CATMA vs webQDA
CATMA
catma.dewebQDA
webqda.netSide by side
| Figure | CATMA | webQDA |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Qualitative Data Analysis Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.6 (#14) |
| Spec score · Text Analytics Software | 9.0 (#2) | 7.6 (#20) |
| Spec score · Text Analysis Software | 8.9 (#2) | 7.5 (#13) |
| Collaboration | Projects support synchronized and latest-contributions viewing modes, roles, permissions and collaborative comments. | Researchers can work collaboratively and synchronously or asynchronously, and the product description says collaboration can take place online in real time. |
| Purpose | CATMA supports computer-assisted text markup and analysis, including annotation, analysis, interpretation, and visualization. | webQDA is web-based software for qualitative data analysis intended for researchers and professionals conducting qualitative research. |
| Support | The FAQ asks users who need help to contact the CATMA team, which says it will respond as soon as possible. | The maker offers a contextual user manual, email or contact-form support for error reports, and regular training sessions and webinars. |
Plans
webQDA
- Individual license — 90 days€52, paid once
- Individual license — 180 days€99, paid once
- Individual license — 360 days€189, paid once
- Individual license — 720 days€356, paid once
In their own words
CATMA
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.