An analytical model of a differential wavefront sensing (DWS) technique based on Gaussian Beam propagation has been derived. Compared with the result of the interference signals detected by quadrant photodiode, which is calculated by using the numerical method, the analytical model has been verified. Both the analytical model and numerical simulation show milli-radians level non-linearity effect of DWS detection. In addition, the beam clipping has strong influence on the non-linearity of DWS. The larger the beam clipping is, the smaller the non-linearity is. However, the beam walking effect hardly has influence on DWS. Thus, it can be ignored in laser interferometer.