The 8 Best Labguru Alternatives

Maybe it’s the limitations of Labguru for complex workflows or its slowness in handling large datasets. Maybe you’re just frustrated by the steep learning curve and tool-specific terminology that slows your staff down.

Whatever your motivation, there are plenty of fair reasons to look for a change from Labguru. But the LIMS market is growing, and every vendor seems to make the same claims. With new LIMS and other lab software platforms launching each year, which will you choose?

In this guide, we’ll share the top eight alternatives to Labguru that you should consider.

Why Look for an Alternative to Labguru?

At its core, this is a decision about whether you want to partner with a modern, innovative LIMS or an ELN-first platform like Labguru.

While Labguru offers some LIMS features, it is an ELN first and a LIMS second. 

This distinction isn’t simply a matter of branding, either. An ELN can be a helpful tool for digitizing and organizing your lab’s data, but its integration, automation, and data management capabilities pale in comparison to those of a LIMS. That’s because an ELN is a digital lab notebook, while a LIMS is built to support complex features like workflow automation, report generation, integrations, and data analysis.

Labguru users regularly note these distinctions on G2. While Labguru is well-rated (4.6/5), users often describe the platform as “limited,” “slow,” “adequate,” and “difficult to control.” 

If you find that Labguru is limiting your lab, then it’s time to consider a more robust LIMS that can support your needs and adapt as they change. We ranked the platforms in the next section based on their G2 rankings and reviews, their feature set, their flexibility and adaptability, and their implementation timeframe.

The 3 Best ELN-First Labguru Alternatives

If you’re looking for an ELN-first alternative to Labguru, we recommend the following:

1. Genemod
2. SciSure
3. Benchling

1. Genemod

Genemod is a newer LIMS and ELN platform that focuses more on inventory management, freezer management, and electronic lab notebooks. They are a relatively small venture-backed team based in Seattle, Washington, with a few global team members. 

Genemod offers a cloud-based solution and aims to be one of the simpler and more user-friendly options on the market. The most powerful features are gated behind the highest tiers, while the lowest tier is a better option for labs looking to start digitizing their inventory, rather than launching with a LIMS. While Genemod serves several industries, most of its marketing messaging is aimed at R&D and Biotech labs.

Genemod Price:Value: Not available, but three tiers are listed on its website. That said, we can estimate pricing for five users at $23,880 based on this source. That’s lower than Benchling, which may make Genemod a solid substitute for Labguru.

Notable features:

• Inventory management
• ELN
• Alerts
• Security
• Numerous integrations 
• Reporting and visualizations
• AI-powered text generation for lab notebooks

Industries served:

• Biopharmaceutical
• Biotech
• Clinical research
• Gene therapy
• Genetics labs
• Academic Institutions

2. SciSure (formerly eLabNext)

SciSure (formerly eLab/eLabNext) is, like others on this list, an ELN + LIMS solution rather than a pure LIMS. 

Its ELN product is well-featured, supporting documentation, collaboration, and version control, while its LIMS is more limited, focusing on sample, inventory, and equipment management. 

SciSure offers simple workflow automation features, allowing you to create templates that standardize procedures in your lab. One unique aspect of SciSure is its marketplace, which offers add-ons to customize your platform according to your specific needs.

SciSure is the result of the merger between SciShield and eLabNext. eLabNext has been around for a bit (since 2010), with its main base in the United States. This merger is a step toward a global audience and significant expansion for the company. 

SciSure Price:Value: SciSure does not provide any pricing information, and we weren’t able to find any reliable info online, so it’s hard to share a price-to-value assessment.  

Notable features:

• ELN
• Sample management
• Inventory management
• Equipment management
• Workflow automation
• Marketplace with add-ons to customize your platform

Industries served:

• Life sciences
• Biotech
• Academic Institutions

3. Benchling

Benchling is another popular LIMS platform, though, like Labguru, it is traditionally more of an ELN-forward product than a true LIMS. Benchling offers a suite of ELN and LIMS features, and is typically best suited for labs in the biotech and genomics industries.

If you’re leaving Labguru because you want a platform that is a LIMS first, we’d recommend others on this list.

Benchling is privately owned by 23 investors. Roughly 87% of its employees are based in North America, and 11% are in the EMEA region (according to LinkedIn). Benchling is well-reviewed on G2 with 4.5/5 stars. However, they haven't had a new review on G2 since January 2025.

Benchling Price:Value: Last published on its website in 2020, pricing started at around $20,000/year for five users on the professional plan. It’s possible that the pricing has increased significantly since then. Benchling is the priciest ELN/LIMS on our list, and while it offers dedicated features for biotech and genomics labs, you’ll need to decide whether the price is worth it. 

