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QCA Software Review

This is a review of the most useful software to process QCA. If you have any suggestion or comment concerning this page, please send a message to Damien Bol

FS/QCA

FS/QCA is the most used software to perform QCA. It is free of charge. The interface is user-friendly. It covers all the procedures to perform a standard crisp- or fuzzy-sets analysis (calibration, truth table, minimizations, parameters of fit, necessary conditions, intermediate solution). However, many bugs have been reported and the interface is not efficient for implementing new procedures. It only works in the Windows environment.

TOSMANA

TOSMANA is the second most used software to perform QCA. It is free of charge. The interface is user-friendly and very efficient. It allows crisp-sets and multi-value analyses. It offers some original visualization tools such as the threshold setter and the Venn diagram. However, it only covers the basic procedures (truth table and minimizations). Major efforts have been made to allow the use of the software on non-windows systems (like Linux or Mac).

STATA

Fuzzy command is now available in STATA. The interface is not user-friendly. It allows for crisp- and fuzzy-sets analyses. The procedures covered are: calibration, minimizations, parameters of fit, necessary conditions. However, certain features are not yet available such as a way of deriving intermediate solutions. The advantage offers by the Fuzzy command resides in its location into the STATA environment. For example, it is rather easy to produce fancy visualizations. STATA is available in all the platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) if one's possesses a user's license. For new users to the Fuzzy command in STATA, simply type: find it fuzzy in the command box.

QCA in R

Two packages to perform QCA have been programmed for the open-source environment R. QCA, created by Adrian Dusa, is capable of performing csQCA and mvQCA. Only basic procedure are covered (truth table and minimizations). QCA3, created by Ronggui Huang, offers all the most recent procedures (calibration, truth table, minimizations, parameters of fit, necessary conditions, intermediate solutions) for crisp- and fuzzy-sets analyses. The advantage also resides in is location into the R environment. It facilitates the implementation of new procedures and the creation of fancy visualizations. It is available for free in every platform (Windows, Mac, Linux).