If you’re searching for Dedoose pricing, you’re likely weighing flexibility and cost against speed and automation. Dedoose has long appealed to researchers who want a cloud-based, pay-as-you-go qualitative analysis tool without committing to expensive annual licenses.

But in 2026, pricing questions have shifted.

It’s no longer just “How much does the software cost?”
It’s “How much researcher time does this workflow still require?”

As a UX researcher who has used Dedoose across academic work, collaborative evaluations, and client projects, I’ve found the subscription price is only part of the equation. Media fees, per-user scaling, and fully manual coding often become the real cost drivers, especially when compared to AI-native platforms like UserCall.

This guide breaks down Dedoose pricing in 2026, what each tier actually includes, and how to think about total cost versus newer alternatives.

How Dedoose Pricing Works in 2026

Dedoose uses a subscription model tied to usage and team size, which makes it feel affordable at first glance, especially for solo researchers.

There are three main pricing layers.

Individual Plans (Active-Month Billing)

These plans only charge you in months when you log in, which remains one of Dedoose’s biggest advantages.

• Standard Individual: ~$17.95 per active month
• Student Individual: ~$12.95 per active month (verification required)

Why this works

• Ideal for intermittent academic or freelance work
• No charge during inactive months
• Low barrier to entry

Where it breaks down

• Costs rise quickly when projects become continuous
• All analysis remains manual, regardless of volume

Group Subscriptions (Team-Based Pricing)

For collaborative projects, Dedoose shifts to per-user pricing.

• Small Group (2–5 users): ~$15.95 per user per active month
• Large Group (6+ users): ~$13.95 per user per month, billed regardless of login activity

Accounts can be disabled to control billing, but this adds admin overhead.

Key implication
Once you cross into larger teams, Dedoose behaves more like a traditional per-seat tool, not a lightweight subscription.

Organizational & Enterprise Tiers

For institutions and larger organizations, Dedoose offers custom plans.

• Premier: Up to ~20 seats, SSO, onboarding, training hours, account support
• Enterprise: Unlimited users, advanced SSO, reporting, train-the-trainer programs

These tiers are priced by quote and are designed more for universities and large evaluation teams than fast-moving product orgs.

Media Storage Fees (Often Overlooked)

This is where many teams underestimate total cost.

Each account includes:

• 1 hour of free audio
• 30 minutes of free video

Beyond that:

• Audio: ~$0.05 per hour per month
• Video: ~$0.25 per hour per month

Individually these seem minor, but for media-heavy studies or longitudinal projects, the fees quietly accumulate over time.

What Dedoose Pricing Includes (and Doesn’t)

Included

• Manual coding for text, audio, video, and mixed methods
• Real-time collaboration
• Visualizations and charts
• Flexible subscription access

Not Included

• Automated transcription
• AI-generated themes or summaries
• First-pass coding or synthesis
• Flat, unlimited team pricing

In short, Dedoose sells flexibility and collaboration, not automation.

Why Dedoose Pricing Feels Different in 2026

In 2026, most teams compare Dedoose less to tools like NVivo or MAXQDA, and more to AI-native platforms.

The comparison isn’t just feature-based. It’s workflow-based.

• Dedoose assumes manual coding and human synthesis
• AI-native tools like UserCall automate transcription, theming, and summarization

This shifts cost from software licenses to researcher hours.

Many teams now use Dedoose selectively:

• When manual, theory-driven coding is essential
• For academic rigor and transparency
• For smaller, slower-moving studies

And use AI-native tools when:

• Speed matters
• Interview volume is high
• Stakeholders need insight quickly

Add-Ons, Hidden Costs, and Manual Effort

Here are some subtleties that can unexpectedly increase your total cost:

1. Active-month billing: Individual plans charge only when used, but large groups incur a flat monthly fee—even if not all users log in
2. Media storage costs: For studies with extended audio/video, these fees accumulate. For instance, 10 hours of audio adds $0.50/month, while 5 hours of video is another $1.25/month—small but real.
3. Manual coding and analysis: Dedoose has powerful visualization tools and collaboration, but all coding—transcription tagging, theming—is manual. This is a time investment that many research teams underestimate.

Updated Comparison Table: Dedoose vs. Alternatives

Below is a refined comparison, highlighting features and limitations discreetly:

Subtle insights where Dedoose lags behind UserCall:

• Manual vs. automated coding: While Dedoose gives you coding flexibility, UserCall offers AI-generated themes and summarization.
• Per-user billing vs. flat fee: Growing teams pay more with Dedoose; UserCall includes unlimited moderators and participants.
• Media storage: Dedoose charges for media; UserCall typically includes transcripts and recordings in its flat subscription.

Is Dedoose Worth the Price?

For solo researchers or compact teams, Dedoose remains a cost-effective, flexible choice that charges only for active months and supports collaboration on rich data types.

However, in media-heavy or long-term projects, those storage fees and manual coding time can add up—and for larger teams, cumulative user fees may approach or surpass the flat rate of services like UserCall.

From one researcher's perspective: I once spent days manually coding in Dedoose. With UserCall’s AI-driven theming, the same interview set could be coded and analyzed in just a morning. That difference in workflow efficiency is increasingly a key deciding factor.

Final Thoughts

Dedoose pricing is transparent and flexible: $17.95/month for standard individuals, $12.95 for students, group and enterprise options, plus media charges for audio/video. It's ideal for researchers who need manual control and occasional access.

Yet if your team values automation, scale, and less time spent on manual coding, modern tools like UserCall may provide more long-term value at a comparable cost.

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