Information Araxis Merge comes in two editions. Only the Professional Edition offers three-way comparison, three-way merging, and related features. The Standard Edition is otherwise identical, but features only two-way comparison and merging.

Compatibility

FeatureEditionsBenefit
Cross-platform licenceStandardProfessional A single licence enables you to use both the Windows and macOS versions of Merge.
64-bitStandardProfessional Compare huge files (for example, 100 MB or larger). Merge is able to take advantage of the very large amounts of memory potentially available on modern 64-bit systems.
Retina/high-DPI display supportStandardProfessional Make the most of Mac Retina displays and high-resolution PC screens utilizing 100%–500% UI scaling.

File comparison and merging

FeatureEditionsBenefit
File comparison and merging Instant OverviewStandardProfessional Learn how to compare and merge files with Merge in just a few minutes. Discover: Windows, macOS
Two-way text comparisonStandardProfessional Identify insertions, removals and changes between different versions of source code, configuration files, XML documents, web pages, or any other text file. Discover: Windows, macOS
Two-way text mergingStandardProfessional Reconcile insertions, removals and changes between different versions of source code, configuration files, XML documents, web pages, or any other text file. Discover: Windows, macOS
Three-way comparison and mergingProfessional Compare and merge changes in two updated revisions of a file with their common ancestor (or any other file). Use to reconcile conflicting changes made to a set of files by multiple developers or to merge branches in a source code control or software configuration management system. Discover: Windows, macOS
Directly open and compare text from Microsoft Office (Word and Excel), OpenDocument, PDF and RTF filesStandardProfessional Save time by directly loading and comparing popular file formats. Alternatively, you can copy text from other applications and paste it into a Merge text comparison window. Discover: Windows, macOS
Support for archive files† StandardProfessional Directly compare files contained within a variety of archive formats (.zip, .tar, etc.). Discover: Windows
Numeric tolerance in text comparisons StandardProfessional Compare corresponding numeric values within text files and, if desired, treat them as identical if they are within a certain tolerance of one another. Discover: Windows, macOS
Special display formatting for XML and XHTML filesStandardProfessional See changes clearly in even the most densely formatted XML files without sacrificing the fidelity of a true textual comparison. Discover: Windows, macOS
Binary file comparisonStandardProfessional Compare binary data files and see differences at the byte level. Discover: Windows, macOS
Image file comparisonStandardProfessional Compare various types of image file and see precisely which pixels have been modified. Discover: Windows, macOS
Comprehensive support for text-based patch files† StandardProfessional Review the changes described by patch files and selectively apply them to text files. Discover: Windows
Syntax highlightingStandardProfessional Better comprehend a wide range of source files with built-in syntax highlighting. Discover: Windows, macOS
Reports in HTML, HTML slideshow, XML and UNIX diff formatStandardProfessional Create reports on file comparisons for archiving, distribution or export to other applications. Annotate HTML reports by adding bookmark comments. Discover: Windows, macOS
Bookmarks and commentsStandardProfessional Mark points of interest. Annotate comparisons with comments and questions, before saving as a single-file archive to be emailed to other team members for review. Discover: Windows, macOS
Single-file comparison archivesStandardProfessional Save a comparison to a single file for archival or later review, even on a different machine. Saved file comparisons include any bookmarks and associated comments that have been created, making it possible to annotate comparisons with questions and comments, before emailing them to other team members for review. Discover: Windows, macOS
Comparison statistics windowStandardProfessional See a summary of the current comparison. Discover: Windows, macOS
Integrated folder comparisonStandardProfessional Quickly and efficiently compare and merge all the files changed between different folder hierarchies. Process entire sets or branches of source code, web pages, or other text files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Point-and-click mergingStandardProfessional Copy inserted, removed or changed blocks of text from one file to another (or delete them) using a single mouse click. Files can be manually merged very quickly. Discover: Windows, macOS
In-place editingStandardProfessional Make fine-grained changes directly to the files being compared in the file comparison window itself. You do not have to open a separate editing window. Discover: Windows, macOS
