# NVivo Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is NVivo the right Qualitative Data Analysis solution for you? Explore 50 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/171501/NVivo/reviews --- NVivo 3.8 (50) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/171501/NVivo/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 8th, 2026 # Reviews of NVivo Ease of use 3.7 Customer Service 2.8 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews ZE Zeynep E Phd StudentHigher Education, Self-employedUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “During the analysis of qual data, the working system was very practical.“ March 1, 2025 SH Samantha H Assistant ProfessorHigher Education, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “I bought/tried to use NVivo Collaboration Cloud for team-based qualitative analysis and it was a catastrophic experience.“ October 22, 2025 CR Claire R Assistant ProfessorResearch, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The visualization options are pretty decent and easy to navigate.“ September 3, 2024 SH Samantha H Assistant ProfessorHigher Education, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “Between troubleshooting, manual workarounds, and repeated attempts to sync, our team lost hours we can’t get back.“ October 22, 2025 HL Hannah L Graduate Student ResearcherResearch, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The query and tabulation tools are particularly useful for analyzing relationships in data.“ June 26, 2023 SH Samantha H Assistant ProfessorHigher Education, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “We got instability, opaque problems, and a lot of extra busywork.“ October 22, 2025 AA Amy A Associate Research DirectorResearch, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “User-friendliness, online support, Collaboration Cloud“ April 7, 2024 Sara G StudentMarketing and Advertising, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “To disregard my multiple complaints with a simple automated message that said they would contact me when available and then completely dissapear enraged me, as I have been trying to use this software for the past 2 years.“ June 10, 2024 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 50 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Samuel I. Founder and CEO Internet Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "NVivo for Qualitative Data Analysis" May 23, 2024 5.0 Pros Light weight. Value for money. The learning curve is shallow. Cons Might be limited in Visualization. You might need to clean the text files inputted to provide better analysis quality, which consume time. Review Source Anthony N. Reviewer Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Discovering the Best of NVivo" January 13, 2023 5.0 Overall, my experience with NVivo has been positive. I find the software to be a powerful tool for organizing and analyzing qualitative data, with advanced coding and text analysis features that make it easy to identify patterns and themes within my data. Despite these cons, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks making it a valuable tool for any researcher or data analyst. Pros I really like using NVivo because it makes it easy to organize and analyze qualitative data. With its advanced coding and text analysis features, I am able to quickly identify patterns and themes within my data. The software is also intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy for me to navigate and find the information I need. Additionally, the ability to collaborate with team members on projects is a huge plus. Overall, NVivo is a powerful tool that has greatly improved my research and data analysis process. Cons One thing that I dislike about NVivo is that it can be quite expensive, especially for small research projects or individual use. Additionally, the software can be quite resource-intensive, so it may be challenging to run on older or less powerful computers. While the software is generally user-friendly, some of the more advanced features can take a bit of time and effort to master. Additionally, some users may find the software's interface to be cluttered and overwhelming. Finally, the lack of integration with other software tools can be a limitation for some users. Review Source SH Samantha H. Assistant Professor Higher Education Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Avoid at all costs! " October 22, 2025 1.0 I bought/tried to use NVivo Collaboration Cloud for team-based qualitative analysis and it was a catastrophic experience. Rather than streamline collaboration, the product introduced repeated failures that cost my team real time and emotional energy. We couldn't even get to coding properly because any time I would upload the project to the cloud it would work for about a day and then somehow get corrupted when the only files I had added were word documents for coding. This is unacceptable for any tool billed as “collaboration” software. Error messages offered no clear next steps; the help articles either didn’t exist or were generic and unhelpful. When we contacted support we received slow or templated responses that didn’t resolve the issues. Escalation felt impossible. Between troubleshooting, manual workarounds, and repeated attempts to sync, our team lost hours we can’t get back. I expected a dependable cloud collaboration software that would let multiple coders work without data loss or friction. We got