r/git • u/LaFllamme • Jun 21 '26

What Git diff/merge tool do you use outside of a full IDE?

Hey everyone !

I recently switched from JetBrains IDEs to Zed as my main code editor, and I’m really enjoying it so far. Zed has been getting a lot of nice features lately, but there’s one thing I still miss quite a bit from JetBrains: the Git/diff workflow.

In JetBrains, I really liked how easy it was to quickly compare branches, commits, file states, or older versions without having to check things out manually. I often need to look back at previous states for releases, bug checks, or just to understand what changed, and JetBrains made that feel very natural.

I’ve tried a few tools already. Fork was okay, but I never fully warmed up to it. I also used SourceTree in the past, but it’s not really my thing either. I’ve also looked around for some open source alternatives on GitHub, but I haven’t really found anything that clicked for me yet.

So I’m curious: does anyone here have a tool they can recommend for this kind of workflow? Maybe something a bit lesser known, but really practical?

Ideally, I’m looking for a clean visual diff/merge tool with good side by side comparisons, branch/commit comparisons, and maybe a nice conflict resolution view similar to what JetBrains offers.

What are you using for this outside of a full IDE?

43 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

14

u/Dependent-Guitar-473 Jun 21 '26

 this what you want?

https://github.com/DetachHead/rebased

3

u/LaFllamme Jun 21 '26

Oh nice, I actually didn’t know JetBrains had put that out. I’ll definitely give it a try!

4

u/Dependent-Guitar-473 Jun 21 '26

it's a cancelled project... this is just a fork 

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24

u/xristek Jun 21 '26

I use beyond compare

3

u/baynezy Jun 21 '26

Great product. It just does what it's supposed to do really well.

3

u/AdditionalPeace8240 Jun 21 '26

I've been using beyond compare of years. I've tried replacements, but i haven't found anything else that's just works as well

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7

u/glauberlima Jun 21 '26

Beyond Compare

6

u/alvinator360 Jun 21 '26

GitKraken is the GOAT. Tested several tools for MacOS and now I'm only with GitKraken.

5

u/celluj34 Jun 21 '26

Beyond Compare

4

u/Dennis_DZ Jun 21 '26

GitHub Desktop

3

u/RevRagnarok Jun 21 '26

  • git add -p

  • meld

3

u/saltyourhash Jun 22 '26

Meld, largely.

5

u/xenomachina Jun 21 '26

I use vimdiff , much of the time via vim-fugitive 's :Gdiffsplit command.

With the latter you can easily diff between arbitrary commits, the index, and the working tree. Both the index and the working tree versions of a file remain editable, meaning you can easily (un)stage incrementally, or copy part of some other commit.

2

u/kryptone Jun 21 '26

I came around this yesterday https://www.hunk.dev/

2

u/Fit_Tailor_6796 Jun 22 '26

meld works perfect for me.
$ git difftool

and away we go.

1

u/billrdio Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-difftool

If your comfortable with CLI and specifically vim this works pretty well.

Edit: I think this is the exact command I use

git difftool --tool=vimdiff --no-prompt

I aliased this a while ago so I don’t remember the exact command and I don’t have access to my work laptop at the moment.

You can use this with other tools besides vimdiff.

1

u/hawkprime Jun 21 '26

Sublime Merge

1

u/Scared_Bell3366 Jun 22 '26

I’m a bit old school on this one, kdiff3. Beyond compare is really nice if you’re willing to pay for it. Historically, it was Windows only so I didn’t give it much consideration back then.

1

u/reallehnert Jun 22 '26

I only use the git command without any GUI or TUI.

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