Quirkos vs Transana

Quirkos is qualitative analysis software for exploring and interpreting text data. It imports Word documents, plain text, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, and text pasted from websites or other programs. Codes are displayed visually as users work, with support for groups, hierarchies, color coding, overlap views, and word clouds. Query View can search text, filter by data criteria, and compare data groups side by side. Quirkos Cloud adds live synchronization, editing, and chat, with unlimited collaborators and collaborations at no extra fee. Project data can be exported to Excel for use in SPSS or R, or in REFI-QDA format for other qualitative programs. Quirkos Transcribe converts audio and video into transcripts, accepts files up to 2 GB, and includes 100 free minutes for Cloud users. Transcribe runs in the web app; its five best-supported selectable languages are English, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Cloud plans include student, academic and nonprofit, public sector, and commercial options. The Student plan costs $5 a month, billed annually; an offline licence for one computer costs 69.00 USD once for lifetime use.

Transana is qualitative analysis software for video, audio, image, text, PDF, and survey data on Windows and macOS. It provides automated transcription and manual transcription tools with keyboard shortcuts. Users can categorize and code material, then examine coded data through text and graphical reports, searches, and word clouds. Transana Professional handles up to four simultaneous video files and five transcripts, and supports imports including plain text, Word or RTF documents, online survey data, and still images. Professional can use ChatGPT or Claude with non-confidential data, or embedded Ollama models with confidential data. Speechmatics and Deepgram receive audio for automated transcription only after a user approves sharing each time; Faster Whisper processes audio locally. Basic and Professional store data on the user's computer and do not share user files or database information with Transana.com. Multiuser supports simultaneous work on shared data over an internet connection. The free demo has tight limits and is not intended for real analysis. The fully functional Professional trial costs $25, paid once and expires one month after purchase. Professional costs $395, paid once.