Atlos makes large-scale investigations faster, easier, and safer.
Atlos helps you organize your investigation into searchable incidents, distribute work across your team, track changes, archive source material, and analyze your data—all while protecting researcher safety.
Supported by
Build the bigger picture, together
Atlos facilitates real-time investigative journalism by providing a comprehensive platform that streamlines the entire process. Our platform allows you to easily organize your investigations, distribute work among your team, track changes, archive source material, and analyze data. With Atlos, you can focus on uncovering the truth while we take care of the logistics.
Data Integrity
Atlos tracks every change to the underlying data, so investigators have a clear record of the investigative process.
Built-In Archival
Atlos automatically archives photos and videos, tweets and TikToks, and even entire webpages. We display this content directly within the platform, so investigators can easily refer to their evidence.
Researcher Safety
Atlos makes it easy to warn collaborators of contains graphic or disturbing content. We also follow industry safety best practices, such as displaying all content in grayscale by default.
Collaboration
We’ve baked in key project-management tools right into the platform. Our workspaces are private by default, but sharing a project is just as easy as sending a Google Doc.
Mission-driven, investigator-focused
Atlos was purpose-built for large scale open source investigations. We developed Atlos in close collaboration with a large community of researchers, investigators, and journalists.
Open Source
Atlos is open source. You can use our hosted version, or run Atlos on your own infrastructure.
Sustainably Non-Profit
Atlos is a 501(c)(3) non profit; our mission is to support critical journalism and human rights investigations.
Secure by Design
Atlos is designed to protect your investigation's integrity. Read our security and risk model to understand whether Atlos is right for your team.
Giancarlo Fiorella
Director of Research and Training
The Atlos Story
In 2022, as Russia invaded Ukraine, outdated tools hindered crucial investigations. So we set out to develop the systems researchers deserved. Developed in close collaboration with Bellingcat, and first launched for its Global Authentication Project, Atlos now supports large-scale investigations into civilian harm in Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and beyond. We’re not a big tech company—we met in a university class on open source investigations. Today, we remain a nimble and responsive team. We do this work because we care.
Learn more
Atlos is for journalists and human rights researchers conducting large-scale investigations. That could mean investigations with large volumes of content or investigations with many collaborators. These are the types of investigations where we find spreadsheets—which are incredibly useful for smaller projects—often fall short.
Atlos. Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. We do this work because we care. If we could make Atlos free, we would. But to pay for the technical infrastructure necessary to keep Atlos running and keep our organization sustainable, we charge for full access to the platform.
It depends on your data, team size, archival needs, and security requirements. Atlos is ideal for large-scale investigations with digital sources like social media, photos, videos, and PDFs, and works well for bigger teams. For individuals, a Google Doc might suffice. While Atlos' archival function supports journalistic investigations, it’s not suitable for legal or forensic evidence. Security is a priority, and Atlos underwent an independent audit in summer 2023, but like any digital tool, risks remain. For more details, check our docs on security and risk.
Yes! If you’re more comfortable using a self-hosted instance of Atlos or you plan to customize the platform, you can self-host Atlos. For more on self-hosting, refer to our development, architecture, and deployment guide.
We take safety incredibly seriously; Atlos also underwent an independent security audit in summer 2023. But like all digital tools, using Atlos also carries risk. There’s no short answer to this question, so we’ve dedicated an entire section of our docs to our security and risk model.
Yes! It's important to us that you're not locked in to Atlos. It's easy to import and export your data as a CSV.
Yes. We offer a project-scoped read-write API; in the past, we've seen users integrate Atlos with third-party archival and publishing tools.
Start exploring Atlos today
Not sure if Atlos is right for your team? ?Explore Atlos, or reach out to our team.