QDA software built for researchers, not profits.
Full-featured qualitative data analysis software. Powerful coding, rich queries, and deep analysis. No paid features, no advertisements, no clouds.
Bring in almost anything.
Text, PDFs, images, audio, video, and surveys.
Highlight what matters.
Create and organise codes that matter to you.
Ask your data questions.
Build queries visually and watch results update live.
See the patterns.
A rich suite of analytical tools to interrogate data how you want.
Powerful coding, powerful queries.
Interrogate your data by dragging codes and logical operators onto a canvas. Combine them with logical, input, and spatial operators — overlapping, inside, outside, before, followed by — and see exactly which passages match.
Live results
Results update in real time.
Saved queries
Save queries and re-run them whenever your data changes.
Precise scope
Scope any query to specific documents, folders, types, tags, or survey respondents.
Interrogate your data from every angle.
See which codes travel together. Switch the same analysis between a numeric grid, a binary view, a table, or a Sankey diagram — then click through to the passages behind any number.
Interactive results
Click in tables, graphs, and word clouds to jump to the underlying data.
Group and summarise
Powerful grouping tools let you cluster and summarise your results.
Save and export
Save analyses for later, or export them as CSV.
Map anything and everything.
Drag codes, documents, quotes, and memos onto an interactive canvas to map the relationships in your data. Everything stays live: double-click any node and you're taken straight to it.
A navigation tool
Your map isn't a static picture — every node links back to your data.
Memos on the canvas
Attach memos to anything, and label the links between ideas.
Export as SVG
Export the whole map as a clean, scalable SVG for your paper.
Explore survey data qualitatively and quantitatively.
Code open responses alongside your interviews, and see at a glance how closed questions were answered.
One survey, one source
Survey data stays together: browse by respondent or by question.
Instant overview
See the distribution of every question, and export it as a report.
.xlsx and .csv
Import straight from your survey platform's export.
From findings to a finished report.
Drag sections, text, saved queries, and whole documents into a report, arrange them in the order you want, and export the result as a PDF.
Built from live data
Queries in a report pull in their current results.
Write as you go
Add sections, subsections, and formatted commentary.
Transcribe with ease, and code logically.
Magnolia's built-in transcription module lets you transcribe audio and video files. And with synced video coding, your video and transcript share just one set of codes.
Foot pedal support
Map your chosen hotkey to the pedal, and away you go.
New line, new timestamp
Every line you type is anchored to the moment in the recording.
One set of codes
Video codes map to timestamps, so the track and the transcript always agree.
Everything you need to interrogate your data.
With Magnolia's rich suite of analytical tools, you can explore your data from every angle.
Relationships
Map relationships between codes, documents, quotes, memos, queries, and analyses.
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Framework Matrix
Summarise each code in each document, with documents as rows and codes as columns.
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Results in Documents
See which documents contain which query results.
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Code Co-Occurrences
See which codes overlap with each other — as a grid, table, or Sankey.
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Code Frequencies
See how much of each document is covered by each code.
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Open science needs open tools.
Magnolia was created out of the fundamental belief that the principles of open science are not advanced if the tools people need to do qualitative research require expensive subscriptions or prioritise proprietary formats.
Magnolia, by contrast, is free. No one is profiting off it. There are no paid features, no subscriptions, no cloud, and no advertising. There is only the option to sponsor the creator on GitHub if you want to — completely optional.
Free, forever
No trial, no tiers, no subscription. Released under the EUPL.
Open QDPX format
Reads and writes the open QDPX standard by default. No lock-in.
Your data stays yours
No account, no cloud sync, no telemetry. Your project files stay where you put them.
No AI
No AI analysis or AI transcription. You are the researcher.
A free, open-source alternative to NVivo, Atlas.ti, and MAXQDA.
The established tools are powerful, but proprietary — and they cost hundreds of euros a year. Because Magnolia reads and writes the open QDPX standard, you can bring your existing projects with you.
| Feature | Typical paid QDA tools | Magnolia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Licence fee or annual subscription of upwards of 240 EUR | Free forever |
| Source code | Proprietary | Open source under the EUPL |
| Your data | May require an account or the cloud | 100% local — no account, no cloud |
| File format | Often proprietary | Native open QDPX standard |
| Platforms | Varies | macOS · Windows · Linux |
A general comparison — other tools' features and pricing change over time. Compare Magnolia with NVivo, MAXQDA, or Atlas.ti, or see the FAQ for more.
Text, images, audio, video, and surveys.
Text
Images
Audio
Video
Surveys
Projects
.docx, .rtf, and .odt files are converted to PDF on import.