KH Coder
khcoder.net
What it is
KH Coder is software for quantitative content analysis, text mining, and computational linguistics. It can be used with free-response survey answers, interview records, newspaper articles, and other text. The analysis options include word-frequency lists, keyword searches, KWIC, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, co-occurrence networks, correspondence analysis, self-organizing maps, and coding cross-tabulations. Visualizations include network views with betweenness centrality and community detection, correspondence-analysis plots, heatmaps, line charts, and bubble plots. Statistical analyses can be viewed with the source-text context, and analysis can run without an internet connection. The English site lists text support for Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, and Spanish. KH Coder runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with on-premise deployment. Users can customize it by editing R and MySQL code. The free Windows Starting Edition limits analyzable data and some features and is an older beta; the paid Base Edition is presented as the full version. The Mac Edition costs $99.00 USD once and requires Apple silicon, macOS 11 or later, and 5 GB of available disk space.
Spec sheet
- What it does
- KH Coder is desktop software for quantitative content analysis, text mining, and computational linguistics.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Purpose
- KH Coder is software for quantitative content analysis, text mining, and computational linguistics.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Integrations
- KH Coder delegates database work to MySQL and statistical analysis and graphics to R; Windows packages bundle these dependencies.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Support
- The maker directs users to GitHub Discussions for questions and error reports and provides a tutorial, video, PDF slides, and reference manual.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Analysis features
- The gallery shows word frequency lists, keyword searches, KWIC, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, co-occurrence networks, correspondence analysis, self-organizing maps, and coding cross-tabulations.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Analysis workflow
- The maker says statistical analyses can be viewed alongside their source-text context, and that analysis does not require an internet connection to reduce data-leakage and ethics risks.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Backend integrations
- The maker lists ChaSen, FreeLing, HanDic, MeCab, MySQL, Perl, R, Snowball Stemmer, Stanford POS Tagger, and TermExtract among its backend programs.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Coding
- Coding rules support code frequencies, cross-tabs, similarity matrices, correspondence analysis, multidimensional scaling, clustering, and co-occurrence networks.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Company and owner
- The official site credits Koichi Higuchi, a Ritsumeikan University professor, as the author; the footer shows copyright beginning in 2001.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Customization
- The maker says users can customize KH Coder by editing R and MySQL code when needed.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Distribution change
- SCREEN Advanced System Solutions announced the paid official package in December 2023 after Higuchi said one-person development, maintenance, and support had become unsustainable.Read 15 Oct 2026 · prtimes.jp
- Document analysis
- Document tools include document search, document clustering, Naive Bayes model building/classification, and export of document-word or word-context matrices.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Documentation
- Official support includes a tutorial, video, PDF slides, a 99-page reference manual, GitHub Discussions, and an archived forum.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Extensibility
- The software exposes plugin examples, lets users execute SQL statements, and documents direct retrieval from its MySQL databases.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Independent technical assessment
- A Nature research article describes KH Coder as open source, using R and MySQL, with word-frequency, cross-tabulation, co-occurrence, multivariate analysis, multilingual processing, and term-variant search.Read 15 Oct 2026 · nature.com
- KWIC and search
- Users can search words and documents and inspect KWIC concordance lines with collocation statistics.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Languages
- The maker lists Catalan, simplified Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, and Spanish support.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Licence
- The KH Coder core is free software under GNU GPL version 2 or later, permitting academic or commercial use, modification, and redistribution under GPL conditions.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Licence caveat
- The maker says that since December 2023 the installer and some bundled utilities are proprietary and cannot be reverse engineered or redistributed.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Limit: encoding and scale
- SourceForge reviewers report BOM or POS-tagger failures with some English files and possible hangs on very long texts.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
- Limit: interface and setup
- SourceForge complaints mention an old-fashioned interface, difficult installation, paid Mac setup, and no automatic update facility.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
- Limit: learning curve
- ITreview reviewers ask for fuller tutorials and explanations of what statistical algorithm outputs mean, despite finding basic use manageable.Read 15 Oct 2026 · itreview.jp
- Linux requirements
- Linux users must supply MySQL and Perl; R is needed for many analyses, while Japanese processing needs ChaSen or MeCab and English processing needs Stanford POS Tagger and Java.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Mac license
- The Mac Edition license says redistribution is prohibited and a separate copy must be purchased for each computer.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Mac requirements
