There are tons of electronic lab notebook out there, but only few of them are actually usable. It usually took months for a scientist to decide which ELN is the right software to go. Here, We tested all available cloud-based ELNs and summarized their features. Hopefully, it is useful for you to find the right ELN.
All data was collected based on the date of 2017-07-26, version v0.1. We will update the information annually. Please suggest a change by creating an issue. All rights reserved @Labii Inc.
This page is available at https://labii.github.io/comparison-of-best-electronic-lab-notebook/
We collected the list of ELN from google, linkedin and wikipedia. This is a list of ELN that been most well-known and most commonly used.
Name | Website | Address | Company Size | Year Found |
---|---|---|---|---|
Labii ELN & LIMS | https://www.labii.com | San Francisco, CA | 9 | 2014 |
LabArchives Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) | http://www.labarchives.com/ | Carlsbad, CA | 11-50 | 2009 |
Benchling | https://benchling.com/ | San Francisco, CA | 31 | 2012 |
LabCollector AgileBio | http://labcollector.com/labcollector-lims/add-ons/ | San Diego, CA | 35 | 2010 |
SciNote | http://scinote.net/ | 11-50 | 2015 | |
Labfolder | https://www.labfolder.com/ | Germany | 20 | 2012 |
RSpace (eCAT) | http://www.researchspace.com/ | Powell, Ohio | 5 | 2007 |
CERF | http://cerf-notebook.com/ | 5 | 2007 | |
Hivebench | https://www.hivebench.com/ | Great Britain | 10 | 2012 |
LabGuru | https://www.labguru.com/ | Cambridge, MA | 18 | 2007 |
IDBS E‑WorkBook | https://www.idbs.com/en/platform-products/e-workbook/ | UK, Boston | 300 | 2006 |
BIOVIA ELN | http://accelrys.com/products/unified-lab-management/biovia-electronic-lab-notebooks/ | San Diego, CA | 500-1000 | 2001 |
DOCOLLAB | https://www.docollab.com/ | 1-10 | ||
eLabFTW | https://www.elabftw.net/ | Paris, France | 2013 | |
PerkinElmer - Elements | http://www.cambridgesoft.com/E-Notebook2.aspx | Waltham, Massachusetts | 5000-10000 | 1937 |
LabVantage ELN | http://www.labvantage.com/lims/elnles/ | 2010 | ||
Core ELN | http://www.coreinformatics.com/products/core-eln/ | |||
BookitLab | http://bookit-lab.com/ELN | 2013 | ||
Arxspan ELN Software | http://www.arxspan.com/electronic-lab-notebook.asp | Southborough, MA | ||
Celerion | https://celerion.com/service/electronic-laboratory-notebook-system | |||
Collaborative Drug Discovery ELN | https://www.collaborativedrug.com/cdd-vault/eln | Burlingame, CA 94010 | 2010 | |
Sciency ELN Cloud | https://sciency-eln.com/ | Frederick, MD, 21703 | ||
genohm SLims | http://www.genohm.com/slims/ | Switzerland | ||
Studylog | http://www.studylog.com/products/studylog-web/ |
What makes a ELN? There are no specific answers. An ELN need to keep the purpose of documenting research data, and keeping the fact of research as accurate as possible. We selected a list of features that are required in the process of experimentation. See the details of each features bellow.
Here, we do not consider a software like google docs, microsoft word, evernote or microsoft onenote as electronic lab notebook. Because the results can be easily deleted.
Features | Labii | LabArchives | eLabFTW | Benchling | LabCollector | SciNote | Labfolder | RSpace | CERF | Hivebench | LabGuru | DOCOLLAB | Element | IDBS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Projects | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Kind of | Yes |
Protocols | Yes | Kind of | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Kind of | Kind of | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | No |
Referencing Protocols | Yes | No | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | No | No | No | Kind of | Yes | No | Not yet | ||
Experiments | Yes | Kind of | Yes | Kind of | Yes | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Kind of | Yes | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Yes |
Files | Yes | No | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | No | Kind of | Yes | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Kind of | Kind of | Kind of |
Inventory | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Purchase | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | |
LIMS | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Kind of | Yes | No | No | |
Location | Yes | Yes | No | No | Kind of | Yes | No | No | ||||||
Search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Template | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Kind of | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Barcode and Labels | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | |
Analysis | Kind of | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Comment | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | |
References | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Todo, Calendar | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | |||
Mobile | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Kind of | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Ability to Store other type of data | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Custom columns | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
API | Yes |
For industrial use, the security and compliance are the top features to consider when using electronic lab notebook.
Features | Labii | LabArchives | Benchling | LabCollector | SciNote | Labfolder | RSpace | CERF | Hivebench | LabGuru | DOCOLLAB | Element | IDBS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Organization Permissions/Roles | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | ||
Project Permissions/Roles | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Yes | Yes | |
How to create user | Invite | Share | Invite | Register | Invite | Invite | Register | Register | Invite | Register | Invite | ||
Account security | Password | Password | Password | Password | Password | Password | Password | Password | Password | Password | No | Password | Password |
Data security | AWS, backup, encryption, ssl | - | See here | IP, LDAP | AWS | AWS, backup, encryption, ssl | AWS, backup, encryption, ssl | SSL, | |||||
Data retension | 5 Years | Read only | No | No | No | 3 Years | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
21 CFR Compliant | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | FDA | Yes | |||
Avoid deletion | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Restrict | ||
Signature | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
Version Control | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not yet | Yes |
Audit trail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
User and date stamp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Visit history | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | |
Export/Import | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Kind of | Yes | |
Backup | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Kind of | Kind of | Yes | No | |||
Feeds | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Unique ID | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Labii ELN & LIMS provides Pay-Per-Use Option that does not cover in this table. See here for more details.
ELNs | Cost/Seat/Year | Free storage | Storage Price |
---|---|---|---|
Labii | $960 | 100G | $10/100G |
LabArchives | $365 | 100G | $0.99/G |
eLabFTW | Free (AGPL licence) | N/A | N/A |
Benchling | $2,400 | 10G | |
LabCollector | $460 | 0 | |
SciNote | $250 | 1G/100G, 10G Free | $1000/100G, $9/100G |
Labfolder | $468 | 3G, 300G | |
RSpace | $200 + $1500 install fee | ||
CERF | $200 + one time $500/user/licence + $2000 to install | ||
Hivebench | $1000/month, $20,000 + licensing fee | 10G | |
LabGuru | $900 | 40G/user | |
DOCOLLAB | $60 | ||
Element | |||
IDBS | 1G |