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Is there a utility to compare folders visually?

Is there some Lion-compatible Finder-like utility that will do the following?


  1. Display the list of files from two different folders, in parallel columns.
  2. Preferably display, too, such other attributes as you select (kind, date modified, size).
  3. indicate visually the differences between the two folders: --
    (a) which files in the first folder are not in the second, and vice versa;
    (b) which files are in both folders but are newer in the first folder than in the second folder, and vice versa?


Obviously if a utility can list the contents of two folders next to one another, you could go through the two lists file-by-file. But that's not what I'm asking about.


Please note that I am not asking about comparing and showing the differences between two files. Thus so far as I can tell, the following apps do not do what I'm asking about:

  • Araxis Merge
  • Kaleidoscope
  • Path Finder


Path Finder, at least, can display two folders in parallel columns; but so far as I can tell, there's no way to get it to indicate what I ask in #3, above.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 3.4GHz Corei7, 16GB, SSD + 2T HD

Posted on Apr 6, 2012 5:36 PM

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90 replies

Jul 20, 2012 7:42 AM in response to danegeld

Very cool. And only $4!


I bought it to test it out. First look, I think it might be a winner!


Direct link to Visual Differ In the store


Behind the scenes, he is using the FreeBSD/Darwin DIFF command - which is an excellent choice. This allows him to focus on GUI layout and features, letting the Unix command do the heavy lifting. Aside from befing fast, the DIFF command is extremely well tested. If you go into Terminal and enter "man diff" you can see the details. At the end of the man-pages it says this version has been around since 2002.

Dec 4, 2012 7:55 AM in response to Tifighter

Tifighter wrote:


You might like to try DeltaWalker.


The Kaleidoscope 2.0 Beta now offers a FolderScope feature as well.


Araxis Merge also looks to be feature rich.

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunatley, none of the three apps meets my needs. The functionality I need is what I have not yet found in any Mac app -- the functionality I used daily under Windows in Fileware's FileSync.


Kaleidoscope 2.0 Beta is yet another incomplete, second-rate tool: so far as I can tell, it does not allow you readily to check off which individual files you want to copy from one compared folder to another (on both sides, possibly, going in two directions); nor does it seem to compare the files inside subfolders of the folders you are comparing (i.e., it doesn't allow you to expand sub-folders, or sub-sub-folders, etc.).


DeltaWalker does at least let you view sub-folders, etc. But like Kaleidoscope, it doesn't seem to let you mark individual files or folders on both sides for a single copy operation.


I previously evaluated Araxis Merge and found it also lacking.

Feb 4, 2013 5:59 AM in response to merjave618

merjave618 wrote:


+1 on Visual Differ. I was looking for a "file compare" app and this one far surpassed my expectations. And, for $4, it was well worth it!!

Still, compared with FileSync (for Windows), Visual Differ is quite inferior. For example, just try to copy some files from source to target and others from target to source at the same time; so far as I can see, you cannot.

Is there a utility to compare folders visually?

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