instability, opaque problems, and a lot of extra busywork. Pros Absolutely nothing. This software was a complete waste of time and money. Avoid this at all costs to save your team the headache. Cons I’ve never been so frustrated with a research tool. NVivo Collaboration Cloud repeatedly failed to sync, produced cryptic errors, and forced my team into manual workarounds that wasted hours. The UI is confusing, the documentation is shallow, and support was slow/unhelpful when we reached out. This product broke collaborative workflows rather than enabling them. If your project is time-sensitive, do not rely on this. Review Source Ray A. Research and Cultural Consultant, Editor/writer, interpreter. Used the software for: ### "Nvivo was the go-to QDA for graduate students for many years. Still a powerhouse. " March 31, 2018 5.0 Nvivo is robustly designed and can handle very large projects that involve text, video and audio. I believe AtlasTI or MaxQDA offer better feature sets. Pros Nvivo runs on Windows, Mac. This is important for exchanging data on research teams whose members will be using both Windows and Mac computers. Colleagues have often commented on how Nvivo is easy to use for content and thematic analysis. By using Nvivo to define codes and tag documents with the codes as you move through the document. This grounded approach will allow users to build an understanding of the underlying themes in the data. Each coded segment in Nvivo called a "node", can have a set of custom properties that include instance-specific values can be either flat, or hierarchically arranged, each of which has certain advantages. Flat coding prevents imposing a structure on data while hierarchical coding can help researchers find patterns in the document, assists with analysis and building models. Many tutorials can be found online and via the MaxqDA website. The user discussion forum is also a useful place for learning how to use the program and to apply the software to specific research needs. Because good tutorials can be found easily, users will have less trouble learning how to use this powerful program Cons It does not offer a portable version that users can use when travelling or in the field on someone else's computer. This is a drawback and restricts use to the user's computer only. The student license, while cheaper than the other major QDA vendors, is only valid for 12 months. If you are doing a PhD (which could take many years), you'll have to purchase a full version of the software which is really rather pricey. Nvivo may not be as good as MaxQDA for helping researchers build interrelationships among the data. Review Source Ho Quang T. Lic. PHD Candidate Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Very good tool for qualitative analysis, MAC version is poorer than WIndows version" November 9, 2018 4.0 I am using both Mac and Windows versions of NVivo (NVivo 11). As a researcher who conducts empirical research, I often need to analyse interview transcripts/records/videos. In NVivo, I find the functionalities that I've ever needed for such analyses, for example coding and visualising results. It really makes my life as a researcher easier. Pros \- This is a sophisticated Quality Data Analysis program which provide a wide range of functionalities and supports that make researcher's life easier. - NVivo supports many inputs including text, PDF, survey, audio, video and graphical files. - It has a lot of built-in functions for coding, retrieving, analyzing, visualizing and exporting. - Qualitative analysis is not an easy task and sometimes requires team-effort - That's great that QSInternational realized it and provided a good supports for team work. Cons \- The biggest problem with NVivo for our team was incompatibility between NVivo versions. As a team, we used different versions of NVivo on both Windows and Mac, and it turned out that exchanging the data was not so easy (for example, an Nvivo project exported from Windows cannot be properly imported to Mac version and vice versa). - Some functions are not intuitive and therefore take time to learn by reading the manual or by viewing the online tutorials. I understand there is always learning curves to be expected when it comes to using a new tool, but I would expect more build-in example, guideline within NVivo for that. Review Source SC Sarah C. Research Assistant Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Fine if you work alone" October 27, 2020 3.0 I spend more time troubleshooting than coding because the software (which requires a yearly license, and prevents me from sharing data with teammates) is so buggy. Frequently crashes, losing unsaved data. The auto-save feature on mac is not reliable. NOTHING on the mac version is reliable - it should never have shipped in the current state. Pros Coding stripes and the process of coding is easy and intuitive Nvivo allows you to code multiple types of data together - great for interdisciplinary or "found"/naturalistic data (as opposed to created or elicited data). If you are working 100% independently, I would recommend any older/cheaper version of NVivo for the core coding functionality. Cons The software is expensive and requires yearly licensing even though the main & best features are essentially the same for the last 10 years. The core features are held hostage by QSR's inability to provide backwards compatibility or to allow for sharing between windows and mac. If you want to work in a team look elsewhere - QSR essentially locks your data into the version of nvivo you have and if the entire team is not using the exact same version you are out of luck. It's essentially ransomware. Alternatives considered [Quirkos](https://www.capterra.com/p/141206/Quirkos/) Reason for choosing NVivo We chose NVivo based on promises made in webinars. It turns out those promises are only true for the Windows version. Even though the Mac version is the same price, there is almost none of the added features. Review Source CR Claire R. Assistant Professor Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Worst software, terrible customer service." September 3, 2024 1.0 This was a horrible experience. NVivo is a poorly maintained software that is extremely overpriced. Once they get you to buy the software, it's like pulling teeth to get help. Pros The visualization options are pretty decent and easy to navigate. Cons Customer service is atrocious. We spent months trying to get a response out of them. They almost never helped us with anything. It was the most worthless software. Especially the collaborative software. It just doesn't work and was constantly breaking and not syncing. One colleague used it on Mac and there was an unsolvable bug where she could not view the quotes clustered based on the codes, which would take months to fix. So we had to buy her a PC. Then she had a problem again with it not syncing/working and again, no one would help her resolve it. Then the folks said they would give her a month of use for free, but then they took a month to respond. They are very fast to request money, though. Review Source ZE Zeynep E. Phd Student Higher Education Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Not worth making your PC upset." March 1, 2025 2.0 During the analysis of qual data, the working system was very practical. You just drag and drop the related excerpts into the codes or themes. However, it was working very slowly. There are more efficient ones in the market. Pros It is very useful for coding the qual data. Cons It slowes the computer so much that whenever you try to code the lines in the transcriptions, the screen freezes for a couple of seconds. Review Source Madison S. PhD Candidate Research Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "DO NOT UPGRADE to the new version, NVivo R1" April 16, 2020 2.0 QSR International and NVivo, please do better. Pros I use this software for my research regularly, and appreciate its rich features. Cons My university provides a license to NVivo 12, which I was using up till recently, when I upgraded using a free trial of R1 because I was experiencing very slow performance coding PDFs, despite the fact that I double checked that my system requirements were adequate. DO NOT UPGRADE TO THE NEW SOFTWARE. I repeat: DO NOT UPGRADE. I made a huge mistake upgrading. Not only did it NOT fix the performance issues (it was still VERY slow, almost unmanageably so), but I found out after a couple long days of coding that YOU CANNOT REVERT BACK TO PREVIOUS FORMATS. I tried doing so, and all my coding references and most of my annotations were lost in the process, so I was forced to continue using the new software. Now that the trial has run out, I must purchase a new subscription in order to have access to my project, despite the fact that I do not think the new version is an improvement from the last IN ANY WAY. NVivo has been unable to support me in solving this issue (they suggested I just use another free trial on a different computer -- like most of us stuck working from home, I do not have a backup computer), and so I am forced to buy, at full cost, a year's subscription to a software which I am thoroughly frustrated with. Upgrading the software on a trial basis should NOT prevent users from reverting to previous versions, this is a very poorly designed update. As a PhD student I do not have extra funding lying around, and this is coming out of my own pocket. Unacceptable. Review Source Ganjar W. Founder Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Qualitative Data Analysis Tool" April 25, 2019 5.0 NVIVO is essential in my research as social scientists. With NVIVO, I am able to code interviews and other qualitative data, thus able to draw conjectures from the codes easily. Pros NVIVO is great to conduct data analysis for qualitative research. It allows users to code the qualitative data, making it easier for users to perform content analysis with the data. NVIVO's interface is very user-friendly and requires minimal time investment to learn the application. Cons Perpetual license for NVIVO is expensive for early career academics. There should be a price scheme for this category of users. Review Source IM Ines M. Psychologue Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Intuitive and easy to use" July 22, 2022 4.0 Very good experience! I would like the trial where 30days instead of 14 Pros It was easy to start working with NVivo and there are a lot of different features that we can use to save us time and to make our work easier Cons Easy videos showing how to work with available features where better that a “manual” Visualizing how to do stuff it is easier to learn Review Source CP Christen P. Graduate researcher Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Clear qualitative management " June 14, 2018 5.0 Pros Able to code and color code nodes throughout qualitative work. Able to duplicate code trees in empty projects for validity and multiple people working