A Benchling Alternative That Fits Your Lab
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Why teams look beyond Benchling
- Ease of use: published reviews from MatchBio, Akimbo Bio and Vyriad describe Lab Thread as intuitive, easy to set up and needing minimal training.
- Setup: Lab Thread's setup takes two to four weeks and needs no IT team or other dedicated technical resource.
- Pricing: Lab Thread publishes per-seat prices for every plan. Paid plans have no limits on seats or projects. Lab Thread is free for academic labs of up to 5 users.
What customers say
Intuitive ELN with Outstanding Developer Support and Rapid Updates
I've been really impressed with how intuitive Lab Thread is to use compared to the ELNs I have used in the past. The software is very logically constructed, with a simple and accessible user interface. I have largely been able to teach myself to use it, with occasional reference to the short, but informative training videos. The other area that stands out is the support from the developers and ease of reporting bugs/requesting news features. The support request tool allows for recording of a short video to demonstrate a bug, which makes it very easy for the user to report any issues. Fixes for bug reports have typically been rolled out with 24 hours, which is very impressive! The development team have also taken onboard feedback from our scientists and quickly implemented new features when requested. The quality of support has been markedly better than my experience with two of the large established ELN providers.The software is clearly still being refined and we have encountered bugs, or features that are a bit clunky in their first iteration. However, the developers have always taken onboard our feedback and quickly made revisions that fix bugs or improve functionality, and so there is very little I don't like about the software.
We've been using Lab Thread as our electronic lab notebook, and it's been a great addition to our workflow. The ELN feature is intuitive, with a logical layout that makes using the platform straightforward. I like that we can make a digital version of the lab. Being able to manage and link reagents, samples, cell lines, and plasmids directly within ELN entries makes data recording and traceability simple and efficient. This integration helps keep records organised and reduces the admin required for documenting experiments. Overall, Lab Thread has made experimental documentation more streamlined for our team.
My experience with the ELN system has been very positive. It is easy to set up, straightforward to use, and has an intuitive interface that makes navigating the system simple. The platform helps streamline documentation and record management while requiring minimal training. Overall, it is a user-friendly and efficient tool that supports daily laboratory operations effectively.
What Lab Thread does differently
Take a look around
Molecular Biology Suite
Design a construct and the design stays attached to every sample, experiment and result that follows it. Design plasmids, run Golden Gate or Gibson assembly, align sequences, and simulate ligations, digests and PCR reactions.
Inventory & LIMS
Every vial carries its own history: what made it, who handled it, what it produced. Each sample is linked to the protocol that created it, the DNA design it came from and its place in the freezer, with full lineage and chain of custody.
Smart ELN
Two-click capture at the bench; each entry already knows its sample, protocol and project. Write once, update everywhere: entries pull data from your molecular designs, protocols and sample logs into timestamped, searchable, audit-ready records.
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Project Management
Work plans that update as the science does, and status updates that come directly from the lab. Teams can review data, give feedback and sign electronic records inside the project file, so progress keeps moving between meetings.
FAQ
Lab Thread publishes per-seat prices for every plan on its pricing page. Benchling's commercial pricing is only available through a sales conversation, so a like-for-like comparison needs a Benchling quote.
Every plan includes a design viewer, design collaboration, alignment and gel simulations. Tools cover plasmid maps, fragment isolation, primer design, and ligation and assembly modelling, and Lab Thread imports GenBank, FASTA and SnapGene (.dna) files.
Lab Thread is priced per seat, and every plan is published on its pricing page. Academic groups of up to five users can use a free plan that covers the ELN, project management, the Molecular Biology Suite, and sample and storage management. Industry teams choose from Core, Core+ and Pro.
Setup takes two to four weeks, and no IT team is required. Scientists can largely learn Lab Thread on their own with short training videos, and the team that built it provides onboarding and support.
You can import tabular data with downloadable import spreadsheets and archive data from most other platforms as PDFs. For complex migrations, Lab Thread's team can help, and offers this free to Pro plan customers with more than five seats on a minimum two-year contract. You can export your data whenever you wish, and if you cancel, you keep read-only access for 12 months to export your data.
All Lab Thread plans are 21 CFR Part 11 compliant, with every action timestamped and attributed. Supporting compliance documentation, version history and digital signatures are included on Pro plans. Lab Thread runs on Microsoft Azure, with AES-256 encryption at rest and 99.999% data availability.
