Investigative research spans web capture, document search, link analysis, data preparation, evidence review and writing. Specialist products cover many of these tasks well. Follow the Files’ proposed value is the documented progression across those tasks, with distinct applications and licenses.
Official sources and price references checked 28 October 2026. Prices are not normalized across currencies, billing terms, users or capabilities. Follow the Files remains subject to its own release gates.
Link analysis, OSINT lookups and connected data investigations.
Basic free; Entry €3,000/year; Professional €7,500/year. Variants, vetting and data allowances apply.
Useful when graph exploration and external data discovery lead the work. Follow the Files emphasizes documented claims and a separate editorial handoff.
Browser research capture, local evidence retention and reporting.
Classic $169 USD/year (€149); Free option and cloud offers differ.
Strong web capture specialization. Keep original source provenance alongside later claim review; Follow the Files does not promise equivalent automatic browser capture.
Upload, annotate, search and embed primary documents.
Public search available; upload verification and premium/processing conditions apply. No single equivalent desktop license price asserted.
A document hosting and publication platform. Follow the Files’ local evidence and separate editing stages are a different scope.
Search large collections, cross-reference entities and organize investigative material.
Current hosted Aleph Pro access is application-based. Nonprofit journalism and other tiers have different conditions; legacy open-source maintenance ended after 2025.
Large collection discovery and entity matching overlap investigative research. Follow the Files makes no equivalent scale or data-access claim.
Fact chronologies, document review, witnesses, legal case organization and AI features.
Displayed Starter $30/user/month and Advanced AI $140/user/month; inspect selected billing term.
Substantial overlap in facts, evidence and timelines. Its team/litigation scope differs from separately licensed research and editorial tools.
Local notes, linked knowledge, extensible workflows and optional web publishing.
Core free. Sync from $4/user/month; Publish $8/site/month, billed annually. Monthly rates differ.
Flexible knowledge work can support investigations. Follow the Files supplies a more prescribed claim/review/report structure; it does not replace the plugin ecosystem.
Local tabular data cleaning, clustering, reconciliation and repeatable operations.
Free and open source; external reconciliation services may have separate conditions.
A specialist companion for preparing messy data. Follow the Files is not a replacement for its transformation and reconciliation depth.
The strongest fit is a researcher who needs to retain original locators, test support and contradiction, prepare cited analysis and then write with the reviewed material nearby. The combination is not an exclusive market capability, a universal integration or a released all-in-one license.