Linking linesStandardProfessional Related blocks of text are graphically linked enabling you to see at a glance how files are related. Linking lines eliminate the need for blank padding lines to keep corresponding lines adjacent to one another. Discover: Windows, macOS
Optional vertical padding in text comparisons† StandardProfessional Use vertical padding to align all related blocks of text being compared. Without vertical padding, the amount of text visible on screen is maximized, and files are aligned at the vertical centre of the display. Discover: Windows
Synchronization linksStandardProfessional Users may add synchronization links to tell Merge to re-synchronize the comparison at particular points. This is particularly useful in some complex comparison scenarios. Discover: Windows, macOS
Side-by-side text comparison with optional line-over-line detail panelStandardProfessional Compare text files side-by-side with linking lines showing how the files relate. An optional line-detail panel shows corresponding lines from the compared files above one another, which can be useful for files with long lines. Discover: Windows, macOS
Optional wrapping of long linesStandardProfessional See all of the text within each line without having constantly to scroll from side-to-side. Discover: Windows, macOS
Synchronized scrollingStandardProfessional Related parts of files are kept aligned in the vertical centre of the file comparison display as any file is scrolled. Discover: Windows, macOS
Highlighting of changes within linesStandardProfessional Identify at-a-glance inserts, removals and changes made within lines down to the level of individual characters. Discover: Windows, macOS
Automatic merging Professional Quickly and safely merge changes in two updated revisions of a file with a common ancestor (or any other file). Automatically merged text is marked with edit markers and any conflicting sections flagged for later manual processing. Automatic merging is an undoable operation, making it safe and easy to try an automatic merge speculatively to see exactly what it will do. Discover: Windows, macOS
Mark selected lines as resolvedStandardProfessional Lines marked as resolved are dimmed (in the same way as following an automatic merge). This makes it easy to keep track of the areas of a file with which you are finished. Discover: Windows, macOS
Unicode and MBCS supportStandardProfessional Compare and merge Unicode or MBCS encoded text files (ASCII files are also supported). Critical for working with many non-English language files. For the benefit of our Japanese customers, EUC-JP encoding is also supported. Discover: Windows, macOS
Input method editor (IME) supportStandardProfessional Facilitates convenient entry and editing of text in character-rich Asia-Pacific languages. Discover: Windows, macOS
Overview stripsStandardProfessional Provides an instant visual indication of the extent of the changes between files and where those changes occur. Clicking on a change in an overview strip will jump directly to that change. Discover: Windows, macOS
Conflict highlighting Professional After an automatic merge, any conflicting sections of the files being merged are flagged for manual processing. Commands and shortcut keys are provided to jump between conflicts. Even difficult files can thus be processed swiftly using a combination of automatic and manual merging. Discover: Windows, macOS
Edit markersStandardProfessional Visual history of any changes (edits or copies from another file) made to a file during the merging process. Discover: Windows, macOS
BookmarksStandardProfessional Makes it easy to mark and return to particular points of interest in a file. Discover: Windows, macOS
Go to lineStandardProfessional Jump directly to a line using its line number. Discover: Windows, macOS
Read-only and modified indicatorsStandardProfessional Visual indication of whether a file is read-only and whether it has been modified since last saving. Discover: Windows, macOS
Change summaryStandardProfessional Indicates the number of changes between each pair of files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Column/line number indicatorStandardProfessional Identifies the current location of the cursor when editing a file. Discover: Windows, macOS
Drag and drop filesStandardProfessional Open files by dragging from Windows File Explorer or macOS Finder. Discover: Windows, macOS
Printing supportStandardProfessional Produce a hard copy (or a PDF file on macOS, or on Windows using Adobe Acrobat Distiller) of comparisons for reference or audit. Printed comparisons contain all the highlighting and linking lines of the on-screen presentation. To save paper, you can choose to print just the pages that contain changes. Discover: Windows, macOS
Print previewStandardProfessional See how a comparison printout will look before committing it to paper. Discover: Windows, macOS
