QualCoder is written in python 3 using Qt6 for the graphical interface. A minimum python version of 3.10 should be used. A minimum screen resolution of 1024×600 pixels is recommended.
Operating systems used
QualCoder has been used on Ubuntu 24.04 and other Linux distros, Windows 10, Windows 11 and MacOS. Testing is performed on Windows 11.
About the author(s)
Hello, my name is Colin Curtain and I am a lecturer from Australia. I have many interests including clinical pharmacy, computer programming, research, statistics and clinical decision support. I completed a PhD evaluating computerised clinical decision support in 2014. When doing my PhD I used R as the statistics program of choice. This is where my interest in qualitative data analysis and the use of RQDA came from, which ultimately led to this project.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KTMRMWoAAAAJ&hl=en
Originally when doing my PhD I analysed qualitative survey data via a thematic approach using RQDA. After some installation difficulties with RQDA, I thought this could be reproduced in Python. I thought I would share QualCoder in the hope that it may help others. I generally work with Linux, and Windows. I work on the programming for this in my spare time, as a hobby.
If you use QualCoder and publish your results, I would really appreciate it if you can let me know.
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Since version 3.6 Dr Kai Dröge has been heavily involved with Qualcoder development, particularly with aritificial intelligence features and more
Dr. rer. soc. Kai Dröge, University for Applied Science, Lucerne, Switzerland and Institute for Social Research Frankfurt, Germany. Kai is an experienced researcher and teacher of qualitative methods. His research interests are wide-ranging and include the sociology of emotions and intimate relationships, digital life and new media, and questions of economic and labor sociology. Recently, he has focused on the methodological challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into qualitative research. He is also the creator of noScribe, a popular open-source transcription tool aimed especially at qualitative interviews.
QualCoder 
Helping this project: https://alternativeto.net/software/qualcoder/
Tested using Xubuntu. Is working ok with the ZIP file.
Thanks Omar
Gran de proyecto y sumamente necesario.
Muchas gracias. Estoy probando en linux esential pero no se me instala bien el pdfminer y no arranca en pantalla.
“Great project and extremely necessary. Thank you. I am testing in essential linux but the pdfminer does not install correctly and it does not start on the screen.”
Hello Antonio, can you make an account on GitHub and post the issue there for QualCoder. I will need more details: which Linux, Which Python. What you typed to install pdfminer and what the error message was.
Antonio. Hazte el usuario por GitHub para que revisemos bien si se trata de un error o bug, como señala Colin Curtain. Así te ayudamos. Saludos.
Dear Colin, great work. In a past project I used RQDA and found it fine. I like the layout of QualCoder. I have two questions/suggestions:
(1) If I delete a code as I decided to make it into a category, QualCoder tells me that the category is already in use (despite having deleted it). To resolve I had to shut it down and restart. Perhaps a sync button or something.
(2) I cannot have a instance of the same code under two categories. For example if I was comparing two education schemes and I had codes for each scheme. Under each scheme Maths is a subject that I want as a code. In effect they are two different codes as they are each under different categories. QualCoder cannot do this as it won’t allow for the creation of the second code.
PS You Australian, why all the American English, dialog(ue) and all the zzzzz?
Hi,
I’m glad you like QualCoder.
For issue (1) this is fixed in the latest dev branch. I will soon merge that into the main branch. And then later into a release.
For issue (2) no you cannot have the same code name under 2 or more different categories. You will have to create two names to get what you want. e.g. Maths, Maths1. The Codes and Categories are in a tree data structure, not an acyclic graph data structure. It would be far too complex for me to enact a solution for you on this.
Yes English, the spelling of dialog is the standard programming spelling for the Qt coding behind the scenes. It is a computing term referring to a graphical window display.
https://getproofed.com.au/writing-tips/word-choice-dialogue-vs-dialog/
I’m not sure what you mean by all the zzzz.
hi thanks for the effort . using it for my study
I couldn’t install QualCoder on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Is there a new package for it?
HI. the executable made with pyinstaller was made on Ubuntu 20.04, and will not work on Ubuntu 22.04. I do not have Ubuntu 22.04.
Can you follow the installation instructions in the ReadMe file to install from the command line?
Hello! This looks like a great alternative for NVivo. We are looking into it as a (open) replacement at our university. During the install process, I noticed it did not work with Python 3.11; but I managed to install it perfectly fine when I switched to Python 3.7 (the version apparantly used when writing the manual): just so you know!
Thanks for the feedback. A reinstall might work. I have had others comment on the 3.11 issue also. Alternatively, download the exe for Windows 10/11 from the release folder, and double click to run. The exe is made with pyinstaller using python 3.10.
Hi!
I´m currently using qualcoder for my psychologist specialist degree thesis interviewing adolescent substance abuse users about factors for quitting. I have a question not knowing if I can post it here but I just got desperate
I created a project, added 6 transcribed textfiles and coded these without problem but now when I try to add 7:th transcribed interview to the same project I only get a long row of error messages.
