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Moving from Guiffy to Diff Anything: a practical migration guide

Guiffy reaches end of life on 31 December 2026. See how its diff, merge, folder, and Git workflows map to Diff Anything on Windows and Mac, with Git setup for Windows you can copy.

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Merge text with Base, Ours, and Theirs side by side.

No accounts, cloud comparison service, analytics, or telemetry.

Diff Anything three-way merge workspace showing Ours and Theirs against Base with an unresolved conflict — Diff AnythingWith Pro, the three-way merge workspace shows each side against Base and an editable merged result. Screenshot shows the shared desktop interface.

The problem

Why the usual workflow gets in the way.

Guiffy Software has announced that it will close at the end of 2026 and that every Guiffy product reaches end of life on 31 December 2026. If you compare files, merge changes, or run Guiffy from Git or scripts, you need a replacement for those jobs before that date.

The solution

How Diff Anything handles it.

Diff Anything compares files, folders, images, and binary files on Windows and Mac, and adds comparisons for spreadsheets, PDFs, Office documents, archives, and structured data such as JSON and XML. Pro adds a three-way merge workspace, folder synchronization, and report export. On Windows, the same app works from Git as a difftool and diff driver, and with Pro as a merge driver.

Command line and Git

Read the full CLI and Git guide

Every command-line option, output format, exit status, and batch manifest field, plus the Git difftool and diff driver setup on Windows.

Read the CLI and Git guide

01 / Workflow detail

Guiffy reaches end of life on 31 December 2026

On 2 January 2026, Guiffy Software announced on its website that the company will close at the end of 2026 and that all Guiffy products reach end of life on 31 December 2026. The announcement is linked under Primary sources below.

This guide takes the jobs people use Guiffy for, such as comparing files and folders, merging, reports, the command line, and Git, and shows where each one goes in Diff Anything. Where Diff Anything works differently or does not cover a job, the table says so.

02 / Workflow detail

Guiffy workflows and where they go in Diff Anything

The first column follows the feature names on Guiffy's features page. The second column describes the released version of Diff Anything.