Source code control and software configuration management integrationStandardProfessional Integrate Merge with popular editors, source code control, version control and software configuration management systems such as Mercurial, Git, Subversion and Perforce. Discover: Windows, macOS
Automation API†StandardProfessional Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow. Discover: Windows
AppleScript API‡StandardProfessional Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow. Discover: macOS
Virtual File System (VFS) API†StandardProfessional Enables third parties to extend Merge to browse directly, for example, configuration management or version control repositories. Discover: Windows
.NET assembly†StandardProfessional Embed text comparison and reporting capabilities in your .NET web applications. Discover: Windows
VFS plugin for MercurialStandardProfessional Gives Merge read-only access to files located in Mercurial repositories. Discover: Windows, macOS
VFS plugin for GitStandardProfessional Gives Merge read-only access to files located in Git repositories. Discover: Windows, macOS
VFS plugin for SubversionStandardProfessional Gives Merge read-only access to files and folders located in Subversion repositories. Use a Merge folder comparison to compare a Subversion client workspace against the depot. Discover: Windows, macOS
VFS plugin for PerforceStandardProfessional Gives Merge read-only access to files and folders located in Perforce depots. Use a Merge folder comparison to compare a Perforce client workspace against the depot. Alternatively, directly compare different branches (or the same branch at different points in time). Discover: Windows, macOS
VFS FTP plugin†StandardProfessional Enables Merge to access files and folders located on an FTP server. For example, use Merge to synchronize a local copy of a website’s content with the main site itself, provided the main site is running an FTP server. Discover: Windows
Command-lineStandardProfessional Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow using the dedicated command-line utility. Discover: Windows, macOS
Flexible whitespace handlingStandardProfessional Prevents flagging of whitespace differences when whitespace is not considered important. Discover: Windows, macOS
Flexible line ending supportStandardProfessional Allow intelligent cross-platform file sharing: work with files containing UNIX (LF), Windows (CR LF) or Mac (CR) style line endings. Choose whether to ignore differences in line endings when comparing files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Display line ending charactersStandardProfessional Optionally see individual CR and LF characters to identify differences in multiple-platform originated files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Line expressionsStandardProfessional Ignore differences in comments, source code control keywords and other defined regular expressions when comparing files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Block expressionsStandardProfessional Ignore blocks of text bounded by lines matching beginning and ending regular expressions. This is especially useful for ignoring blocks of auto-generated content. Discover: Windows, macOS
Line-pairing rules StandardProfessional Line-pairing rules enable Merge to pair corresponding lines in a block of changed text based on particular portions of a line. Line-pairing rules can provide excellent results for certain comparisons (e.g. those of localization files in different languages) that would otherwise provide unhelpful results. Discover: Windows, macOS
Block indent/un-indentStandardProfessional Easily set the correct indentation level of entire blocks of text when merging text from different files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Find/ReplaceStandardProfessional Search for, and optionally replace, specified text within a file or selection. Discover: Windows, macOS
Customize fonts and coloursStandardProfessional Change the style of presentation to suit your preferences or needs. Discover: Windows, macOS
Customize printed headers and footersStandardProfessional Set the headers and footers of printed pages to suit your requirements. Discover: Windows, macOS
Keyboard shortcutsStandardProfessional Save time by controlling Merge using the keyboard. Discover: Windows, macOS
Drag and drop text editingStandardProfessional Conveniently move arbitrary text between files or within a file using the mouse. Discover: Windows, macOS
Jump to next/previous changeStandardProfessional Quickly move between changes in a file using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. Discover: Windows, macOS
Replace file commandsStandardProfessional Conveniently replace the contents of one file with that of another. Useful when one revision is entirely correct and its contents need to be copied to another revision. Discover: Windows, macOS
Tab stripStandardProfessional Switch between multiple file comparison windows with a single mouse click. Discover: Windows, macOS
Toolbars or ribbon†StandardProfessional Easily access frequently used commands. Discover: Windows, macOS

