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Add to SafariWhen comparing Hex Fiend vs Synalyze It!, the Slant community recommends Hex Fiend for most people. In the question“What are the best hex editors for Mac?” Hex Fiend is ranked 3rd while Synalyze It! is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Hex Fiend is:
Hex Fiend does not keep your files in memory. You won’t dread launching or working with Hex Fiend even on low-RAM machines.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Small memory footprint
Hex Fiend does not keep your files in memory. You won’t dread launching or working with Hex Fiend even on low-RAM machines.
Pro Works with huge files
Hex Fiend can handle as big a file as you’re able to create. It’s been tested on files as large as 118 GB.
Pro Binary compare / diff
Hex Fiend can show the differences between files, taking into account insertions or deletions.
Pro Fast & efficient saving
Hex Fiend knows not to waste time overwriting the parts of your files that haven’t changed, and never needs temporary disk space.
Pro Insert, delete, rearrange
Hex Fiend does not limit you to in-place changes like some hex editors.
Pro Fast
Open a huge file, scroll around, copy and paste, all instantly. Find what you’re looking for with fast searching.
Pro Free and open source
Hex Fiend is licensed under a permissive BSD-style license.
Pro Data Inspector
Interpret data as integer or floating point, signed or unsigned, big or little endian...
Pro Embeddable
It’s really easy to incorporate Hex Fiend’s hex or data views into your app. Its permissive BSD-style license won’t burden you.
Pro Can decypher the internal structures of many files, such as .zip, .tar and many "savegame" files
You can even add your own grammar for a new file type structure. Great for analysing foreign file formats.
Pro Advanced binary comparison
Compares binary files byte-by-byte or with a more flexible algorithm that shows inserts and deletions in any of the compared files.
Pro Edits files of unlimited size
Huge files can be opened and edited instantly because only the displayed part is loaded to memory.
Pro Scriptable with Python and Lua
The script engines allow you to automate repetitive tasks and extend the standard functionality.
Pro Can check and monitor checksums of selected text
Selecting a bit of source code and using th e"Show Checksums" feature allows seeing different checksums for selected text and get it updated in real time.
Pro Allows color-coding text
The editor allows selecting a bit of source code and highlight it.
Pro Histogram view
The histogram shows the distribution of all byte values in the file. This lets you quickly see if a file is compressed or encrypted.
Pro Compares text encodings
This feature lets you compare the text representation of a byte sequence for numerous text encodings. This is the most efficient way to find the correct text encoding, be it ASCII-based, EBCDIC or any other code page supported by libICU.
Pro Incremental search
The search results are immediately highlighted in the hex editor. Text, numbers, and masks can be searched.
Cons
Con Files can't be saved with a .dat extension
Trying to save files with .dat extension gives the following error:
You cannot save this document with extension “.dat” at the end of the name. The required extension is “.(null)”.
Con Doesn't work anymore
MacOS Monterey changed where python is located, and it crashes when it tries to find it now.
Con Not free
Cost 9.99$ once with 14 days trial (non pro full version).
Con Proprietary
It's closed source.
