Software information
We have compiled information about selected CAQDAS-packages. The tools are listed in alphabetical order, grouped to help map out some core characteristics and to navigate to what you are interested in. The groups are not entirely mutually exclusive. In particular there are overlaps between the FLOSS and Method-oriented groups.
Within the groups we list tools alphabetically. Click on the + to find out more.
Contact us if you would like to see other packages listed here.
Traditional CAQDAS packages
CAQDAS packages that include standard features that can be used for a variety of analytic methods
- Commercial software
- Platform: Desktop versions for Windows & Mac. and Web version
- The latest version is 25, released December 2024
See Feature Comparison for differences between Desktop and Cloud versions.
ATLAS.ti provides tools for the qualitative analysis of textual, graphical, audio and video data, providing coding, memo-ing and query functionality along with sophisticated hyperlinking tools and semantic networking. Originally developed by Thomas Muhr at the Technical University of Berlin, the first commercial version was released in 1993. ATLAS.ti is now developed by Lumivero.
ATLAS.ti was one of the first established CAQDAS-packages to begin incorporating Generative-AI capabilities into its suite of analysis tools.
See our review of ATLAS.ti (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: online application.
- The latest version is 9
Dedoose was designed to facilitate qualitative and mixed methods analysis and to support collaborative research. Tools for organising, coding and memo-ing and a range of qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods visualisations.
Dedoose was developed by Eli Lieber and Thomas S Weisner at SocioCultural Research Consultants LLC and was first released in 2009. It builds on tools available in its predecessor, EthnoNotes developed by Lieber & Weisner during their time at UCLA (released in 2003).
See our review of Dedoose (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: online application.
- Delve was released in 2018
Delve is an online qualitative analysis platform, developed from a ‘human-centered’ design perspective to enable the collaborative analysis of qualitative data with tools that are simple to learn and navigate. It enables the code-based analysis of text and was explicitly designed to support inductive approaches to qualitative analysis, driven by human interpretation.
Delve is developed by Alex Limpaecher and LaiYee Ho who are based in New York City, USA
See our review of Delve (PDF)
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows, Apple Mac and Linux. iPad and Android apps
- Current version is v2024.
F4 provides tools for text-based analysis, including manual and automatic transcription, text correction, commenting, coding, memo-ing and querying. Originally three separate products - F4analyse, F4transkript and f4x - but are now integrated into one interface.
First released in 2005, f4 is developed by Thorsten Dresing and Thorsten Pehl.
See our review of f4analyse (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows and Apple Mac.
- Current version is 4.5.7 released July 2024
HyperRESEARCH provides the standard functionality common to many CAQDAS packages for textual and multi-media data together with some additional features provided through the Hypothesis Tester.
Researchware also develop and sell an aid to the transcription of audio and video formats, HyperTRANSCRIBE. You can purchase both programs together as a HyperBUNDLE.
See our review of HyperRESEARCH (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: Windows and Mac
- Current version is 2026
MAXQDA enables qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods analysis. There are two products: MAXQDA and MAXQDA Analytics Pro. For an overview of functions of each see the product comparison. In addition are MAXQDA Transcription (automatic transcription), AI Assist (optional add-on including features driven by generative-ai) and Team Cloud (optional add-on to facilitate collaboration and data exchange). Verbi Software also develop Tailwind, an online GenAI-driven QDA platform, that integrates with MAXQDA.
Originally developed by Udo Kuckartz at Marburg University it is now developed and supported by Verbi Software GmbH.
See our review of MAXQDA (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: Windows and Mac
- Current version is 15, released September 2024
NVivo provides tools for qualitative and mixed methods analysis and integrates functionality originally developed by NatCen for data analysis using Framework Analysis methodology. In addition to desktop versions are NVivo Transcribe (automated transcription) and NVivo Collaboration Cloud (addon for concurrent team working across platforms). The latest version includes features driven by Generative-AI.
