CurTask vs MAXQDA: a literature review workspace with evidence on every value

This page is for students and researchers who use MAXQDA, or are weighing it up, for the literature review part of a thesis or article. MAXQDA is a respected qualitative and mixed-methods package for Windows and Mac, with dedicated literature review features and a thorough set of visual tools. CurTask focuses on the literature review from end to end: the papers, the coding, an evidence matrix and the written chapter, in one project that runs in your browser.

At a glance

The review chapter is written where the analysis happens

MAXQDA's literature tools help you organise and code references and full texts. CurTask adds the step that follows: writing. Each project has three lenses. Library holds your papers, Analysis holds your codes, matrix and synthesis map, and Writing holds the manuscript.

You select a passage, apply a code and see it as a coloured strip beside the text. On the synthesis map you group codes into themes, mark which papers agree, contradict or extend each other, and send a theme to Writing with its passages. There you write in sections you can reorder in binder, corkboard or outline view, cite with @, and pick APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Nature, AMA or ACS. The bibliography is rebuilt when you change style, and the chapter compiles to Word (DOCX), PDF, Markdown or HTML.

The writing sidebar builds on the analysis you have accepted (matrix values, coded passages, themes and links): for each paragraph it shows up to three cards, contradictions first, each saying where it comes from and showing its page and verified quote.

AI in every plan, with a source for every value

CurTask includes AI credits on every plan, including the free one, so you can try paper analysis and the AI matrix before paying. Describe a matrix column in plain words, see the estimated credits, and run it across your papers. Each value carries its page number and a verbatim quote checked to exist on that page; if there is no support, the cell says "No source found".

Coding by hand is on every plan. On the paid plans, "Code all papers with AI" codes every paper of a project in one run after showing the credits, skipping papers already coded with the same codebook at 0 credits, and the AI can sort your codes into categories and themes on the synthesis board, each theme backed by quotes from your papers.

AI values, coded passages and AI text stay marked "Suggested" until you accept, edit, dismiss or restore them. Credits are reserved when a job starts and settled when it ends, never charged twice, and a job your balance can't cover simply doesn't start.

Nothing to install, and it keeps working offline

CurTask runs in the browser, so the same project opens on a lab computer, a laptop at home or a borrowed machine at a conference. Autosave is everywhere. If the connection drops, coding, matrix edits and writing keep saving on your device and sync when you are back online. Scanned PDFs are read in English and Malay, and the text is captured before the file is compressed, so analysis always has the whole document.

Papers that carry their analyses with them

Each paper is stored once in your Global Library. Its tags and AI analyses, which CurTask calls "baggage", travel with it into every project you add it to, and reusing an analysis you already have costs 0 credits. Duplicate checks mean the same paper is never stored or analysed twice, so a paper analysed for your proposal is ready again for your next article.

Made in Malaysia, for researchers here

The interface is in English and Bahasa Melayu, and each project has its own AI language while quotes stay in the language of the paper. Your papers, notes and writing are stored on servers in Malaysia, backups included, and are never used to train AI. Plans are priced in ringgit: Free with no card needed, Student at RM25 a month and Researcher at RM49 a month.

When MAXQDA might suit you

If you analyse interviews, focus groups, questionnaires or mixed-methods data, or your institution provides MAXQDA licences and training, MAXQDA is a strong choice for that work.

Using both

You can keep primary data in MAXQDA and run the literature review in CurTask. Drag your papers' PDFs into CurTask (Word, OpenDocument, Markdown and plain-text files are accepted too); details are filled in from the DOI, and duplicates are caught. Code the papers, build the matrix, export it to CSV if you want it alongside your other data, and write the chapter with citations in the same project.

Try it on the papers for your next chapter: the free plan needs no card.