Is there some general rules to adding new files like where they have to be stored before adding? or is it not possible to add more files after started coding?
downloaded the textfile first from my microsoft onedrive so the fileformat is that from online Word.
I really hope you have some pointers to help me get out of this tricky situation but I understand if you don´t have the time.
Best regards
Daniel Westrell
Stockholm Sweden
Hi. Thanks for the question. I would have the file on your computer first, before importing it to qualcoder. I dont think importing from a cloud location would be as reliable.
Alternatively, create a new file within qualcoder and copy all the Word text and paste into a new file in qualcoder.
Perhaps open an issue on github, or contact me directly. Im curious about the errors
Hi! First, thank you for developing qualcoder. I used it a little bit and it is super useful and intuitive. I do have an issue…
I’ve installed the 3.2 version in a Windows computer in my office and a Windows computer in my house. I saved the project on a Dropbox folder that I use both at home and in the office. I uploaded and coded some text interviews (.docx) to qualcoder on my office computer and all went great. However, when I opened the project in my home computer I could see the uploaded interviews and the codes, but when I clicked on “coding” and then “code text”, it said that “this project contains no text files”. I can see the files on the folder and on the project and they are all downloaded (so not in the cloud). I checked and all the paths work so that’s not the issue. I also generated another project to test if I could code there, and it did let me. Any idea why this is happening? My only other idea is to delete and re-install qualcoder. Thanks!!
Yes , I came across that problem. Download and use the 3.3 version, this version has fixed that programming error.
Hello Colin,
Thank you so much for developing and offering this wonderful software tool as open source. As an academic teacher offering courses in qualitative approaches, this is an invaluable resource and learning tool. Contributing to this open source QDA tools ecology, we created an introductory article on coding qualitative data using QualCoder. Our aim was to introduce students and novice qualitative researchers to the fundamentals of the coding process. As there are wonderful videos and tutorials on QualCoder out there offered by you and others, our article attempts to provide a smooth introduction to the coding process in qualitative research in general. Here is the article:
Brailas, A., Tragou, E., & Papachristopoulos, K. (2023). Introduction to Qualitative Data Analysis and Coding with QualCoder. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 7(3), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/13230
Once again, thank you so much for your offering and invaluable contribution to the field.
Alex
Thank you. I am glad you like QualCoder. Yes , I did a blog post on the 11th June 2023 about your article.
Hi Colin. I am looking at Qualcoder for an international project. The most important factor here is that Qualcoder does not require web access, which is very important in some of the places my team will be working. What I don’t see though, is whether Qualcoder supports other languages. Again, very important for an international project. That’s the big question. My second question is how several people working on the same project can share their work. No need to work on things together, but my team will be sending me info all the time. I will need to be able to track their work and integrate it into a comprehensive package.
Hello Alison,
Thanks for your interest. The only web access is when on opening QualCoder looks at the github page to detect the current release. If there is no web access there is no problem there.
QualCoder uses the UTF-8 language encoding for the texts to be analysed. I have seen European languages and Japanese in the texts for analysis. I have not seen or tested any right to left languages (e.g. Arabic). Vertical languages would not be supported (though left to right Japanese does work, and I expect left to right Chinese would work).
The interface is limited to only a few languages (English and rough translations for several others).
QualCoder was designed as a single use, software. Although a second coder could come along open the project and add their co-coding or additional coding to the project. Up to now I have suggested a coder does their work, then either use the same computer, or copy the project to a second persons computer for their coding to be performed.
I have a wiki page that gives more detail on collaboration:
Collaborative work: see here for more details of options: https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/wiki/13-Working-in-a-team
General thoughts: I think if it is an important major project, that you have researchers trial the software individually. Including some of the various languages you want to use. Then trial small collaborations, and see how they go (either by merging projects together or using the share the same project approach). Considerations here may be that each coder used a different unique name. That each document is also uniquely named, so that if you use a project merging approach, then all the documents would come across into one master project.
Have a robust backup plan, in case, for example a merge fails. The folder is the project – it contains documents and the sqlite database that stored the imported texts and codes etc. So however you choose to name and store these folders needs consideration.
Then if all good so far, I would hope the project would work for you. The latest release, and if all researchers are using the same, using the Windows exe is here, and please see the release notes there also:
https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/releases/tag/3.5
Please note that the software is released under the MIT license, which ultimately means the end user uses the software at their own risk, While unexpected things can occur, I may or may not be in a position to assist and resolve various data or software problems that occur.
Hi Colin.
Can each team member do their own work on their own installed software and then send their files to me so that I can import them to my setup? That would work, I think. We do not do much collaboratively, and I am the one who writes the reports.
The interface lang would be English but the imported materials would be in the language of the country we are working in. The coder would read the docs in whatever language and then code in English. A lot of the materials would be pdf. Also survey results. We could test coding in other languages and then translating the coding. We are not going to Arabic countries this time but we will be in Thailand and Vietnam.
