Research · head to head
REDCap vs Valispace
REDCap
Research
Research data capture licensed free to non-profits, and not licensable at all to companies
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Valispace
Research
Requirements and systems engineering for hardware teams, with published per-seat pricing
- From
- $999/year
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: REDCap a for-profit company cannot hold a licence or self-host REDCap, so a biotech or CRO that liked it at university simply cannot deploy it the same way and must buy a commercially licensed hosted version instead.; Valispace the three-seat minimum means a solo consultant or a two-person startup pays for a seat nobody uses, roughly 3,000 US dollars a year before anyone logs in.
- They diverge on capability: REDCap covers Form and survey designer, Valispace covers Live requirements.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which REDCap and Valispace actually diverge.
Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Research).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in REDCap
- Form and survey designer
- Longitudinal projects
- Data quality rules
- Randomisation
- Audit trail and e-signature
- API and exports
Only in Valispace
- Live requirements
- Budgets and margins
- Component tree
- Verification and validation
- Python API and Jupyter
- ValiAssistant
- SSO and MFA
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
REDCap
- An academic research group at an institution that already runs REDCap, where a new study database costs nothing beyond the time to build itnot Valispace
- A hospital collecting patient reported outcomes where data must stay on institutional infrastructure rather than a vendor cloudnot Valispace
- An investigator initiated trial that needs randomisation, an audit trail and statistical export without a commercial EDC budgetnot Valispace
- A multi site academic collaboration where each site can be given scoped access to a single longitudinal projectnot Valispace
Valispace
- A small satellite team keeping mass and power budgets live across a design cycle instead of rebuilding spreadsheets before each reviewnot REDCap
- A drone manufacturer that needs requirement traceability for a certification authority but cannot justify an enterprise requirements databasenot REDCap
- A university engineering department teaching systems engineering with real traceability under the flat education ratenot REDCap
- An electronics-heavy hardware startup wanting requirements linked to the PCB design work happening in Altiumnot REDCap
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
REDCap
- A for-profit company cannot hold a licence or self-host REDCap, so a biotech or CRO that liked it at university simply cannot deploy it the same way and must buy a commercially licensed hosted version instead.
- Because each institution hosts its own instance, support, uptime, backup and version currency vary by university, and a researcher has no recourse to Vanderbilt when the local instance is two years out of date.
- It is free of licence fee but not free of cost: the hosting institution carries server, security, patching and support staffing, which is why some institutions charge internal recharges per project.
- Validation for regulated use is the deploying institution responsibility, so an instance is not Part 11 compliant simply because REDCap supports the features; someone locally has to produce and maintain the evidence.
- The interface and reporting are dated compared with commercial survey and EDC tools, and complex logic is built through data dictionary spreadsheets rather than a modern visual builder, which slows non technical study teams.
Valispace
- The three-seat minimum means a solo consultant or a two-person startup pays for a seat nobody uses, roughly 3,000 US dollars a year before anyone logs in.
- Ownership has changed twice in two years, from independent to Altium to Renesas by way of the Altium acquisition, and the technology has been repackaged as the Altium Requirements Portal, so the standalone roadmap is genuinely uncertain.
- It is not a certified DO-178C or ARP4754 toolchain component in the way established requirements databases are, so highly regulated aerospace programmes may still need a recognised tool alongside it.
- The parametric model rewards teams who structure their data properly at the start; teams that import a flat requirement list get a slower version of a document tool and none of the budget automation.
- Integration depth outside the Altium and Jira world is limited, so linking to an existing PLM or a CAD-driven mass properties source usually means writing against the Python API yourself.
Pricing, plan by plan
REDCap
On request- REDCap non-profit licence$undefined/year
- No licence fee to non-profit and government institutions that join the consortium
- Institution must install and host it on its own infrastructure
- For-profit organisations may not hold a licence or self-host
Valispace
$999/year- Valispace$999/year
- Minimum three users
- Requirements, components, V&V and analysis modules
- ValiAssistant AI beta
- Enterprise$undefined/year
- On-premise deployment option
- Staging servers with controlled update timing
- Advanced support terms
- Education$1000/year
- Flat annual rate for an institution
- Unlimited students and professors
- Non-commercial projects only
Which should you pick?
Choose REDCap if
- You need form and survey designer.
- You work on Web, Linux, Windows.
- You also want longitudinal projects.
Choose Valispace if
- You need live requirements.
- You work on Web, On-premise, API.
- You also want budgets and margins.
Questions people ask
- Is REDCap or Valispace better?
- Neither clearly leads. REDCap starts at On request and Valispace at $999/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, REDCap or Valispace?
- REDCap starts at On request and Valispace at $999/year.
- Does REDCap or Valispace run on more platforms?
- REDCap runs on Web, Linux, Windows. Valispace runs on Web, On-premise, API.
- What is REDCap best used for?
- REDCap is most often used for an academic research group at an institution that already runs redcap, where a new study database costs nothing beyond the time to build it, a hospital collecting patient reported outcomes where data must stay on institutional infrastructure rather than a vendor cloud, an investigator initiated trial that needs randomisation, an audit trail and statistical export without a commercial edc budget, a multi site academic collaboration where each site can be given scoped access to a single longitudinal project. Of those, an academic research group at an institution that already runs redcap, where a new study database costs nothing beyond the time to build it and a hospital collecting patient reported outcomes where data must stay on institutional infrastructure rather than a vendor cloud are not what Valispace is typically brought in for.
- What can REDCap do that Valispace cannot?
- REDCap covers Form and survey designer, Longitudinal projects, Data quality rules, Randomisation. Valispace covers Live requirements, Budgets and margins, Component tree, Verification and validation.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
REDCap: Is REDCap really free?
The licence is free to non-profit institutions and government organisations that join the consortium, but they must host and support it themselves, so there is real internal cost.
Valispace: Who owns Valispace?
Altium acquired it in December 2023, and Renesas Electronics acquired Altium in 2024. It is therefore a Renesas-owned product, despite frequent reports elsewhere linking it to defence groups.
REDCap: Can my company use REDCap?
Not by holding a licence or self-hosting. For-profit organisations must use a separately licensed commercial hosted route.
Valispace: Is it the same thing as the Altium Requirements Portal?
They share a lineage. Requirements Portal is the Altium 365 packaging of Valispace technology. The standalone Valispace product is still sold with its own pricing.
REDCap: Is REDCap 21 CFR Part 11 compliant?
It has the features to support Part 11 use, but compliance depends on how the hosting institution configures, validates and documents its own instance.
Valispace: What does it actually cost?
999 US dollars per user per year with a minimum of three users, billed annually. Enterprise with on-premise deployment is quoted separately.
REDCap: Who supports it?
Your local institutional REDCap administrator, not Vanderbilt. Support quality varies by site.
Valispace: Can it replace a requirements database like DOORS?
For small and mid-sized hardware programmes, often yes. For programmes with contractual tool mandates, no.
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