Encyclopedia

MAXQDA

Software program

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors

2 min read
Source updated July 20, 2026

MAXQDA is a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS) application used for qualitative and mixed methods research. Developed and distributed by VERBI Software in Berlin, Germany, it runs on Windows and macOS and supports projects containing textual materials, PDFs, images, audio and video (including transcripts), and structured survey data.

Its functions include organizing and coding source materials, writing memos, retrieving and querying coded segments, managing cases and associated variables, and producing tables and visualizations. The software also supports inter-coder agreement checks and mixed methods workflows that link qualitative codes to numerical attributes.

01Products

MAXQDA Standard

The standard version of MAXQDA for macOS and Windows offers tools for the organisation and analysis of qualitative data. This includes text, audio, image, video and bibliographical files as well as survey data, Twitter tweets or focus group transcripts. The data can be analysed in a four-screen window with the help of codes and memos. MAXQDA includes some quantitative data analysis tools (e.g. Mixed Methods tools).

MAXQDA Analytics Pro

MAXQDA Analytics Pro is an edition of MAXQDA that combines the core qualitative and mixed methods features with MAXDictio (for quantitative content analysis) and a statistics module (“Stats”). The Stats module provides tools to analyze data from MAXQDA projects - such as codes, cases, and variables - using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations, and can also work with external datasets imported from spreadsheet files or SPSS formats.

MAXQDA Reader

The MAXQDA Reader makes it possible to read and search MAXQDA projects without owning a license. Projects cannot be edited.

02Version history

1989: MAX (DOS)
2001: MAXqda (Windows)
2003: MAXDictio (Add on for quantitative text analysis)
2005: MAXMaps (Add on for visual mapping)
2007: MAXQDA 2007 (Windows)
2010: MAXQDA 10 (Windows)
2012: MAXQDA 11 (Windows)
2012: MAXApp for iOS (iOS App)
2014: MAXApp for Android (Android App)
2014: MAXQDA 11 (Mac OS X)
2015: MAXQDA 12 (Universal for Windows and Mac OS X)
2016: VERBI releases two new products: MAXQDA Base and MAXQDA Analytics Pro
2017: MAXQDA 2018 (Universal for Windows and macOS)
2019: MAXQDA 2020 (Universal for Windows and macOS)
2021: MAXQDA 2022 (Universal for Windows and macOS)
2023: MAXQDA 24 (Universal for Windows and macOS)
2025: MAXQDA 26 (Universal for Windows and macOS)

03Features of MAXQDA

Import of text documents, tables, audio, video, images, surveys
Data is stored in project file
Reading, editing and coding data
Paraphrasing
Settings links from one part of a document to another
Annotating data with memos
Visualization options (number of codes in different documents etc.)
Group Comparison
Analyse code combinations
Import and export demographic information (variables) from and to SPSS and Excel
Import of online surveys from SurveyMonkey
Import of web pages with the free browser add-on MAXQDA Web Collector
Analyse of responses to survey questions
Searching and tagging words
Transcription of audio and video files
Internal program media player
Linking data with georeferences (*.kml)
Tools for summarizing content
Code with Emoticons and Symbols
Export to text, excel, html, xml and special reports
Create Frequency Tables and Charts
QTT Workspace
TeamCloud
User management
Statistical analysis of qualitative data

04Literature

Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss: Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 3rd edition, 2008, SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore
Ann Lewins and Christina Silver: Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide, 2nd edition, 2014, SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore

Watch videos about MAXQDAExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “MAXQDA”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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