comparison-of-best-electronic-lab-notebook

Comparison of The Best Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN)

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/

List of ELNs

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/      

Comparison of Features

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                          

Comparison of Security and Compliance

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

Comparison of the Subscription Price

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  

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