in the same coding tree. Able to merge similar projects. Also, printing a branch/nodes with all of the relevant excerpts direct from the software - it's a feature I have not found in any other qualitative application Cons The only drawback is the cost. For multi-person projects, each person needs to purchase a license. That can add up fast. Review Source RS Rebecca S. Research Associate Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Nvivo works well for interview transcribing" December 26, 2022 5.0 Pros Ease of use across team mates/multiusers were able to use Cons All users must be on the same operating system Review Source YB Yana B. student E-Learning Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Qualitative analysis tool" May 11, 2021 4.0 Pros It allows having all qualitative data in one place. Offers a lot of tools to work with data. Thanks to this it is easy to search keywords across multiple documents. Cons It is not very user friendly, there are plenty of options but you need a whole course to learn to work with it. The license is expensive, but there are still options that are not available and you need to buy more "premium" versions. Review Source JM Jorge M. Research Assistant Education Management Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Great last update, still not ideal" February 9, 2021 4.0 So far so good, but I wonder when they are going to make the coding review process more comfortable for the user Pros I loved how easy it is to code different interviews with this software. It is as simple as creating a code and dragging text to your code column. Cons It is just a pain to review your codes while you are coding. The coding strips are written vertically which becomes a headache after a while Review Source MN Mark N. Manager Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Version 9 Review " June 11, 2019 3.0 Pros Imports data easily for analysis, though the export is less flexible Cons Not intuitive to use - basic features are easy, but additional can be confusing. Review Source KG Karlyn G. PhD Student Higher Education Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Intuitive and Powerful" September 25, 2018 5.0 Pros I like how easy it is to figure out as you go Cons I wish codes showed up in documents as you code them as highlighted sections Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Student Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Extremely upset" June 10, 2024 1.0 Worst experience with a software ever, will never recommend it to anyone and I am extremely upset at the lack of customer support by the NVivo team. To disregard my multiple complaints with a simple automated message that said they would contact me when available and then completely dissapear enraged me, as I have been trying to use this software for the past 2 years. Pros Nothing. I was told it would be helpful for University dissertations and trying to use it has been the most difficult thing I have ever tried to do. Cons Everytime I tried it said there was a database error and multiple IT technicians have not been able to figure it out, but said it was probably an error caused by Windows 11. I tried contacting customer support through emails and messages but they simply reply with an automated message and do not help customers whatsoever. Review Source PND Percis Nosisi D. Educator, Researcher E-Learning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "NVivo Review" February 25, 2021 5.0 NVivo is a cloud-based Data analysis software developed by QSR International. It has multiple features and a well-designed interface that makes data categorising less tedious. The interface contains a customisable navigation view and context-specific ribbons. It supports different data including textual, PDF, survey, audio, audio, video, images, Outlook emails, and spreadsheets. My students and use NVivo as our main data analysis software. It allows us to manage data in large projects and many languages including character-based languages like Mandarin. We also use NVivo NCapture, a browser add-on, to capture webpages from social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We Create mindmaps, project and concept maps to show data and idea associations. NVivo's audio transcription also saves us a lot of time and money when dealing with recorded audio interviews. I recommend NVivo as a personal, business, academic, and professional data analysis software. Pros NVivo allows researchers to find correlations and relationships between themes, people, and places in one software. It is easy to import data from other programs, including Survey Monkey, EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero, Mendeley, MS Outlook, EverNote, OneNote. NVivo Integration allows Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook files to imported to NVivo, using free add-ins. NVivo integrates with bibliographic and referencing software like Endnote and Mendeley for easy citations and references. NVivo auto-codes and identifies themes and sub-themes, regardless of data volume and complexity. NVivo also allows Cloud collaboration through small teams of up to 5 members. This means a group of 5 or fewer members can work in collaboration with one project. The Windows version allows bigger groups. Since NVivo is cloud-based, team members do not have to worry about losing their project. Team members can use the multi-level ‘undo’ function whenever a need arises. Cons NVivo offers three packages, Plus, Pro, and