 files, can do only comparisons by pairs. Makes it unsuitable for merging operations, still useful to compare two versions in the history.
Comment

Con
 No 3-way merge

Cannot merge 3 files, can do only comparisons by pairs. Makes it unsuitable for merging operations, still useful to compare two versions in the history.
Comment

Pro
 Works in terminal over SSH

Unlike other editors such as Sublime Text, Vim is a command line editor and hence can be used in remote development environments like Chromebooks via SSH.
Comment

Pro
 Lightweight and fast

When compared to modern graphical editors like Atom and Brackets (which have underlying HTML5 engines, browsers, Node, etc.), Vim uses a sliver of the system's memory and it loads instantly, all the while delivering the same features. Vim is also faster than Emacs.
Comment

Pro
 Free and open-source software

Vim is open-source, GPL-compatible charityware.
Comment

Pro
 Extremely portable

Vi/vim exists on almost all Unix-like platforms. It's the de-facto Unix editor and is easily installed on Windows. All you need to make it work is a text-based connection, so it works well for remote machines with slow connections, or when you're too lazy to set up a VNC/Remote Desktop connection.
Comment

Pro
 Great productivity

Vim's keyset is mainly restricted to the alphanumeric keys and the escape key. This is an enduring relic of its teletype heritage, but has the effect of making most of Vim's functionality accessible without frequent awkward finger reaches.
Comment

Pro
 Everything is mnemonic

No need to memorize different key combinations for things like deleting the text inside of a block or deleting the text inside of a pair of quotes. It's just a series of actions, or nouns and verbs, or however you prefer to think about it. If you want to delete, you select "d"; if you want it to happen inside something, you select "i"; and if you want the surrounding double-quotes, just select ". But if you were changing the text, or copying it, or anything else, you'd still use the same "i" and ". This makes it very easy to remember a large number of different extremely useful commands, without the effort it takes to remember all of the Emacs "magic incantations", for example.
Comment

Pro
 Tons of plugins/add-ons

This makes Vim the definitive resource for every environment (Ruby/Rails, Python, C, etc.), or simply just provides more information in your view.
Comment

Pro
 Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface, and trackpad support

There's no need to reach for the mouse or the Ctrl/Alt buttons again. Everything is a mere key press or two away with almost 200 functions specifically for text editing. Vim does support the mouse, but it's designed so you don't have to use it for greater efficiency. Versions of Vim, like gVim or MacVim, still allow you to use the mouse and familiar platform shortcuts. That can help ease the learning curve and you'll probably find you won't want to (or need to) use the mouse after a while.
Comment

Pro
 Macros increase productivity

Many text editors have programmable macros, but since Vim is keyboard-based, your programmed macros are usually far more predictable and easier to understand.
Comment

Pro
 Usable from a Terminal or with a GUI (GVim, MacVim)

If you happen to be logged into SSH, you can use Vim in a terminal. It can also run with a GUI too.
Comment

Pro
 Excellent performance

As it loads the whole file into RAM, replacing all string occurrences in 100 MB+ files is quick and easy. Every other editor has sort of died during that. It is extremely fast even for cold start. Vim is light-weight and very compact. In terminal, it only uses a small amount of memory and anytime you invoke Vim, it's extremely fast. It's immediate, so much so you can't even notice any time lag.
Comment

Pro
 Once learned, it's very hard to forget

Vim's somewhat steep learning curve is more than made up for once you've mastered a few basic concepts and learned the tricks that allow you to program faster with fewer cut/paste mistakes.
Comment

Pro
 Can never outgrow it

The fact that very few, if any, people claim to be a "Vim Master" is a testament to the breadth and depth of Vim. There is always something new to learn - a new, perhaps more efficient, way to use it. This prevents Vim from ever feeling stale. It's always fresh.
Comment

Pro
 Amazing extensibility

Vimscript provides a rich scripting functionality to build upon the core of Vim. When combined with things like Tim Pope's Pathogen plugin management system, it becomes easy to add support for syntax, debugging, build systems, git, and more.
Comment

