{"site":{"name":"Koji","description":"AI-native customer research platform that helps teams conduct, analyze, and synthesize customer interviews at scale.","url":"https://www.koji.so","contentTypes":["blog","documentation"],"lastUpdated":"2026-10-16T13:53:09.362Z"},"content":[{"type":"blog","id":"b3d6ee4d-dce5-4010-af8e-fae46fb9e34b","slug":"dovetail-vs-looppanel-2026","title":"Dovetail vs Looppanel (2026): Which Research Analysis Tool Fits Your Team?","url":"https://www.koji.so/blog/dovetail-vs-looppanel-2026","summary":"Dovetail and Looppanel both analyse research you have already collected, but at different scopes. Dovetail is a company-wide feedback repository that pulls in support tickets, surveys, sales calls and research, with AI chat that cites sources, agents and beta dashboards; it lists only a Free plan and custom Enterprise, with a reported median contract of about $21,600 a year. Looppanel is an analysis workspace for researchers: a notetaker records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, writes AI notes mapped to the discussion guide and auto-tags themes; Pro is listed at about $4,200 a year with five editors. Choose Dovetail to centralise feedback, Looppanel to speed up moderated-call analysis. Neither runs interviews. Koji conducts AI-moderated voice and text interviews and builds traceable reports, priced per qualified interview from €1, and exports to either tool.","content":"# Dovetail vs Looppanel (2026): Which Research Analysis Tool Fits Your Team?\n\n**Short answer:** Choose **Dovetail** if you want one place to pool customer feedback from across the company (support tickets, surveys, sales calls and research) and you have the budget for an enterprise contract. Choose **Looppanel** if you are a researcher or small team running lots of moderated calls and you want them recorded, transcribed and turned into notes with as little effort as possible. Both analyse research you have already collected. Neither runs the interview for you, which is where [Koji](https://www.koji.so) fits: it conducts AI-moderated interviews and builds the report in the same place.\n\n---\n\n## The quick comparison\n\n![Table comparing Dovetail and Looppanel on what each tool is, the data it takes in, recording, notes, AI features, ease of adoption and best fit.](/visuals/dovetail-vs-looppanel-comparison-table/dovetail-vs-looppanel-comparison-table.png \"Both tools analyse research you already have. The difference is scope.\")\n\n| | Dovetail | Looppanel |\n|---|---|---|\n| What it is | Customer feedback and research repository | Interview analysis workspace for researchers |\n| Best at | Searching all feedback across the company | Turning interview calls into notes fast |\n| Data it takes in | Support tickets, surveys, sales calls, research sessions | Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, plus uploads |\n| Recording | Upload or connect your sources | A notetaker joins and records your calls |\n| Notes | Highlights and tags, with AI help | AI notes mapped to your discussion guide |\n| AI features | Chat with cited answers, agents, dashboards in beta | Auto-tagging, smart search, Ask Looppanel |\n| Ease of adoption | Reviewers call it the heavier tool | Reviewers praise it as simpler |\n| Runs the interview | No | No |\n| Best fit | Insights teams pooling feedback company-wide | Researchers running many moderated calls |\n\n---\n\n## Why the analysis tool matters\n\nAnalysis is where research time goes. In Lyssna's 2025 survey of 300 research practitioners, **65.3% said synthesis takes them one to five days per project**, **59% said reading through the data is the most time-intensive part**, and **60.3% named time-consuming manual work as their biggest frustration**. The tool you analyse in decides how much of that time you get back.\n\nAI is now part of the answer for most teams. In the 2026 State of User Research report from User Interviews, **80% of researchers said they use AI, up 24 points in a year**, and **91% said they worry about hallucinations**. That second number is why traceability matters: an AI summary is only useful if you can click through to the quote behind it.\n\n---\n\n## Dovetail: the company-wide feedback layer\n\nDovetail started as a research repository and now pitches itself as a single place for all customer feedback. Its 2026 product covers:\n\n- **Channels** that bring in support tickets, survey and NPS responses, sales calls and research sessions.\n- **AI chat** that answers questions across that data, with answers linked back to their sources.\n- **AI agents** that watch incoming feedback for negative sentiment and recurring complaints.\n- **AI dashboards**, in beta, that turn themes into charts over time and can weight them by customer segment.\n- **Integrations** with Jira, Linear, Figma, Slack, Teams and ChatGPT.\n- **Security** claims of SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR compliance, with automatic PII redaction.\n\n**Where it is strong:** search across years of research and feedback, and sharing evidence with the rest of the company. Reviewers consistently describe it as the stronger repository.