A syntax-highlighting pager for git, diff, grep, rg --json, and blame output
Syntax highlighting, side-by-side view and line numbers.
alternatives to
diff-so-fancy
Make your diffs human readable for improved code quality and faster defect detection. :tada:
delta, Difftastic, icdiff and more. 5 alternatives to diff-so-fancy, in Rust, Python, TypeScript. Compare fit, licence, stars and the latest signed release.
Side by side
| Tool | Fit | Stars | Licence | Terms | Self-hosted | Language | Latest | Last push |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| delta | Full replacement | 33k | MIT | Open source | No | Rust | 0.20.1 | 2026-11-12 |
| Difftastic | Partial | 26k | MIT | Open source | No | Rust | 0.72.0 | 2026-11-11 |
| icdiff | Partial | 4.4k | Other | Open source | No | Python | release-2.0.10 | 2026-02-08 |
| git-split-diffs | Partial | 2.7k | MIT | Open source | No | TypeScript | v2.3.0 | 2026-10-11 |
| riff | Partial | 532 | MIT | Open source | No | Rust | 3.7.0 | 2026-11-07 |
Every alternative
5 alternatives
a structural diff that understands syntax 🟥🟩
Compares files by syntax tree rather than by line, run as git's external diff instead of a pager.
improved colored diff
Side-by-side coloured diff, used through git difftool or git icdiff rather than as a pager.
- Language
- Python
- Licence
- Other
- Stars
- 4.4k
- Latest
- release-2.0.10
- Last push
- 2026-02-08
Syntax highlighted side-by-side diffs in your terminal
Side-by-side diffs with syntax highlighting, styled like GitHub's.
- Language
- TypeScript
- Licence
- MIT
- Stars
- 2.7k
- Latest
- v2.3.0
- Last push
- 2026-10-11
A syntax highter for diffs, clarifying which parts of lines have changed
Highlights the changed parts of each line, as a pager for git and diff.
Head to head
About diff-so-fancy
- Language
- Perl
- Licence
- MIT
- Stars
- 18k
- Last push
- 2026-10-18