Qualitative
Qualitative, LLC is a cloud-based SaaS platform that provides end-to-end qualitative research workflow — participant recruitment, scheduling, AI transcription in 50+ languages, and expert-verified thematic analysis — primarily serving academic and doctoral researchers, with secondary use by UX/market researchers and digital agencies.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Qualitative does
Qualitative, LLC is a privately held SaaS company founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, operating the platform at qualitative.io. The company sells a cloud-based qualitative research platform that bundles four workflow stages — targeted participant recruitment across a claimed reach of 3.1 billion consumers and 1.1 billion professionals, interview scheduling with calendar and video conferencing integrations, AI-powered transcription in 50+ languages, and AI-assisted thematic analysis verified by qualitative research experts. Native integrations span Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, Outlook, and OAuth providers, with embeddable Intercept Interview widgets that deploy on client websites in under 10 milliseconds. Infrastructure is hosted on AWS, and the platform holds HIPAA, GDPR, EU-U.S., and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certifications.
The business model is a freemium-to-paid SaaS structure. A free tier supports 25 participants per month indefinitely; paid plans run Small ($50/month), Medium ($150/month), Large ($290/month), and custom-priced Unlimited. The company also monetizes professional services: a $590 one-time AI thematic analysis add-on, a $200 one-time setup help add-on, a $200/month ongoing research support subscription, and custom-priced done-for-you participant recruitment. Overage charges apply per interceptor page view and email invitation beyond plan limits. Go-to-market is product-led growth anchored on the free tier, supplemented by a consultation-driven inside-sales motion for mid-market plans and add-ons, with content marketing through researcher case studies, G2 reviews, and university logo placements.
The primary customer segment is academic and doctoral researchers (PhD and EdD candidates) conducting dissertation research, supported by secondary segments in UX and market research and digital agencies. The customer base is long-tail and individual-buyer dominated, with public case studies from researchers at Walden University, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grand Canyon University, Cornell, University of Oxford, and others. The company has 1-10 employees, is privately held with no disclosed institutional funding, and reports no revenue or ARR figures in the available data.
Qualitative firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Qualitative
- Legal name
- Qualitative, LLC
- Website
- https://qualitative.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Qualitative, LLC is a cloud-based SaaS platform that provides end-to-end qualitative research workflow — participant recruitment, scheduling, AI transcription in 50+ languages, and expert-verified thematic analysis — primarily serving academic and doctoral researchers, with secondary use by UX/market researchers and digital agencies.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Qualitative is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Qualitative business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Subscription Plans: Tiered subscription model with Small ($50/month), Medium ($150/month), Large ($290/month), and Unlimited (custom quote) plans. Each tier includes specific volumes of interceptor page views, email invitations, screener page views, participants, interviews, and AI transcription minutes. Plans include features like custom screeners, CRM, calendar integration, reminders, brand customization, localization, and team member access.
- Participant Recruitment Add-On: Custom-priced add-on service where Qualitative recruits a pool of research participants based on researcher-specified criteria. Pricing varies based on recruitment criteria complexity, number of participants, and verification requirements.
- Qualitative Analysis Add-On: One-time fee of $590 for done-for-you thematic analysis. Includes 1.5M input tokens and 750K output tokens available for 90 days. Covers transcripts, codes, themes, findings, implications for practice, and recommendations for research. AI-analyzed and expert-verified with guaranteed accuracy and insightfulness.
- Setup Help Add-On: $200 one-time fee for 30-day access to expert advice on research project setup
- Research Support Add-On: $200/month subscription for ongoing expert advice and support on research projects until removed
- Overage Charges: Usage beyond plan quotas billed at per-unit rates: $0.006 per interceptor page view and $0.004 per email invitation overage
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Small plan for individual researchers |
| Subscription | Monthly | Medium plan for active research projects |
| Subscription | Monthly | Large plan for extensive research programs |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Unlimited plan for organizations with custom needs |
| Freemium | Monthly | Free plan for trial and small-scale research |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
Qualitative product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Qualitative is a cloud-based SaaS platform that combines participant recruitment, interview scheduling, AI-powered transcription across 50+ languages, and AI-driven qualitative analysis (thematic analysis with expert verification) for academic and doctoral researchers. The platform provides end-to-end qualitative research workflow from recruitment through analysis, including intercept interview widgets, custom screeners, participant CRM, calendar and video conferencing integrations, and global incentive management.
Product overview
Qualitative is a unified qualitative research platform designed for academic and doctoral researchers. The platform consists of a core product with integrated features for participant recruitment (including intercept interviews with embeddable popups, CRM, and custom screeners), interview scheduling with video conferencing integrations, AI-powered transcription, and qualitative analysis services. The core platform is complemented by multiple pricing tiers (Free, Small, Medium, Large, and Unlimited plans) and optional add-ons including a Participant Recruitment Add-On for done-for-you recruitment and a Qualitative Analysis Add-On for expert-verified AI thematic analysis.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Qualitative Platform Unified cloud-based qualitative research platform providing participant recruitment, interview scheduling, AI-powered transcription across 50+ languages, and AI-driven qualitative analysis with expert verification for academic and doctoral researchers.
- Participant Recruitment Service Custom-priced add-on service where Qualitative recruits a pool of research participants from its network of 3.1 billion consumers and 1.1 billion professionals based on researcher-specified demographic and behavioral criteria, with 6-layer verification and a quality guarantee.
- Qualitative Analysis Service $590 one-time AI-powered thematic analysis service covering interview, focus group, and survey transcripts; produces codes, themes, findings, implications for practice, and recommendations for research, verified by qualitative research experts with guaranteed accuracy and insightfulness.
