# diff

6 Hacker News commenters recommended diff and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A long-standing Unix command that compares files line by line, recommended as solid, simple and reliable for everyday file comparison.

## Why people recommend it

- Solid, simple tool for file comparison (3 comments): "I think that regular black-and-white /bin/diff is solid for that kind of job." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873518)) "You could have also ran diff on both files and gotten a reasonable diff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268741)) "diff is a good one though!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46240060))
- Handy for everyday quick checks (2 comments): "sometimes I use `diff` to help with that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46846673)) "diff is a good one though!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46240060))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [fzf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fzf.md): 78 recommend
- [jq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jq.md): 75 recommend
- [grep](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grep.md): 65 recommend
- [Atuin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atuin.md): 63 recommend
- [GitHub CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-cli.md): 49 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "diff", https://hackerapproved.com/p/diff/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).