Previously I used Dedoose which requires a stable web connection which is not possible in remote areas. We managed with it though, because it is good software and affordable. But they have discontinued the desktop version and now it is an app. I have no idea how one works seriously through an app, and my team already carries laptops and usually more than one phone (for home country and the visited country). None of us own tablets and there is no budget to buy them just for a short assignment to countries where they are likely to be stolen. I like my laptop.
Allison
I think it might be best for each to have their own QualCoder project. The you would gradually merge them into one larger combined merged project (Using Help > Special Functions > Merge Projects), with lots of saved backups along the way. Make sure that: (1) each coder has a unique coder name. (2) Each file is uniquely named across all the individual projects, so no problem with merging. (3) Nice but not essential, try to use the same coding names and categories across the projects (easier if deductive coding). (4) FYI, all coding is done on the plain text extracted from PDFs. Note that PDFs are never a good format for text extraction, as on extracting plain text, they can appear a bit odd at times.
Will survey results be extracted into plain text files before import? I’m not sure how you will be handling these.
Hello Mr. Colin,
I am having some issues trying to install the 3.5 QualCoder release on Ubuntu 22.04. Curiously, it works very well on my Dell notebook but doesn’t start at all on a desktop with the same OS. The 3.2 version, however, works perfectly. I suspect it might be a problem related to the Python version or ambience. Could this be the case?
I would really appreciate any additional suggestions you might have.
Thanks!
HI. It will be hard to resolve. If you are installing manually (using the install commands from the Terminal), you could try using different version of python e.g. 3.10, 3.11 or 3.12.
And that you ar uswing it insive a virtual environment:
Especially these commands:
sudo apt install python3.10-venv
python3.10 -m venv qualcoder
Try with different python versions, e.g.
sudo apt install python3.12-venv
python3.12 -m venv qualcoder
Hi, thanks for the amazing work. I’m using qualcoder for my PhD Thesis and it’s much better than any other closed source CAQDAs.
Thank you very much. Please provide any feedback for further improvements. Very soon from the work of Dr Kai Droege, QualCoder will be adding artificial intelligence features to assist coding.
Well i am pleased with the overall experience. It has every feature I need without clutter. My recommendations so far would be:
Also, for the implementation of AI don’t hesitate to contact me. I am also working a lot with language models and LLMs and i would like to contribute, if possible.
Thank you, in that overall it works well for you.
Dr Droege has worked hard on the AI integration, so that will be coming very soon.
1 You can select text and immediately right click menu to add a new code.
2 With the AI integration coming, that will help suggest codes.
3 Graphics. I only develop on Windows now, so I cannot fix macOS graphics issues. As for graphics in general, ideally would like to have a designer involved.
Hi, I needed a new computer and after it was replaced I reinstalled Qualcoder. Now I can’t open my project and it seems to have gone. Is there a way I can get it back?
Thanks 🙂
I do not know how to get your project back. Have you checked your trash folder? Did you keep back-ups on different devices, as is standard practice for data safety?
Hi,
First of all I would thank you for developping this software. I was trying to install it in a Chromebook with Linux Debian 12, but I am not so good with it and it is imposible for me to do it. Could you help me on it?
Thank you and sorry for my bad English.
I’m interested in using QualCoder, though I have no specific project at the moment – just needing an alternative to nVivo.
How is the back-end information stored? Can I access it through Python?
It’s stored in a sqlite database, so yes python can access it. https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/wiki/7.4.-SQlite-Data-Structure
Dear Colin and Kai,
Thank you so much for your work on this. I have just started looking into QualCoder, tested out a few features and am overall happy with it. It crashes at the moment when I try to code a video, but I think that is fixable on my side with some more looking into it. Text and image coding seem to work great out of the box.
This is a really valuable contribution to the community. The pricing for commercial QDA software is just ridiculous, and the software quality is terrible. There is such an urgent need for a good open source alternative. Thank you for all the work you have already put into this.
I have one suggestion, though. Maybe you could think about ways to help people fund your project. I don’t know, but perhaps you like to keep this as a hobby side project so you don’t want to have the pressure that people paid for it and now you have to deliver. Or maybe you feel uncomfortable asking for money, and I get that. But even if I look through the website explicitly for a way to donate, I don’t find anything. Think about it, maybe you can just give people the option to buy you more time to work on this, without begging all the time! In addition to that: Given that a major user group of this are institutions like universities, you could think of ways to help faculty members fund your project without forcing everyone into a paid subscription plan. I think limesurvey and zotero do a good job with that, for example. You can use them for free on your own hardware, and buy additional cloud services with money, part of which goes into the development. This way, if I have some research budget that I would otherwise perhaps spend on one of the big QDA packages, I could instead fund your project (which I would greatly prefer!). A web interface would be one option and potentially help with collaboration, for example. Or maybe just a data synchronization option as a backup. Maybe extra plugins that go beyond basic features. Just some way for us to funnel money into the development.
Although it already works great, there are lots of open issues here of course. For example it would be great to have a UX designer/researcher look into this occasionally, or making it easier to install for non-technical people.
Best wishes,
Ali