Both Condens and Dovetail help teams analyze qualitative data and build research repositories. If you're looking for an intuitive, flexible alternative to Dovetail—or simply comparing the two—this guide will help you find the best fit for your organization.
6 reasons teams choose Condens over Dovetail
1. A flexible workflow that adapts to you
Condens adapts to your workflow, not the other way around. Our split-screen view lets you intuitively take notes, analyze, organize, and connect evidence from multiple studies in one place. Build reports on the go, drag and drop highlights, and uncover key themes—all without the hassle of switching tabs, offering maximum flexibility.
„I do feel like the workflow in Condens is actually better [than Dovetail]. It’s a lot more flexible. The side pane [...], the ability to work in context, to have a project open and drag things over it… It's a very efficient way of working.”
Ryan Chipley
Manager of User Experience Design at SAS
„I do feel like the workflow in Condens is actually better [than Dovetail]. It’s a lot more flexible. The side pane [...], the ability to work in context, to have a project open and drag things over it… It's a very efficient way of working.”
Ryan Chipley
Manager of User Experience Design at SAS
2. A dedicated stakeholder experience with the Insights Magazine
The Insights Magazine is your stakeholder’s go-to hub for exploring and engaging with published findings. Provide self-serve access to key insights with added context and clear organization. Conversational AI search delivers instant answers from published findings, making research easily accessible while keeping raw data secure.
„This [dedicated stakeholder repository] gives me [a sense of], yes, I can breathe.”
Julie Radford
Principal User Experience Designer at SAS
„This [dedicated stakeholder repository] gives me [a sense of], yes, I can breathe.”
Julie Radford
Principal User Experience Designer at SAS
3. AI-powered whiteboard for deeper insights
Move beyond basic affinity mapping with Condens’ Whiteboard. Automatically cluster highlights by themes and sentiments, work with ready-made templates, or create your own. Design personas, affinity, empathy, and user journey maps and engage stakeholders in collaborative workshops.
„Your Whiteboard tool has been really useful and has come a long way recently. It just visually creates a more interesting way to go to a single place and find the things you need.”
Florrie Holloway
Senior User Researcher in the public sector
„Your Whiteboard tool has been really useful and has come a long way recently. It just visually creates a more interesting way to go to a single place and find the things you need.”
Florrie Holloway
Senior User Researcher in the public sector
4. Easy to learn - easy to use
No steep learning curves, no lengthy onboarding—Condens is designed for quick adoption. With a clear structure and familiar concepts, teams instinctively know where to go and what to do. No complicated setups, no hidden barriers, just a smooth, intuitive experience that lets your team focus on what matters: uncovering and sharing insights.
„I was particularly impressed by its incredible ease of use – unlike other tools, I didn’t have to waste hours working out how to use it just to try it out.”
Giorgia Negroni
UX Researcher at Findmypast
„I was particularly impressed by its incredible ease of use – unlike other tools, I didn’t have to waste hours working out how to use it just to try it out.”
Giorgia Negroni
UX Researcher at Findmypast
5. Analyze across projects
Condens makes it easy to connect evidence from multiple studies to uncover overarching themes. Create a meta-study with existing evidence or bring in findings from other projects. The sidebar is your friend as you can search, filter, and pin any artifact and then pull highlights and artifacts from other projects into it. As simple as that!
„When you discover something about one customer segment, you’ll likely be able to uncover insights about another one or start asking better questions as a result. And having access to all the available research in one place is key to tying all those insights together.”
Lily Donnelly
Marketing Manager at MyTutor
„When you discover something about one customer segment, you’ll likely be able to uncover insights about another one or start asking better questions as a result. And having access to all the available research in one place is key to tying all those insights together.”
Lily Donnelly
Marketing Manager at MyTutor
6. Outstanding support, no matter your team size
Whether you’re a team of one or part of an enterprise team, you’ll get personal, high-quality support and training. Enjoy expert help via email or video call, plus a constantly updated help center. Our users love our fast, direct, and helpful support—see for yourself!