Notable features:

• Centralize and standardize data
• Generate reports and visualizations
• Manage workflows
• Sample and inventory management

Industries served:

• Biopharmaceutical
• Biotech
• Agriculture

The 5 Best LIMS-First Labguru Alternatives

If you’re leaving Labguru because it’s an ELN-first platform, then we recommend the following LIMS:

1. QBench
2. LabWare
3. Lockbox LIMS
4. CloudLIMS
5. Labbit

1. QBench

QBench is an excellent choice for high-throughput labs looking to configure workflows and automate as much as possible while moving fast and staying compliant. 

Many LIMS boast about flexibility and may even use “no-code” in their marketing materials. In reality, these LIMS are just as rigid and complex as their legacy counterparts. 

Unlike these other LIMS, QBench means it. With QBench, you don’t need coding knowledge or expensive development contracts for the simplest changes. Simply log in and configure a test workflow, generate reports in bulk, and automate processes yourself. 

QBench also stands in contrast to many legacy LIMS (which release updates annually, if at all) by releasing updates every three weeks. As of publishing this in October 2025, our latest release included:

• Data collision detection
• Permissions for equipment in our built-in QMS
• Field screens for customer-specific fields

You can see our entire backlog of releases here. We regularly source requests from our customers, giving labs a seat at the table and a voice in our product development process.

QBench has earned impressive recognition in 2025, ranking #1 on G2's Highest-Rated LIMS list, Easiest to Use LIMS list, and Highest-Rated LIMS in North America list. As a G2 Momentum Leader, QBench is on the move and outperforming many top competitors on the market.

And unlike some venture-backed LIMS with a mandate to move fast and cut costs (often breaking things in the process), QBench is privately owned by a group with over 30 years of hands-on lab experience. We know what labs need to succeed, and where they’ve been burned before by legacy software. Being privately owned gives us the freedom to make decisions based on the customer first, rather than the demands of a board or a pending IPO. QBench's employees are distributed globally to serve customers worldwide, with the majority of critical-role employees (88%) based in North America.

QBench offers multiple tiers, though its base tier packs a punch. QBench’s Starter tier includes access to workflow tools, reporting tools, no-code configurations, custom fields, user permissions, and more.

It’s no surprise that QBench leads several categories on G2, has 131 reviews (as of November 2025), and has earned 4.5/5 stars. No wonder second-time LIMS buyers consistently choose QBench after experiencing the limitations of legacy systems!

QBench Price:Value: QBench starts at $249/user/month with a discount for 20+ users. This is already lower than some LIMS on this list, but the real savings come from how much your lab can do on its own. With many legacy LIMS, you aren’t just paying for the software; you’re also paying for pro services. With QBench, you can get more done, helping your lab move faster and stay within your budget. For this reason, it’s an incredible value.

Notable features:

• Configurable automations
• Reports and data visualizations
• Inventory management
• Sample management
• Robust API support
• Billing and invoicing support
• What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) report template editor
• Integrated QMS
• BI integrations

Industries served:

• Materials testing
• Manufacturing
• Food & beverage
• Life Sciences
• Environmental
• Clean energy

2. LabWare

LabWare is one of the legacy players on the market, having gotten its start in 1987.

One caveat to LabWare is that it is not a pure SaaS LIMS. LabWare excels at on-prem deployments with a self-hosted cloud or SaaS option. As a result, LabWare is best suited for larger companies with the budget for IT resources to manage self-hosted software.

LabWare boasts a number of automation capabilities along with QA/QC features and instrument integrations. LabWare is customizable and even has its own programming language called LIMS Basic. The latest version of LabWare, LabWare 8, was released on June 12, 2020.

LabWare is privately owned and has 40 offices around the world. Roughly 30% of its staff are in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, & Africa), 29% in North America, 23% in South America, and 17% in Asia (according to LinkedIn). LabWare's reviews come from 62% of customers in North America, 19% in Europe, and 11% in Asia. LabWare has over 100 reviews on G2, with the majority of those coming from the pharmaceutical industry. They have an overall rating of 4.5/5 stars.

LabWare Price:Value: There is no public pricing available, but it is likely that LabWare is priced for large enterprises (e.g. $100,000 per year or more). The pricing available is part of the GSA Advantage program; the perpetual license GSA Advantage price from 2021 is $7,043.22/user, plus a 14% maintenance fee of $986.05/user/year for continued patches and product enhancements after year 1. There are also additional costs for access to technical support and for hardware and IT staff if you choose on-premises deployment.

