The Top 9 LabWare Alternatives
While LabWare ranks high among popular LIMS platforms, there are a number of reasons to seek an alternative.
If you’re looking for a suitable alternative to LabWare that services modern labs seeking a flexible, configurable, and easy-to-use LIMS, then you are in the right place. We scoured the internet, read reviews, and compiled customer feedback and pricing information into this guide to help you choose from among the best LabWare alternatives.
Why Look for an Alternative to LabWare?
LabWare is well-rated on G2, but that doesn’t make it the perfect choice for every lab.
While LabWare users praise the platform for its API integrations, automation capabilities, and other robust features, they also take issue with data management issues, customization difficulties, and frustrations with LabWare integrations.
While LabWare pricing is not available, evidence suggests that its skew towards enterprise likely makes it a $100,000 or more investment per year, depending on the client.
The 9 Best LabWare Alternatives
Which of all the LIMS on the market today will you choose? There are dozens of LIMS available, so to save you time, here are the top cloud-based LIMS that we’ve found.
We ranked these based on an assessment of:
- Their G2 rankings and reviews
- Their feature set and how well-suited they are to modern labs
- Their flexibility and adaptability
- Their implementation timeframe
So here are the top nine LIMS on the market. We’ll walk you through each one so you can compare them side-by-side.
QBench is the leading option for labs of all sizes looking to scale operations efficiently.
What sets QBench apart is its highly configurable, flexible approach that puts customization power directly in your hands — no coding required. With software updates released every three weeks, QBench demonstrates a commitment to continuous innovation and user-centricity that adapts to your lab's evolving needs.
That’s not just us saying so.
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 has shown an exceptional growth trajectory based on user satisfaction scores, employee growth, and digital presence — outperforming competitors across the Customer Satisfaction dimension.
What is a Momentum Leader? G2 states, "Our Momentum Grid shows the growth trajectory that products have had in their respective spaces over the last year. The Momentum Grid identifies products that are on a high-growth trajectory based on user satisfaction scores, employee growth, and digital presence."
Second-time LIMS buyers consistently choose QBench after experiencing the limitations of legacy systems. Unlike vendor-created, code-driven customizations that lead to slow, costly updates, QBench offers deep workflow configurability and flexible, user-friendly tools for quick workflow adjustments, report modifications, and automation enhancements.
Over 95% of QBench's reviews are from customers in North America. 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, which adhere to an explicit goal to cut costs, extract as much value from customers in a short time as possible, and then resell the business in 3-4 years. QBench's employees are distributed globally to serve customers around the world, but the majority of critical-role employees (88%) are located in North America.
QBench offers multiple tiers, though their 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. With all this power, you won’t have to sacrifice ease of use, though.
It’s no surprise that QBench leads several categories on G2, has 125 reviews (as of June 2025), and has earned 4.5/5 stars.
Price: Starts at $249/user/month with a discount for 20+ users
Notable features:
- Configurable automations
- Reports and data visualizations
- Inventory management
- Sample management
- Robust API support
- Billing and invoicing support
- WYSIWYG report template editor
- Integrated QMS
- BI integrations
Industries served:
- Materials & Manufacturing
- Food & Beverage
- Biotech & Life Sciences
- Diagnostic
- Agriculture
- Environmental
Thermo Scientific is a well-known name in lab equipment, so it’s no surprise that their LIMS would appear on any “best of” list. The Thermo Scientific SampleManager LIMS includes many of the features you’d see in any other LIMS, such as automations, sample management, workflows, instrument integration, and reporting. Their LIMS is primarily ranked 9th easiest to use.
Thermo Scientific is a large public company with over 65,000 employees. It is unclear how many of them work on the SampleManager product or where that employee group is located. Thermo Scientific has 111 reviews on G2 (as of January 2025) and 4.3/5 stars. SampleManager LIMS is a truly global product with 37 reviews from customers in North America, 35 from customers in Asia, 12 from customers in Australia, 10 from customers in Europe, and more.
Price: No public pricing available, but it is very likely the product is priced for large enterprises (e.g., $100,000 per year or more).
Notable features:
- Sample management
- Lab automation and workflows
- Instrument management
- Inventory management
- Collaboration
- Dashboards and data visualizations
- Compliance features
Industries served:
- Contract testing
- Chemical and petrochemical
- Clinical testing
- Clean energy
- Environmental
- Food and beverage
- Forensics
- Manufacturing
- Metals and mining
- Oil and gas
- Pharma and biopharma
Labguru is a great option for small labs looking to streamline and scale their operations with a focus on simplicity, ease of use, and user-friendliness. Labguru is what we'd categorize as more ELN-forward (learn more about the difference between a LIMS and ELN) and focused on inventory management, but they do offer a LIMS alongside their ELN at present. Previously, Labguru was owned by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a European publishing house. As of 2025, Labguru is now owned by Titian Software, a UK-based Sample Management business, which is itself owned by the private equity division of Battery Ventures. Roughly 43% of its staff are located in Europe and the Middle East, 30% in North America, and 28% in Asia.
Like QBench, Labguru is well-reviewed on G2 with a 4.6/5 stars overall. 34% of their reviews are from customers in Europe, 32% from the Middle East, and 32% from North America (according to LinkedIn).
