Compare Two URLs and Find What Changed

What you can compare with two URLs

DiffFind loads the text content each URL returns, so you can compare:

• API endpoints, such as the JSON response of a staging and a production service.
• Web pages, by comparing the content the address returns.
• Hosted text-based content, such as XML feeds, configuration files and plain-text documents.

The address must be one the DiffFind app can load. If a request needs credentials or a specific method, put it in a cURL command and use cURL comparison.

Example: staging versus production

This illustrative example compares the status endpoint of a service in two environments. The URLs use the reserved example.com domain, and the responses are simplified.

https://staging.example.com/api/status

{
  "version": "2.4.1",
  "status": "ok",
  "featureFlags": {
    "newCheckout": true
  }
}

https://www.example.com/api/status

{
  "version": "2.4.0",
  "status": "ok",
  "featureFlags": {
    "newCheckout": false
  }
}

What the comparison reports

• version changed from "2.4.1" to "2.4.0".
• featureFlags.newCheckout changed from true to false.
• status is unchanged.

Optional semantic analysis can then describe the impact, for example that a feature enabled in staging is not yet enabled in production. Use Load example in the form above to try the comparison with a public test API.

URL comparison and cURL comparison

URL comparison uses two addresses. It is the quickest way to compare what each address returns.

cURL comparison supports complete HTTP request definitions: a method such as POST or PUT, headers, and a request body. Use it when the two requests differ in more than the address. See how to compare cURL responses.

Exact differences first, meaning second

The lexical comparison identifies exact additions, removals and changed values and is deterministic. Optional semantic analysis supplements it by explaining what the changes mean. AI is never required to compare two URLs.

Common use cases

• Compare staging and production endpoints.
• Check an address before and after a release.
• Compare an API response between two versions of a service.
• Review a hosted configuration or feed for changes.
• Compare structured responses with JSON Compare or XML Compare when you already have the data.

Related tools

For full requests, see API Compare. To compare files rather than addresses, try Text Compare, Word document comparison or PDF Comparison.

Prefer to compare on your computer?

DiffFind Desktop for macOS and Windows runs locally and is free to use. See the download options.