vimdiff
Shares rank 12 of 13 diff tools by recommenders
People recommend vimdiff for reviewing code changes side-by-side in the terminal. The most common caveat is that it is harder to navigate and misses some context.
People recommend vimdiff for reviewing code changes side-by-side in the terminal. The most common caveat is that it is harder to navigate and misses some context.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 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
Great for side-by-side code review
“"vimdiff" is a really great way to review code changes side-by-side.”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “How do you use Vim in the era of AI?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Harder to navigate for some uses
“I personally find vimdiff a bit harder to navigate for my usecase”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Deff – side-by-side Git diff review in your terminal” Misses some needed context
“misses some of the context I needed”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Deff – side-by-side Git diff review in your terminal” Git calls it once per file
“git calling vimdiff for each file, which I fixed with my own difftool”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Deff – side-by-side Git diff review in your terminal”
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 |
| vimdiffThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“"vimdiff" is a really great way to review code changes side-by-side.”
“git calling vimdiff for each file, which I fixed with my own difftool”
“misses some of the context I needed”
“I personally find vimdiff a bit harder to navigate for my usecase”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.