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Comparison of hex editors

{{short description|None}}

{{More citations needed|date=July 2007}}

The following is a comparison of notable hex editors.

General

border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 85%; border: gray solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; width: 100%;" class="sortable wikitable"
style="background: #ececec;"

! style="width:12em" |

! GUI

! Console

! Software license

! data-sort-type="number"|Latest stable version

! Latest release date

! Windows

! Macintosh

! Linux

{{rh}} | HxD

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Proprietary|Proprietary freeware}}

| 2.5.0.0

| {{Dts|2021|February|11}}

| style="background:#9F9" data-sort-value="Yes"|Win95, WinNT4 and up

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | 010 Editor

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Proprietary}}

| 15.0.2

| {{Dts|2025|March|31}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | beye

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{open source|GPL-2.0-only or GPL-3.0-only}}

| 6.1.0

| {{Dts|2009|December|12}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | bvi

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{open source|GPL-3.0-or-later}}

| 1.4.2{{cite web | url=https://bvi.sourceforge.net/download.html | title=BVI Binary VIsual editor: Download Page }}

| {{Dts|2023|March|7}}

| style="background:#9f9" data-sort-value="Yes"|DOS, Win95 and up

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | Cheat Engine

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Proprietary|Proprietary freeware}}

| 7.2

| {{Dts|2021|08|14}}

| {{yes}}

| {{Yes}}, ver. 6.2

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | GNU Emacs

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{open source|GPL-3.0-or-later}}

| 29.1{{cite web |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ |title=GNU Emacs |last1= |first1= |last2= |first2= |date= |website=GNU.org |publisher= |access-date=2023-08-09|quote=}}

| {{Dts|2023|7|30}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | FlexHex

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Proprietary|Proprietary freeware for personal use}}

| 2.7

| {{Dts|2018|October|12}}

| style="background:#9F9" data-sort-value="Yes"|Windows XP and up

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | Frhed (Free Hex Editor)

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{open source|GPL-2.0-or-later}}

| 1.7.1

| {{Dts|2009|July|30}}

| style="background:#9F9" data-sort-value="Yes"|Win98 and up

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | Hexer

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{open source|BSD-3-Clause}}

| 1.06

| {{Dts|2020|April|24}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | Hiew

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Proprietary}}

| 8.81

| {{Dts|2024|March|24}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | ImHex

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{open source|GPL-2.0-only}}

| 1.35.4

| {{Dts|2024|July|9}}{{cite web | url=https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex/releases | title=Releases · WerWolv/ImHex | website=GitHub }}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | VEDIT

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Proprietary}}

| 6.24.2

| {{Dts|2015|Jan|1}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | UltraEdit

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Proprietary}}

| 26.10 (Windows)
18.0 (Linux / Mac OS X)

| {{Dts|2019|05|07}}
{{Dts|2018|01|02}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | WinHex

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Proprietary}}

| 21.0

| {{Dts|2023|12|13}}

| style="background:#9F9" data-sort-value="Yes"|Win95 and up

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | Vim

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{open source|Vim}}

| 9.1.0{{cite web | url=https://www.vim.org/vim-9.1-released.php | title=Vim 9.1 released : Vim online }}

| {{Dts|2024|1|2}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

Features

{{sort-under}}

class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: 85%; border: gray solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; width: 100%;"
style="background: #ececec;"

!

! Maximum file size

! Partial file loading

! Disk sector editing

! Process memory editing

! Data inspector

! Bit editing

! Insert
/
delete
bytes

! Character encodings(ao)

! Search Unicode

! File formats

! Disassembler

! File compare

! Find in files

! Bookmarks

! Macro

! Text editor

{{rh}} | HxD

| 8 EiB[http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ HxD features]

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|Windows 9x/NT and up}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, ASCII, OEM, EBCDIC, Macintosh

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{partial|Individual instructions only}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | 010 Editor

| 8 EiB

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{partial|WinNT only}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, OEM, Unicode, UTF-8, EBCDIC, Custom

