Beyond Compare 5
file and folder comparison you buy once per major version
Paid upgrades
Major version upgrades are paid, "generally at half price", while minor updates within a version are always free — so expect to pay roughly $17 when version 6 arrives, if you want it. The features that make it useful to a programmer are Pro-only: three-way merge, folder merge and the scripting engine. The interface is functional rather than Mac-native, and it will never win a design award.
Cost over five years
$35 once = 4 months of Kaleidoscope. Over five years that is $480 rented against $35 owned — $445 kept, and you still have the app.
Kaleidoscope priced at $96 a year — $8 per month on yearly billing. Checked 2026-09-22.
Beyond Compare has been the answer to "what is different between these two things" since long before anyone worried about subscriptions. Two folder trees, two files, a local directory against an SFTP server, a directory against a zip: it lines them up, colours what moved, and lets you copy in either direction with a keystroke. The text diff understands comment and whitespace rules per language, so reformatting does not drown the real change.
For a programmer the interesting part is Pro. Three-way merge makes it a serviceable external merge tool for git, folder merge handles the messy case of two diverged trees, and the scripting engine turns a comparison you do every week into a command you run. None of that is in Standard, which is why the $35 figure needs an asterisk: if you want it for merges, the real price is $70.
Scooter has sold it the same way for two decades. You buy a version, own it on every computer you use, get minor updates free, and pay about half price if you want the next major release. No renewals, no seats to reconcile.
It is not a pretty Mac app, and if all you need is a nice-looking side-by-side diff of two text files, there are cheaper and better-looking options — including free ones.
What it looks like
What it does
- Syntax-aware text comparison with a three-pane merge in Pro
- Folder tree comparison and sync across local disks, FTP/SFTP and cloud storage
- Compares tables, hex, images, MP3 tags and Registry data
- Scriptable for repeatable comparison and sync jobs
- One per-user licence covers Windows, macOS and Linux on any number of computers
Cancel instead
Also bought outright in dev tools
The facts
- Price
- $35
- What you get
- One payment, and the developer charges for major versions on a stated cadence.
- Details
- Standard Edition $35 per user, Pro Edition $70 per user. A per-user licence covers that one person on any number of computers, and the same licence works on Windows, macOS and Linux. Quantity discounts begin at 5 users and fall to $15.75 Standard / $31.50 Pro at 100 or more. A site licence is $5,250 Standard or $10,500 Pro for unlimited users at one named location; enterprise is $21,000 or $42,000 for a whole organisation worldwide. The shop page states the fee is a one-time purchase with no annual renewal fees.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Scooter Software
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $30 to $60