- The Mac Edition requires an Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 11 or later, and 5 GB of available disk space.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Mac security limitation
- The Mac application is not notarized, so macOS requires a one-time Privacy & Security approval before first launch.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Mac security setup
- The Mac app is not notarized by Apple, so its first launch requires one-time approval in macOS System Settings.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- macOS requirements
- The Mac edition requires Apple Silicon M1 or later, macOS 11 or later, and 5 GB free disk space.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Morphological processing
- The package supports Japanese word extraction through ChaSen or MeCab and English processing through Stanford POS Tagger with Java.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Notable news
- SCREEN announced KH Coder Official Package Version 5 for release on 19 August 2026, adding a workflow guidance Suggest Panel.Read 15 Oct 2026 · screen.co.jp
- Offline processing
- A 2026 product announcement says analysis completes on the user’s PC without cloud use, supporting verification of results and reducing data-leakage risk.Read 15 Oct 2026 · prtimes.jp
- Praise: automation
- ITreview reviewers say automatic classification saves time compared with manually sorting text and makes exploratory analysis practical.Read 15 Oct 2026 · itreview.jp
- Praise: free analysis
- ITreview reviewers repeatedly praise being able to visualize and analyze text for free and use the results for first-pass survey or web-text analysis.Read 15 Oct 2026 · itreview.jp
- Praise: language coverage
- SourceForge reviewers describe the software as especially valuable for Japanese text and say it also works well in English when the tutorial is followed.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
- Public API
- No separate HTTP API or SDK is presented on the official English site; extensibility is described through Perl plugins, SQL, R, and source modification.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Rating on ITreview
- 4.3 out of 5 from 15 reviews.Read 15 Oct 2026 · itreview.jp
- Rating on SourceForge
- 4.3 out of 5 from 9 reviews.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
- Use cases
- The maker describes analysis of free-response survey answers, interview records, newspaper articles, and other text.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Visualization
- Built-in analyses include correspondence analysis, multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, co-occurrence networks, and self-organizing maps for words and codes.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Visualizations
- The gallery includes network visualizations with betweenness centrality and community detection, plus correspondence-analysis plots, heatmaps, line charts, and bubble plots.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Windows edition limit
- The free Starting Edition has limits on analyzable data and some features and is described as an older beta; the paid Base Edition is presented as the full version.Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
- Windows requirements
- The current official package requires a 64-bit compatible dual-core 1 GHz+ processor, at least 4 GB RAM, 5 GB free disk, and Japanese Windows 11.Read 15 Oct 2026 · official-store.as.screen.co.jp
- Word statistics
- The reference manual documents frequency lists plus term-frequency, document-frequency, and TF-DF descriptive statistics.Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
Plans and prices
Starting Edition Free Windows · limited analysis data and features · older beta version Read 7 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
Starting Edition Free Windows beta/demo · limited data and features · 1 PC Read 15 Oct 2026 · screen.co.jp
KH Coder 5 Mac Edition $99, paid once $99 USD Apple Silicon Mac M1+ · macOS 11+ · 5 GB disk · separate paid installer Read 15 Oct 2026 · khcoder.net
Update subscription (academic) ¥18,480 a year ¥18,480（税込） per year Version updates while subscription is active · academic eligibility Read 15 Oct 2026 · screen.co.jp
Base Edition (academic) ¥24,750, paid once ¥24,750（税込） Eligible educational users · Windows · 2 PCs Read 15 Oct 2026 · screen.co.jp
Update subscription (normal) ¥43,780 a year ¥43,780（税込） per year Version updates while subscription is active Read 15 Oct 2026 · official-store.as.screen.co.jp
Base Edition (normal) ¥59,950, paid once ¥59,950（税込）; one-year updates included Windows · full analysis · 2 PCs · one-year update service Read 15 Oct 2026 · official-store.as.screen.co.jp
Master Edition (academic) ¥69,850, paid once ¥69,850（税込） Eligible educational users · Windows · 2 PCs · installation support · seminar seat Read 15 Oct 2026 · official-store.as.screen.co.jp
Master Edition (normal) ¥196,900, paid once ¥196,900（税込） Windows · full analysis · 2 PCs · installation support · one seminar seat Read 15 Oct 2026 · official-store.as.screen.co.jp
Pro Edition (normal) ¥396,000, paid once ¥396,000（税込） Windows · full analysis · 2 PCs · installation support · seminar seat · six Q&A contacts per year Read 15 Oct 2026 · official-store.as.screen.co.jp
Strong points and limits
Strong points
- Broad set of text analysis methods
- Analysis can run without internet access
- Source-text context accompanies statistical analyses
- Supports 13 listed text languages
Limits
- Free Windows edition has data and feature limits
- Starting Edition is an older beta
- Mac app requires Apple silicon and macOS 11 or later
- Mac license requires a separate copy per computer
Who it suits
KH Coder suits researchers or analysts working with survey responses, interviews, articles, or other text who need statistical and visual analysis. Its offline analysis and on-premise deployment may suit users concerned with data-leakage and ethics risks.
Verdict
KH Coder offers a substantial set of text-analysis methods across Linux, macOS, and Windows. The free Windows edition has stated limits, while the Mac edition costs $99.00 USD once and has specific hardware and licensing requirements.
Where Specifiction places it
- Text Analytics Software#1 of 379.1
- Text Analysis Software#1 of 279.0
