Personally I think you would be better off using AI later on in the process. Read the transcript, find the quotes that are related, then stick them into an AI to see if they suggest themes/sub themes. At this point you will have knowledge of your transcripts and can make adjustments. LLMs are also going to be much better at naming themes than identifying themes from within multiple transcripts, which it would only do at the most superficial level. No AI has the ability to do this. They just aren't designed to. If you use AI too early you limit yourself. You know what the literature already says, the AI won't know that the 85th line is very similar to what was mentioned as a limitation in Smith (1998) and so won't flag that. In addition, using AI can bias you when you do get round to doing your own analysis. You are more likely to find things that match the themes it has identified, which, as we have already established, will be superficial. Answer from sendmethere on reddit.com
Thematic
getthematic.com › insights › thematic-analysis-software
Thematic Analysis Software: 5 Top Tools & How It Works
Coding and annotation: The ability to code and annotate qualitative data is essential for identifying patterns, themes, and meanings. This feature helps in systematically categorizing data for deeper analysis. Data analysis: Qualitative data analysis software offers various techniques, such as content analysis, thematic analysis, and discourse analysis, to analyze your data.
MAXQDA
maxqda.com › home › all-in-one thematic analysis software
Thematic Analysis Software | Powerful and Easy-to-use
October 10, 2024 - MAXQDA is the best choice for your thematic analysis. It works with a wide range of data types and offers powerful tools to analyze textual data, such as coding, visualization, mixed methods, statistical, and quantitative content analysis tools.
Videos
28:55
Free Tools for Thematic Analysis (Microsoft Word and Excel)
17:34
Thematic Analysis in NVivo Made Easy: A Must-Watch Guide - YouTube
19:22
Thematic analysis with ChatGPT | PART 1- Coding qualitative data ...
15:07
QDA Miner Liter (A Free Qualitative Data Analysis Software) Overview ...
27:58
Qualitative coding and thematic analysis in Microsoft Word - YouTube
31:28
NVivo 12 and Thematic / Content Analysis. - YouTube
Are there free qualitative data analysis tutorials?
Yes—Lumivero offers free live webinars, user groups, and on-demand videos to help you learn NVivo.
lumivero.com
lumivero.com › home › products › nvivo
NVivo: Leading Qualitative Data Analysis Software | Lumivero
How much does NVivo cost?
Students, individuals, and small groups can purchase online. For larger teams (10+ licenses), contact sales or a partner for volume options.
lumivero.com
lumivero.com › home › products › nvivo
NVivo: Leading Qualitative Data Analysis Software | Lumivero
What is NVivo?
NVivo is Lumivero’s qualitative analysis software that helps you import, organize, explore and collaborate on data to uncover insights faster.
lumivero.com
lumivero.com › home › products › nvivo
NVivo: Leading Qualitative Data Analysis Software | Lumivero
ATLAS.ti
atlasti.com › guides › thematic-analysis › thematic-analysis-software
Thematic Analysis Software | Tools, Uses & Guide - ATLAS.ti
The functionality of such software ranges from simple coding to complex analysis, including the visualization of data connections. This article focuses on the application of ATLAS.ti in conducting thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is a method used to identify, analyze, and report patterns (themes) within data. It provides an accessible and flexible approach to qualitative analysis, suitable for researchers across various disciplines.
Delve
delvetool.com
Qualitative Data Analysis Software | Delve
I highly recommend this software for coding qualitative research. All the features were well thought out, easy to use, and very intuitive. The customer support is superb! ... Learn how to find themes and patterns in your qualitative data. ... Read our comprehensive, step by step guide on how to do thematic analysis.
Lumivero
lumivero.com › home › products › nvivo
NVivo: Leading Qualitative Data Analysis Software | Lumivero
January 10, 2025 - Unlock deeper insights with NVivo, the leading qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) for organizing and analyzing unstructured data.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/phd › what ai software can help in thematic analysis?
r/PhD on Reddit: What AI software can help in thematic analysis?
