Top 7 Qualitative Data Analysis Tools

Once you’ve collected data using interviews and focus groups, there are a number of tools you can use to analyse the data.

1. NVivo 11: This is fairly easy and intuitive to use. This has a wide range of features such as the options to integrate with social media, Evernote (one place to store ideas), EndNote (reference manager), SurveyMonkey and OneNote. Not only can you use this software for qualitative analysis but doing literature review. However, it is expensive at £390/$700 for a new Starter Full License including optional extras, such as the online training course.

2. Atlas.ti: Atlas.ti allows you to work on many documents simultaneously and link them, has a range of options for the visual presentation of the data, can use geo-data and import online survey data. For a student license, this costs £65/$99 for two years and for a commercial license, a single license is £1,380/$1868.

3. Dedoose: The most attractive feature is Dedoose’s accessibility. It is easy to use and like NVivo, enables you to share and collaborate in a secure way. After the first free month, it is £9/$12.95 per month for one user.

4. MAXQDA: MAXQDA is for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis and is available for students and PhD students. for a student standard license, it is £73/$99 for two years. It is easy to code and manage data, has visual tools, allows projects to merge, it’s possible to link documents and it can generate word frequency data.

5. QDA Miner: This software is free with limited functionality. It is possible to import and export documents, allows comments to be added and uses boolean text searches for fast retrieval of codes and text.

6. Quirkos: For £450/$575 for a commercial license, £410/$520 for a public sector license, or £240/$310 for an academic license. Quirkos makes coding as quick and easy as possible by using ‘bubbles’ (a visual tool), it’s possible to collaborate and share, supports many international languages, can use a variety of sources including PDFs and Facebook posts and can create reports.

7. Saturate: The first notebook is free and subsequent ones are £3/$5 per notebook. A notebook is one set of analysis. This software is easy to use for collaboration and teamwork and works online with Chrome, Safari and Firefox, like Dedoose it is very accessible.

Happy coding and analysing!

The Snap Out Team 🚀