Guiffy features and the matching Diff Anything workflow
Guiffy feature	In Diff Anything
Diff tool	Open the original file on the left and the changed file on the right. Text and code are shown side by side or inline with word-level changes, syntax highlighting for 117 editor languages, editing, and applying changes in either direction. Smart Diff follows changes through reformatting; Line Diff gives the exact line-by-line view.
3-way Merge tool and SureMerge	With Pro, the three-way merge workspace takes Ours on the left, Theirs on the right, and the Base you choose. Changes that do not overlap combine automatically, and each overlapping edit becomes a conflict you resolve with Ours, Theirs, both, or Base in an editable result. It merges text files.
Folder compare and synchronization	Compare two folders in tree or table layouts with search, status filters, ignore patterns, and moved-file detection, then open any changed pair. With Pro, copy entries between the two sides or synchronize the folders from a plan you review first, with undo.
Image Diff Tool	Compare PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and BMP images pixel by pixel with side-by-side, overlay, swipe, blink, heatmap, and changed-pixel views, a threshold, and measurements. Other image formats, such as TIFF or HEIC, are compared by size and checksum only.
Binary Diff Tool	Binary mode reports the detected format, size, and SHA-256 checksum of both files, so you can see whether they differ. It does not show a byte-by-byte view of where they differ.
Ignore options	Text comparison can ignore whitespace, blank lines, letter case, and line endings. JSON and YAML can ignore chosen paths and array order, CSV comparison can ignore chosen columns, and folder comparison takes ignore patterns. There are no regular-expression ignore rules and no setting to ignore a range of character columns in text.
Manual Alignment	Lines are aligned automatically. There is no manual alignment.
Over 150 File Encoding formats and Save files Encoded As	Text files are read as UTF-8, UTF-16 with a byte-order mark, or a detected legacy encoding such as Windows-1252, and edits are saved in the file's own encoding. You cannot choose an encoding by hand or save in a different one, and EBCDIC files are not supported.
Save Compare Report (HTML) and Save Differences As	With Pro, export a comparison as an HTML, JSON, or Markdown report, a unified diff of a text comparison, or a CSV list of changes for a CSV comparison.
Command line utilities (Jiff, Suremerge, GuiffyReport, UPatch)	On Windows, the Microsoft Store version provides the diff-anything command. With --cli it compares two files or folders and prints a highlighted diff, a summary, or JSON, with an optional exit code when differences are found; with Pro, --merge merges three files. The free command line compares text and JSON; Pro adds the other comparison types and batch runs with JUnit or SARIF output. It does not apply patches. The Mac App Store version is limited to files and folders you choose in the app, so command-line use is for Windows.
CM/SCM Integrations	Git, on Windows: Diff Anything works as git difftool, as the diff driver for the file types you choose, and, with Pro, as a merge driver and git mergetool. There is no ready-made setup for AccuRev, ClearCase, CMSynergy, Mercurial, Perforce, StarTeam, SVN, or Team Foundation Server, and no Eclipse or NetBeans integration.
Desktop Integrations with Windows Explorer and Finder	Choose files and folders in the app, or drag them into its window. The store versions add no File Explorer or Finder menu commands.
Translations	The interface is in English.
User defined keyboard shortcuts	Keyboard shortcuts and a command palette cover common actions. Shortcuts cannot be reassigned.
BIG files > 2GB	Text comparison opens files up to 20 MB by default and up to 100 MB after you raise Maximum automatic text size in Settings; larger text files cannot be compared as text. Archive comparison streams large archives and is not bound by that setting. The free plan compares files up to 5 MiB per side.
Filter Plugins	With Pro on Windows, Local transform runs a program installed on your computer, such as jq or xmllint, on both text sources before they are compared.
Cross Platform	Windows 10 version 1809 or later, Windows 11, and macOS 13 Ventura or later, from the Microsoft Store and the Mac App Store. There is no Linux, Unix, or Java version.

03 / Workflow detail

Use Diff Anything with Git on Windows

Git integration uses the diff-anything command that the Microsoft Store version provides on Windows. Run these commands in a terminal. Each one replaces the matching Git setting, so a diff.tool or merge.tool that pointed at Guiffy now points at Diff Anything. Running diff-anything --cli --integration-help prints the same configuration.

As a difftool, git difftool prints each changed file as a highlighted diff in the terminal. As a diff driver, git diff uses Diff Anything for the file types you assign in .gitattributes or your global attributes file; git log -p and git show use it when you add --ext-diff. Leave --exit-code out of a diff driver command, because Git stops at the first changed file when a driver reports differences through its exit status.

On the free plan, the difftool and diff driver compare text and JSON files up to 5 MiB, with 10 new comparisons a day. When git diff reaches a file the free plan does not cover, the diff driver lists it as not compared and goes on to the next file.

With Pro, the merge driver merges the files you assign to it whenever Git merges, and git mergetool runs the same command-line merge. Changes that do not overlap are combined. Where both sides changed the same lines, the merged file gets standard conflict markers, which you then resolve in your editor. The interactive three-way merge workspace is in the app: open Ours and Theirs, choose Base, and resolve each conflict there.

Use Diff Anything as git difftool

git config --global diff.tool diff-anything
git config --global difftool.diff-anything.cmd 'diff-anything --cli --format terminal --color auto "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"'

Use Diff Anything as the diff driver for git diff

git config --global diff.diff-anything.command 'diff-anything --cli --format terminal --color auto'

Assign the diff driver in .gitattributes

*.json diff=diff-anything
*.yaml diff=diff-anything

Merge driver and git mergetool (Pro)

git config --global merge.diff-anything.driver 'diff-anything --cli --merge %O %A %B --output %A'
git config --global merge.tool diff-anything
git config --global mergetool.diff-anything.cmd 'diff-anything --cli --merge "$BASE" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" --output "$MERGED"'

Assign the diff and merge drivers in .gitattributes

*.yaml diff=diff-anything merge=diff-anything

04 / Workflow detail

What about your existing Guiffy setups?