\n\n**Where it is weaker:** it takes work to set up and adopt well, and the mid-priced self-serve plan is gone, so most teams now face an enterprise conversation.\n\n### Dovetail pricing\n\nDovetail's pricing page lists a **Free** plan, limited to one channel and one project, and a custom-quoted **Enterprise** plan. Third-party reports say the old per-seat Professional tier was removed in early 2026. Vendr's buyer data puts the **median Dovetail contract at about $21,600 a year**, with a range of roughly $10,800 to $61,200. Our [Dovetail pricing guide](/blog/dovetail-pricing-2026) covers this in detail.\n\n---\n\n## Looppanel: the researcher's analysis assistant\n\nLooppanel is narrower and more hands-on. It is built for the researcher who runs the calls:\n\n![A researcher on a video call with headphones on, taking notes during a moderated customer interview](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1758272420863-f094ed9056fe?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w5NDUzMDN8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw2fHx3b21hbiUyMHZpZGVvJTIwY2FsbCUyMGhlYWRwaG9uZXMlMjBub3Rlc3xlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzkyMTMzNDExfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080)\n\n_Photo by [Vitaly Gariev](https://unsplash.com/@silverkblack?utm_source=koji&utm_medium=referral) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=koji&utm_medium=referral)_\n\n- **A notetaker** that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls and records them, scheduled from your calendar or started on demand. For Zoom, it needs host permission to record.\n- **AI notes mapped to your discussion guide**, so answers land under the question that prompted them. This works for scheduled recordings in a project with a guide attached.\n- **Transcription** in many languages, with speaker labels and time-stamped notes.\n- **Auto-tagging** that groups notes into themes after you run analysis, for you to review.\n- **Smart search and Ask Looppanel**, an AI assistant that answers questions across projects.\n\n**Where it is strong:** speed from call to notes. G2 reviewers often praise it as simpler than Dovetail, and Looppanel's own tests claim better transcription accuracy (vendor claims, so test them on your own recordings).\n\n**Where it is weaker:** it is an analysis workspace more than a company-wide repository. It does not pull in support tickets or survey data the way Dovetail does.\n\n### Looppanel pricing\n\nLooppanel publishes its prices, which Dovetail no longer does. The **Pro** plan is listed at about **$4,200 a year**, or about $395 a month billed monthly, with five editors and unlimited viewers. **Enterprise** is a custom quote with a minimum of ten editors. Some sources also list a smaller Solo plan. Check the current page before you budget, since these figures have moved during 2026.\n\n---\n\n## Which one should you choose?\n\n**Pick Dovetail if:**\n\n- You want product, support, sales and research feedback in one searchable place.\n- Leadership wants dashboards of customer themes over time.\n- You have security requirements and a budget for an enterprise contract.\n\n**Pick Looppanel if:**\n\n- You or a small team run many moderated interviews each month.\n- Your biggest cost is the hours spent writing notes and tagging after each call.\n- You want published pricing and a tool your team can learn in a day.\n\n**Pick neither, yet, if** your real problem is that you do not have enough interviews to analyse. Both tools assume the conversations already happened. If scheduling, moderating and transcribing calls is the bottleneck, a repository will not fix it.\n\n---\n\n## The gap both leave: running the interviews\n\nDovetail and Looppanel both start once a conversation exists. Someone still has to recruit participants, book the calls, sit through each one and take the recording. For a team of one, that is most of the work.\n\n[Koji](https://www.koji.so) closes that gap by running the interview itself:\n\n- **AI-moderated interviews by voice or text.** The AI asks your questions, follows up on each answer, and runs any number of interviews at once, in 28 languages. Participants take part when it suits them, with no calendar to manage.\n- **Analysis built in.** Reports with [thematic analysis](/docs/thematic-analysis-guide), findings tied to supporting quotes, and personas, generated as interviews come in. You can also [ask questions of your transcripts](/docs/chat-with-interview-transcripts-ai) from an AI assistant.\n- **Every claim traceable.** Click a finding to see the participant quotes behind it.\n- **Pay per interview, not per seat.** A qualified text interview uses 1 credit, a voice interview 3, at €1 per credit. Only interviews scoring 3 or more on [quality](/docs/understanding-quality-scores) are billed. 10 free credits at signup, then credit packs or plans from €29 a month.\n- **Your data stays portable.** [Export transcripts and responses](/docs/exporting-research-data) as CSV or JSON, so you can keep a repository like Dovetail as the long-term home if you already have one.\n\n![Koji report summary with a side panel of supporting participant quotes behind one finding](/email/shots/shot-evidence-panel.jpg \"In a Koji report, every finding opens the quotes that support it.