Notable features:

• Automation capabilities
• QA/QC features
• Instrument integrations
• Sample management
• Reporting tools and data visualizations

Industries served:

• Biopharmaceutical
• Biotech
• Agriculture

3. Lockbox LIMS

If your lab runs on Salesforce, then Lockbox LIMS (by Thirdwave Analytics) is a good option to consider.

Lockbox LIMS is a well-regarded player in the LIMS space, boasting a series of features that help labs digitize and automate their operations. Lockbox LIMS is built as a Salesforce app and is available on the Salesforce AppExchange. Lockbox’s marketing site claims it is best suited for Biotech, NGS, Core & QC Labs, so materials, manufacturing, and environmental labs may want to select a different LIMS on our list. 

Lockbox LIMS is privately owned. Roughly 95% of its employees are located in North America and 5% in Europe (according to LinkedIn). Like many others on this list, Lockbox LIMS is well-rated on G2 with 4.9/5 stars.

LockBox LIMS Price:Value: While there is no public pricing available, we’ve estimated LockBox to be around $13,500 for five users. This makes Lockbox one of the cheaper options on this list and a solid value if its feature set meets your needs.

Notable features:

• Sample management
• Inventory management
• Integrations
• Instrument management
• Freezer management
• Customer portal

Industries served:

• Biobanking
• Biotech
• NGS Labs
• QC Labs

4. CloudLIMS

Like many on this list, CloudLIMS is a SaaS cloud-based LIMS that offers a wide variety of solutions to labs. CloudLIMS is specifically designed for biobanks and medical labs, with powerful features including client and patient/physician portals, package and shipment management, and other standard LIMS features such as sample and inventory management, and automation support.

Notably, CloudLIMS offers free onboarding and complimentary support in its plans, which may be appealing for budget-conscious labs. CloudLIMS has a solid 4.5 rating on G2, but has only 51 reviews.

Cloud LIMS Price Value: CloudLIMS offers a range of plans from $38/user/month to $270/user/month, based on needs and usage. They have separate tiers, though, for other industries, such as biobanks and cannabis labs. In all, CloudLIMS offers 17 pricing options, which can make budgeting a challenge. While CloudLIMS sits at the lower end of price, it’s unclear how much custom code is required to make changes to their automations. If pro services are required for minute changes, that will impact the value you get for the price.

Notable features:

• Inventory management
• Sample management
• Automations
• Patient/Physician portal
• Billing and invoicing support
• AI-powered text generation for lab notebooks

Industries served:

• Biobanking
• Cannabis
• Clinical diagnostics
• Clinical research
• Environmental
• Food and beverage
• Materials
• Oil and gas
• Psychedelics
• Veterinary

5. Labbit

Labbit is a newer entrant to the LIMS market, developed by Semaphore Solutions and officially launched around 2022.

Labbit was built to give labs far more flexibility and adaptability through no-code workflow design and a Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) based process engine that captures data and demonstrates relationships without requiring heavy custom development. 

Like QBench, Labbit is positioned for labs that need to move quickly, change workflows often, or operate in regulated environments. That said, Labbit does not appear to invest in G2, as it only has five reviews and a 3.6 rating.

Labbit Price:Value: Like many LIMS on this list, Labbit gates its pricing behind a demo. We were not able to retrieve reliable information online, so we cannot say whether Labbit is a good value for the price.

Notable features:

• Workflow automation
• Data management
• Instrument integrations
• Inventory management
• Sample management

Industries served:

• Biotech
• Life sciences
• Clinical
• Pharmaceuticals
• Environmental
• Food and beverage

A Side-by-Side Look at These Labguru Alternatives

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, so a side-by-side comparison of these Labguru alternatives may be beneficial as you make a decision on which LIMS is right for your lab. 

One note on the pricing data: many LIMS providers gate pricing behind a demo, so there’s always a chance that the data we retrieved is outdated or does not reflect the pricing you would hear directly from the company, should you book a demo with them. We did our best to scour the internet, so (aside from the figures for QBench), please refer to these as a benchmark rather than exact figures.

The Hidden Cost of Most LIMS: Beware the Complexity Tax

The hard truth is that none of the LIMS above are exactly equal.

Sure, they all will offer a blend of features to support basic lab tasks like sample management, data management, document storage, and workflow automation, but it’s that last point where they differ.

In LIMS, there is an important distinction between customizable LIMS and configurable LIMS.

Customizable LIMS require custom code and professional services to make changes and adapt the LIMS to your needs. Configurable LIMS, on the other hand, allow you to make changes yourself directly in the app. Whether you need to configure fields for a COA or set up alerts for test failures or low stock levels, you can do it yourself. 

We call this the “complexity tax” that comes with legacy customizable LIMS. Pretty much every LIMS can be modified to meet your needs, but not all of them can do so easily – or within your budget. Make sure to properly evaluate your vendor to understand how customizations are made and what you have the power to change yourself. 

