LabID vs LabKey ELN
LabID
labintegrateddata.orgLabKey ELN
labkey.comSide by side
| Figure | LabID | LabKey ELN |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Life Sciences Software | 7.8 (#9) | 7.5 (#11) |
| Spec score · Electronic Lab Notebook Software | 7.7 (#15) | 7.3 (#19) |
| Headquarters | Heidelberg, Germany | Seattle, Washington, USA |
| Integrations | The site describes integrations with Galaxy, WorkflowHub, Git, S3 storage, and LibreOffice document editing. | LabKey says its ELN integrates with Sample Manager, Biologics LIMS, LabKey LIMS, and SDMS. |
| Intended users | The documentation describes LabID as designed for scientists and research groups managing lab inventory, notes, and datasets. | LabKey describes its ELN as designed for scientific R&D organizations. |
| Purpose | LabID is a platform for research teams to manage lab inventory, research data and metadata, and electronic lab notes. | LabKey ELN helps scientists document experiments and share research in an electronic lab notebook. |
| Support | The team directs users to its Slack community and provides the contact email [email protected] for questions and support requests. | LabKey directs Premium Edition subscribers to a private support portal and says Community Edition has no development or technical support from LabKey. |
Plans
In their own words
LabID
LabID is a platform for research teams to manage lab inventory, electronic lab notes, research data, and metadata. Teams can track and share consumables, equipment, storage locations, and specialized inventory types. Its notebook supports formatted notes with tables and pictures, plus links to protocols and lab items, attachments, comments, and sharing. Notes can be timestamped using RFC 3161-compliant digital timestamps and exported as PDF or static HTML.
For data management, LabID registers raw and derived datasets, records assay metadata, and connects datasets to their originating samples and specimens. Teams can register, version, and share workflows from Git, WorkflowHub, or Galaxy, then track runs and provenance. Integrations include Galaxy, WorkflowHub, Git, S3 storage, and LibreOffice document editing. A CLI and API support automated ingestion and custom data-registration clients. Organizations can self-host LabID and customize inventory models, vocabularies, workflows, and integrations. The free, open-source deployment costs nothing. The EMBL installation is only available under VPN; users outside EMBL can deploy their own instance.
LabKey ELN
LabKey ELN helps scientific R&D organizations document experiments and share research through notebooks connected to samples, assay data and other registered information. Entries support templates, rich text, data links, inline attachments, comments, project tags and notebook status. Teams can request reviews, receive notifications, comment and sign off notebooks. Sign-off creates an encrypted snapshot of notebook text and linked data, preserving the original state. Entries can link to bioregistry entities, samples, assays, workflows and other notebooks. Access is available through web, API and self-hosted deployments, with PDF export. Security features include role-based permissions, single sign-on, two-factor authentication, audit logs and electronic signatures. LabKey describes support for HIPAA PHI handling and 21 CFR Part 11 records. Cloud hosting lists encryption, monitoring and managed backups retained up to seven years. A free plan and free trial are listed.