Doc Diff
Compare documents easily.
Every change marked word by word. Your files never leave your device.
PDF, Word (.docx) or text · or drop the files here
Free and open source (MIT) · No ads, no tracking, no cookies
How it works
- Choose two versions As PDF, Word file or pasted text. The files are only read inside this browser tab.
- Go through the changes Removed text is struck through in red, added text is marked green. You can accept or reject each change.
- Save the result if you need it As a clean final version (Word in the original format, or PDF) or as a comparison with tracked changes.
What it can do – and what it can’t
Can
- Compare PDFs with a text layer, Word files (.docx) and plain text – also mixed, e.g. a PDF against a Word file
- Show changes word by word – including changed numbers, dates and amounts
- Show page breaks as in the original; repeating headers and footers are left out
- Mark moved paragraphs as “moved”
- Work without internet – as a single HTML file
Can’t
- Read scanned PDFs – there is no text recognition (OCR)
- Open old Word files (.doc) – please save them as .docx first
- Compare formatting – bold, italics, table layout and images are ignored; only the text is compared
Frequently asked questions
How can I check that nothing is uploaded?
The page contains a security rule (Content Security Policy) that makes your browser block every network connection from the page. Your files are only read into this tab’s memory and discarded when you close it.
To check it yourself: open your browser’s developer tools (F12), switch to the “Network” tab and then load a document – no request appears. Or download the offline file, disconnect from the internet and open it: everything keeps working.
Can I use Doc Diff offline?
Yes. Download DocDiff.html (a single file of just under 3 MB) and open it in your browser with a double-click – no installation and no internet needed.
Can I compare scanned PDFs?
No. Doc Diff only reads PDFs with a text layer, that is, PDFs in which you can select and copy text. A scan is an image of the page, and there is no built-in text recognition (OCR). Such files are rejected with a message. Convert the scan into a searchable PDF with an OCR program first.
Can I keep working on the changes in Word?
Yes. The “Word with tracked changes” export creates a .docx file in which every difference that is still open is a tracked change. In Word or LibreOffice you can accept or reject each change. When the new version is a Word file, the export keeps its formatting: styles, numbering, tables and images stay as they were. From a PDF or text, a newly typeset Word document is created. The final version without marks is available as a Word file, too.
Who is behind it? Where is the source code?
Doc Diff is a private open-source project by Tobias Schnorpfeil – with no company, advertising or data collection behind it. The complete source code is available under the MIT licence on GitHub: you can review it, build it yourself or host it yourself.