Free download. Upgrade to Pro for files, Workspace, and Version History.
RibbonDiff runs in Limited mode for comparing typed or pasted text. Unlock Open / Drag & Drop / Save / Save As, the shared Workspace sidebar with file search, and Version History for Git-backed Workspace files with a 7-day Pro Trial or a $14.99 one-time Pro Lifetime purchase. No subscription. The trial is one-time and does not auto-renew.
$14.99 Pro Lifetime (one-time)
Includes a free 7-day Pro Trial (one-time), plus Pro file workflows, Workspace, and Version
History. Restore Purchases if you bought the previous paid version.
Free (Limited mode)
- Compare typed/pasted text in two fully editable panes
- Live diff updates with line + in-line highlights
- Per-pane Find (⌘F / ⌘G / ⇧⌘G)
- Word wrap, line numbers, and themes
Pro (Trial or Lifetime unlock)
- Open files from Finder, Terminal, File → Open…, or drag & drop
- Save / Save As per pane, plus save
.rd-workspacedocuments - Open folders or
.rd-workspacedocuments in a shared Workspace sidebar - Search text across a Workspace with Find in Workspace (
⇧⌘F), jump straight to matching lines, or Option-click results into new tabs - Create new Workspace files or folders with inline rename, then move, delete, reveal, or copy paths from the sidebar
- Browse Version History for files inside Git-backed Workspaces
- Optional file details like line endings + encoding controls (enable in Settings)
RibbonDiff for macOS gives you a clean side-by-side, editable diff workspace with live updates as you type, paste, open files, or inspect history. A visual change ribbon connects related blocks across both sides, and Pro adds a project-aware Workspace sidebar for opening, organizing, and searching project files plus in-app Version History so you can review related files and Git-backed snapshots without leaving the app.
Need help? Email ribbon@craftclay.com.
More pages
Practical guides, short examples, and downloadable sample files are also available.
- Guides — compare files, review configuration changes, browse Git-backed history, reduce whitespace noise, and correct text encodings.
- Examples — short workflow pages using the sample files.
- Sample Files — downloadable file pairs and a Git-backed demo repository.
Release Notes
New
- Option-click a Workspace file search result header or matching line to open it in a new tab while preserving the revealed match.
- File search result header menus now include Open in New Tab.
- Added Copy Relative Path and Copy Full Path actions for Workspace tree items, file search result headers, and modified file rows.
Improved
- Workspace file search now remains visible when switching between tabs.
- Switching between the Workspace file tree and file search now preserves the search query, results, expanded files, and scroll position.
- Workspace file search results now show the same M marker for Git-modified files that the file tree uses.
- Clicking a specific Workspace search match now keeps focus on the clicked match line instead of jumping to the first diff.
Previous versions
New
- Added Workspace file search so you can search text across an open Workspace and jump directly to matching files and lines.
- Added Find in Workspace… (
⇧⌘F), plus Show File Tree (⌘1) and Show File Search (⌘2) for switching the Workspace sidebar. - Search results are grouped by file with folder context, line numbers, match counts, and highlighted previews.
Improved
- Workspace file search keeps your query, expanded results, and scroll position when you switch back and forth between the file tree and search results.
- Workspace window sizes restore more reliably when reopening saved Workspaces or creating new windows.
Fixed
- Improved diff highlighting reliability for plain-text files.
New
- Added Workspace sidebar actions for creating new files and folders, opening files in a new tab, deleting items, and showing items in Finder.
- Added multi-select in the Workspace tree with Command-click, Shift-click, multi-item drag moves, and multi-item delete.
Improved
- New files use unique names and infer a sensible extension from the target folder when possible, with inline rename validation for empty, invalid, or duplicate names.
- Workspace delete now moves files and folders to the Trash after a clear confirmation, and drag moves keep open editors, selection, expansion, and Git status in sync.
Fixed
- Fixed opening a Workspace by dragging a folder from Finder into the left Workspace sidebar, including when RibbonDiff is visible but not the frontmost app.
- Fixed a Workspace sidebar toggle issue that could cause slow comparison redraws or temporarily break center ribbon rendering.
Improved
- Improved layout stability so editor scroll sync, editor state, and ribbon rendering are preserved when showing or hiding the Workspace sidebar.
- Improved performance stability during repeated file comparisons and sessions with multiple tabs or windows.
New
- Added a new Whitespace toolbar toggle and View → Whitespace Filters command to turn saved whitespace-comparison filters on or off together.
