Compare Two Folders — Offline Diff
Pick two folders and MiniMax Converter shows you exactly what differs: files added in one, removed in the other, modified between them (different content), or identical. Same idea as Beyond Compare ($60) or Meld — free, offline, no install separately. Useful for backup verification, build comparison, deployment diffs, or "did I copy everything?"
What it compares
The tool walks both trees in parallel and pairs files by relative path. For each pair: if both exist but differ, it computes SHA-256 on both to confirm a real content difference (not just a timestamp tweak). If only one exists, it's flagged as added or removed. Empty directories are tracked too.
How to use it
- Open Tools → Analyze & Inspect → Compare directories.
- Pick folder A (e.g. your backup from last week).
- Pick folder B (e.g. your current working folder).
- Click Compare. The results show four lists: identical, modified, only-in-A, only-in-B.
- Export the report as CSV / JSON for record-keeping, or use the visual diff per file by double-clicking.
Use cases
Backup verification: Compare last week's backup to today's production data — any silent corruption shows up as "modified". Build comparison: Diff a clean build against a "tampered" one to find what changed. Deployment auditing: Production vs staging — what files differ? Merge prep: Two collaborators worked separately — see what each touched before merging.
Questions and answers
Is it actually content-comparing, or just metadata?
Content-comparing. The size + mtime check is just a fast-path — anything that doesn't match those gets hashed to be sure.
Can I compare a folder to a zip archive?
Not directly — extract the zip first, then compare to a folder. The unzipped tree compares normally.
What about huge folders?
Limited by disk speed. A 500 GB folder vs another 500 GB folder takes a couple of hours on SSD (10 minutes if you uncheck "content hash on differences" — but you lose accuracy for files where only the timestamp changed).
Symlink handling?
Symlinks are compared by their target string, not by following them (a symlink to /usr/bin/python3 matches an identical symlink in the other folder).
Related tools
Get MiniMax Converter
Cross-platform desktop app. Linux free for non-commercial use; Windows & macOS one-time €20 license. No subscription, no telemetry, no account.