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|300}} {{cite web|title=010 Editor - Binary Template Repository|publisher=SweetScape Software Inc.|url=https://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/repository/templates/|access-date=2022-10-05}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | beye

| 8 PiB

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

|

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, EBCDIC, ASCII, Macintosh

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|29}} {{cite web|title=beye / Code / [r238] /newtwindow-branch/src/plugins/bin/|website=SourceForge|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/beye/code/HEAD/tree/newtwindow-branch/src/plugins/bin/|access-date=2022-10-05}}

| data-sort-value="Yes" {{yes|AVR, Java, x86, i386, x86-64, ARM/XScale, PowerPC, PPC64}}

|

|

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | bvi

| Limited by RAM

| {{yes}}

|

|

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, ASCII

|

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

|

| {{Yes}} and replace

|

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | Emacs

| Limited by RAM{{cite web |title=GNU Emacs 23.2 NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/NEWS.23.2}}{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Buffers.html|title=Buffers|quote=A buffer's size cannot be larger than some maximum, which is defined by the largest buffer position representable by Emacs integers. This is because Emacs tracks buffer positions using that data type. For typical 64-bit machines, this maximum buffer size is 2^{61} - 2 bytes, or about 2 EiB. For typical 32-bit machines, the maximum is usually 2^{29} - 2 bytes, or about 512 MiB. Buffer sizes are also limited by the amount of memory in the system.}}{{cite web |title=Does Emacs have problems with large files? |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/efaq/Problems-with-very-large-files.html}}{{cite web |title=GNU emacs manual - Narrowing |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Narrowing.html}}

| {{no}}

| {{unknown}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}{{cite web |title=Special Input for Incremental Search |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Special-Isearch.html |website=gnu.org}}

| {{unknown}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{unknown}}

| {{unknown}}

| {{yes}}{{cite web |title=Bookmarks |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Bookmarks.html |website=gnu.org}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | FlexHex

| Unlimited{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, OEM, UTF-16

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|2}} {{cite web|title=User-defined Data Fields|publisher=Inv Softworks LLC|url=http://www.flexhex.com/product/tour/data_fields.phtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051227170026/http://www.flexhex.com/product/tour/data_fields.phtml|url-status=usurped|archive-date=December 27, 2005|access-date=2022-10-05}}The file "FlexHEX\Structures\Disk.fsd" of FlexHex 2.71 installation contains example parsers for FAT and NFTS file system headers

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

|

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | Frhed

| Limited by RAM

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}(read only)

|

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, OEM

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | Hiew

| Unlimited{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

| {{yes}}

| {{partial|WinNT only}}

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ASCII, OEM, Unicode, custom

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| data-sort-value="Yes" {{yes|x86, x86-64, MMX, SSE 4.2, 3DNow! - all assembler, ARM}}

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | VEDIT

| Standard, 2 GiB, Pro 64, unlimited{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

| {{yes}}

| data-sort-value="Partial" {{partial|DOS version only}}

|

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, OEM, EBCDIC, ASCII, custom

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | UltraEdit

| >4 GiB

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, OEM, EBCDIC, ASCII, Mac, Unix, UTF-8

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | WinHex

| Unlimited{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{partial}} support of these formats: ANSI, UNICODE, OEM, UTF-8/UTF-16, EBCDIC, ASCII

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|44}} {{cite web|title=Additional Templates for WinHex & X-Ways Forensics|publisher=X-Ways Software Technology AG|url=https://www.x-ways.net/winhex/templates/index.html|access-date=2022-10-05}} lists ~30 formats.WinHex 20.6 release package "winhex.zip" contains 14 template files with ".tpl" suffix with parsers for various storage system formats.

| {{partial|Only x86 Intel opcodes}}

| {{yes}}

| data-sort-value="Yes" {{Yes}} and replace

|

| {{yes}}[http://www.winhex.com/winhex/scripting.html WinHex: Scripting]

| {{no}}

{{rh}} | vim

| Limited by RAM

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}:help eval

| {{yes}}

| ASCII, ISO-8859, DOS (OEM), UTF-8, UTF-16, partial EBCDIC (compilation required), unicode

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}vimdiff

| {{no}}

| {{yes2|Plug-in}}[https://github.com/MattesGroeger/vim-bookmarks vim-bookmarks]

| {{Yes}}

| {{yes}}

{{rh}} | ImHex

| Unlimited

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| ANSI, OEM, Unicode, UTF-8, EBCDIC, Shift-JIS, Custom

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|143}} {{cite web|title=ImHex-Patterns|website=GitHub|url=https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex-Patterns|access-date=2023-01-29}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

class="sortbottom"

!

! Maximum file size

! Partial file loading

! Disk sector editing

! Process memory editing

! Data inspector

! Bit editing

! Insert
/
delete
bytes

! Character encodings(ao)

! Search Unicode

! File formats

! Disassembler

! File compare

! Find in files

! Bookmarks

! Macro

! Text editor

See also

Notes

ao: ANSI is the Windows character set, OEM is the DOS character set. Both are based on ASCII.

References

External links

  • [http://members.tripod.com/HarryMNielsen/ "Harry's Windows Hex Editor Review"] (July 2002). harrymnielsen.tripod.com. Retrieved October 15, 2019.

Hex editors

Category:Text editor comparisons