- Setup Help Service $200 one-time fee for 30-day access to expert advice on research project setup, including guidance on study design, screener creation, and workflow configuration.
- Research Support Service $200/month subscription for ongoing expert advice and support on research projects, active until removed by the subscriber.
Quantifiable outcome
- Doctoral researchers regularly complete entire qualitative analysis in 1-2 days
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Qualitative
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Qualitative technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
AI capability6 records
Feature9 records
Qualitative partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreQualitative.io's website and application are hosted on Amazon Web Services. AWS manages physical security for data centers 24/7. This is the foundational cloud infrastructure provider for the entire platform.
- ZoomcoreVideo conferencing integration for scheduling interviews and conducting research sessions. Qualitative automatically creates Zoom meetings when scheduling participants. Also used for OAuth authentication. Supports screen sharing and recording capabilities.
- Google MeetcoreVideo conferencing integration for scheduling interviews and conducting research sessions. Qualitative automatically creates Google Meet meetings when scheduling participants. Also used for OAuth authentication. Supports screen sharing capabilities.
- Microsoft TeamscoreVideo conferencing integration for scheduling interviews and conducting research sessions. Qualitative automatically creates Microsoft Teams meetings when scheduling participants. Supports screen sharing capabilities.
- GooglecoreOAuth authentication provider for user sign-in. Recruitment targeting through Google Ads platform across Google's advertising network. Calendar integration with Google Calendar.
- MicrosoftcoreOAuth authentication provider for user sign-in via Microsoft accounts. Outlook calendar integration for scheduling research sessions.
- Facebook and InstagramcoreMajor recruitment platforms for targeted participant acquisition. Qualitative runs targeted recruitment campaigns across Facebook and Instagram to reach specific demographic audiences for research studies.
- LinkedIncoreMajor recruitment platform for professional audience targeting. Used for recruiting participants with specific professional criteria including job titles, industries, and employment status.
- Reddit, Quora, X (Twitter)coreAdditional recruitment platforms for reaching niche audiences. Used for targeted recruitment campaigns to find participants matching specific research criteria across various online communities.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Qualitative competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- UserTesting: Large, established human-insights platform offering participant recruitment, video-based usability testing, and analytics for enterprise UX teams. Competes with Qualitative's recruitment and intercept interview capabilities but at a much broader enterprise scale.
- Maze: User research platform for product teams offering prototype testing, card sorting, and survey-style studies with a participant panel. Overlaps with Qualitative on the UX-research use cases and embedded intercept recruitment.
Emerging players
- Optimal Workshop: Suite of UX research tools including card sorting, tree testing, and surveys commonly used in academic and product-research contexts. Comparable as a research-tools suite serving UX and academic researchers, though without recruitment or AI transcription.
- Otter.ai: AI-powered meeting transcription and note-taking service widely used by researchers for interview capture. Overlaps with Qualitative's AI transcription feature and represents a low-cost alternative for researchers who only need transcripts without recruitment or analysis.
- SONAR (Toloka/formerly Respondent Pro): Crowdsourced participant recruitment platform used for market and academic research. Overlaps with Qualitative's targeted recruitment on the consumer-research side, with similar demographic and behavioral targeting capabilities.
Direct peers
- Respondent.io: Marketplace for recruiting research participants (consumers and professionals) for qualitative and quantitative studies. Directly comparable to Qualitative's participant recruitment offering, especially for niche B2B and professional demographic targeting.
- NVivo (Lumivero): Long-standing qualitative data analysis software widely used by academic researchers for coding transcripts, running thematic analyses, and managing dissertation research. The most entrenched direct competitor on the analysis side of Qualitative's workflow.
- Lookback: Qualitative user-research platform for moderated and unmoderated studies with participant recruitment, screen recording, and highlight reels. Directly comparable to Qualitative for UX researchers running interviews.
- Dovetail: Cloud-based research analysis platform that turns customer interviews, surveys, and feedback into shareable insights with AI-powered transcription, tagging, and thematic analysis. Directly comparable to Qualitative on the analysis side of the workflow for UX and academic researchers.
- Prolific: Online participant pool for academic and commercial research with verified participants and granular screening. Directly comparable to Qualitative's recruitment product, particularly for academic researchers seeking vetted study participants.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Qualitative social profiles
Digital presenceQualitative compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Qualitative financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Qualitative leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Qualitative funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Qualitative M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Qualitative
What does Qualitative do?
Qualitative is a cloud-based SaaS platform that combines participant recruitment, interview scheduling, AI-powered transcription across 50+ languages, and AI-driven qualitative analysis (thematic analysis with expert verification) for academic and doctoral researchers. The platform provides end-to-end qualitative research workflow from recruitment through analysis, including intercept interview widgets, custom screeners, participant CRM, calendar and video conferencing integrations, and global incentive management.
Is Qualitative a public or private company?
Qualitative is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Qualitative founded?
Qualitative was founded in 2018. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Qualitative based?
Qualitative is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Qualitative make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Subscription Plans are the primary driver. The others are participant Recruitment Add-On, qualitative Analysis Add-On, setup Help Add-On, research Support Add-On and overage Charges.
Who are Qualitative's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are UserTesting and Maze. Emerging players are Optimal Workshop, Otter.ai and SONAR (Toloka/formerly Respondent Pro). Direct peers are Respondent.io, NVivo (Lumivero), Lookback, Dovetail and Prolific.
Does Qualitative have an API?
No public API is recorded for Qualitative.