May 2, 2025 -
Hi all
Im a Phd student and starting on my thematic analysis now after data collection. The nature of my research is purely qualitative and I have one hour long interview transcripts that I plan on coding using NVivo eventually. I have noticed AI is a but helpful to streamline my thoughts. As a researcher I dont really trust chatgpt with anything lol and am definitely not looking for AI to do my analysis. I was wondering if anyone has used any softwares that can identify patterns or themes etc roughly? I dont want AI to do my work and I am not relying on it I just want to use it to understand my data better if that helps. I overthink a lot so i have noticed notebooklm helps me structure transcripts etc. For the lack of a better statement lol I just want to speed up the process a bit if it makes sense. Any help, advice or recommendations would be great!
Top answer 1 of 6
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Personally I think you would be better off using AI later on in the process. Read the transcript, find the quotes that are related, then stick them into an AI to see if they suggest themes/sub themes. At this point you will have knowledge of your transcripts and can make adjustments. LLMs are also going to be much better at naming themes than identifying themes from within multiple transcripts, which it would only do at the most superficial level. No AI has the ability to do this. They just aren't designed to. If you use AI too early you limit yourself. You know what the literature already says, the AI won't know that the 85th line is very similar to what was mentioned as a limitation in Smith (1998) and so won't flag that. In addition, using AI can bias you when you do get round to doing your own analysis. You are more likely to find things that match the themes it has identified, which, as we have already established, will be superficial.
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If you simply need an AI to find coarse-grained themes across a conversation, just pick an LLM with a large enough context window to fit your data. Feed in your text, preceded by a precise prompt, and see if the output is useful. I get that you don’t trust ChatGPT due to its data policy, but if your goal is to get the best output, you’ll probably need to rely on one of the major models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.). If you need something more fine-grained than, say, "divide into paragraphs, list key themes per paragraph, and group paragraphs by themes", then I’d actually suggest not using AI for this kind of qualitative analysis. Mainly because it lacks the personal, specific contextual knowledge — your inductive bias, your oriented perspective on the object of study — which is exactly what would make your qualitative research valuable and original. When you’re looking at your data, you already have certain priors and research questions in mind, and that context is what gives depth to your interpretation. In any case, always double-check! Let us know how it goes
Looppanel
looppanel.com › blog › thematic-analysis-software
The Best Tools for Thematic Analysis | Looppanel
Explore the top thematic analysis software tools for qualitative research in 2025. From AI-powered solutions like Looppanel to traditional platforms like Atlas.ti and NVivo, discover which tool best fits your research needs. Learn about different types of thematic analysis, compare key features ...
Quirkos
quirkos.com
Quirkos - Qualitative Data Analysis Software made simple
Quirkos is easy to master, with just the essential tools you need to help you focus on the richness of your small qualitative data sets. Organise your sources, canvas and codes in any way, and finely categorise and filter your data. Our flexible design is agnostic, so you can use grounded theory, thematic analysis, or IPA as you prefer.
Looppanel
looppanel.com › blog › ai-thematic-analysis
Top 5 Tools for AI Thematic Analysis in 2025 | Looppanel
For researchers using modern AI ... must be human-led to ensure rigor and nuance. Let’s be honest: the simplest thematic analysis software is an excel sheet....
Dovetail
dovetail.com › solution › thematic-analysis-software
Thematic Analysis Software: Unveiling Insights
Automatically identify and analyze themes with the #1 Thematic Analysis Software for qualitative data. Generate AI-driven insights with NLP thematic analysis.
Zonka Feedback
zonkafeedback.com › blog › thematic-analysis-software
11 Best Thematic Analysis Software Tools for In-Depth Insights
August 4, 2025 - But without the right thematic analysis software, those voices stay buried in spreadsheets, Slack threads, and dashboards no one checks. And that means product issues go unnoticed. CSAT drops get explained too late. Your roadmap stays blind to what users actually care about. This blog cuts through the noise. We’ve handpicked the best thematic analysis tools—not just for surface-level sentiment, but for real-time insights, smart clustering, multilingual feedback, and linking themes directly to NPS, churn, and revenue.
