How is this different from a text diff?

A text diff compares characters and lines, so it gets confused by reordered keys, different indentation, or trailing commas - showing noise that is not a real change. A JSON diff parses both sides into data first, then compares the structure, so it reports only genuine differences (a value that changed, a key that was added or removed) by their path, regardless of formatting or key order.

How are arrays compared?

Arrays are compared by position - index 0 against index 0, and so on - which is the right model for ordered lists like steps or coordinates. If your arrays are really unordered sets, a positional diff will report shifts as changes; in that case sort both sides first. Objects are compared by key, so their order never matters.

No. Parsing and comparison run entirely in your browser - nothing you paste is sent anywhere. That matters when diffing API responses or config that may contain tokens or customer data.

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JSON diff.

Compare two JSON objects and see exactly what changed — added, removed, and changed keys by path — ignoring key order and formatting. A real structural diff, not a noisy text diff.

JSON A (original)

JSON B (changed)

Only the changes that are real

When you compare two JSON payloads — an API response before and after a change, two versions of a config, expected versus actual in a test — what you want is the meaningful difference, not formatting noise. Reordered keys, different indentation, and added whitespace are not changes, but a text diff flags them anyway. A structural diff parses first and compares the data, so a one-line answer like “replicas changed 2 to 3, env.TZ added” is exactly what you get.

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