Peridot vs Dovetail: Which Research Tool Is Right for Your Team in 2026?

If you're evaluating research tools, you've likely encountered Dovetail—the established player that many teams use for qualitative research analysis. But there's a growing shift happening: teams are moving to AI-first tools like Peridot that eliminate weeks of manual taxonomy setup and get insights in 30 minutes instead of 3 days.

This comprehensive comparison will help you understand the key differences, when each tool makes sense, and why many teams are making the switch.

The Setup: Weeks vs. Minutes

Dovetail's Approach

Dovetail requires upfront taxonomy planning. Before you analyze your first interview, you need to:

• Define your research goals and tag structure
• Create a hierarchical tagging system
• Train your team on the taxonomy
• Establish tagging conventions and guidelines

This process typically takes 1-2 weeks for a new project. And if your research evolves? You'll need to refactor your entire tag structure.

Peridot's Approach

Peridot eliminates the taxonomy planning phase entirely:

• Upload your video or audio file
• AI automatically transcribes and analyzes
• Themes, pain points, and insights emerge automatically
• Start querying your data in 30 minutes

No planning required. No taxonomy maintenance. Just insights.

Tagging: Manual Labor vs. AI Automation

The Manual Tagging Problem

With Dovetail, every interview requires manual tagging. A typical 60-minute interview might take:

• 30-45 minutes to tag thoroughly
• Multiple passes to catch all relevant themes
• Constant reference to your taxonomy document
• Regular cleanup as tags become inconsistent

For a team conducting 20 interviews per month, that's 10-15 hours spent just on tagging.

AI Auto-Tagging That Actually Works

Peridot's AI analyzes your entire transcript and automatically:

• Identifies recurring themes across all interviews
• Tags pain points, feature requests, and user behaviors
• Connects related insights across different sessions
• Updates automatically as you add more research

Those 10-15 hours of manual tagging? Now automated. Your team can focus on analysis instead of organization.

Pricing: Per-Seat vs. Unlimited Collaboration

Dovetail's Per-User Cost

Dovetail charges $15 per user per month on their Professional plan. For a team of 10 people (researchers, designers, product managers, stakeholders), that's:

• $150/month ($1,800/year)
• Every new stakeholder adds $15/month
• Teams often restrict access to control costs

Peridot's Unlimited Collaborators

Peridot includes unlimited collaborators on all paid plans:

• Growth plan: $79/month (15 files/month, unlimited people)
• Invite your entire product team
• No per-seat charges ever
• Save $852/year vs. Dovetail for a 10-person team

When to Choose Dovetail

Dovetail makes sense if:

• You have a dedicated research operations team to maintain taxonomy
• Your research methodology requires strict, predefined tag structures
• You're a large enterprise with established research processes
• You need every feature Dovetail offers (150+ integrations, video repositories, etc.)

When to Choose Peridot

Peridot is ideal if:

• You're a fast-moving product team that needs insights quickly
• You want to eliminate manual tagging and taxonomy maintenance
• You need unlimited stakeholder access without per-seat fees
• You value speed over process—30 minutes to insights vs. 3 days
• You're conducting video-based user research (interviews, usability tests)