Overview

DiscoverText handles free text and metadata from sources such as surveys, customer feedback, CRM, chats, email, public comments, and RSS feeds. Teams can use it to mine and annotate large collections, apply sentiment and topic analysis, and move from machine classification into human review. It runs in the cloud, with web access and an API for eligible Enterprise license holders.

The product also covers eDiscovery tasks: deduplication, clustering of near-duplicate documents, and redaction that can produce Bates-stamped, spreadsheet-indexed PDF collections. That breadth is valuable for projects that need document handling alongside text analysis, but may be unnecessary for teams seeking only a lightweight analytics tool.

Key features

Reusable classifiers and human coding

Users can build reusable machine classifiers called “sifters” to identify relevant items and classify text into topics, sentiment, or other categories. DiscoverText pairs machine learning with annotation, crowdsourcing, adjudication, measurement, iteration, replication, and annotator ranking. That mix suits teams that need human oversight and repeatable coding workflows, rather than just an automated sentiment score.

Data sources and social-data limits

The service is described for varied text and metadata, but its social-data reach has important limits. DiscoverText can no longer collect Twitter data in real time and has not been connected to Facebook’s open API since 2014. Researchers can upload non-Twitter data they already have in spreadsheets, but teams that depend on direct social-platform collection should look elsewhere.

eDiscovery and API

Deduplication and near-duplicate clustering help organize document sets, while redaction supports production of Bates-stamped PDFs with spreadsheet indexes. These capabilities make DiscoverText more compelling for document-review work than a text-analysis product without those functions.

The API supports project, archive, bucket, dataset, deduplication, clustering, and tag-cloud operations. Search, word-cloud creation, and some reporting are forthcoming. API access requires a licensed Enterprise account and an API key, so Professional subscribers should not assume that an API is included with the lower-priced plan.

Pricing

DiscoverText offers a free plan, a free trial, and paid plans. Professional costs 99.00 USD per month, billed $99 / month. It includes 100,000 Units, 25 Live Data Feeds, one Professional Seat, no Enterprise Seats, unlimited projects, analytic and reporting tools, adjudication tools, Cloud Explorer, standard support, and Gnip availability. This is the practical entry point for a team that can work within one Professional Seat and does not require Enterprise-only API access.

Enterprise costs 3000.00 USD per month, billed $3,000 / month. It includes 1,000,000 Units, 100 Live Data Feeds, one Enterprise Seat, two Professional Seats, unlimited projects, Top Meta, Active Learning, interactive histograms, the FOIA Toolkit, priority support, and Gnip availability. The larger quotas, additional seats, and expanded tools target organizations with heavier workloads and formal review needs; the price is a substantial step up from Professional.

Custom Enterprise has custom pricing for a custom account package. The pricing page describes a trial account with enterprise-level features for up to 30 days, while the signup page calls its offer a 7-day free trial. Students and professors can receive free access, training, and project support directly from the founder; academic group licenses are also free. Professional includes standard support and Enterprise includes priority support.

Platforms

DiscoverText is cloud-deployed and available on the web. API access is limited to licensed Enterprise users granted an API key, which makes it a poor fit for teams whose integration needs must be met on the Professional plan.

Who it's for

DiscoverText is best for research groups, document-review teams, and organizations that need a repeatable combination of machine classification and human coding. Its free academic access is a meaningful option for students, professors, and academic groups. It is less suitable for small teams seeking direct Twitter collection, broad social listening, or API access without an Enterprise commitment.

Pros and cons

Pros

Reusable sifters and human coding workflows support both scalable classification and review.
Deduplication, near-duplicate clustering, and indexed redaction extend the product into eDiscovery.
Unlimited projects are included in both listed paid plans, with substantially higher unit and feed quotas on Enterprise.
Free academic access, training, and project support give eligible researchers a route beyond the commercial plans.

Cons

Professional has only one Professional Seat and no Enterprise Seats, while API use requires an Enterprise license and granted key.
Enterprise costs 3000.00 USD per month, making its larger quotas and advanced tools a significant commitment.
Real-time Twitter collection is unavailable, Facebook’s open API has not been connected since 2014, and other non-Twitter social data must be uploaded by researchers.
The trial is described as both up to 30 days and 7 days, so prospective users should confirm the applicable term when signing up.

Alternatives

For a basic chat-oriented workflow with a free entry plan, Dovetail offers one channel, one project, basic chat, and AI summaries on Free; its Enterprise plan has unlimited agents, channels, and projects. For social-listening needs tied to a Social Media Management contract, Brandwatch Listen uses saved-search allowances according to that contract.

CallMiner Eureka is an alternative for interaction analytics, with pricing dependent on user count or interaction volume, enabled modules, integration needs, and cloud or hybrid deployment. Thematic is an option for teams prepared for its $25,000 per year Foundation plan, which covers up to 25,000 comments and three datasets with full platform access, 24/7 support, and an assigned Customer Success Manager.

T-LAB, KH Coder, and spaCy are free or freemium alternatives. Relative Insight is a paid web option with tailored pricing, a one-year minimum contract, and research support capped at five hours per month.

Browse more options in Text Analytics Software or Social Media Analytics Software.

Verdict

Choose DiscoverText when a research or review team needs reusable classifiers, human coding, and document-review tools in one cloud service, especially if academic access applies. Look elsewhere if direct social-data collection or API access on a lower-cost plan is central: Twitter collection is no longer real-time, and the API requires an Enterprise license and key.

	DiscoverText	Transana
Free plan	No	No
Free trial	Yes	No
Paid from	$99/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	Windows, macOS
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	99 /mo	50 /mo
Sentiment analysis	Yes	—
Topic analysis	Yes	—
Analysis sources	documents	—
Deployment options	cloud	cloud

DiscoverText vs Transana

DiscoverText

Transana