Scooter Software's Beyond Compare is a specialized data comparison utility that allows you to quickly visualize changes between files, folders, and archives. Version 5.1, released in late 2025, introduces highly requested interface improvements like native Dark Mode and text word wrapping, making it easier than ever to analyze complex data sets on Windows systems. Whether you are synchronizing backups or merging source code, this tool isolates specific differences while ignoring unimportant formatting changes.
Key Features
- Intelligent Text Comparison: View text files side-by-side with syntax highlighting that supports various programming languages. The new Word Wrap feature ensures long lines are fully visible without horizontal scrolling, and you can define rules to ignore minor differences like whitespace or comments.
- Folder Synchronization: Automatically reconcile differences between directories, local drives, or remote FTP servers. The interface uses color-coding to show which files are new, modified, or orphan, allowing you to mirror content or update backups with a single command.
- Table Compare Overhaul: Compare Excel spreadsheets and CSV files with enhanced precision. The updated viewer handles multiple sheets within a single file and allows for alignment based on key columns, helping you spot data discrepancies without manual sorting.
- 3-Way Text Merge: Combine changes from two distinct versions of a file into a common ancestor output. This feature is essential for developers resolving conflict states in version control systems, offering dedicated buttons to accept or reject specific code blocks.
- Specialized Data Viewers: Beyond standard text, the software includes dedicated comparison modes for binary files, images, and audio metadata. The updated Media Compare now supports FLAC, MP3, and MP4/AAC formats, highlighting tag differences clearly.
- Modern Windows Integration: The interface now fully supports per-monitor DPI scaling and includes a streamlined context menu for Windows 11, enabling you to launch comparisons directly from File Explorer.
Use Cases
Software developers rely on this utility to review code changes and resolve merge conflicts within Git or Subversion repositories. System administrators and IT professionals use it to verify data integrity across server migrations or to synchronize extensive file collections between a laptop and a backup drive.
Beyond Compare stands out for its ability to handle virtually any file type with speed and accuracy, giving users absolute confidence that no critical data is lost during transfers or merges.
Version 5.1.7 build 31736 — December 2025
- Archives: Updated UnRAR library to correct a path extraction security vulnerability (CVE-2025-6218).
- Windows: Enhanced security by removing SHA-1 signatures; the installer and executables are now exclusively signed with SHA-256.
- macOS: Fixed an issue where the application would hang when opening the Settings dialog or using the "Install Command Line Tools" option on newer macOS versions.
- Linux: Improved stability on Wayland systems by updating the launcher script to explicitly set the QT_QPA_PLATFORM environment variable to xcb.
- Linux: Added a configuration option to prevent the RPM installer from automatically adding the software repository by creating an empty
/etc/default/bcomparefile.
