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CAQDAS Programs

The following is a list of programs available for qualitative research:

Software we researched and tested:

  • AnSWR: Free!
    AnSWR is a freeware CAQDAS, which we found to be difficult to install and less sophisticated than the other programs. We tried to install it on a Windows XP operating system, and it appears to be designed for earlier versions.
     
  • NVivo: Educational Pricing: $445 (More Pricing Info)
    NVivo, a derivative, but not necessarily a replacement for NUD*IST, helps you to annotate and organize qualitative data. While it has less coding capabilities than its sister N6, its organizing functions are more elaborate, allowing you to link data in a variety of ways. NVivo has been Acrobat Document reviewed by Hamilton Jemmott of the University of Bath.  We will review NVivo in more detail in this report, as well as provide you with tutorial disks. Check out more on NVivo on our separate page. 
     
  • MAXqda: Educational Pricing* $415 (More Pricing Info)
    MAXqda is the successor of winMAX, a software similar to NVivo and ATLAS.ti. We tried this out and liked it! Download the trial version and go through the Flash tutorial. More about MAXqda, including tutorial.

Other software available:

  • ATLAS.ti: Educational Pricing $395 (More Pricing Info)
    ATLAS.ti helps you to annotate textual, visual and audio data. It facilitates the categorization process of these types of data and enables you to organize the evolving categories in a (causal) network. You can code data in ATLAS.ti and export them for further analyses to other programs, particularly SPSS, for which it has a syntax generating interface.  (Review of Atlas)
     
  • Ethnograph: Student Price $200 (More Pricing Info)
    Ethnograph  has not been updated since 1998 and, thus, has become outdated. It supports hierarchical coding, text annotations, and advanced data search strategies.
     
  • HyperRESEARCH: Single User Price $370 (More Pricing Info)
    HyperRESEARCH primarily assists in the coding of textual data. It shows that the program has not been updated since 1999, as it lacks data structuring capabilities its main competitors offer. In addition, the handling of its interface is rather cumbersome, as HyperRESEARCH only allows you to code one case at a time.
     
  • Kwalitan: Educational Pricing $315 (More Pricing Info)
    Kwalitan, designed to assist in the development of grounded theories, enables hierarchical coding and the navigation of data with Boolean searches.
     
  • N6: Educational Pricing $340 (More Pricing Info)
    N6 is the newest version of NUD*IST. It is designed to both code textual data and to efficiently search and navigate your research material.  It is from the same company that offers NVivo, but it has distinct differences.  For a comparison of the two, see the following chart.
     
  • Qualrus: Student Price $199 (More Pricing Info)
    Qualrus is the most general program in this category. It allows for a number of coding strategies, has sophisticated search possibilities, and can handle a variety of data types. Its facilities for data structuring are a little less developed than their counterparts in ATLAS.ti and NVivo.

    *All prices are single user CD-ROMS