SwiftCompare lite

SwiftCompare lite enables you to compare and merge files, as well as to compare and synchronize folders. This is an intuitive software application that carries out tasks quickly and lets you view differences and similarities in a dual-pane interface.

The installation procedure is speedy and the only notable aspect about it is that you can integrate SwiftCompare lite into the right-click menu. At launch, you can select the comparison mode (files or folders), pick the file encoding mode (ANSI, Unicode, UTF-8, automatic), include subdirectories, as well as indicate the left and right file or folder you want to check.

A summary is immediately put together. When it comes to files, you can find out the number of matching and different lines on each side, and different blocks. As far as folder comparison goes, you can view which contains files and subfolders are newer, older, orphan and different (same date and time but different contents.)

You can study the two files or folders placed side by side in the main frame. In the case of files, it's possible to merge differences or to copy everything from one side to another, use a basic search and replace function, as well as jump to a specific line of text.

After comparing directories, you can visit their location in the default file explorer, copy or move them from one side to another, synchronize the folders, or rename files and subfolders (batch processing is unsupported).

We haven't come across any stability issues in our tests, thanks to the fact that the software utility didn't hang, crash or prompt error messages. It had minimal impact on computer performance, running on low CPU and RAM. Too bad that it hasn't been updated for a long time. Otherwise, SwiftCompare lite offers a simple solution for comparing files and folders, in order to merge files and synchronize folders.