\")\n\nWhere Dovetail and Looppanel are ahead: they analyse human-moderated calls you have already recorded, and Dovetail pulls in support and sales data from across the company. Koji does not record your Zoom calls or ingest support tickets. Many teams pair the two approaches: Koji to run and analyse interviews quickly, and a repository to store everything long term.\n\n---\n\n## Dovetail vs Looppanel vs Koji at a glance\n\n| | Dovetail | Looppanel | Koji |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| Main job | Company-wide feedback repository | Analyse moderated calls | Run and analyse AI interviews |\n| Runs interviews | No | No | Yes, voice and text |\n| Pricing | Free plan, then custom Enterprise (median about $21,600 a year) | Pro about $4,200 a year, Enterprise custom | Per qualified interview, from €1 |\n| Seats | Per contract | Five editors on Pro | Not priced per seat |\n| Best for | Large insights teams | Hands-on researchers | Teams that need more interviews, faster |\n\nMore reading: [Koji vs Dovetail](/blog/koji-vs-dovetail-2026), [Koji vs Looppanel](/blog/koji-vs-looppanel-2026), [Dovetail alternatives](/blog/dovetail-alternatives-2026) and [Looppanel alternatives](/blog/looppanel-alternatives-2026).\n\n---\n\n## Get the interviews first\n\nA repository is only as good as what goes into it. If your team has more questions than interviews, start there. Write your research question in Koji, preview the interview for free, and send it to 20 customers. The transcripts, themes and quotes will be ready to read, or to export to whichever repository you choose.\n\n[Start free with Koji](https://www.koji.so). 10 credits, no card, and you only pay for interviews that pass the quality bar.\n\n---\n\n*Sources: Dovetail website and pricing page (2026); Vendr buyer data on Dovetail contracts; Looppanel website, pricing page, help centre and release notes (2026); G2 reviews; Lyssna, Research Synthesis Report 2025; User Interviews, State of User Research 2026. Prices change often. Check each vendor's site before you buy.*\n","category":"Comparisons","lastModified":"2026-10-16T06:50:11.55077+00:00","metaTitle":"Dovetail vs Looppanel 2026: Features, Pricing and Best Fit","metaDescription":"Dovetail pools company-wide feedback; Looppanel turns interview calls into notes fast. Compare features, pricing and fit, plus the step neither one covers.","keywords":["dovetail vs looppanel","looppanel vs dovetail","looppanel review","dovetail alternative","looppanel pricing","research repository comparison"],"aiSummary":"Dovetail and Looppanel both analyse research you have already collected, but at different scopes. Dovetail is a company-wide feedback repository that pulls in support tickets, surveys, sales calls and research, with AI chat that cites sources, agents and beta dashboards; it lists only a Free plan and custom Enterprise, with a reported median contract of about $21,600 a year. Looppanel is an analysis workspace for researchers: a notetaker records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, writes AI notes mapped to the discussion guide and auto-tags themes; Pro is listed at about $4,200 a year with five editors. Choose Dovetail to centralise feedback, Looppanel to speed up moderated-call analysis. Neither runs interviews. Koji conducts AI-moderated voice and text interviews and builds traceable reports, priced per qualified interview from €1, and exports to either tool.","aiKeywords":["dovetail","looppanel","research repository","interview analysis","ai research tools","koji"],"aiContentType":"comparison","faqItems":[{"answer":"Dovetail is a company-wide feedback and research repository that brings in support tickets, surveys, sales calls and research sessions. Looppanel is an analysis workspace for researchers that records interview calls and turns them into notes and themes. Dovetail is broader; Looppanel is faster for hands-on interview analysis.","question":"What is the difference between Dovetail and Looppanel?"},{"answer":"Usually. Looppanel lists Pro at about $4,200 a year with five editors. Dovetail offers a limited Free plan and otherwise a custom Enterprise quote, with a reported median contract of about $21,600 a year.","question":"Is Looppanel cheaper than Dovetail?"},{"answer":"Third-party reports say Dovetail removed its per-seat Professional plan in early 2026. Its pricing page now lists a Free plan and a custom-quoted Enterprise plan.","question":"Does Dovetail still have a Professional plan?"},{"answer":"Yes. Looppanel's notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, scheduled from your calendar or started on demand. For Zoom it needs host permission to record.","question":"Can Looppanel record Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls?"},{"answer":"No. Both analyse conversations that already happened. Koji runs AI-moderated voice and text interviews, analyses them in the same place, and can export transcripts as CSV or JSON to a repository.","question":"Do Dovetail or Looppanel run interviews for you?"}],"relatedTopics":["Dovetail","Looppanel","research repository","interview analysis","AI-moderated interviews"]}],"pagination":{"total":1,"returned":1,"offset":0}}