Diffract Documentation¶
Diffract is a native desktop application for comparing files and directories side by side on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It renders text comparisons with word-level precision, supports binary and structured document formats, and integrates with Git and the OS context menu so you can open a comparison from anywhere.
Get Diffract at www.getdiffract.com.
What do you want to do?¶
| Task | Where to start |
|---|---|
| Compare two text files | Your First Comparison |
| Compare two directories | Comparing Directories |
| Navigate and search within a comparison | Navigate Changes · Search |
| Apply a change from one side to the other | Apply Changes |
| Edit a file directly inside the comparison view | Edit In Place |
| Change what counts as a difference | Ignore Options |
| Force a different text encoding | Encoding & Line Endings |
| Pin specific line pairs to guide the alignment | Anchor Pairs |
| Use Diffract as a git difftool | Git Integration |
| Run a comparison from the terminal without opening the UI | CLI Reference |
| Switch between light and dark theme | Appearance |
| Resolve a three-way merge conflict | Three-Way Merge Pro |
| Browse Git history | Git Browser Pro |
| Compare archives, images, or documents | Archives · Images · Excel · Word · PDF Pro |
| Register the OS context menu entry | Context Menu |
Quick reference¶
Keyboard Shortcuts · File Formats · CLI Reference · Git Integration
Free vs Pro¶
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Side-by-side file comparison | Yes | Yes |
| Directory comparison | Yes | Yes |
| Word-level highlighting | Yes | Yes |
| Myers / Patience / Histogram algorithms | Yes | Yes |
| In-comparison editing with undo/redo | Yes | Yes |
| One-click block and line apply | Yes | Yes |
| Ignore case / whitespace / line endings | Yes | Yes |
| Binary hex comparison | Yes | Yes |
| Drag & drop | Yes | Yes |
| OS context menu integration | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple tabs | Yes | Yes |
| Dark and light theme | Yes | Yes |
| 7-day Pro trial | Yes | - |
| Git repository browser | - | Yes |
| Three-way merge editor | - | Yes |
| Code-aware semantic comparison | - | Yes |
| Archive comparison (.zip, .tar.gz, .jar) | - | Yes |
| Image comparison with heatmap/slider | - | Yes |
| Microsoft Excel cell-by-cell comparison | - | Yes |
| Microsoft Word comparison | - | Yes |
| PDF comparison | - | Yes |
| Saved ignore profiles | - | Yes |
| Persistent workspaces | - | Yes |
To activate a Pro licence, go to Settings → Licence and enter your licence key. See Licence for details.