Why Labs Look to QBench as the Best Labguru Alternative

There are several reasons why QBench is a consistent leader across categories on G2, but they all boil down to a singular point: Labs can get more done with QBench LIMS. 

While many legacy LIMS are complex and constraining, QBench frees up modern labs to focus more on science and less on managing clunky software. Specifically, labs love QBench for the following reasons:

• LIMS first and foremost
• Configurable automations
• API support
• Ease of use and customer-centric approach

QBench is a LIMS First and Foremost

Unlike Labguru, QBench is a LIMS through and through. 

As we’ve explained above, it’s not that ELNs are bad platforms or unsuitable for lab use. ELNs are fantastic tools – in the right context. If you’re taking a first step toward digitizing your lab’s data, inventory, and test results, then an ELN is a great tool. 

But if you need to do things like:

• Generate COAs
• Batch run tests, and automatically re-run if results are out of spec
• Provide a self-service customer portal
• Integrate instruments through native and API integrations

Then an ELN just won’t support you as well as a LIMS. If you need advanced support for automation and data management in a configurable platform that you can control, then QBench is the LIMS for you.

Configurable Automations

Automation is key for modern labs, and the lack of configurable automation is one of the top reasons modern labs switch off from Labguru.

Terms like “configurability” and “no-code” are becoming buzzwords in the LIMS industry, but for QBench, they are anything but. QBench takes a configurable approach to LIMS, which means you don’t need vast IT resources or expensive development contracts to adjust workflows or make simple changes. 

With QBench’s workflow and automation tools, you can:

• Trigger processes for your lab.
• Easily update a process or roll out new processes.
• Save time by automating inventory stock.
• Run calculations, generate reports, and notify customers when results are ready.
• Set up workflows between various tools, including a client portal, billing, QuickBooks, inventory management, and quality management systems.

There is no need for complex development work or custom code; most legacy LIMS sell you the dream but deliver the nightmare. With QBench, you’ll need to pinch yourself after seeing what you can configure on your own. 

RESTful API Support

The more connected your lab software and instruments are, the smoother the process will be as you scale. That’s why QBench offers a RESTful API that allows you to:

• Connect laboratory instruments with the LIMS for automatic integration and a comprehensive view of your data. 
• Import or export data from external systems or to other systems. You can even use AI to make better decisions about your data.
• Generate custom reports from LIMS data by integrating with external reporting systems.
• Integrate LIMS data with a dashboard or visualization tool. This enables real-time monitoring of laboratory processes, providing valuable insights into lab performance.

We’ve heard horror stories from labs that worked with legacy LIMS systems that claimed to offer an API, but required spinning up a new endpoint for each new client. One lab made a change to their data model and had to wait nine months for that change to be accessible via API. In contrast, QBench’s API support adds to the flexibility of its LIMS, helping you get more done and achieve your laboratory objectives. 

Ease of Use and Customer-Centric Approach

All of these powerful features are great, but if your LIMS isn’t easy to implement and use, they are all for naught. Fortunately, QBench consistently earns high marks for ease of use thanks to its:

• Modern, fast, user-friendly interface.
• Configurable and flexible workflows — if you can dream it, you can build it with QBench. More importantly, you can easily modify it over time yourself.
• Simple and automated data entry.
• A consultative and phased approach to implementation, helping you hit the ground running sooner than other LIMS.

Megan, of EO Science, says it best after choosing QBench over seven other LIMS:

“QBench is easy to use and understand, allowing Laboratory Management to configure almost everything with minimal support needed. It is highly configurable while not overwhelming. Implementation is much faster than other systems due to the ease of use and configuration. Plus, QBench is constantly enhancing the product with new features and providing easily accessible help tools.”

Any vendor can launch a flashy software product with a slick interface. QBench takes this one step further by taking care to partner with its customers, giving labs a powerful software platform with guidance and insights to put it to work. We regularly speak with our customers and integrate their feedback and feature requests into our product development process. 

We believe in building a LIMS that empowers labs to get more done, and that starts with taking their needs and feedback seriously.

Looking for the Best Labguru Alternative? See Why Modern Labs Choose QBench

Though the LIMS market is expanding each year, don’t get overwhelmed by the options when looking for the best replacement. If you are looking for a LIMS that provides:

• Robust integrations and API access
• Automation
• Reporting
• No-code configuration
• Ease of use
• Excellent support
• Customer-centricity
• Robust quality checking
• Competitive pricing

We suggest QBench: a LIMS that helps your lab work smarter with unparalleled flexibility to drive whatever the future brings. 

Click the button below to schedule a demo and see for yourself.