Diff Anything installs alongside Guiffy, so you can move one workflow at a time and check the results before you switch. Diff Anything does not import Guiffy settings, so each setup is recreated once:

Git settings: run the commands above on Windows. To find any other Git settings that still name Guiffy, run git config --global --list and look for guiffy.
Scripts that call Guiffy's command-line utilities: rewrite them with diff-anything --cli on Windows. Exit status 0 means no counted differences, 1 means differences were found or a merge left conflicts, and 2 means an error such as an unreadable file. Add --exit-code when a script should fail on any difference.
Compare reports: with Pro, export HTML, JSON, or Markdown reports from the app, or write JSON, JUnit, or SARIF results from command-line batch runs on Windows.
Ignore settings: set the matching ignore options in the app. With Pro, a saved profile keeps them for the next comparison of the same files.
Explorer or Finder menu commands: open files from the app or drag them into its window instead.

05 / Workflow detail

What you can compare beyond text and folders

Diff Anything picks the comparison that fits the files you open, so a Guiffy workflow often gets a clearer result:

Spreadsheets: compare stored cell values across Excel, OpenDocument, and Apple Numbers workbooks, or check a CSV export against the sheet it came from.
Structured data: JSON, YAML, and XML are compared by meaning, so reordered keys do not show up as changes and list items are matched by id.
Documents: compare PDFs as rendered pages or extracted text, and Word, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, and RTF files by their text.
Archives: compare ZIP, 7z, RAR, and TAR files by their contents instead of their packaging.
Privacy: every comparison runs on your computer. There is no account, no upload, and no AI.

06 / Workflow detail

What you can do in Free and Pro

Free lets you try every comparison type with files up to 5 MiB per side and 10 new comparison sessions per local day. Folder and archive previews show the first 100 items, and PDF previews show the first 3 pages. The free command line on Windows compares text and JSON.

Pro is a one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store, priced in your local store currency, with no subscription, account, or licence key. It removes those limits and adds three-way merge, the Git merge driver, folder synchronization, report export, saved profiles and history, batch runs, and every command-line comparison type.

Clear answers

Questions about moving from Guiffy

When does Guiffy reach end of life?

Guiffy Software announced on 2 January 2026 that the company closes at the end of 2026 and that all Guiffy products reach end of life on 31 December 2026.

Can I use Diff Anything as my Git merge tool?

Yes, with Pro on Windows. The merge driver and git mergetool run Diff Anything's command-line merge, which combines changes that do not overlap and writes standard conflict markers where both sides changed the same lines. To resolve conflicts side by side, use the three-way merge workspace in the app.

Does Diff Anything run on Linux or Unix?

No. Diff Anything runs on Windows 10 version 1809 or later, Windows 11, and macOS 13 Ventura or later.

Does Diff Anything work with Perforce, SVN, or ClearCase?

Diff Anything provides ready-made setup for Git only. There is no ready-made setup for Perforce, SVN, ClearCase, or the other version control systems Guiffy lists.

Can Diff Anything import my Guiffy settings?

No. Set the matching ignore options in Diff Anything once; with Pro, a saved profile keeps them.

Is Diff Anything free?

Diff Anything has a free version that lets you try every comparison type, with files up to 5 MiB per side and 10 new comparison sessions per local day. A one-time Pro purchase removes those limits.

Does Diff Anything upload my files?

No. Comparisons run locally in the desktop app. There is no account, cloud comparison service, analytics, or telemetry.

Three short steps

Move one Guiffy workflow this week.

01
Install Diff Anything from the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store. It installs alongside Guiffy.
02
Open a pair of files or folders you last compared in Guiffy, with the original on the left and the changed version on the right.
03
On Windows, run the Git commands from this guide, then check the result with git difftool on a branch you know.

Available for macOS and Windows

Solve it with Diff Anything.