Feature only available on Windows • ‡ Feature only available on macOS

Folder comparison and synchronization

FeatureEditionsBenefit
Folder comparison and synchronization Instant OverviewStandardProfessional Learn how to compare and synchronize folders with Merge in a few minutes. Discover: Windows, macOS
Two-way folder comparisonStandardProfessional Identify file insertions, removals and changes between two folder hierarchies. Efficiently process entire sets or branches of source code, web pages, or other text files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Three-way folder comparison Professional Identify file insertions, removals and changes between two folder hierarchies and a common ancestor (or some other) folder hierarchy. Use to reconcile conflicting changes made to a set of files by multiple developers or to merge branches in a source code control or software configuration management system. Discover: Windows, macOS
Show a file comparison for the currently selected folder comparison row StandardProfessional Split the display horizontally, with a file comparison shown beneath the folder comparison. Click on a row in the folder comparison to compare that row’s files in the file comparison below. Discover: Windows, macOS
Support for archive files† StandardProfessional Compare a variety of archive formats (.zip, .tar, etc.) as if they were folders. Compare the contents of an archive to a folder to verify its contents, or to see which files have changed since the archive was created. Discover: Windows
Automation API†StandardProfessional Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow. Discover: Windows
AppleScript API‡StandardProfessional Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow. Discover: macOS
Virtual File System (VFS) API†StandardProfessional Enables third parties to extend Merge to browse directly, for example, configuration management or version control repositories. Discover: Windows
VFS plugin for SubversionStandardProfessional Gives Merge read-only access to files and folders located in Subversion repositories. Use a Merge folder comparison to compare a Subversion client workspace against the depot. Discover: Windows, macOS
VFS plugin for PerforceStandardProfessional Gives Merge read-only access to files and folders located in Perforce depots. Use a Merge folder comparison to compare a Perforce client workspace against the depot. Alternatively, directly compare different branches (or the same branch at different points in time). Discover: Windows, macOS
VFS FTP plugin†StandardProfessional Enables Merge to access files and folders located on an FTP server. For example, use Merge to synchronize a local copy of a website’s content with the main site itself, provided the main site is running an FTP server. Discover: Windows
Reports in HTML and XML formatStandardProfessional Create reports on folder comparisons for archiving, distribution or export to other applications. A folder comparison report can, optionally, include file comparison reports for some or all of the files involved in the folder comparison. Thus it is possible, in one operation, to generate a report that is a complete record of all the differences in all of the files involved in a folder comparison. This is especially useful in code review and code audit situations. Discover: Windows, macOS
Bookmarks and commentsStandardProfessional Mark points of interest. Annotate comparisons with comments and questions, before saving as a single-file archive to be emailed to other team members for review. Discover: Windows, macOS
Single-file comparison archivesStandardProfessional Save a comparison to a single file for archival or later review, even on a different machine. Saved folder comparisons include any bookmarks and associated comments that have been created, making it possible to annotate comparisons with questions and comments, before emailing them to other team members for review. Discover: Windows, macOS
Comparison statistics windowStandardProfessional See a summary of the current comparison. Discover: Windows, macOS
Folder synchronizationStandardProfessional Reconcile differences between folder hierarchies either by copying files from one folder hierarchy to another (or even to a completely separate location) or by launching file comparisons for changed files. Efficiently process entire sets or branches of source code, web pages, or other text files. Keep folder hierarchies on different machines (for example, a desktop and a laptop) in sync with one another. Discover: Windows, macOS
Automatic folder merging Professional Quickly and safely merge changes in two updated revisions of an entire folder hierarchy with a common ancestor (or any other folder hierarchy). Files with conflicting changes are flagged for later manual processing. Discover: Windows, macOS
Integrated file comparisonStandardProfessional Identify and reconcile differences within corresponding files as well as between folder hierarchies by launching file comparison windows for selected files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Printing supportStandardProfessional Produce a hard copy (or a PDF file on macOS, or on Windows using Adobe Acrobat Distiller) of comparisons for reference or audit. Printed comparisons contain all the highlighting of the on-screen presentation. To save paper, you can choose to print just the pages that contain changes. Discover: Windows, macOS
Print previewStandardProfessional See how a comparison printout will look before committing it to paper. Discover: Windows, macOS
Visibility filtersStandardProfessional Show only the files and folders of interest that match criteria you define. Discover: Windows, macOS
Selection filtersStandardProfessional Select files and folders of interest that match criteria you define. Enables complex sets of files to be selected for file merging or folder synchronization. Discover: Windows, macOS
Thorough comparison optionStandardProfessional Compare corresponding files in folder hierarchies using the criteria (whitespace significance, line ending handling, etc.) defined for file comparisons. Discover: Windows, macOS
Byte-by-byte comparison optionStandardProfessional Speed up folder comparisons by comparing corresponding files in folder hierarchies that are larger than a certain size using a quick and memory efficient byte-by-byte comparison algorithm. Discover: Windows, macOS
Quick comparison optionStandardProfessional Save time by performing an extremely fast folder comparison using just the sizes and timestamps of corresponding files. Discover: Windows, macOS
Customize fonts and coloursStandardProfessional Change the style of presentation to suit your preferences or needs. Discover: Windows, macOS
Customize printed headers and footersStandardProfessional Set the headers and footers of printed pages to suit your requirements. Discover: Windows, macOS
Drag and drop foldersStandardProfessional Select folders for comparison by dragging from Windows File Explorer or macOS Finder. Discover: Windows, macOS
Toolbars or ribbon†StandardProfessional Easily access frequently used commands. Discover: Windows, macOS

Feature only available on Windows • ‡ Feature only available on macOS

Other features

FeatureEditionsBenefit
English and Japanese localizationsStandardProfessional Work with a user interface and documentation fully localized into both English and Japanese.
Comprehensive documentationStandardProfessional Quickly find relevant documentation on the Araxis website. Discover: Windows, macOS
Full context sensitive helpStandardProfessional Easily find specific help for the entire product. Context sensitive help is tightly integrated with the main documentation, enabling you to read around a particular topic. Discover: Windows, macOS
Install/uninstall supportStandardProfessional Conveniently install and uninstall Merge from your machine. Discover: Windows, macOS
Customizable toolbar‡StandardProfessional Keep toolbars uncluttered with only the buttons that you need. Discover: macOS

Feature only available on macOS

Two editions: Standard and Professional. Numerous benefits.

The Standard Edition is intended primarily for use by individuals. The Professional Edition is better suited to most teams.

The tables on this page summarize the major features in the two editions.