LabWare vs. STARLIMS vs. QBench: Which LIMS is Best?

Modern labs looking to scale their operations, speed up their processes, and meet compliance standards would be wise to choose a LIMS, but which LIMS is best for you?

Among three industry leaders, QBench, LabWare, and STARLIMS, you have excellent options to help your lab scale. In this article, we will compare QBench, Labware, and STARLIMS to help you get a better sense of how these platforms stack up and which one is the best fit for your lab.

What to Look for in a LIMS

Selecting the right LIMS for your lab can be a daunting process. If this is your first time, we recommend looking for the following: 

• Configurable, not customizable: Somewhere in your search for a LIMS, you’ll come across two terms: configurable and customizable. Customizable LIMS often require custom code and development resources to set up and maintain. At the same time, configurable LIMS offer no-code solutions in-app for any user on your team to create workflows in your LIMS.
• Automation capabilities: The power of a LIMS lies in its ability to automate tasks, processes, and workflows for your lab. This automation saves time and reduces the room for human error (which can cause further delays or compliance issues). 
• Speedy implementation: Look for a LIMS with a fast, thorough, and efficient implementation so your lab can get set up right away and get things done. 
• Great support: Whenever you buy software, prioritize the support that you’ll get. A LIMS with great support gives you a safety net for your team that you can rely on should you have questions or encounter issues.
• Custom fields and permissions: This is a big one, especially for certain industries and compliance regulations. Look for a LIMS that can adapt to your unique needs and use cases and provides adequate security measures to protect your data.

Now, let’s take a closer look at how these three LIMS platforms compare.

QBench

QBench is the leading option for labs of all sizes and many industries looking to get more done and scale.

QBench takes a unique approach to LIMS by creating a highly configurable and flexible LIMS. This puts the power to make changes into your hands. Since all labs operate and evolve differently, they need a flexible LIMS that adapts with them over time.

Many QBench customers have felt the pain of legacy LIMS and how vendor-created, code-driven customizations lead to slow, costly updates. Rather than slow you down, QBench’s deep workflow configurability and flexible, easy-to-use tools allow for quick workflow adjustments, report modifications, and automation tweaks.

Boasting powerful automation features, the ability to configure your LIMS to adapt to your lab's needs, and a growing list of integrations, it’s no wonder that QBench was awarded numerous badges in 2025 from G2, currently ranks #1 on G2's Highest-Rated LIMS list, reached #1 on G2's Easiest to Use LIMS List, and has ranked #1 on G2’s Highest-Rated LIMS in North America list for the last year.

QBench is privately owned by a group of families and software investors with over 30 years of lab experience and a long-term time horizon, meaning that they prioritize building the best culture, continuous innovation, and a business that drives value for customers for many years to come. This is a strong contrast to many of the LIMS owned by private equity firms, where there’s an explicit goal to cut costs, extract as much value from customers in a short time, and then resell the business in 3-4 years. QBench's employees are distributed globally to serve customers worldwide, but most employees (85%) are in North America (as of mid-2025).

QBench packs a punch with powerful tools for:

• Configurable workflows
• Reporting tools
• Custom fields
• A Customer Portal
• No-code Automations
• Inventory Management
• QMS (Quality Management System)
• Billing Management
• A Robust API
• Powerful admin controls & user permissions

And more!

With all this power, you won’t have to sacrifice ease of use, though. QBench is quick to implement and easy for your entire team to use. QBench is well-reviewed on G2 with 125 reviews and 4.6 out of 5 stars. Over 95% of QBench's reviews are from customers in North America.

QBench is the Momentum Leader on G2's Grid for LIMS. QBench also ranks higher than the category average for Ease of Use, Ease of Setup, Ease of Doing Business With, Quality of Support, and Ease of Admin. G2 Spring 2025 LIMS category awards for QBench include Momentum Leader (#1), Best Results (#1), Best Relationship (#1), and High Performer Small Business and Mid-Market(#1).

Here’s a sample of what customers are saying about QBench:

LabWare

LabWare has been around for many years and, like QBench, earns high marks for customer satisfaction. They excel at on-premises deployments and serve many large pharmaceutical companies. It is a solid option for labs looking to digitize the capturing of lab notebook data and also improve their lab efficiency thanks to LabWare’s connected  ELN and LIMS. It boasts many automation capabilities, QA/QC features, and instrument integrations. LabWare is customizable and even has its own programming language, LIMS Basic. They also offer regional technical support in more than 15 languages.

LabWare’s implementation and ongoing services costs can be significant (hundreds of thousands of dollars). If you have a large budget to pay LabWare to set everything up, write custom code to meet your lab’s unique workflow needs, and a future budget to pay them to modify workflows as your lab changes, then LabWare could be an excellent option. If you need support in multiple languages, a global support team, or a team of developers that can learn LabWare’s custom programming language, then LabWare might be a good option to explore.

Founded in 1987, LabWare has been around for a while and has evolved over the years.  LabWare is privately owned and has roughly 31% of its staff in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, & Africa), 29% in North America, 24% in South America, and 16% in Asia (according to LinkedIn and as of mid-2024). LabWare's reviews come from 62% of customers in North America, 19% in Europe, and 11% in Asia. LabWare is well-reviewed on G2 with 101 reviews and an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars. About 44% of LabWare’s reviews on G2 are from Pharmaceutical companies (as of mid-2024).

