TL;DR: OCCRP is rebuilding its investigative data platform from the ground up. Launching in October 2025, Aleph Pro is a next-generation version of Aleph — a faster, more powerful platform designed to meet the evolving needs of journalists, civic technologists, and investigators around the world.
This marks a major shift in how we deliver and support Aleph. While we will no longer contribute to the open-source version post launch, OCCRP will begin offering hosted instances of Aleph Pro. Nonprofit journalism organizations will continue to have free access to the platform — always — and we are committed to providing other public-interest groups with at- or below-cost access.
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OCCRP’s investigative data platform Aleph is entering a new era — reimagined for the next generation of investigative work.
Born in our newsroom nearly a decade ago, Aleph has become critical infrastructure for journalists, civic tech developers, and anti-corruption allies worldwide. Now it’s time to reimagine it from the ground up.
Introducing Aleph Pro
We’ve been hard at work on a complete rebuild. Not just refreshing the interface, but overhauling the architecture, rethinking how we ingest and model data, and building for performance, flexibility, and usability.
Aleph Pro launches in October 2025 with a reengineered foundation and a suite of next-generation capabilities — purpose-built to help investigative teams move faster and uncover more.
“Aleph is more than a platform — it’s a backbone for global investigative reporting,” said OCCRP Chief Product Officer Mark Nightingale @mnightingale. “This next-gen version builds on a decade of impact and sets us up for the next one.”
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What’s New in Aleph Pro
- A complete rewrite of the platform with a modern, modular architecture
- Significant performance improvements and reduced infrastructure costs
- A rebuilt ingest pipeline with expanded support for document types and multimedia
- Improved data cleaning, transformation, and enrichment processes
- A redesigned user interface, developed to meet the needs of investigative teams worldwide
- Optimized search and navigation for faster, more intuitive access to information
- Automated risk scoring and entity flagging
- Confidence scoring and connection tracing to support knowledge graph generation
- Enhanced data models for better linking, filtering, and insights
- A flexible, extensible design to support future features and custom investigative workflows
P.S. Aleph Pro includes several new capabilities. These features will be shared more widely after launch, and we look forward to collaborating on what comes next.
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What’s Changing
Aleph has historically been open-source. With the launch of Aleph Pro, we are making an intentional shift in how we deliver and support the platform:
- Future development by OCCRP will focus exclusively on Aleph Pro, which will not be released as open-source.
- OCCRP will begin offering hosted, managed instances with support, maintenance, and simplified deployment.
- Aleph Pro will remain free for nonprofit journalism organizations, now and always. Other public interest groups will benefit from at- or below-cost pricing.
- For commercial and for-profit users, OCCRP will introduce flexible, sustainable pricing models to ensure the platform remains accessible and impactful.
Why are we making these changes?
Aleph has historically been funded through grants and philanthropic support, but that model no longer guarantees a stable future. OCCRP understands how essential Aleph is to the investigative journalism community and is committed to building a sustainable path forward — one that helps journalists and public interest groups keep pace with bad actors.
As part of this new model, commercial users will contribute to the platform’s development and data-processing costs, allowing us to keep Aleph free for the journalists and researchers at the heart of our mission. All revenue will be reinvested into new features and improvements, with no profits taken. OCCRP remains a nonprofit organization committed to free and open access for non-commercial investigative journalism.
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Want to Help Shape Aleph Pro?
We’re rebuilding Aleph with the investigative community and we want your input along the way.
- Test new features
- Share feedback on pain points
- Suggest integrations
- Help us prioritize
Investigative reporting deserves world-class tools. With Aleph Pro, we’re taking a big step forward, together. Wherever you are in the world, if you’re digging for truth, we’re building this for you. Let’s get to work.
Reach out directly to ezana.ceman@occrp.org or reply here if you want to get involved!
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FAQ
- Who can access Aleph Pro?
- Anyone can access the publicly available data contained in Aleph, such as government records and open databases. Journalists, researchers, and activists working in the public interest can apply for broader access at no charge by filling out this form. This will not change with Aleph Pro.
- What languages is Aleph available in?
- The Aleph interface is available in six languages: English, Spanish, Russian, German, Arabic, and French.
- Will Aleph Pro be free of charge?
- The new Aleph will always remain free for nonprofit journalists, and OCCRP is strongly committed to making it available at or below cost for other public interest groups. The funding landscape for public-interest journalism has become significantly more challenging, and OCCRP will experiment with commercial licensing of the new platform for businesses that make money from their investigations.
- Will the next generation Aleph be open-source?
- No, Aleph Pro will be available under an open license which will guarantee that non-profit journalists will be able to benefit from the new platform and all new features for free forever. OCCRP is committed to providing Aleph Pro at or below-cost to other public interest groups.
- How can I get updates on the new version of Aleph and how will I know when it’s live?
- Follow along here on Discourse to receive updates and stay connected with the Aleph team at OCCRP.
- The Data and Research Center (DARC) recently launched a version of Aleph that is available to journalists. What is the difference between their version and OCCRP’s?
- In consultation with OCCRP, DARC has spun off (‘forked’) its own version of Aleph, now called OpenAleph, based on our code. OpenAleph will remain open-source and will continue to be supported and developed. Both versions reflect Aleph’s collaborative legacy, and our shared commitment to building tools that serve the public good.