XML Compare
Compare two XML documents with deep structural comparison. Detects added, modified, and deleted elements and attributes at all nesting levels. Features options to ignore whitespace, attribute order, and comments for flexible comparison.
Comparison Options
Recommended Settings
Comparison Features
- •Deep structural comparison finds differences at all nesting levels
- •Ignore attribute order since XML attribute order is typically not significant
- •Ignore whitespace and formatting differences for clean comparison
- •Visual diff highlights added (green) and removed (red) content
Best Practices
- •Enable 'Ignore whitespace' for config files with formatting variations
- •Use 'Ignore comments' to focus on structural and data differences
- •Validate both XMLs before comparing to catch syntax errors early
- •Download diff results to document changes for code reviews or audits
Pro Tips
- •Attributes are sorted alphabetically when 'Ignore attribute order' is enabled
- •Comments and processing instructions can be excluded from comparison
- •The visual diff viewer prettifies XML for easy reading
- •Statistics count each element and attribute separately for accuracy
Most Popular
Most users compare with attribute order and whitespace ignored for configuration validation
When to Use This Tool
Compare XML configuration files (web.config, app.config, pom.xml, AndroidManifest.xml) between environments, versions, or deployments. Essential for troubleshooting configuration issues, identifying what changed between releases, reviewing merge conflicts, or understanding differences between development and production settings.
Recommended: DevOps & Config Management
Compare SOAP/XML API responses between different environments, versions, or test runs to detect unexpected changes in data structures, missing elements, or value modifications. Perfect for testing API compatibility, debugging version differences, validating that backend changes don't break existing contracts, or verifying data transformations.
Recommended: API Testing & Integration
Verify XML schemas, WSDL files, or structured documents after migrations, transformations, or imports. Crucial for ensuring XML schema compliance, validating data wasn't corrupted during format conversions, checking document structure integrity, or comparing template files before and after customization.
Recommended: Data Engineering & QA
How It Works
Paste or type first XML into 'XML 1 (Original)' field
Paste or type second XML into 'XML 2 (Comparison)' field
Tool validates both XML inputs using real XML parser
Configure options: ignore attribute order, whitespace, or comments
Click 'Compare XML' to perform deep structural comparison
Statistics panel shows counts of added, modified, and deleted elements
Visual diff viewer highlights differences in side-by-side view
Copy diff results or download as JSON file for documentation
Use 'Swap Sides' to reverse comparison direction quickly
100% Private
Files never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser.
Lightning Fast
Powered by Client-side JavaScript with xml-js parser and deep-object-diff library for optimal performance on modern browsers.
Open Source
Built with verified, open-source libraries. Fully transparent.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'Ignore attribute order' mean?
When enabled, this option treats XML attributes as equal even if they appear in different orders within an element. For example, <user id='1' name='John'/> and <user name='John' id='1'/> would be considered identical. This is useful because attribute order is typically not significant in XML. The tool sorts attributes alphabetically before comparison. Disable this only when attribute order is semantically important for your use case.
How does XML whitespace handling work?
When 'Ignore whitespace' is enabled, the tool normalizes whitespace by trimming leading/trailing spaces from element content and collapsing multiple spaces into one. This means <name> John Doe </name> equals <name>John Doe</name>. The visual diff viewer still shows original formatting, but the structural comparison ignores these differences. This is useful since XML often has formatting whitespace that's not semantically meaningful.
What do the comparison statistics mean?
Added (green): Number of elements or attributes that appear only in XML 2. Deleted (red): Number of elements or attributes that appear only in XML 1. Modified (blue): Number of elements or attributes that exist in both XMLs but have different values. Total: Sum of all changes detected. Each nested element and attribute is counted separately, so changing user/address/city counts as 1 modification.
Can I compare minified or formatted XML?
Yes! The tool parses XML structurally, not textually, so formatting doesn't affect comparison results. Minified single-line XML, prettified multi-line XML, and any mix work perfectly. The comparison analyzes the document tree structure, not the text formatting. The visual diff viewer automatically prettifies both XMLs for easy reading, regardless of how they were originally formatted.
What if my XML has syntax errors?
The tool validates both XML inputs before comparison using a real XML parser and displays clear error messages indicating which XML is invalid and what the error is (e.g., 'unclosed tag', 'invalid character', 'mismatched tags'). You'll see a red X icon next to the invalid XML with the specific parser error. Both XMLs must be well-formed before comparison can proceed.
Is my XML data private and secure?
Absolutely! All XML comparison happens entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript. Your XML data is never sent to any server, uploaded anywhere, or stored remotely. The xml-js library and all processing run 100% locally in your browser, ensuring complete privacy and security for your sensitive configuration files, API responses, or business documents.