Originally developed by Lyn Richards and Tom Richards (who also developed its predecessor, NUD*IST), NVivo is now developed and supported by Lumivero.
See our review of NVivo (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows
- Current version is 2024, released June 2024
QDA Miner is a mixed method software, providing coding, memo-ing, organisation and query tools, as well as sophisticated statistical text mining features.
Also developed by Provalis software are Wordstat which provides more sophisticated content analysis and text mining tools, and Simstat providing statistical analysis tools. All three can interact in the analysis of the same set of data.
SimStat was first released in 1989, WordStat was first released in 1998 and QDA Miner was first released in 2004.
See our review of QDA Miner (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: Windows, Mac, Android, Linux. and Web App
- Current version is 2.5
Quirkos is a tool for analysing qualitative texts. It’s developmental impetus was framed by a desire to design tools that open up qualitative analysis to everyone. An underlying aim of Quirkos is therefore to provide software that is accessible to those without extensive research experience, as well as those working within professional research contexts, that is easy to use and that works across platforms. Automatic transcription was launched in 2023 within Quirkos
Developed by Daniel Turner at Quirkos Ltd.
Quirkos was first released in September 2014
See our review of Quirkos (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: Windows and Mac
- Current version is 5.22, released Sepember 2024
Transana is qualitative data analysis tool for text, image, audio and video data an incorporates audio-video manual and automatic transcription tools. As well as coding, memo-ing, and searching tolls, it enables the synchronisation of multiple simultaneous media files, meaning up to four media files about the same event can be synchronised and played simultaneously.
There are three versions: Transana Basic, Transana Professional and Transana Multi-user. See software comparison for differences. Originally developed by Chris Fassnacht, it is now developed by David Woods of Transana.com
See our review of Transana (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: web-based.
- webQDA was launched in July 2016
webQDA is a web-based qualitative analysis application for the analysis of a variety of data types (text, image, video, audio, tables, PDF files, Youtube videos, etc.) in a collaborative, synchronous or asynchronous manner.
The development of WebQDA Is a partnership between the University of Aveiro and the company Micro IO. The names of researchers from the University of Aveiro: António Pedro Costa, António Moreira and Francislê Neri de Souza.
See our review of webQDA (PDF)
FLOSS CAQDAS-packages
Free and/or open source CAQDAS-packages
- Open source freeware
- Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
- Current version is 3.8.2., first released in 2019
QualCoder is free, open source desktop software for qualitative data analysis, that handles text and image, and audio/video datafiles. It includes all the core features common to traditional CAQDAS packages. It is essentially a single-user platform but additional team-members can log in to a project to code separately and then coding comparison can be acomplished.
The most current QualCoder software is available from https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder. Software releases are available from: https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/releases
From late 2023 QualCoder began integrating Generative-AI features, first in beta from 2023, and from version 3.6 (released Feb 2025) in the full version.
Developed by Colin Curtin (University of Tasmania), with support from Kai Drőge (University of Applied Science, Lucerne Switzerland), especially on the Generative-AI features.
- Open source freeware
- Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux and can be run on a server (either self-hosted or using the Taguette app).
Taguette is a free and open source tool for highlighting and tagging textual materials and designed to facilitate collaborative working.
Taguette is developed by Rémi Rampin, Vicky Rampin and Sarah DeMott
Version 0.9.1 was released in August 2020
- Open source freeware
- Platform: Mac OS and Linux.
Designed for use in ethnographic and discourse research the Text Analysis Markup System (TAMS) is a convention for identifying themes in qualitative texts. TAMS Analyzer provides code / retrieve and analytic functionality and transcription for audio files.
Version 4.50b3 released October 2020 which includes update to run on Mac OS Mojave & Catalina
- freeware
- free online app
Method-oriented tools
CAQDAS packages that were developed to facilitate a particular qualitative analysis method, or broader approach, including those with a focus on text analysis of large volumes of qualitative materials oriented around text-mining, content analysis and linguistic approaches.