STARLIMS

Like LabWare, STARLIMS is a legacy LIMS player in the market. 

STARLIMS was founded in 1986 and has a storied history in the lab and healthcare industry. In 2005, STARLIMS was the LIMS of choice for the CDC, and the company even went public with an IPO in 2007. STARLIMS was then acquired by Francisco Partners in 2021, and later acquired a London-based company specializing in ELN software in 2023.

Today, STARLIMS still offers a robust LIMS platform alongside an ELN (electronic lab notebook) and SDMS (scientific data management system). Like many legacy players, STARLIMS may be seen more as an ELN first and LIMS second, though that’s not to say their LIMS is not powerful to support a wide set of use cases for labs. 

STARLIMS serves a global customer base, but features manufacturing, clinical diagnostics, and public health as its primary areas of focus (no doubt thanks to its history in the space). STARLIMS is well-rated on G2, earning high marks for ease of use, functionality, and automation capabilities; at the same time, users mention slowness in the product and issues with data management.  

QBench vs. LabWare vs. STARLIMS: A Side-By-Side Comparison

For a deeper comparison of QBench, LabWare, and STARLIMS, let’s walk through a side-by-side view of how they stack up.

According to limswiki.org, “GSA prices represent the lowest possible negotiated price. These prices aren't available to any entity outside of the Federal Government, and thus prices for non-government entities will be higher.”

On-Prem vs Cloud-Based: What You Need to Know

Buyers need to understand some key differences in how the software they are considering is deployed. Many legacy LIMS vendors (those that have been around for 20+ years) have built sizable on-premises install bases with hefty upfront perpetual license fees and annual maintenance + support fees. Since they charge a lot upfront for the perpetual license and implementations for their on-prem solutions, their incentives are to create vendor lock-in through complicated setups that need ongoing services when a lab needs to adjust its workflow. 

This approach to LIMS  gets them ongoing professional services revenue from existing customers but leaves customers feeling locked in and nickel-and-dimed for small changes. The legacy vendors now all tout their cloud offerings, but the truth is those product offerings are much, much newer, much less developed, and much less powerful than their on-premises offerings. On-premises offerings often require purchases of hardware, physical space for servers, and the hiring of IT staff to maintain and upgrade the hardware over time.

Both LabWare and STARLIMS highlight their ELN product and their LIMS product. If your primary use case is an Electronic Lab Notebook, then LabWare and STARLIMS would be better options than QBench. Check if using the ELN adds significant additional cost, though.

Make Sure You Choose a LIMS That Values Product Innovation and Support

Three additional essential considerations when picking a LIMS partner are:

1. Their product innovation and update cadence.
2. Turning customer feedback into new features.
3. The quality of their support.

QBench outshines the industry on innovation, listening to customers, and quality of support.

1. QBench releases product updates monthly.
2. QBench has a customer feedback platform where customers can suggest features, vote on proposed features, and see the roadmap of customer-suggested features. Every QBench release contains features that customers ask for.
3. QBench exceeds the industry average on G2 for quality of support and is one of the top things highlighted in QBench reviews.

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All three offer a LIMS that can help automate processes and scale your lab, but as you can see, QBench leads the pack with spectacular G2 ratings, an industry-leading rate of innovation, outstanding support, and the differentiated value of being the most configurable & flexible LIMS.

Why Labs Love QBench LIMS

There’s a reason that QBench is a consistent leader across categories on G2; labs can get more done with QBench LIMS.

Here are the top reasons why labs of all sizes love QBench LIMS.

• No-code automations: Our no-code automations give you the power to design and create workflows to meet your lab’s needs without a line of custom code.
• Robust API Support: Whether you want to integrate instruments or other systems, QBench has a robust RESTful API that can power your needs.
• Ease of use: Despite having such a powerful and configurable platform, QBench consistently earns top marks for ease of use.
• Built-in QMS: With QBench LIMS, you get a built-in, tightly integrated QMS experience as opposed to having to purchase and integrate a separate compliance management platform.
• Integrates with dozens of popular software platforms: QBench LIMS integrates with dozens of popular software platforms, including CRMs, accounting platforms, business intelligence platforms, and more. And if QBench doesn’t have a native connection, the API allows you to connect anything you want.

QBench consistently earns high marks for its responsive and helpful support on top of its powerful software platform.

Choose A Robust Yet User-Friendly LIMS: Schedule a Demo of QBench LIMS Today

Between these three choices, it can be hard to determine which LIMS is right for your lab. If you’re stumped on features, we’d recommend taking a step back to review your lab’s needs.

 If you are looking for a LIMS that provides:

• Numerous integrations and API access
• Automation
• Reporting
• No-code configuration
• Ease of use
• Excellent support

Then look no further than QBench.

Choose a LIMS that helps your lab work smarter with unparalleled flexibility to drive whatever the future brings. It’s one of the reasons we’re so proud that this commitment continually gets recognized by G2, and why QBench ranks among the best LIMS of 2024. Click the button below to schedule a demo and see for yourself.

LabWare is a registered trademark of LabWare Holdings, Inc. STARLIMS is a registered trademark of STARLIMS CORPORATION. QBench is not affiliated with or endorsed by LabWare Holdings, Inc. or STARLIMS CORPORATION.