Question 1

How does JSON Diff work?

Accepted Answer

JSON Diff parses both documents and performs a deep comparison of every key and value. Added keys appear in green, removed keys in red, and changed values show the old and new value side by side. Arrays are compared by index position.

Question 2

Does the order of keys matter when diffing JSON?

Accepted Answer

No. JSON objects are unordered by definition, so { a:1, b:2 } and { b:2, a:1 } are considered identical. Array order does matter — [1,2] and [2,1] are different.

Question 3

Can I diff nested JSON objects?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The diff is recursive — changes deep inside nested objects and arrays are shown at their exact path. Each change shows the full key path (e.g. user.address.city) so you know exactly where the difference is.

Question 4

Is my JSON data safe to paste here?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The diff runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. No data is sent to any server, stored, or logged. You can confirm this by checking the Network tab in browser DevTools.

Question 5

Why does my diff show differences when the values look the same?

Accepted Answer

Common reasons: trailing whitespace in string values, type differences (the string "1" vs the number 1), or Unicode normalisation differences (e.g. composed vs decomposed accented characters). The diff treats types strictly — "true" (string) differs from true (boolean).

JSON Diff

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JSON Diff — structural comparison