- Subscription platform
- Platform: web application
- The latest version is 4
The Causal Map app is designed to facilitate the qualitative analysis approach of causal mapping which involves identifying and coding causal claims in text, where a source says one thing influences another. Researchers can use optional AI assistance to quickly process large amounts of text. Although it is possible to code non-causal material, Causal Map is not presented as a general-purpose CAQDAS package.
Causal Map is developed by Steve Powell in collaboration with Fiona Remnant and James Copestake from Bath Social and Development Research Ltd. In summer 2020 they set up Causal Map Ltd to further develop the app.
- Open access and free
- Platform: online application
- QCAmap was first released in 2013
QCAmap is an open access, interactive and web-based software tool, which provides tools for the qualitative analysis of textual and graphical (pictures) material following the techniques of Qualitative Content Analysis (Mayring, 2014).
Originally developed by Philipp Mayring and Thomas Fenzl in cooperation with coUnity Software Development GmbH QCAmap is now hosted, developed and supported by Association for Supporting Qualitative Research ASQ, Klagenfurt, AUT
- Commercial software (free to academics)
- Platform: online application
- DiscoverText was released in 2009
DiscoverText is a cloud based application for the analysis of text and social media data that combines human interpretation and machine classification. Tools for peer-based coding and annotating of text, validation of human coding and measuring inter-coder agreement, machine learning and classification based on human interpretation, searching and filtering, visualisation and reporting.
Discovertext was developed by Dr Stuart Shulman and Mark J. Hoy at Texifter LLP.
See our review of DiscoverText (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows, Apple Mac or cloud based.
- The current version of Leximancer is v5
Leximancer is text-mining and content analysis software the automatically generates topic models based on words or concepts from collections of textual materials. Originally developed in 2000 by Andrew Smith and Michael Humphreys at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, it is now developed and supported by Leximancer Pty Ltd.
LexiReader is a lite version that has a smaller set of features.
see our review of Leximancer (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: Windows
- Current version is 9
WordSmith Tools is a program suite developed for the lexical analysis of large corpora of texts by the British linguist Mike Scott (University of Liverpool, UK). It comprises numerous tools for the analysis of large textual corpora including the creation of interactive concordances. WordSmith Tools has been used by the Oxford University Press to prepare dictionaries, by language teachers and by researchers investigating linguistic patterns in many different languages world-wide.
WordSmith tools was first released in 1996, and was based on the earlier MicroConcord (1993). It is now developed by Mike Scott and distributed via Lexical Analysis Software Ltd.
See our review of WordSmith Tools (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows
- Current version is 2026, first released in 1998
WordStat is text analysis software designed for text mining and content analysis of large amounts of unstructured infromation, capable of processing 25 million words per minute. It includes a variety of analysis tools including dictionary-building, automatic document classification, pattern-identification using clustering, and topic modeling. Optionally, analysis can be performed using Generative-AI with a choice of six models to choose from, including an offline (embedded) version (Ollama).
Developed by Provalis Research in Montreal, Canada by Normad Peladeau, WordStat is part of a suite of analysis tools that includes QDA Miner (qualitative platform, listed in the Traditional CAQDAS group) and Simstat (providing statistical analysis tools). All three can interact in the analysis of the same set of data.
We hope to review WordStat soon.
GenAI-driven CAQDAS
Online Aps that primarily provide GenAI-driven analysis features. Note, several tools in the 'traditional CAQDAS' category include GenAI features alongisde or integrated with other analysis tools
- Commercial Ap
- Platform: Online Application
- AILYZE was released in 2023.
AILYZE is an online AI-driven qualitative analysis platform that uses large language models (LLMs) to autonomously interview stakeholders in any language, and to facilitate the analysis of docx and pdf text data by generating thematic analyses, frequency analyses, summaries and responses to user-specified questions.
