{"slug": "beyond-compare", "name": "Beyond Compare", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.112, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-23", "latest": "2026-08-21", "why": "I\u2019m still finding a local instance of Beyond Compare [0] unbeatable.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I\u2019m still finding a local instance of Beyond Compare [0] unbeatable.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "scootersoftware.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.scootersoftware.com/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Beyond Compare"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 790202545, "item_id": 49387659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49387659", "by": "trashb", "date": "2026-08-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can also use a custom difftool or mergetool that understand your formats. For example Beyond Compare", "excerpt": "yes they are called git-merge drivers. https://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes I mentioned it before, see the following comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47749916 You can also use a custom difftool or mergetool that understand your formats. For example Beyond Compare https://www.scootersoftware.com/kb/moreformats", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Version Control for Everything"}, {"id": 736796944, "item_id": 46049809, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46049809", "by": "jiehong", "date": "2025-11-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019m still finding a local instance of Beyond Compare [0] unbeatable.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m still finding a local instance of Beyond Compare [0] unbeatable. Especially its table compare feature [1]. [0]: https://www.scootersoftware.com/ [1]: https://www.scootersoftware.com/v4help/viewdata.html", "context": "", "use_case": "File and table comparison", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Secure private diffchecker with merge support"}, {"id": 736402737, "item_id": 46025171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46025171", "by": "chiph", "date": "2025-11-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Beyond Compare to do file copies", "excerpt": "25H2 is better than previous versions, where I used Beyond Compare to do file copies because explorer.exe would crash, corrupting the copy. Still needs a lot of work to improve reliability.", "context": "", "use_case": "file copy workaround", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["file and table comparison", "file copy workaround"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49336358", "title": "Version Control for Everything", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49270621", "title": "Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47308653", "title": "Ask HN: How are you adapting your career in this AI era?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46049370", "title": "Show HN: Secure private diffchecker with merge support", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46023449", "title": "Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 790202545, "item_id": 49387659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49387659", "by": "trashb", "date": "2026-08-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can also use a custom difftool or mergetool that understand your formats. For example Beyond Compare", "excerpt": "yes they are called git-merge drivers. https://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes I mentioned it before, see the following comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47749916 You can also use a custom difftool or mergetool that understand your formats. For example Beyond Compare https://www.scootersoftware.com/kb/moreformats", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Version Control for Everything"}, {"id": 788340289, "item_id": 49271268, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271268", "by": "uticus", "date": "2026-08-12", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I see that thing in a lot of Windows .NET shops", "excerpt": "I'm an outsider, although I've heard cool things about Delphi. So, trying to find examples of what this looks like, I was naturally interested in the \"Cool Apps\" section. But my biggest surprise was that Beyond Compare was listed in there. I see that thing in a lot of Windows .NET shops, I always figured it was .NET-based (I guess I confused association with dependency?) https://blogs.embarcadero.com/beyond-compare/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available"}, {"id": 756944096, "item_id": 47309006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309006", "by": "EdNutting", "date": "2026-03-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "when I picked up BeyondCompare", "excerpt": "Picking up another tool and figuring out where it's useful to integrate it into my workflow. Much the same as when I picked up BeyondCompare, VSCode (replacing Visual Studio) and numerous other tools that have come (and some, since gone). The only major difference to past experiences of new tools is that AI appears to have a wide range of likely-looking uses (and even more _marketed_ uses), and only recently have spe", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How are you adapting your career in this AI era?"}, {"id": 736796944, "item_id": 46049809, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46049809", "by": "jiehong", "date": "2025-11-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019m still finding a local instance of Beyond Compare [0] unbeatable.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m still finding a local instance of Beyond Compare [0] unbeatable. Especially its table compare feature [1]. [0]: https://www.scootersoftware.com/ [1]: https://www.scootersoftware.com/v4help/viewdata.html", "context": "", "use_case": "File and table comparison", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Secure private diffchecker with merge support"}, {"id": 736402737, "item_id": 46025171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46025171", "by": "chiph", "date": "2025-11-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Beyond Compare to do file copies", "excerpt": "25H2 is better than previous versions, where I used Beyond Compare to do file copies because explorer.exe would crash, corrupting the copy. Still needs a lot of work to improve reliability.", "context": "", "use_case": "file copy workaround", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance"}]}