Direct answer
Which archive formats can Diff Anything compare?
Diff Anything compares normalized entry paths, types, sizes, link targets, and streamed SHA-256 content hashes for ZIP/ZIP64/ZIPX and ZIP-based packages, 7z, RAR 1.3 through 7, TAR and compressed TAR variants, plus standalone Gzip, Bzip2, XZ, and Zstandard streams. It supports encrypted ZIP, 7z, and RAR archives and supported multipart 7z or RAR sets, without unpacking either archive into its source directory.
Formats
A broad, explicit archive format matrix.
ZIP support includes ZIP64, ZIPX, and ZIP-based JAR, WAR, EAR, APK, AAB, IPA, EPUB, VSIX, NuGet, XPI, Python wheel, CBZ, and OpenDocument packages. 7z support includes solid archives and numbered .7z.001 sets. RAR support covers versions 1.3 through 7, solid and self-extracting archives, .partNN.rar sets, and legacy .rar/.r00/.s00 volumes.
TAR inputs include plain TAR, TAR.GZ/TGZ, TAR.BZ2/TBZ/TBZ2, TAR.XZ/TXZ, and TAR.ZST/TZST. Standalone Gzip, Bzip2, XZ, and Zstandard streams are also supported.
- ZIP codecs: Deflate, Deflate64, Bzip2, LZMA, XZ, and Zstandard
- 7z codecs: LZMA/LZMA2, PPMd, Bzip2, Deflate, Brotli, LZ4, and Zstandard
- Content-signature detection for renamed containers and ZIP/RAR self-extracting archives
Passwords
Encrypted archives can use a different password on each side.
ZIP supports legacy ZipCrypto and WinZip AES. 7z supports AES-256. RAR supports encrypted member data and encrypted headers. The app prompts when a password is required or rejected.
An accepted password remains only in memory for the active source pair. It is not saved to settings, profiles, history, diagnostics, or comparison exports. TAR and standalone compression streams have no native encryption; wrap them in an encrypted ZIP, 7z, or RAR container when needed.
Large archives
Comparison and extraction stream instead of loading whole archives into the UI.
Diff Anything reads a bounded signature prefix when opening an archive and incrementally hashes decompressed member data. Extraction streams to a temporary file and atomically moves the completed result into place.
Opening a member in the text editor is capped at 128 MiB, while larger members can still be extracted. Cancellation is checked between members and during hash work. Duplicate member names produce a warning and use the final occurrence deterministically.
On the free plan, each archive can be up to 5 MB and the result lists the first 100 entries. Pro removes both limits, up to the ceilings below.
- Up to 1,000,000 members
- Up to 500 GiB for one expanded member
- Up to 10 TiB total expanded content
- Up to 32 KiB member names
Boundaries
Unsupported container families stay explicit.
Split ZIP, ACE, ARJ, CAB, ISO or other disk images, and filesystem images are not treated as archives. They remain available to binary comparison, and explicit archive mode reports a supported-format error instead of invoking an external executable.
Archive mode compares extracted content and link targets. It does not treat archive timestamps, compression levels, member order, or container metadata as content changes.
Best for
Where this workflow fits.
- Comparing two backups, exports, downloads, or transferred archives
- Finding changed entries between encrypted or multipart archive versions
- Inspecting private archives without uploading them
- Ignoring container timestamps, compression levels, and member order when the extracted content is what matters
No accounts, cloud comparison service, analytics, or telemetry.
Relevant capabilities
What Diff Anything brings to the job.
Practical workflow
From setup to a reviewed result.
Choose both containers
Open the previous and candidate archives. Auto can recognize supported content signatures even when a container was renamed.
Unlock either side when asked
Enter separate left and right passwords for encrypted ZIP, 7z, or RAR sources. Accepted passwords remain in memory for this source pair and are not persisted.
Review content differences
Search or filter added, removed, changed, and identical entries. The result ignores packaging-only differences such as timestamps, compression level, and member order.
Inspect or extract deliberately
Open a changed text pair for a deeper comparison, or extract an entry explicitly to a chosen destination. The source archives remain unchanged.
Useful in practice
Direct answers
Questions about archive compare tool.
Which archive formats can Diff Anything compare?
Diff Anything compares normalized entry paths, types, sizes, link targets, and streamed SHA-256 content hashes for ZIP/ZIP64/ZIPX and ZIP-based packages, 7z, RAR 1.3 through 7, TAR and compressed TAR variants, plus standalone Gzip, Bzip2, XZ, and Zstandard streams. It supports encrypted ZIP, 7z, and RAR archives and supported multipart 7z or RAR sets, without unpacking either archive into its source directory.
Can Diff Anything compare password-protected archives?
Yes. Version 1.4 supports ZipCrypto and WinZip AES for ZIP, AES-256 for 7z, and encrypted data or headers in RAR. Each side can use a different password, and accepted passwords stay only in memory for the current source pair.
Can it compare multipart archives?
Yes for numbered .7z.001 sets, RAR .partNN.rar sets, and legacy .rar/.r00/.s00 sets. Split ZIP is not supported.
Does it extract the whole archive first?
No. Comparison streams decompressed member data through SHA-256. Explicit extraction streams one selected entry through a temporary file and atomically moves the completed result into place.
What archive differences are ignored?
Archive timestamps, compression levels, member order, and container metadata do not create content differences. Paths, types, sizes, link targets, and extracted content do.
Go deeper
Understand content-based archive comparison, encrypted and multipart inputs, supported codecs, streaming behavior, extraction, and safety boundaries in Diff Anything.
Read Compare ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR, and compressed archivesFree & Pro: what’s included
Available on the Mac App Store and Microsoft Store. Free desktop use lets you try every comparison engine for files up to 5 MiB per side and 10 new comparison sessions per local day; collection previews show the first 100 items and PDF previews show the first 3 pages. The free CLI supports text and JSON. A one-time Pro purchase removes the preview and session limits and unlocks larger sources within technical limits, saved profiles and history, report export, three-way merge, folder synchronization, batch manifests, trusted preprocessors, and every CLI mode.