Return to Electronic Notebook Guidance
DISCLAIMER: Elements of this table were last updated on 3 March 2021. Product information may have changed without notification - please visit the vendors' websites for accurate, up-to-date information.
Key:
| Suitability: |
I = appropriate for individual users; |
| Platform: |
B = Browser-based. platform agnostic |
| Storage: |
VC = Vendor cloud |
| Free/cost: |
F = Free option (may be time-limited, or capacity-limited) |
| Suitability | Platform | Storage | Free/cost | Comments | |
| Arxspan | G, D | B | VC | $$$ | Flexible, supports chemistry and biology workflows, includes chemistry drawing package and supports ChemDraw (not included). Targeting commercial bio/pharma customers. |
| Benchling | I, G | B | VC, D, G | F | Free (with capacity limitations) for academic users, user-friendly, self-contained cloud service, Molecular Biology bias. CRISPR tools. |
| Biovia | G, D | W, M | VC, LS | X | ELN product has basic but robust feature set and workflow, strong in compliance, deployed campus-wide at some institutions. Part of a large suite of BIOVIA products. |
| BrightLab | I, G, D | B, I, A | VC | F, X | Attractive interface, versatile, available for academia and industrial labs. Instrument integration and LIMS functionality, including direct Sigma-Aldrich ordering. |
| G, D | B | Not specified | X | ELN module is integrated into LIMS interface and workflow leans towards chemistry and very data-driven documentation requirements. Good, flexible collaboration features, and good integration with MS Office. | |
| I, G, D | B (Chrome) | VC, PC, LS | F, O | Free, community-developed tool focused on chemistry with support for many characterisation techniques. FAIR data at the core, i.e. all data are converted into a standard form upon import and can be exported to Zenodo. Source code available. (NB supervisor feature needs suitable groups to be set, for which there is currently no convenient frontend.) | |
| Chemotion | I | B | VC, LS | F, O | Free, community-based chemistry tool with good collaboration features, but no conventional supervisor tools Source code available, so local instance and storage could be deployed. |
| Docollab |
I, G, D |
B | VC | F, $$$ | Not specifically science-focused; well designed collaborative documentation platform, simple but robust feature set will be relevant/useful in many disciplines. Free for individual users. |
| e-Notebook | G, D | W | LS | X | Complex interface, Chemistry/Pharma bias. |
| e-Workbook | G, D | B | VC | X | Strong inventory management; Chem/Pharma heritage, but now has suite of molecular biology tools. Convenient user-configurable templates to suit various workflows. |
| eLabFTW | G, D | B | LS | F, O | Free, flexible, open source, requires local server (Docker containers recommended). Community-driven development, sponsored by Institut Curie. |
| eLABJournal | I, G, D | B | VC, PC, LS | $ | Comprehensive product with strong inventory management integration. |
| Findings | I | M, I | HD, D | F, $ | Simple, lightweight, attractive interface, good synchronisation with Apple devices via Dropbox. |
| Hivebench | I, G, D | B, M, I | VC, LS | F, X | Attractive, easy-to-use interface; integration with Mendeley Data Repository. Institutional version has limited management features for PI or site administrator. |
| LabArchives | I, G, D | B, I, A | VC, PC, AWS, LS, G | F, $$ | Comprehensive features including Graphpad Prism integration. |
| LabCloud | G, D | B | VC, LS | F | Free product, includes inventory management with procurement (and advertising) built-in. Funded by use of the vendor list in the procurement feature. |
| LabCollector | G, D | M, W, L | VC, LS | $$$ | Strong LIMS with ELN functionality bolted-on. |
| Labfolder | I, G, D | B | VC, LS | F, $$ |
Fully-featured product with clean design, good 3rd-party integrations and LIMS. Have produced the following resources: |
| LabGuru | G, D | B | AWS | X | Fully-featured and attractive design, but strong LIMS functionality complicates the interface and operation. |
| Labii | I, G, D | B | AWS | X | Attractive, simple interface with good security/compliance features, voice recognition and bioinformatics service. |
| Labstep | I, G, D | B, I, A | AWS | F | Used in life sciences, chemistry, physics.Free for academic users and offers unlimited storage capacity, but with a limited file upload size (10MB initially, extended up to max 25MB). Strong on protocol and resource management and sharing, and includes API for automation of data collection. |
| LabTrove | G, D | B | LS (linux) | F, O | Build-it yourself system; free for local installation; will require a local system administrator. Website and documentation look a bit neglected. |
| Mbook | I, G, D | B | VC, AWS, LS | X | Organic chemistry notebook; clean and modern design with built-in messaging. |
| Openbis | I | B | LS | F, O | Free, open source LIMS/ELN software for biologists/bioinformaticians. Browser-based, but designed to be installed and managed locally. |
| Open Science Framework | I, G | B | 3C | F, O | Free, open source, single interface and workflow that integrates many other popular cloud software tools and services, good for collaborations and Open Science. |
| OpenLab | G, D | B | VC, LS | X | Desktop version looks dated compared to its iOS app sibling. Includes voice recognition and data collection features. Chemistry bias. |
| Quiver | I | M | HD, D | $ | Not really designed for laboratory use, but a very popular notebook for programmers and useful for bioinformaticians. Mac platform, but a less functional iOS app is available too. |
| REDCap | G, D | B | LS | X | Popular and adaptable tool, widely used in medical environments for gathering and managing clinical trials and questionnaire data. |
| RSpace | I, G, D | B | VC | F, $ | Free (community edition); fully-featured with many useful 3rd party integrations (e.g. Slack); exports all data in original file formats. Spawned from eCat, which still remains as an inventory management system. |
| Scilligence | G, D | B | VC | X | Commercial product for cheminformatics and bioinformatics, leaning towards chemistry. |
| SciNote | I, G, D | B | VC, PC, AWS, LS | F, O, $$ | Not long established and the product is still evolving rapidly. Attractive interface, includes useful non-linear experimental design feature. Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWhsjR_qap4. Training: https://scinote-3850750.hs-sites.com/en/knowledge. |
| Signals Notebook | G, D | B | AWS | X | Attractive, modern interface. Multi-discipline-relevant features, leaning towards Chemistry with Chemdraw built-in. Individual license available for ChemOffice users. |
| SLIMS | G, D | B | VC, LS | X | Predominantly a LIMS, but with ELN functionality built-in. Includes R scripting. |
| Studies Notebook | I, G, D | B | VC, LS | X | Designed for Chemists, but Biology template available. No information available relating to storage capacity, cost or 3rd party integrations. |
If you are aware of any errors or omissions in the above list, please feel free to send corrections to info@data.cam.ac.uk.