CATMA vs Dedoose

CATMA is a free tool for computer-assisted text markup and analysis, designed for qualitative text studies, especially literary studies. Users can upload corpora, share projects, create tagsets, and apply overlapping annotations. Work can be exploratory or taxonomy-based, qualitative or quantitative, and individual or collaborative. Its Analyze module provides interactive visualizations such as word clouds, distribution graphs, and Double Tree. The web application runs in common browsers on macOS, Windows, or Linux and needs a stable internet connection. CATMA Standalone can run on a local machine or private network, including settings without internet access. Projects can be exported as text, TEI-XML, or CSV; data is also accessible through Git, the GitMA Python package, or the JSON API. The hosted service stores data in Germany and makes automatic backups at least daily. CATMA says its server data is not encrypted at rest, though off-site backups are encrypted, and advises against uploading sensitive data. Standalone defaults to single-user use; some features need additional configuration or are unavailable.

Dedoose is a cloud-based application for analyzing and visualizing qualitative and mixed methods data. It handles interviews, focus groups, documents, surveys, video, images, audio, social media, and websites, and lets researchers combine qualitative and quantitative material in an analysis process. Charts, graphs, and matrices help users explore findings, with filters for examining segments. Dedoose supports real-time collaboration with other Dedoose users at no additional cost. The first 30 days of a new individual account are free; paid plans start at $12.95 a month. Student and Individual plans charge for active months, while group plans provide centralized billing. Premier and Enterprise are annual plans with SSO integration and account administration. Dedoose says communications use an AES-256 CBC-encrypted SSL/TLS tunnel, passwords are not stored, and project data remains under customer control rather than being shared with third parties. The publisher says Leviathan Security Group verified its login system. Support includes a 24/7 self-service Learning Center and assistance from trained researchers. The service identifies academic, UX, health, and policy researchers among its users.