FrameQuery vs MAXQDA
FrameQuery
framequery.comMAXQDA
maxqda.comSide by side
| Figure | FrameQuery | MAXQDA |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19/mo | $41/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 6 | 9 |
| Spec score · Video Annotation Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.8 (#6) |
| Company | FrameQuery says it is operated by Elly Software Ltd, an independent company. | MAXQDA is distributed by VERBI GmbH, and the maker describes VERBI as focused on qualitative data analysis innovation since 1989. |
| Founded | 2024 | 1989 |
| Licence | The EULA describes proprietary desktop software under a limited, non-exclusive licence and prohibits reverse engineering and redistribution. | MAXQDA is proprietary commercial software rather than open-source software. |
| Release news | The company blog dates the 1.2.0 search overhaul to 9 August 2026 and describes ranked natural-language results plus colour, codec, camera and lens filters. | MAXQDA 26.1, released February 10, 2026, added multi-document AI coding, AI translation and suggested subcodes. |
| Security | The security page says originals remain local, extracted frames and audio are discarded after analysis, and HTTPS is used. | MAXQDA says AI Assist processes data in real time, deletes it immediately, stores encrypted data in the EU and operates under GDPR compliance. |
| Support | Product help is available at [email protected], security issues at [email protected], and system availability is shown on the status page. | Free online support is provided for the current and preceding versions, with context-sensitive help linked from dialog windows. |
| System requirements | The download page lists macOS 11 or newer on Apple Silicon and Windows 10 or 11 on x64. | MAXQDA 26 on Windows requires Windows 11, at least 4 GB RAM and a two-core 1.6 GHz processor; macOS 11 through macOS 27 is listed with the same minimum RAM and processor. |
| Transcription | Speech recognition creates word-timestamped transcripts with speaker diarization. | MAXQDA Transcription automatically transcribes audio and video in over 50 languages and can be used without a MAXQDA license, though analyzing transcripts in MAXQDA requires a valid MAXQDA or Analytics Pro license. |
| What it does | FrameQuery indexes video so users can search dialogue, on-screen content, people and scene context locally. | MAXQDA is qualitative and mixed-methods research software for organizing, coding, analyzing, visualizing and reporting text, multimedia, survey and bibliographic data. |
Plans
FrameQuery
- FreeFree
- Starter$19 a month
- Pro$45 a month
- Max$190 a month
- Developer APIPriced on request
- StudioPriced on request
MAXQDA
- AI Assist FreeFree
- MAXQDA Tailwind Free TrialFree
- MAXQDA Tailwind Pro$41 a month
- AI Assist Premium (12 months)Priced on request
- AI Assist Premium (6 months)Priced on request
- MAXQDAPriced on request
- MAXQDA Analytics ProPriced on request
- MAXQDA Tailwind EnterprisePriced on request
- MAXQDA TeamCloudPrice not published
In their own words
FrameQuery
FrameQuery makes video footage searchable by dialogue, on-screen content and people. Indexing identifies scene context, objects, faces, voices and speech, with transcripts separated by speaker; after indexing, searches run locally and work offline without a per-query charge. It supports more than 50 formats, including R3D, BRAW, ProRes, H.264, H.265, MKV and MXF. Sources include local folders, S3, SMB, Dropbox and Google Drive, while sharing or backup can use Drive, Dropbox or NAS. Search results can be exported to editing workflows such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Avid using formats including FCPXML, Premiere XML, EDL and LosslessCut. A web review page offers frame-accurate comments, drawing annotations, approvals and side-by-side version comparison. Face and voice recognition run on-device with explicit consent, but selected frames and extracted audio go to cloud services for analysis and transcription. The Free plan has no monthly indexing hours. Starter costs $19 a month and includes 10 hours of video per month. Its API is planned but not available yet.
MAXQDA
MAXQDA is desktop software for qualitative and mixed methods research, including literature reviews, content analysis, interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups. Its tools include qualitative and mixed methods analysis, quantitative text analysis with MAXDictio, and statistical analysis with Stats. Analytics Pro can import and connect Excel or SPSS data and includes descriptive statistics, crosstabs, ANOVA, independent-samples t-tests, cluster analysis, Pearson and Spearman correlations, and scale calculations. MAXQDA Transcription can automatically transcribe audio and video in over 50 languages without a MAXQDA license, though analyzing transcripts in MAXQDA requires a valid MAXQDA or Analytics Pro license. TeamCloud provides a protected cloud workspace with 25GB storage for one team lead and up to four team members per license. The desktop product runs on Windows and Mac with the same interface and functions on both. A 14-day free trial is available for either system. The page does not expose prices for MAXQDA licenses or Analytics Pro; AI Assist has Free and Premium options, with limited capacity.