The simplistic but powerful user interface, coupled with the ease of which it compares text-based files such as source code, make this a tool I repeatedly turn to for comparison of various file types. Its ability to compare folders and their file contents also makes it really useful in debugging software problems where potentially out of date components may reside on one or more systems. For power users who prefer a more feature-rich comparison tool in Visual Studio, it's also possible to integrate Beyond Compare with 2005 onwards.

It's cross-platform, and it does a great job of comparing in a useful, no-nonsense UI, and does a great job of merging and comparing. It's also hugely flexible - comes with a large set of presets for various languages and formats, and you can add your own (or tweak the presets) as needed - I used it (at home) for some obscure assembly language, and was able to get some good highlighting with a little tweaking. It's great by default, and seemingly infinitely customizable when you need it. Also, integration with Git and other programs that use diff tools is well-documented. Support is also excellent, and licensing terms are generous.

Really awesome product to compare files or directories. Provides side by side view of the matching and different content. for file comparison, there are different option to compare like hash, which is really handy. i would totally recommend this product.