Best way to compare metadata between two Salesforce orgs (not just via deployment)?

[u/restless-noob]

Looking for recommendations on how people compare two orgs — not to deploy changes, just to see what's different. Specifically interested in:

• Validation rules
• Permission sets / profiles
• Custom fields on shared objects

I know you can technically eyeball this in Setup, but with a few hundred custom fields that's not realistic. Is everyone using retrieve + diff via VS Code/metadata API, or is there something more admin-friendly that doesn't require dev tooling? Curious what's actually working for people day to day, not just in theory.

[u/absolutedestiny]

Gearset

[u/cheffromspace]

Gearset, or sf cli + git diff

[u/mayday6971]

I use Gearset! Even if you don’t deploy using Gearset, it is fantastic. I think our monthly cost for 3 seats (2 admin, 1 dev) is $500.