About Compare Files — online diff tool
Comparing two files is easy until formatting gets in the way. Reindented JSON, reordered keys or SQL that changed only in keyword casing all show up as differences when nothing meaningful changed.
This diff tool is format-aware: it can normalise JSON, XML, HTML, YAML and SQL before comparing, so you see the changes that matter rather than the noise.
How to use it
- Paste two texts, or upload two files.
- Pick a view mode — side by side or unified — with word-level highlighting inside changed lines.
- Toggle normalisation off at any point to see the literal bytes, if the formatting itself is what you are checking.
Frequently asked questions
- Are my files uploaded?
- No. The comparison runs entirely in your browser, so the content never leaves your machine.
- What does format-aware mean in practice?
- For JSON it sorts keys and reindents, so a reformatted file with the same data shows no differences. For SQL it normalises keyword casing and clause layout. For YAML it strips comments and trailing whitespace.