Compare software

colordiff vs ydiff: catalog facts
colordiff	ydiff
Best for: People who review diffs and patches in a terminal	Best for: Developers reviewing diffs in a terminal
Free Free and open source under the GPL license.	Free Free and open source under the BSD-3-Clause license.
Command line	Command line
Works as a diff replacement or in pipelines Customizable color schemes All 3 strengths for colordiff Works as a diff replacement or in pipelines Customizable color schemes Current release and source are available	Shows side-by-side or unified diffs Supports colored themes and automatic paging All 3 strengths for ydiff Shows side-by-side or unified diffs Supports colored themes and automatic paging Reads diffs from a workspace or standard input
Requires a terminal that supports ANSI colors	Requires Python and the less pager
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0-or-later	License: BSD-3-Clause
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for colordiff colordiff.org Catalog checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for ydiff github.com/ymattw/ydiff Catalog checked October 8, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.