- Added File → New Window and File → New Window with Sidebar for faster standalone comparisons, with or without the Workspace sidebar open.
- Added Help → RibbonDiff Help (
⌘?) to open the built-in shortcut cheat sheet window.
Improved
- The Workspace Modified Files section can now be resized live with a divider, with a better default expanded height before it scrolls.
- Tabs in the same window group now share the Modified Files collapsed/expanded state and committed expanded height more consistently.
- Saved whitespace-filter defaults now apply immediately to open diff editors, and the toolbar shows a mixed state when only some filters are enabled.
New
- Added Pro-only Workspace, so you can open a folder or
.rd-workspacedocument in a shared sidebar and move between related comparisons without rebuilding context. - Added Pro-only Version History for Git-backed Workspace files, including in-app branch browsing, historical revision selection, commit search, and Affected / All filtering.
- Added save and reopen support for
.rd-workspacedocuments, including restored sidebar expansion state.
Improved
- Open Workspace… now opens a workspace in a new standalone window, while the sidebar action binds a workspace to the current window.
- Workspace review is smoother with open-file indicators, Option-click to open another tab, and smarter switching when a file is already open.
- Opened files now reload automatically when the on-disk file changes and there are no unsaved edits, or prompt before replacing in-app changes.
- Workspace windows and titles restore more cleanly across relaunches and display changes.
Fixed
- Fixed an issue where Lifetime Unlock might not activate correctly after a 7-day trial had already ended.
New
- Smarter Next/Previous Change navigation, especially when one side contains insert-only blocks or you are near the end of a file.
- Automatic jump to the first changed block when a comparison first becomes available.
- New editor typography controls in Settings → General → Editor: font, font size, and line spacing, with immediate live updates.
- New text-size shortcuts while editing: ⌘= (⌘+), ⌘-, and ⌘0.
- More native code-editor behavior: Tab / Shift-Tab and ⌘] / ⌘[ for indent and outdent, auto-indent on Return, inferred tab width, and a subtle current-line highlight.
- Better per-pane Find behavior, including more reliable ⌘F focus, Find Next/Previous, recent searches, shared Find syncing, Esc to return to the editor, and Use Selection for Find.
- New Show Toolbar / Hide Toolbar command in View with ⌥⌘T, and toolbar visibility now persists across launches.
Improved
- Diff ribbon and line highlights now appear only when both panes contain text, and they clear immediately when either pane is emptied or unbound.
- When one pane is cleared or unbound, the remaining pane resets to the top for a cleaner state.
- Updated shortcuts for the top controls: Wrap is now ⌃⌘W, Swap is ⌃⌘S, and Clear is ⌃⌘K.
- Window and tab titles now prefer the left file name when both panes are file-backed.
Fixed
- Fixed change-jump cases that could fail near the end of a file.
- Fixed a ⌘Z crash in some editing scenarios.
- Fixed an issue where the cursor and scroll position could jump to the bottom while typing.
- Expanded text encoding support for opening/saving files, including UTF-8 (with BOM) plus additional Japanese (Shift_JIS, EUC-JP, ISO-2022-JP, x-mac-japanese), Chinese (GB18030/GBK/GB2312, Big5/Big5-HKSCS, HZ-GB-2312), Korean (EUC-KR, CP949), and more Windows code pages (1250-1258, 874).
- When auto-detection is ambiguous, RibbonDiff now prompts you to Choose Encoding.
- Reload with Encoding to re-open a file from disk using the encoding you select (helps fix garbled text).
- Open two files directly from Terminal / Finder (e.g. open -a RibbonDiff left.txt right.txt).
- Improve filename visibility.
- RibbonDiff is now free to download, with an optional Pro Trial and Pro Lifetime one-time unlock via In-App Purchase. (If you previously bought the paid version, your access should carry over - use Restore Purchases if needed.)
- Performance improvements with faster editing, diff updates and smooth scroll.
- New optional Line Endings (LF/CRLF/CR) and Encoding controls when enabled in Settings.
- Improved drag-and-drop feedback for a clearer, more responsive file drop experience.
- Lower CPU usage while idle for better efficiency.
- Performance improvements with faster editing, diff updates and smooth scroll.
- Clearer active-pane focus and improved unsaved-changes indicators.
- Full open, save, and save-as workflow per pane, including drag & drop.
- Expanded and smarter syntax highlighting with new language support and customizable colors.
- Enhanced theme management with color swatches and default theme saving.
- Initial release
Tip: You can also view version history on the Mac App Store listing.