What is the best software to compare 2 folders for any file changes and highlight them?

5

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Sep 16, 2018

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Here’s the Deal

5 Options Considered

Best software to compare 2 folders for any file changes and highlight them	Price	Platforms	License
-- Beyond Compare	$30-60	Windows; Mac; Linux	Proprietary
-- Meld	free	Linux; Windows; Mac (unofficial)	Free and Open Source
-- SmartSynchronize	-	OSX, Linux, Windows	-
-- FolderMatch	$24.95-36	-	-
-- SyncToy	FREE	-	-

Beyond Compare

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Top Pro

Can compare remote directories

Beyond Compare can compare directories through FTP, SFTP. Also it can compare directories hosted on Dropbox or Amazon S3. See More

Top Con

File compare: Deleted sections are torn

For each file content, there is no continues view - see first screenshot above: the stripped sections. See More

Mike's Experience

A no hassle, multi-platform compare tool. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; Mac; Linux

License:Proprietary

Top Pro

Synchronize folders

Can be used to synchronize folders. Including wildcards. See More

Top Pro

Has rules for adding ignore-masks and replacement rules

Parts you don't want to see in your comparison can be hidden with ignore masks. Parts that are okay to be changed can be set with change-lists so beyond compare knows what's the replacement value and skips displaying this. So you can focus on the for you important changes. For example, with the ignore mask you can compare two logs with different timestamps but nearly same content. (Beginning with timestamps the first x characters adding to ignore). See More

Top Pro

Supports comparing folders

Beyond Compare can be used to compare both files and folders. File-Filters possible. See More

SyncToy

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Top Con

Proprietary, no insight into how it works

Top Pro

Free, simple. trustworthy, made by Microsoft

Everything in SyncToy is organized around Folder Pairs, which is just a shorthand way to indicate an origin location (which SyncToy calls the Left Folder) and destination location (which SyncToy calls the Right Folder) for the files you want to move around. I know why you need an origin and destination; I have no idea why SyncToy names those folders Left and Right, and not after their roles. It's not a deal breaker, but the use of relative directions for the names of the folder pair elements is a major conceptual gaffe. Once you set up your pair of folders, you have to choose one of three methods by which SyncToy will carry out your task: Synchronize copies changed files both ways and keeps the contents of a pair of folders identically matched; Echo copies new or updated files left to right and mirrors renames and deletions on the left to the right. Contribute copies new or updated files left to right, but unlike Echo, doesn't delete anything. You can further customize folder pair behavior by setting up custom exclusion lists, with or without wildcards, of file types and properties such as size, date, or name. Scheduled sync jobs run unattended, even if you're logged off at the time, so long as the destination drive is connected. See More

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