Is TextQuery a Subscription or a One-Time Purchase, and Is It Private?

TextQuery is a one-time purchase with a perpetual license, not a subscription. According to the site, the license includes free updates, and the company explicitly frames this as an alternative to "needless subscriptions." On privacy, TextQuery states that it neither records nor sends anything related to your usage, and it is positioned as a local desktop app for analyzing data — so sensitive data can be queried without it leaving your machine. A free version is also available with "certain limitations," which you can use to evaluate the app before upgrading to Pro.

Licensing: What You Actually Get

The practical implication: there is no recurring billing described on the site. You pay once and keep using the version you licensed, with updates included. If you want to test it first, the free version lets you do that before committing to Pro.

One thing the site does not state in the provided material: the actual price, the specific limitations of the free version, or whether the free version is time-limited. If those details matter to your decision, check the pricing page directly rather than assuming.

Privacy: What the Site Claims

TextQuery's privacy position rests on two stated points:

• Local analysis. It is described as a desktop app to "import, query, modify, and visualize your raw data with SQL" — the workflow happens on your machine, not in a browser session tied to a remote service.
• No usage recording or transmission. The site states plainly: "TextQuery neither records nor sends anything related to your usage."

The site connects this directly to sensitive data: "You can query sensitive data with complete peace of mind." That is the vendor's claim, not an independently verified audit — treat it as the company's stated design intent rather than a certification.

Why this matters for your use case

If you handle data you would not upload to a cloud BI tool — customer records, internal financials, health-adjacent datasets — a local desktop app removes the upload step entirely. That is the core argument for TextQuery over browser-based query tools. The trade-off is that you manage the file locally and there is no built-in collaboration or cloud sync described in the source material.

Who This Fits

TextQuery is a reasonable fit if you:

• Already know SQL and want a low-learning-curve tool (one user review notes "essentially no learning curve if you already know SQL")
• Prefer paying once over an ongoing subscription
• Need to query data you would rather not send to a third-party server
• Work with files like .xlsx, .csv, .tsv, .json, .zip, and similar formats

It may not fit if you:

• Need real-time multi-user collaboration or cloud-hosted dashboards (not described in the source)
• Want a browser extension rather than a desktop install
• Need to confirm exact pricing or free-version limits before deciding — those specifics are not in the material provided

How to Evaluate It Yourself

1. Download the free version for macOS or Windows from the site.
2. Import a representative file — ideally one with sensitive or messy data — and confirm the import works without defining a schema.
3. Run a query you would actually use, and test the SQL editor features (autocomplete, query history, formatter).
4. Check the privacy behavior in your own environment if that is a hard requirement for you.
5. Decide on Pro only after you hit a limitation that matters to your workflow.

The site reports it is "trusted by 1500+ individuals" and shows a 5-star review from a user named Greg Williams, who highlights the SQL familiarity and chart creation. Those are vendor-presented signals, not independent benchmarks — useful as context, not as proof.

Bottom Line

If your decision hinges on avoiding a subscription and keeping data local, TextQuery's stated model matches both: perpetual license with free updates, and no usage data recorded or sent. The free version lets you verify the fit before paying. The gaps to close on your own are the exact price and the specific free-version limitations, neither of which is specified in the material available here.