Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One
4.5 · 830 votes

Download Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel and Combine Excel Files into One

Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel by SoftOrbits is an Excel file combiner and a comparison tool in one window. It folds a folder of workbooks into a single file, then shows what changed between two versions of a table. The files are read by the program itself. Excel does not have to be installed on the machine that does the work.

   
 Download for Free
Windows 11 / 10Free trial, no sign-up
Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One Screenshot.
Twelve branch exports land in one folder, and no two agree on the header row. One file says Name, the next says Full Name, a third shortens revenue to Rev. SoftOrbits Spreadsheet Compare & Merge tool reads them into one table by matching column titles. A missing column leaves blanks instead of shifting data left. Load the old and new versions to see what moved, cell by cell.

How to download and use the Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel

Add your files.
1

Add your files

Download the Spreadsheet Compare & Merge tool, drag the workbooks into the list, or add a whole folder. A CSV export can sit in the batch beside a workbook. The order set in the list is the order used for writing.

Decide how the columns line up.
2

Decide how the columns line up

By order puts column 1 under column 1. By header matches columns by their titles instead of by their position. Files with different columns still land in the right place, and the result keeps every column any of the files had.

Compare two Excel workbooks.
3

Compare two Excel workbooks

Put the old file on the left and the new one on the right. The two grids scroll together. Changed values get one color, a changed formula another, and rows that appeared or disappeared their own. The legend sits beside the grids.

Export the result.
4

Export the result

Name the output .xlsx or .csv. The extension decides the format. Differences can be exported as an XLSX with the cells filled in, a CSV list a script can read, or an HTML or PDF report for printing.

Three hours in a query editor, and still no merged file.

Three hours in a query editor, and still no merged file

Power Query combines files only when they have "the same structure and the same extension", as Microsoft's documentation states. On r/excel, one user spent about three hours trying to merge two files with slightly different headers. Spreadsheet Compare & Merge needs no such setup. Add the files, choose by order or by header, and press the button.

   
 Download for Free

Your edition of Office may have no compare tool at all

Excel includes Spreadsheet Compare only with Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, according to Microsoft's support page. Personal, Family, Business and Professional subscriptions do not include it, and the Inquire add-in must be switched on by hand. This program runs with any Office edition and without Office on the machine.

   
 Download for Free

Your edition of Office may have no compare tool at all.
Payroll and price lists never leave the computer.

Payroll and price lists never leave the computer

Browser comparison tools ask you to upload the file. For payroll figures or a client price list, that ends the conversation in many companies. Spreadsheet Compare & Merge runs on your PC, writes its output next to the source files, uploads nothing, and requires no account.

   
 Download for Free

Nine kinds of difference

The compare view marks changed values, formulas and formats, along with rows that appeared or vanished, columns that were added or removed, and worksheets that were added or removed. Nine classes are named and counted. Prev and Next step through them.

Columns matched by their titles

Matching by header builds the union of every title in the batch and normalizes case and surrounding spaces. A column with an empty title is matched by position. A title that appears twice in one file stays as two columns, because collapsing it would fold two different things together.

A damaged file does not kill the batch

A workbook that cannot be read gets its own line in the report while the rest of the batch continues. Excel allows 1,048,576 rows per sheet, so a merge that would cross that limit stops with a message. A workbook using the 1904 date system is converted on the way in, keeping dates from moving four years.

Built for real volume

Fifty workbooks of 10,000 rows each fold into 500,001 rows in 8.64 seconds, with a peak of 220 MB. Memory grows in a straight line as files are added. A pair of 100,000-row sheets is checked in 6.56 seconds. These figures come from our own tests.

Export that travels

The XLSX export carries the fills and puts the legend on its own sheet, so it opens in Excel for anyone who does not have the program. The CSV export uses the fixed English header, Sheet, RowLeft, RowRight, Cell, OldValue, NewValue, Type, whatever the interface language. An HTML or PDF report is available for printing.

A splitter comes with it

Row count or the value of a column decides where the cuts fall. The header is repeated in every part, the index in the file name is zero-padded so Explorer sorts 01, 02, 10 rather than 1, 10, 2, and the program refuses to write a part over the file it is splitting.

Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One
Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into OneDownload the Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel, point it at a folder of workbooks and let it build one file. Then compare that file against last month's version without opening either of them.
 Download

Who needs Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool

Finance and accounting

Month end arrives with a dozen branch exports and none of them are shaped the same. Combine them into one sheet to pivot, then compare this month's price list against the last one and read only what changed.

Operations and warehouse

CRM and warehouse systems export in pieces, forty CSV files at a time, and the delimiter is whatever the source decided to use. Merge them, or go the other way and split a master table into one file per branch before sending it out.

Analysts and IT

Two configuration workbooks, one from UAT and one from production. They share a key column, so align rows by it and the diff answers in seconds. The CSV list of differences then goes straight into a script.

Formats it reads and writes

Only .xlsx and .csv are written. The old binary formats are not read, so resave them as .xlsx in any spreadsheet program first.

FormatExtensionReadsWrites
Excel workbook.xlsxYesYes
Macro-enabled workbook.xlsmYesNo
Comma-separated values.csvYesYes
Tab-separated values.tsvYesNo
Legacy Excel workbook.xlsNoNo
Excel binary workbook.xlsbNoNo
Difference report.html, .pdfNoYes
 Download for Free
Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One
Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One
Price
from $ 19.99 / month
Version
3.4
File Size
12 Mb
Last updated on
05/10/26
System Requirements
  • Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (32/64 bit)
  • Intel i3, AMD Ryzen 5 or above
  • 4 GB of RAM or above
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® series 8 and 8M, Intel® HD Graphics 2000, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5600, AMD Radeon™ R600, Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330, Mobility FirePro™ series, Radeon™ R5 M230 or higher graphics card with up-to-date drivers
  • 1280 × 768 screen resolution, 32-bit color
  • 1 GB of free hard disk space or above

Frequently Asked Questions

Switch the column mode to by header. The title text decides where each column lands, so a column moved two positions to the right still lines up with the rest. The result carries every title it meets, and a file missing one leaves those cells empty instead of pushing the row sideways.

A merge uses columns to line up files. Matching by header puts data under the right titles when column order differs. For a lookup-style join, run the comparison and pick the shared key. It aligns the two tables by that key and reports what appears on one side only.

Excel has Spreadsheet Compare, but it is probably not in your edition. Browser comparison sites ask for the file first. The unregistered copy of this Excel compare tool shows the first 25 differences, enough to see whether it answers your question.

Yes. Columns are aligned by their headers before the rows are compared, and a column that changed places is flagged as moved rather than reported as one column deleted and another added. A column that exists on one side only gets a gray placeholder on the other. The two grids stay in step while you scroll.

A pair of 100,000-row sheets compares in about 6.5 seconds on the build we measured. Each grid draws only the rows on screen, keeping scrolling responsive on a table that large. Excel's limit is 1,048,576 rows per sheet, and a merge that would cross it stops with a message.

Online mergers ask you to send the file to somebody else's server. A 40 MB export of client records may make that unacceptable. This program runs on your own machine for payroll, client or price data.

The two versions open in grids that scroll together. Every difference is color-coded by class, with a legend beside the grids. Prev and Next jump from one difference to the next.

This version compares two files at a time. Three-way comparison and automatic conflict merging are outside it. For three files, compare version one with version two, then version two with version three. The two reports show what each round of edits changed.

No. A merge appends what it is given and keeps every row, because deciding that two rows mean the same thing is judgment about your data, not about the file. Deduplicate in the result, or use the comparison to see which rows one file has and the other does not.

No, and that is the whole point of a standalone tool. Office does not have to be present on the machine that does the merging or the comparing, because the workbooks are parsed by the program itself. What you do need is something to open the result with, and a .csv opens in almost any spreadsheet or even a text editor.

Related office and document tools

Batch printing software
MSG to PDF converter
EML to PDF converter
OST to PST converter
PST to PDF converter
PST viewer
QIF to QBO converter
PDF to JPG converter
Batch HTML to PDF converter
MHTML to PDF converter

Rate Spreadsheet Compare & Merge Tool for Excel - Combine Excel Files into One

  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 11
Author: SoftOrbits (English)
4.5
Avg. rating: 4.5 from 830 votes
Good
 Download for Free

Risk-free download

progressive-webapps/apis/offline-first Created with Sketch.
100% offline
Your files never leave your PC
Safe & secure download
Directly from the official website
No sign-up required
No account or email to get started
Trusted since 2006
Desktop software for Windows