Have a look at File comparison tools, from which I am using WinMerge. It has an ability to compare XML documents (you may wish to enable DisplayXMLFiles prefilter for v2.14.0 or PrettifyXML for v2.16.x).

DisplayXMLFiles.dll - This plugin pretty-prints XML files nicely by inserting tabs and line breaks. This is useful for XML files that do not have line returns in convenient locations.

Note for v2.16.x

The plugin PrettifyXML is supplied with the software package. It can be activated as following:

  • Make sure that Plugins → Plugin Settings → Enable plugins is enabled.
  • Then use either File → Recompare As → Prettify XML or Plugins → Scripts → Prettify XML

For those who wish to play with deprecated DisplayXMLFiles, he needs to download e.g. winmerge-2.16.14-full-src.7z and copy Plugins\dlls\X64\DisplayXMLFiles.dll to WinMerge\MergePlugins\.

See also my feature comparison table.

Answer from dma_k on Stack Overflow
🌐
TextCompare
textcompare.org › xml
Online Xml Compare Tool
No Installation: This is a web based tool, no software installtion required. It works on any modern browser like Firefox, Chrome, Edge etc on Windows, Mac or Linux based computer. Unlimited: There is no limit on number of comparisons you can do. You can compare as many Xml files as you want. No, all the processing is done on your 🖥 browser, so nothing is saved on our server unless you choose to save to share online. For private sharing, you can download ...
🌐
Altova
altova.com › xmlspy-xml-editor › compare-xml
Compare XML Files | Altova
DiffDog also supports XML-aware comparisons, including graphical XML Schema differencing and will automatically generate an XSLT stylesheet to transform XML documents to the new XSD. You can download a free trial of DiffDog, or test drive the MissionKit tool suite, which includes both XMLSpy ...
🌐
SemanticDiff
semanticdiff.com › online-diff › xml
SemanticDiff - Compare XML Online
Our online XML diff tool requires an internet connection to work because the computation is performed on our servers. If you are looking for a semantic XML comparison that works offline, you may want to check out our SemanticDiff Visual Studio Code extension.
🌐
Oxygen XML
oxygenxml.com › xml_diff_and_merge.html
Oxygen Compare and Merge Tools
These are powerful and easy-to-use tools that will do the job fast and thoroughly. With the possibilities of comparison and merging, it is easy to manage multiple changes. The comparison of a pair of files is done by opening them in two editors arranged in a side by side layout. You can edit both files and the differences are refreshed when you save the modified documents. You can also compare XML fragments, without selecting files, by copying and pasting them into either side of the comparison tool.
🌐
Ali-ulvi
ali-ulvi.github.io › XML_equality_checker_comparer.html
XML Compare Test Tool
Sometimes we need to compare XML files ignoring their elements' order but there was not such FREE tool before. Now there is! Download here.
🌐
Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 1871076 › are-there-any-free-xml-diff-merge-tools-available
Are there any free Xml Diff/Merge tools available? - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 11
36

Have a look at File comparison tools, from which I am using WinMerge. It has an ability to compare XML documents (you may wish to enable DisplayXMLFiles prefilter for v2.14.0 or PrettifyXML for v2.16.x).

DisplayXMLFiles.dll - This plugin pretty-prints XML files nicely by inserting tabs and line breaks. This is useful for XML files that do not have line returns in convenient locations.

Note for v2.16.x

The plugin PrettifyXML is supplied with the software package. It can be activated as following:

  • Make sure that Plugins → Plugin Settings → Enable plugins is enabled.
  • Then use either File → Recompare As → Prettify XML or Plugins → Scripts → Prettify XML

For those who wish to play with deprecated DisplayXMLFiles, he needs to download e.g. winmerge-2.16.14-full-src.7z and copy Plugins\dlls\X64\DisplayXMLFiles.dll to WinMerge\MergePlugins\.

See also my feature comparison table.

2 of 11
22

I wrote and released a Windows application that specifically solves the problem of comparing and merging XML files.

Project: Merge can perform two and three way comparisons and merges of any XML file (where two of the files are considered to be independent revisions of a common base file). You can instruct it to identify elements within the input files by attribute values, or the content of child elements, among other things.

It is fully controllable via the command line and can also generate text reports containing the differences between the files.

