Free alternatives to NVivo

Last updated · 3 options

Quick answer: QualCoder has the most stars on its repository of the 3 options here (★ 694), followed by CATMA (★ 104). Stars show popularity, not fit, so check formats, platforms and licence for your own work.

Lumivero's qualitative data analysis software. Here are 3 free options, most-starred first.

Q

QualCoder

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative data analysis for text, images, audio and video

Stars
★ 694
Licence
LGPL-3.0
Updated

Alternative to NVivo, ATLAS.ti

CATMA

Qualitative analysis

Web-based text annotation and analysis for the humanities

Stars
★ 104
Licence
GPL-3.0
Updated

Alternative to NVivo, MAXQDA

Taguette

Qualitative analysis

Free and open-source tool for qualitative research

Stars
★ 88
Licence
BSD-3-Clause
Updated
  • Data stays local

Alternative to NVivo, ATLAS.ti

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to NVivo?

Yes. ResearchAlts lists 3 options: QualCoder, CATMA and Taguette.

Which NVivo alternatives are open source?

QualCoder (LGPL-3.0), CATMA (GPL-3.0) and Taguette (BSD-3-Clause).

Which NVivo alternatives run on a Mac?

QualCoder and Taguette. The other listed here isn't listed for macOS.

Related categories: Qualitative analysis

Free tools are not always drop-in replacements. Check that a tool supports the file formats, tests and methods your supervisor, journal or ethics board expects before switching mid-project.

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