I was positively surprised by the level and speed of support. They guided us also to come up with a taxonomy that makes sense for us – free of charge!
Michaël Dufranne
Senior UX Researcher, UX Team Lead at Elia Group
One of the selling points for us was how responsive, supportive, friendly and knowledgeable the team were at Condens. It made us feel like we were able to trust who we were about to sign a contract with.
Lily Donnelly
Marketing Manager at MyTutor
We feel like the Condens team is always there to listen to our feedback and their support is just great and fast.
Adéla Svoboda
Senior UX Researcher at Kentico Software
The whole team at Condens are SO helpful! It's honestly been the best customer service I think I have ever received. They're helpful, responsive and knowledgeable.
Katie Fischer
Senior UX Strategist at The User Story
The responsiveness has been incredible. In terms of what we were used to previously [with Dovetail], this has been a very nice surprise. I can ask a question and be assured of getting a response pretty quickly. And a friendly response, too!
Migrating your research repository doesn’t have to be overwhelming. We offer fully automated
migration and expert support to transfer everything—notes, tags, highlights, files, and
projects—without any manual effort. Plus, test it first with a trial migration, no
commitment required. Ready to make the switch?
Choosing the right tool isn’t just about ticking off features, but when functionality and
pricing matter, a side-by-side comparison helps. Check out our detailed feature and pricing
table to decide with confidence.
Last updated: March 2025
condens
Dovetail
Usage
Available Plans
Lite | Business | Enterprise
Free | Professional | Business | Enterprise
Included Contributors
1+ | 5+ | 5+
1 | 1+ | 10+ | 10+
Projects
Unlimited
1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited
Folders
1 | Unlimited | Unlimited
1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited
File Uploads & Storage
Unlimited
Unlimited
Transcription Hours
Unlimited
Unlimited
Supported Languages
85+
40+
Analysis
Stable User Interface
✓
-
Split-screen Mode
✓
-
Project Templates
Business+
Business+
Session Templates
Lite+
Business+
AI-powered Transcription
✓
✓
Translations
Beta
Beta
Multi-lingual Transcription
✓
-
Auto Bookmarks
✓
✓
AI-powered Tagging
AI-assisted
Fully automated
Media Clips & Highlight Reels
✓
✓
Smart Highlight Suggestions
✓
-
Session Summaries
✓
✓
Research Evidence Summaries
✓
Professional+
Infinite Whiteboard
✓
Professional+
AI-powered Affinity Mapping
✓
Professional+
Sentiment analysis
✓
Professional+
Easy Cross-Project Analysis
✓
-
Repository
Participant pool
25 | Unlimited | Unlimited
- | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited
Global Tags
Business+
Business+
Global Tag Boards
- | 3 | Unlimited
- | - | Unlimited | Unlimited
Global Search & Filter
Business+
Professional+
AI-powered Raw Data Search
Coming soon
Professional+
Stakeholder Experience
Shareable Links
✓
✓
Shareable Whiteboard
✓
-
Play clips directly in Slack
✓
✓
Read-only Access for Stakeholders
Business+
Professional+
Dedicated Stakeholder Interface
Business+
-
Customizable Insights Magazine
Business+
Business+
Multiple Insights Magazines
- | 3 | Unlimited
-
Ask Your Repository
Business+
Enterprise
Stakeholder Collaboration
Business+
Professional+
AI Search in Slack and Teams
Add-on for Business, included in Enterprise
Add-on for Business and Enterprise
Research Ops
Multiple Workspaces
✓
✓
Impact Analytics
Business+
Professional+
Usage Analytics
Business+
Enterprise
Granular Permission Management
Business+
Business+
User Groups
Enterprise
Enterprise
Support & Administration
Personal Support for all Plans
Email and video calls
Email
Personal Onboarding & Training
All plans
Enterprise
Self-serve Help Center
✓
✓
Slack Community
-
✓
Dedicated Success Manager
Enterprise
Business+
Data Migration
Business+
-
Taxonomy Support