🌐
Xlcompare
xlcompare.com › compare-xml-files.html
Compare XML Files Online. Free. No Upload. Get the Semantic XML diffs.
October 3, 2009 - Compare two XML docs and get the difference online. Drop your files on this page and get the highlighted diffs. Get semantic XML differences by comparing XML documents with key nodes and attributes.
🌐
Online Text Compare
onlinetextcompare.com › xml
Compare XML files online
FREE two-way XML format, diff and merge tool. No Signup required. Nothing to install. All comparisons are 100% private, secure and happens locally right in your web browser
🌐
CoreFiling
corefiling.com › home › open source tools › xml comparison tool
Free Online XML Comparison Tool
June 20, 2025 - CoreFiling XML Differences uses XML Pretty Printer and a custom diff to display differences between XML files in an easy-to-read format. We hope you find this tool useful – please remember not to use online tools with production data!
Find elsewhere
🌐
SourceForge
diffxml.sourceforge.net
diffxml - XML Diff and Patch Utilities
diffxml & patchxml: Tools for comparing and patching XML files · The standard Unix tools diff and patch are used to find the differences between text files and to apply the differences. These tools operate on a line by line basis using well-studied methods for computing the longest common ...
🌐
ExtendsClass
extendsclass.com › xml-diff.html
XML diff - Compare xml online
There are several free online tools that can help you with this, such as Flexter XML to SQL online. ... You can report a bug or give feedback by adding a comment (below) or by clicking "Contact me" link (at the top right hand corner of the page). Comments ...
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/xml › comparing xml files
r/xml on Reddit: Comparing xml files
April 15, 2024 -

Hello, is there a free tool for xml files comparison? I need to compare two files to check out is there any differences in the new one.

Top answer
1 of 5
4
xmldiff https://pypi.org/project/xmldiff/ If you need a good visual diff, you can download a free oXygen trial maybe. That's the best visual tool I've used.
2 of 5
4
Vim: vim -d {file1.xml} {file2.xml}
🌐
LambdaTest
lambdatest.com › home › free tools › xml compare
XML Compare - XML Diff Online Tool | LambdaTest
Free and Accessible: Our XML Compare Tool is free to use and doesn’t require any downloads or installations, making it accessible from any device with an internet connection.
🌐
WaytoLearnX
tools.waytolearnx.com › en › xml-diff
XML Diff - XML Compare - Online tools
XML Diff, short for XML Difference, is a free online tool used to compare two XML (eXtensible Markup Language) documents and identify the differences or changes between them. This comparison is commonly used in a variety of scenarios, including version control, data synchronization, content ...
🌐
Altova
altova.com › diffdog
DiffDog Diff/Merge Tool | Altova
DiffDog Server is high-performance ... reports comparing files, directories, and URLs. “DiffDog saved my life! Recordare developed MusicXML as an Internet-friendly format for publishing and sharing digital sheet music. As MusicXML became more popular, we needed a truly XML-aware differencing program to evaluate the XML files created by our Dolet plug-ins. DiffDog gives us the high quality regression testing tool that we had long sought for our MusicXML projects.” ... Download a free 30 ...
🌐
GitHub
github.com › Shoobx › xmldiff
GitHub - Shoobx/xmldiff: A library and command line utility for diffing xml
A library and command line utility for diffing xml - Shoobx/xmldiff
Starred by 226 users
Forked by 53 users
Languages   Python 98.7% | Python 98.7%
🌐
GitHub
github.com › vkononov › compare-xml
GitHub - vkononov/compare-xml: CompareXML is a fast, lightweight and feature-rich tool that will solve your XML/HTML comparison or diffing needs. its purpose is to compare two instances of Nokogiri::XML::Node or Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet for equality or equivalency.
CompareXML is a fast, lightweight and feature-rich tool that will solve your XML/HTML comparison or diffing needs. its purpose is to compare two instances of Nokogiri::XML::Node or Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet for equality or equivalency. - vkononov/compare-xml
Starred by 13 users
Forked by 3 users
Languages   Ruby 58.1% | HTML 41.6% | Shell 0.3% | Ruby 58.1% | HTML 41.6% | Shell 0.3%
🌐
Minifier
minifier.org › xml-compare
XML Compare - Online XML Diff Checker
No need for downloads or installations. Use the XML comparison tool directly in your browser for quick and secure XML comparison.
🌐
Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 40936205 › intelligent-way-to-diff-xml
Intelligent Way to Diff XML - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 1
9

Giving this some thought, I figured if there was a way to sort the xml files from command line, then I could just do a diff against the files.

My follow up googles to my thought lead me to the following: https://superuser.com/questions/79920/how-can-i-diff-two-xml-files

In the above, the key was the canonical xml sort. Since I'm using a mac, the above gave me the following for my problem, which worked me:

$ xmllint --c14n File1.xml > 1.xml
$ xmllint --c14n File2.xml > 2.xml
$ diff 1.xml 2.xml

The above should also work for you if you are on linux, or are using something like cygwin installed/setup with windows.

🌐
JSoftwareLabs
jsoftwarelabs.com › compare-diff-online › xml-comparison
Compare xml online - XML diff tool
JSoftwareLabs' free XML comparator tool allows you to compare XML nodes visualize the semantic differences. Paste your XML code,compare the code side-by-side and see a detailed table with change locations.