How to compare two Excel or CSV files and find the differences
Find which customers, products or invoices appear in one list but not the other, without formulas or VLOOKUP.
Updated 2 October 2026
Which customers are in this month's list but not last month's? Which products are in the supplier's price list but missing from your shop? Comparing two lists by hand or with VLOOKUP is slow and error-prone.
How to compare
- Open Compare two files and choose the two files (CSV or Excel, in any combination).
- Type the column that identifies a row, for example email, SKU or invoice number. Leave it empty to compare whole rows.
- Download the result.
What you get
- Only in first: rows in file 1 that are not in file 2 (for example, customers who left).
- Only in second: rows in file 2 that are not in file 1 (new customers).
- In both: rows that match.
- Summary: the counts for each group.
As Excel, each group is a separate sheet with frozen headers; or choose CSV files in a zip.
Everyday uses
- Reconcile payments received against invoices issued.
- Check stock counts against the system list.
- Find new and lost subscribers between two exports.
Both files need the column you match on, with the same name. If values differ only by spaces or capitals, clean them first with Clean CSV / Excel.