‘Tis the season to… backup and synchronize? There’s nothing like coming home and finding out that your machine will not start up, that you’ve lost some files because of a bad file copy between locations or worse, hard drive failure. Been there, done that… kicked a hole in the wall.

Now, I back up my files from my main machine to a hard drive that has a network connection.

But every now-and-then, I also tend to have files on my other machine’s hard drive that aren’t the same as my networked hard drive or my main machine. It’d be nice to have a way to synchronize the files and let me know which file is newer while I’m manually doing my backup.

And to throw in that I might take some files to work with me on my 16gb USB thumb drive… I might have up to four different versions of the same project or file(s) and if I switch to my other machines, I might be making more work than necessary. Enter Siber Systems Inc. GoodSync and Scooter Software, Inc. Beyond Compare.

The two software, at the core, do the same thing in regards to synchronize files (mp3’s, work files, code) between web, network, physical (hard drive, thumb drive, other computer) and other locations.

Beyond Compare 3.0 - Comparing between two locations

Beyond Compare just recently hit version 3.0 and I had used it at the office countless times to take my local work up to the file server or web server at the click of a button. It saves profiles and on refresh, it would show you in a different color which file was newer. Beyond Compare does interface the Windows operating system by allowing you to right click on one file and setting it up to be compared to another file. I use this feature a ton to see which index.php file is the most updated one or to see the differences in the code. Yep… it’ll open up the files and you can actually see via it’s built in editor the actual code differences. Not to mention it’s new 3-way merge functionality – I love this feature.

But the interface to it can sometimes get in the way – it’s deceptively easy to actually move a file across between locations instead of copy and that means it’s a one way transfer. And it’s FTP functionality leaves a lot to be desired. SFTP was hit or miss for me in most cases.

Goodsync comparing between two folders

GoodSync is another file synchronization software. Immediately after setting up a job in it’s interface – which I actually like a lot better than Beyond Compare’s – all I had to do was hit the Analyze button and I could quickly see what files were new, altered and needed to be synchronized. Just a quick tap on the button and my files were updated across my network with ease. As a long-time Beyond Compare user, I went into testing between the two like I would never like GoodSync 7.5.

I was wrong. I truly ended up liking it. SFTP performance was top notch. Never a hiccup. There’s also a 64-bit version as well. It handled, cataloged and compared, as well as refreshed on a 32gb music folder faster than Beyond Compare. Again… the interface is clear enough to where even my mother could follow it easily. The newer interface on Beyond Compare just isn’t as friendly, despite being more friendly in it’s current iteration – I prefer GoodSync’s interface. Synchronization over the web, to my networked hard drive, and even between my file shares and thumb drive went without a hitch.

However, this is where the two products differ. Beyond Compare is definitely a coder’s best friend. It allows for quick perusal and comparison of code in *.txt, *.php, *.html, *.as, *.xml among other files with it’s built in text editor with the greatest of ease on top of synchronization. GoodSync does not have a built in editor, so if you right click on a file and open it, it will open up your associated editor for that file – which in the case of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, it can be a very long wait sometimes.

Ease of use definitely goes to GoodSync. A more refined and friendly interface lends itself well to a consumer that just wants to update and synchronize files between locations.

So if you’re a developer, you can’t go wrong with Beyond Compare:

And if you’re savvy and carry your files around or have scattered files, you seriously need to look into GoodSync:

Beyond Compare retails for $30.00 for the Standard version and $50.00 for the Pro version which adds SFTP and a few other options, view the comparison here. GoodSync has a Shareware version, but the added functionality of the unlimited jobs (how you setup synchronization between locales and files) make the Pro version at $29.95 worth it, view the comparison here.

[ GoodSync ] [ Beyond Compare ]