Mac. The student license is not as expensive as a full license but after a year, they are required to buy a license at the retail price. Review Source KY Kimberly Y. Student/Sole Proprietor Mental Health Care Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Customer Support" August 31, 2021 4.0 Overall, NVivo is an excellent tool, but I do not feel it is worth it when no computer software support is immediately available. Pros I enjoy the features such as the ability to download data, graphics overall data collection function Cons I was recently informed (August 19, 2021) that my College will no longer purchase the license to use NVIVO. I had to purchase the software myself. I am experiencing difficulty with download the NVIVO software. I do not know nor do I know how to obtain the license to my currently active NVIVO from my university. I have sent three requests for help (August 25 2x and August 30, 2021), and three days later, I still have not received any response. There isn't a phone number to contact a live person. I am now 7 days away from losing all of my information, and NO ONE HAS HELPED. I am completing the final steps of my dissertation, so you can imagine how stressful this situation is. I have paid for my subscription, but I can not access the download. I believe that it is totally unacceptable to run a company with NO access to software support. Review Source Response from Lumivero September 6, 2021 Hi Kimberly, sorry to hear you had trouble getting in touch with our Support Team, I believe they have since been able to resolve your issue. Good luck with your dissertation! HL Hannah L. Graduate Student Researcher Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Strong tool for qualitative data analysis, poor customer service" June 26, 2023 4.0 Pros NVivo is versatile and useful for working with data in both text and audio formats. The query and tabulation tools are particularly useful for analyzing relationships in data. Cons Customer service is very slow at responding to technical glitches in the software and billing mistakes. The coding tools to highlight portions of text in pdfs is difficult to work with and there is not an easily available option to rotate view for pdf documents. The concept map creation tool is useful, but does not produce as visually high quality diagrams. Review Source UK Umida K. Graduate student E-Learning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great tool for researchers" February 4, 2023 5.0 Great after organizing data Pros Ability to create a workflow for the entire project, data management, paperless literature review and many more Cons Navigation and features are not intuitive, you should be trained in using the tool Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Research Assistant Higher Education Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Great tool for beginner in qualitative research, but not the best option" November 3, 2020 4.0 I tried the free trial version of NVivo 12 for a qualitative research project in my university. It provides all functionality to help with qualitative data analysis. I think this software is great for beginners in qualitative research. But in terms of value for money, I think this software doesn’t come with the best offer. Pros It works with various type of data, whether it’s text document, voice recording, and video recording. This software enables you to code, transcribe, and visualize the data. There is no functionality limit on the free trial version, only the 14-days period limitation. Worth to try before buying the full version. Cons After the free trial ends, the cost for the license is pretty expensive. There are various software options on the market that provide better value for money especially if you’re working in short-term projects and plan not to use the software for a long time. This software also can be slow and frustrating at times, but I didn’t know if it was because of my computer or the software, and I found a lot of people facing the same problem. p.s. I was running NVivo 12 in macOS mojave. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Survey Specialist Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The best software for qualitative data analysis " March 14, 2018 4.0 1\. saves time of qualitative data analysis and reporting 2. easy to use 3. helps to document interviews in different format 4. helps to document interviews in more organized way (including by thematic topics, respondent characteristics and geography) Pros 1\. best for qualitative interview documentation 2. can work with pictures and audio in addition to text 3. uses respondent characteristics (age, gender, employment and others) during the analysis 4. auto coding has minimize time of data coding. I have used the older version of Nvivo when coding was done manually and with auto coding life become easier Cons 1\. More expensive for individual users 2. not much user group discussions and documentation 3. expensive training cost and very limited to some countries (USA, EU and south africa) Review Source EW Essence W. Professor Education Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Its Great but Comes with a Price" March 19, 2026 4.0 Pros I love its ease of use and feasibility with working with qualitative data, including the different types of data Cons It can be hard to access and quite costly. I understand a lot of my peers enjoy NVivo but cannot afford it Review Source Similar Products Featured