Pro
 Vimtutor

Vimtutor is an excellent interactive tutorial for people with no prior experience of Vim. It takes about 30 minutes to complete.
Comment

Pro
 Productivity enhancing modal paradigm

As with all vi-like editors, Vim provides a modal paradigm for text editing and processing that provides a rich syntax and semantic model for composing succinct, powerful commands. While this requires some initial investment in learning how it works in order to take full advantage of its capabilities, it rewards the user well in the long run. This modal interface paradigm also lends itself surprisingly well to many other types of applications that can be controlled by vi-like keybindings, such as browsers, image viewers, media players, network clients (for email and other communication media), and window managers. Even shells (including zsh, tcsh, mksh, and bash, among others) come with vi-like keybinding features that can greatly enhance user comfort and efficiency when the user is familiar with the vi modal editing paradigm.
Comment

Pro
 Built-in package management

Starting with Vim 8, a package manager has been built into Vim. The package manager helps keep track of installed plugins, their versions and also only loads the needed plugins on startup depending on the file type.
Comment

Pro
 Asynchronous I/O support

Since Vim 8, Vim can exchange characters with background processes asynchronously. This avoids the problem of the text editor getting stuck when a plugin that had to communicate with a server was running. Now plugins can send and receive data from external scripts without forcing Vim to freeze.
Comment

Pro
 Donations and support to Vim.org helps children in Uganda through ICCF Holland

Comment

Pro
 Works on Android

Comment

Pro
 Vim encourages discipline

If you use Vim long enough, it will rewire your brain to be more efficient.
Comment

Pro
 Can set up keymapping

Comment

Pro
 By default in Linux

Comment

Pro
 If you can use Vim you can also use vi

Comment

Pro
 Flexible feature-set

Vim allows users to include many features found in IDEs and competing editors, but does not force them all on the user. This not only helps keep it lighter in weight than a lot of other options, but it also helps ensure that some unused features will not get in the way.
Comment

Pro
 Has multiple distinct editing modes

Interaction with Vim is centered around several "modes", where purpose and keybindings differ in each. Insert mode is for entering text. This mode most resembles traditional text entry in most editors. Normal mode (the default) is entered by hitting ESC and converts all keybindings to center around movement within the file, search, pane selection, etc. Command mode is entered by hitting ":" in Normal mode and allows you to execute Vim commands and scripts similar in fashion to a shell. Visual mode is for selecting lines, blocks, and characters of code. Those are the major modes, and several more exist depending on what one defines as a "mode" in Vim.
Comment

Pro
 Has been supported for a long time and will be supported for many years to come

Comment

Con
 Difficult learning curve

You'll spend a lot of time learning all the commands and modes supported in Vim. You'll then spend more time tuning settings to your needs. Although once it's tuned to your needs, you can take your .vimrc to any machine you need and have the same experience across all your computers.
Comment

Pro
 Useful undo features

Vim does not only offer unlimited undo levels, later releases support an undo tree. It eventually gives the editor VCS-like features. You can undo the current file to any point in the past, even if a change was already undone again. Another neat feature is persistent undo, which enables to undo changes after the file was closed and reopened again.
Comment

Pro
 Multiple clipboards

It is called "registers".
Comment

Pro
 3 way merge support

P4Merge presents merge information in 4 panes - BASE, LOCAL, REMOTE and MERGE_RESULT.
Comment

Pro
 Auto-resolve most conflicts

When you open files to merge, you can see that most of the conflicts are already resolved. You need just check and resolve more complex conflicts.
Comment

Pro
 Free

P4Merge is free of charge.
Comment

Pro
 Straightforward visual feedback

Great visual feedback about what's going on. This is really important for big projects.
Comment

Con
 Always tries to restore deleted lines

Comment

Con
 Broken cyrilic characters

Comment

Con
 Freezes on large files

Comment

Con
 Doesn't support merging of folders

Comment

Pro
 Color blind friendly

Uses purple and yellow instead of the usual red and green. It also uses different icon shapes, in case those colors are hard to differentiate too.
Comment

