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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.

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

Projects: manage experiment notes in many different projects
Protocols: manage protocols and can be cited easily in the ELN
Experiments: document the note for each experiments
Files: manage exteranl files that been used in the experiments
Inventory: manage the reagents, tubes, equipments etc
Purchase: online purchase of the inventory
LIMS: intergrate LIMS with ELN
Search: search documented records
Template: able to create a experiment note quickly from pre-defined template
Barcode and Label: able to generate barcode for identification
Location: storage place
Analysis: able to perform the data analysis
Comment: able to write comments
References: able to insert citations
Todo, Calendar: has a todolist and a calendar
Mobile: works from a mobile phone
Ability to Store other type of data: Able to store other type of data like plasmids, cell lines, et.al
Custom columns: Define what columns for each type of data
API: API support.

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

To do:

Comparision on how to document results
Screenshots