Top answer 1 of 16
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I love taguette.org. Its working as of 1/3/2020. I am a first time user. It is quick to learn. Fact to set up and start using without a manual. Very intuitive. You have to manually tag key words or sentences but once you do that, it really helps develop and organize themes from diverse data. I use it for interviews. I went from temi.com transcription service which is the cheapest and more accurate at $6 for an hour of audio, into taguette. If you keep the time number with temi, you can click on them in taguette and jump to and play the actual audio clips at the exact sound point. I love it.
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Here you can find a compilation of what that site calls the top 21 free qualitative data analysis software. Some I have heard of, som not. Some can handle both audio and video data.
https://www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/top-free-qualitative-data-analysis-software/
Take a look and see what fits you and your data best.
Infranodus
infranodus.com › use-case › qualitative-research-thematic-analysis
AI-Powered Qualitative Research and Thematic Analysis Tool - InfraNodus
InfraNodus performs visual analysis of interviews, open-ended survey responses, and questionnaires for you, revealing the main concepts and themes, as well as the structural gaps that can be used to generate new ideas and better understand what's ...
ContentSquare
contentsquare.com › guides › qualitative-data-analysis › tools
11 Best Qualitative Data Analysis Tools and Software
Kathryn Rounding, Senior Product Designer at You Need A Budget, says, “Dovetail is a fantastic tool for conducting and managing qualitative research. It helps bring all your research planning, source data, analysis, and reporting together, so you can not only share the final results but all the supporting work that helped you get there.” · Thematic's AI-driven text feedback analysis platform helps you understand what your customers are saying—and why they’re saying it.
Usercall
usercall.co › post › top-5-thematic-analysis-coding-software
Top 5 Thematic Analysis Coding Software
Thematic analysis software helps you identify patterns, categorize user feedback, and surface themes across qualitative data sources like interviews, surveys, support chats, and app reviews. AI-powered tools take this a step further by automatically coding, clustering, and summarizing insights—saving you days of manual work. AI Integration: Full-stack AI (interview + analysis) Best for: AI-moderated interviews + AI-powered thematic coding & synthesis
Taguette
taguette.org
Taguette, the free and open-source qualitative data analysis tool
Taguette is a free an open-source text tagging tool for qualitative data analysis and qualitative research
Symanto
symanto.com › home › blog › how to conduct thematic analysis manually vs with ta software
How to Conduct Thematic Analysis Manually VS With TA Software - Symanto
February 1, 2023 - While some TA software uses basic synonym detection, the NLP technologies we develop at Symanto are far more advanced and able to capture nuanced communication in unstructured, qualitative data without the need for excessive pre-training. This makes thematic analysis with Symanto faster and more accurate.
MAXQDA
maxqda.com › home › thematic analysis: step-by-step guide
Thematic Analysis: Step-by-Step Guide
August 12, 2025 - Phase 6: Write Up – Summarize All Coded Segments produces comprehensive theme summaries that serve as foundations for detailed theme descriptions in your report. Throughout all phases, AI Assist functions as a supportive analytical partner that amplifies your interpretive capabilities while ensuring all analytical decisions remain under your control. ... MAXQDA transforms Thematic Analysis from a potentially overwhelming manual process into a systematic and well-organized experience. The software supports every phase of Braun and Clarke's framework, from initial data exploration through final report writing, while maintaining the rigor and depth in the complete process.
UCSF Guides
guides.ucsf.edu › QualitativeResearch › Software
Data Analysis and Software - Qualitative Research Guide - UCSF Guides at University of California, San Francisco
Doing a Thematic Analysis: A Practical, Step-by-Step Guide for Learning and Teaching Scholars · A step-by-step article describing the process of qualitative data coding ... Johnny Saldaña's unique and invaluable manual demystifies the qualitative coding process with a comprehensive assessment of different coding types, examples and exercises. Using Software in Qualitative Research (ebook) by Christine Silver
Delve
delvetool.com › blog › thematicanalysis
How to Do Thematic Analysis in Qualitative Research — Delve
January 28, 2025 - “Delve helped me to organize and code qualitative research for my doctoral dissertation. It was very easy to use and intuitive in its use. The tools I used took me from organizing my transcripts to first and second-round coding through thematic analysis.” Lisa G. “I wanted to complete the thematic analysis of my research results and the Delve software made the process very smooth for me.” -Kopi S.