Business+
Enterprise
Security Assessments
- | Advanced | Advanced+
- | - | Simple | Advanced
Individual Terms
Enterprise
Enterprise
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Enterprise
Enterprise
Pause Subscription
✓
-
Multi-Currency Payment
✓
-
Data Security
Data Hosting in the EU or US
✓
✓
Anonymized Sharing
Lite+
Enterprise
Easy Deletion of Personal Data
✓
✓
GDPR & US Privacy Compliant
✓
✓
Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
✓
✓
SOC 2 Report
✓
✓
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Add-on for Business, included in Enterprise
Business+
SCIM User Provisioning
Add-on for Business, included in Enterprise
Enterprise
HIPAA compliant
Add-on for Business, included in Enterprise
Add-on for Enterprise
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
✓
-
Custom Data Retention
Enterprise
Enterprise
Pricing
Free
Free trial available
$0
/year
Monthly subscription
-
$0
/month
Payment in Euro
-
-
Included Contributors
-
1
Additional Contributors
-
-
Lite / Professional
$165
/year
$348
/year
Monthly subscription
$15
/month
$39
/month
Payment in Euro
165€
/year
-
Included Contributors
1
1
Additional Contributors
$180
/year
$348
/year
Business
$6,000
/year
$21,600
/year
Monthly subscription
-
-
Payment in Euro
6,000€
/year
-
Included Contributors
5
10
Additional Contributors
$1,020
/year
$720
/year
Enterprise
$36,000
/year
$76,800
/year
Monthly subscription
-
-
Payment in Euro
36,000€
/year
-
Included Contributors
5
10
Additional Contributors
$1,200
/year
$960
/year
Privacy standards that make your legal team happy
Handling sensitive data requires strong security and compliance. Condens meets the highest
privacy standards, ensuring your research data is protected and compliant with global
regulations:
EU and US-based data hosting lets you choose where your data is stored to meet
regional data residency requirements.
Condens’ legal entity is based in the EU, and the entire team operates under
stringent EU privacy laws.
A DPA (Data Processing Agreement) is already incorporated into our terms for every
customer.
Condens is designed to help you stay compliant with
HIPAA,
GDPR,
CCPA, and
APA.
The split screen with drag & drop is so simple, yet so fantastically clever. It lowers my cognitive load significantly. I love it. This is my #1.
Aga Kaim
UX Researcher at Airhelp
Condens is a true game changer for me. It leveled up my UX Research, making it more professional, credible and agile.
Anne Görs
UX Research and Consulting at dcx.rocks
When I was looking for a repo tool, I stumbled across a tool that was basically PURELY an AI search. I passed on that for a lot of reasons […]. I feel so much more confident with Condens because it is only based on information that has already been analyzed, and validated, and just generally has a UX touch on it. It’s got all the “flash” that the other tool was trying to have but with the comfort of knowing that the input is solid.
Audrey Moore
Senior UX Researcher at Configura
I am LOVING Condens! I used to be a huge fan of Dovetail, but started looking around to see what other people have been using and you won me over with the notes feature and the accurate AI generated bookmarks.
Bina Bulman
Founding Product Designer at Passage Health
Condens has been SO helpful with video analysis, and I love the AI generated bookmarks.
Jackie Swann
Associate User Experience Researcher at Usability Sciences Corporation
I felt like Dovetail made you follow their workflow. I really like Condens because I can use that flow, but I don’t have to. The workflow just feels a lot more natural to me.
Julie Radford
Principal User Experience Designer at SAS
After careful search, we picked Condens to help us democratize access to research and allow designers to look at ongoing research work as it was developing.
Alya Naumova
UX Research Lead at Drop
What I really enjoyed was you have a ton of flexibility in how you use Condens.