AILYZE was founded in by James Goh, in Boston, United States, and there are three versions: Lite (free but with limited functionality); Pro includes all the features of the Lite version plus additional features for more nuanced analysis; and Enterprise, a service enabling larger datasets to be custom analyzed using more powerful models than are available in the Lite and Pro versions.
- Commercial Ap
- Platform: Online Application, API
- Blix was released in 2024
Blix.ai is an online Generative-AI qualitative analysis platform using Large Language Models (LLMs) to assist analysis, and is designed for free-text responses to survey questions, online reviews, feedback, etc. Tabular data can be uploaded from Excel, SPSS and csv format for processing. Coding is based on semantic meaning and can be driven entirely by AI, or in combination with human oversight, for example via importing a codebook and refining automatically identified codes. Frequency and co-occurrence analysis is generated in and visualised. Blix also provides an API that enables automated text analysis workflows and real-time streaming of coding results.
Blix was founded by Gal Orian Harel and Idan Haviv to support organizations analyzing qualitative data and feedback at scale.
- commercial platform
- Commercial software
- Online application
- Reveal was released in July 2023
Reveal is an online AI-driven qualitative analysis platform that uses large language models (LLMs) to transcribe audio/video recordings of conversational data (e.g. interview and focus-group discussions) and to facilitate the their AI-driven analysis. A series of individual (participant-based) and study-level (comparative) analysis are provided in grid displays connected to underlying transcripts and (optionally) source audio-visual materials.
Reveal was founded in by Alok Jain and Niket Patel at Synthefai Inc. in Virginia (USA) and Gujarat (India).
See our review of Reveal (PDF).
- commercial platform
- Developed by Verbi (who also develop MAXQDA)
Legacy CAQDAS packages
The following are either no longer available, or are still available but are no longer actively developed. We list them (in alphabetical order) to provide some historical context to the development of the CAQDAS-field.
- Free and open source
- Platform: online application
CAT is a free and open source platform for the coding and annotating of text data in teams. It includes tools for measuring inter-rater reliability, adjudicating identified differences between coders, and reporting on the accuracy of codes and coders over time.
CAT was originally developed by Dr Stuart Shulman at the University of Pittsburgh, and QDAP-UMass at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. CAT was first released in 2007 and has been hosted and maintained by Texifter LLP.
CAT was decommissioned in September 2020 but the code is open source, so available for others to host a version from https://cat-help.texifter.com/
- Free and open source (no longer being developed or supported, but available to download)
- Platform: Windows and Mac.
DRS enables the synchronisation, replay, and analysis of audio and video recordings. Distinctively, DRS also enables these conventional forms of recording to be combined with ‘system logs’, which record interaction within computational environments or are the product of using computational techniques to analyse data. SMS messages, interaction in virtual environments, GPS data, or data from body sensors, for example, may be imported into DRS, synchronised with conventional recordings, and be replayed alongside them.
See our review of DRS (PDF).
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows.
- First released in 1984
The Ethnograph provides tools for the qualitative analysis of text, including coding, memo-ing, searching and filtering.
Available since 1984 The Ethnograph was one of the pioneer CAQDAS programs. Developed by John Seidel at Qualis Research..
No longer being actively developed but still available to download. The current version is 6.0.1.0.
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows.
Interpris was developed specifically to facilitate efficient organisation, review and analysis of public consultations and survey data in government and applied contexts. It provides tools to automatically detect and categorize themes in survey data, to enable speedy discovery of rich insights in free-text responses. It is the latest product developed by QSR International (who also develop NVivo).
Interpris was launched in September 2017. It is no longer available.
- Commercial software
- Platform: PC Windows
Qualrus was developed by Ed Brent and colleagues at Idea Works, Inc. with developmental support from qualitative researchers including Howard Becker. It differed significantly from other CAQDAS-packages available at the time because it used ‘intelligent computational strategies’ to assist the researcher with certain qualitative tasks. It was therefore seen as the first in a new generation of qualitative data analysis software packages.
Although no longer available you can read our review here.