Pro
 Also has image diffing

For those who are working in both text based source code or files, as well as images, it's nice to have the diff functionality of both present in the same product.
Comment

Con
 Directory comparison is not supported

With P4Merge it's impossible to compare two different directories to find differences.
Comment

Pro
 Allows editing during diff/merge

You can edit the files and diffs automatically update.
Comment

Pro
 Shows differences within a line

If there are changes within a line, they will be highlighted on a per character basis.
Comment

Con
 Visually fills up insertions in other panes with empty lines

Comment

Pro
 Can compare whole directory trees

Comment

Pro
 Smart refactorings

IDEA places an emphasis in safe refactoring, offering a variety of features to make this possible for a variety of languages. These features include safe delete, type migration and replacing method code duplicates.
Comment

Pro
 Stable and robust

IntelliJ IDEA hardly ever crashes or has any issues that plague other Java IDEs like file corruption or slowness.
Comment

Pro
 Intuitive and slick UI

IDEA has a clean, intuitive interface with some customization available (such as the Darcula theme).
Comment

Pro
 Free version available

There is a free community edition (open source) and an ultimate edition, which you can compare here. The ultimate edition is available for free for one year for students but must be registered through an .edu e-mail account.
Comment

Pro
 Fast and smart contextual assistance

Uses a fast indexing technique to provide contextual hints (auto-completion, available object members, import suggestions). On-the-fly code analysis to detect errors and propose refactorization.
Comment

Pro
 Support for many languages

IntelliJ supports many languages besides Java, some of these are: golang, Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Bash, etc...
Comment

Pro
 Fast on Linux

Relatively fast on Linux.
Comment

Pro
 Three way comparisons

You can compare up to three different files for differences. Plus you can edit files from the comparison view and the diff will automatically update.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to use and visually appealing

Stragihtforward and you don't need to read tutorials to use it. Just click and select and you instantly see how the difference and merges are connected to eachother. 3 sub- windows, instead of 4, which reduces the mess during merge and let you see more of the surrounding files rather than just 5 lines.
Comment

Pro
 Simple GUI

Comment

Con
 UI could be more intuitive

Comment

Pro
 Using the trial version forever without limitations

Sublime Merge may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however, a license must be purchased for continued use. There is no enforced time limit for the evaluation.
Comment

Pro
 Pure Git behind the scenes

All actions are real Git actions which minimizes confusion and makes it perfect for beginners and professionals alike.
Comment

Pro
 No account info needed

No account- or server checkbacks (only for updates). All password handling is pure Git which means much less trouble and confusion.
Comment

Pro
 "Native" performance (Python based)

Very good performance.
Comment

Pro
 Very keyboard friendly

All actions have either direct hotkeys or corresponding entries in the palette (same as Sublime Text). This means a very streamlined and fast usage.
Comment

Con
 Not open source

The software is proprietary
Comment

Pro
 Fast, configurable, cross-platform

Comment

Con
 It's not free

Comment

Pro
 Freely editable views

Comment

Pro
 Can remember directory compare locations

Useful if you need to perform comparisons again later.
Comment

Pro
 Available for Windows, Linux, Mac

Comment

Pro
 Beautiful easy to use UI

Comment

Con
 Commerical

AraxisMerge is not free and it's quite expensive: $129 Standard and $269 Professional
Comment

Pro
 Works great on large files

Comment

Pro
 Point and click merging

AraxisMerge has a feature which is very helpful especially for beginners. By clicking on different parts of a text file you can select all the parts to added in a final merged file. The comparison display also updates real-time as the merge happens.
Comment

Con
 No 3way compare

BC4 pro is only able to do a 3way folder merge, but not a 3way folder compare. This means you cannot just edit one of the 3 files and safe changes. You are also not able to jump to next diff, but only to next merge conflict. It is very well worth its price but I really miss that feature.
Comment

Con
 Oops just realized the OP asked for "free" - this one isn't free

Comment
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