OmniDiff
Shares rank 7 of 13 diff tools by recommenders
People recommend it as a fast, content-aware Git diff tool that highlights only changed characters and produces minimal diffs. Critics mainly object to its AGPL-plus-donation license model.
People recommend it as a fast, content-aware Git diff tool that highlights only changed characters and produces minimal diffs. Critics mainly object to its AGPL-plus-donation license model.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Minimal, character-level diffs
“OmniDiff is character based by default. It will only highlight the changed characters.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” “It produces much more minimal diffs than other tools I've tried.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” Accurate on most diffs
“Omnidiff is perfect on 90% of diffs and near-perfect on 5% more.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” “But they do perform worse on speed and accuracy.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” Seen as well-made and useful
“This looks really good. It does look like you put a ton of effort into it, I'll give it a try.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” “Wow, I've often wished I had a tool like this.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
AGPL plus donation license model
“You have a good core idea here. You're pretty much killing your project in infancy with the AGPL+donation license model.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” Unexpected single-column diff output
“I got a weird single-column diff output that only showed the new side of the changes, not a diff.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust” “I am not sure I prefer the output of omnidiff”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: OmniDiff – Opensource, super fast, content aware Git difftool, in Rust”
Other diff tools people recommend
The four most recommended other diff tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| difftastic | 23 | 1 | 96% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Weave merge tool | 20 | 11 | 65% | 6 | — | — |
| Mergiraf | 19 | 4 | 83% | 5 | 6 mo3 owners | Approved |
| sem | 19 | 7 | 73% | 5 | — | Approved |
| OmniDiffThis page | 8 | 3 | 73% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I got a weird single-column diff output that only showed the new side of the changes, not a diff.”
“I feel safer, as a user, enjoying the freedoms that the AGPL provides me.”
“This looks really good. It does look like you put a ton of effort into it, I'll give it a try.”
“I am not sure I prefer the output of omnidiff”
“Nicely done OP. Does it do 3-way diffs for merges as well?”
“Wow, I've often wished I had a tool like this.”
“OmniDiff is character based by default. It will only highlight the changed characters.”
“I'd skip OmniDiff based on this alone.”
“It produces much more minimal diffs than other tools I've tried.”
“Omnidiff is perfect on 90% of diffs and near-perfect on 5% more.”
“But they do perform worse on speed and accuracy.”
“You have a good core idea here. You're pretty much killing your project in infancy with the AGPL+donation license model.”
“It’s much much better with moved code.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.