Phonotheca and Dovetail
A Dovetail alternative for one researcher
Dovetail is a repository bought for a research function. Phonotheca is $12 a month on a card, transcribes your sessions by the audio hour, and keeps them in one searchable archive with quotes that carry their citations.
Usability · P5
Walk me through what you did before you opened the dashboard.
I checked the spreadsheet first, because I trust it more.
Trust gapThe dashboard is where I go to confirm what I already know.
Open the sample workspaceNo account needed.
Bought by the researcher who runs the sessions
The price is on the page
Free for 3 audio hours, $12 a month for 20, $29 for 50. Sign up and upload the same afternoon, with no seat count to agree and nobody to talk to first.
Metered by audio hour, not by seat
A month with twelve sessions and a month with none cost the same to hold, because the archive is never gated. Only new transcription draws down hours.
EU by default
Audio and transcripts stay in European regions, transcription runs on an EU endpoint with zero retention, and nothing is used to train models.
The same finding, from every study you have run
A repository earns its keep the day someone asks whether you have heard this before. Search runs across every session at once and comes back with the turn that matched, the participant who said it, and the second it happened.
Tags collect a theme across rounds, so last quarter’s usability sessions and this quarter’s churn calls answer the same question together.
See the UX research workflow17 matches across 11 sessions
00:19:40 · 44:05
I keep my own spreadsheet because it never disagrees with itself.
00:11:59 · 38:20
I checked the spreadsheet first, because I trust it more.
00:38:26 · 51:47
the team still runs the week off a spreadsheet nobody owns.
Where they differ
Dovetail is quoted through sales and priced by the seat. Phonotheca is on a card the same afternoon and priced by the hour of audio.
| Capability | Phonotheca | Dovetail |
|---|---|---|
| Price published on the site | Included | Free or custom |
| Buy with a card, no sales call | Included | Not included |
| Projects on the free plan | Unlimited | One |
| REFI-QDA export to coding software | Included | Not included |
| Processing and storage region | EU | Configurable |
| Metered by | Audio hour | Seat |
Which tool fits which job
Phonotheca fits when you have
- Your own research to run, and a card rather than a procurement process
- Sessions that accumulate into an archive you search a year later
- Quotes that go into a readout with participant and timestamp attached
- Recordings of EU customers that have to stay in the EU
Dovetail fits when you have
- A research team with an ops function and a shared taxonomy
- Insight dashboards that stakeholders read without you
- Integrations across the recruiting, calling, and product stack
- Company-wide access with roles, governance, and procurement
Both products change. Check each vendor’s site before you switch.
Priced on the page
Hours of audio are the limit, and the archive is never gated.
Free
Enough to see a corpus take shape.
$0forever
3 audio hours, once
- Unlimited projects, interviews, and tags
- Full-text search across every transcript
- Markdown, CSV, and REFI-QDA export
Solo
A study's worth of interviews, every month.
$12per month
20 audio hours a month
- Hours reset on your renewal date
- Everything in Free, never gated
Pro
RecommendedFor a fieldwork season or a whole cohort.
$29per month
50 audio hours a month
- Hours reset on your renewal date
- Everything in Solo
Prices are in USD, tax added at checkout. Compare the plans
Questions before switching
- What does it cost?
- Free covers 3 audio hours once, Solo is $12 a month for 20 hours, and Pro is $29 for 50. Dovetail publishes a free tier and quotes its paid plan through sales. Prices are in USD, tax added at checkout.
- Who is a workspace for?
- One researcher. A project belongs to your account, the archive holds every session you have run, and there are no seats to buy or assign.
- Can I bring sessions I already have in Dovetail?
- Export the transcripts as TXT, SRT, or VTT and import the files into a project. Speakers and timings come across as turns you can search, tag, and cite, and an import spends none of your transcription hours.
- How do findings get into a readout?
- Tagged quotes export as Markdown or CSV with the participant, session, and timestamp on each one, so a theme drops into a deck or a doc with its evidence already cited.
- Where are the recordings processed?
- In the European Union. Audio and transcripts sit in EU regions, the transcription service deletes its copy once the transcript lands, and the privacy notice lists the subprocessors.
- What happens when my hours run out?
- New transcription pauses until the period rolls over or you change plan. Sessions, search, tags, and export stay open, including on the free plan.
Related pages
Upload the session you ran this week
Three audio hours are free and the archive stays open afterwards.