Price: Not available
Notable features:
- Built-in ELN
- Inventory management
- Reports and visualizations in premium tiers
- Automation in premium tiers
- API support in premium tiers
Industries served:
- Biotech
- Pharma
- Food and Beverage
- Molecular farming
- CRO/Service labs
- QC Labs
Genemod is a newer LIMS + ELN platform focused 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 in the market. It appears their most powerful features are gated behind their highest tiers, while their lowest tier is a better option for labs looking to start digitizing their inventory as opposed to hitting the ground running with a LIMS. While they serve a number of industries, most of their marketing messaging is aimed at R&D and Biotech labs.
Price: Not available, but their plans are listed on their website.
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
eLabNext (formerly eLab) is, like Genemod, an ELN + LIMS solution rather than a pure LIMS. Their ELN product is well-featured with support for documentation, collaboration, and version controls, while their LIMS is a bit more limited to sample management, inventory management, and equipment management. eLabNext offers simple workflow automation features, with the ability to create templates to standardize procedures in your lab. One unique aspect of eLabNext is its marketplace with add-ons to customize your platform based on your unique needs.
eLabNext’s team is small at 56 employees, but they have been around for a while (2010) and are mainly based in the United States with one international office in the Netherlands.
Price: Not available, but their plans are listed on their website.
Notable features:
- ELN
- Sample management
- Inventory management
- Equipment management
- Workflow automation
- Marketplace with addons to customize your platform
Industries served:
- Life sciences
- Biotech
- Academic Institutions
Benchling is another popular LIMS platform, though traditionally it is more of an ELN-forward product than a true LIMS. Added to that, it is one of the pricier options on our list. Benchling sports a robust set of features, especially those suited for biotech and R&D labs. Benchling is privately owned by 23 investors. Roughly 87% of its employees are in North America, and 11% are in EMEA (according to LinkedIn). Benchling is well-reviewed on G2 with 4.5/5 stars. Although they haven't had a new review on G2 since November 2023.
Price: Last published on their website in 2020, pricing started at around $20,000/year for 5 users on the professional plan. It is believed the pricing has increased significantly since then.
Notable features:
- Centralize and standardize data
- Generate reports and visualizations
- Manage workflows
- Sample and inventory management
Industries served:
- Biopharmaceutical
- Biotech
- Agriculture
Lockbox LIMS (by Thirdwave Analytics) is a well-regarded player in the LIMS space. Lockbox LIMS boasts 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 LIMS is privately owned. Roughly 95% of its employees are located in North America and 5% in Europe (according to LinkedIn). Lockbox LIMS is well-rated on G2 with 4.9/5 stars.
Price: No public pricing available.
Notable features:
- Sample management
- Inventory management
- Integrations
- Instrument management
- Freezer management
- Customer portal
Industries served:
- Biobanking
- Biotech
- NGS Labs
- QC Labs
Like many on this list, CloudLIMS is a SaaS cloud-based LIMS that offers a wide variety of solutions to labs. CloudLIMS offers a variety of features for biobanks and medical labs, including a client portal, a patient and physician portal, and the ability to manage packages and shipments along with other standard LIMS features like sample management, inventory management, and automation support.
Notably, CloudLIMS offers free onboarding and complimentary support in its plans.
Price: CloudLIMS offers a range of plans starting at $38/user/month up 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.
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
LabVantage is a solid option for labs looking to get started with automation and streamlining their operations. LabVantage offers a cloud-based LIMS and ELN solution with sample management, inventory management, and reporting features among its broader feature set. Similar to LabWare, they excel at large, on-premises deployments and serving pharmaceutical companies. The latest version of LabVantage, LabVantage 8.8, was released on December 7, 2022.
LabVantage was originally founded in 1981 as Laboratory MicroSystems. It was sold in 1990 to Instron, which later sold the company to The Chatterjee Group in 1997. It is now believed to be owned by a combination of The Chatterjee Group, the private equity firm Bregal Sagemount, and the private equity firm Apollo Investment Corporation.
Roughly 62% of its staff are located in Asia, 19% in North America, and 18% in Europe (according to LinkedIn). LabVantage has 19 reviews and 3.8/5 stars on G2 (as of January 2025). That said, they haven't had a new review on G2 since October 2022, which is why they rank a bit lower on our list.
Price: No public pricing available, but it is very likely the product is priced for large enterprises (e.g., $100,000 per year or more). The pricing that can be found is part of the GSA Advantage program, which is typically the lowest price available and exclusive to government contracts. These prices are unlikely to be available to businesses, but they can help a lab building a vendor short list understand the price range they might encounter. Perpetual license GSA Advantage price from 2020 of $4239.29/user + 15% support & maintenance fee of $635.89/user/year for patches and updates, and upgrades after the first 90 days + additional costs for hardware and IT staff if you choose on-premises deployment
Notable features:
- Integrated ELN
- Reporting features
- Sample management
- Data management
- Data privacy and security
Industries served:
- Biobanking
- Cancer Research
- Contract Testing
- Diagnostics
- Food and Beverage
- Forensics
- Oil and Gas
- Pharma
- Public Health
A Side-by-Side Look at these LabWare Alternatives
We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, so a side-by-side comparison of these LabWare 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 were able to retrieve is outdated or does not reflect the pricing you hear directly from the company should you agree to 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.
Why Labs Look to QBench as the Best LabWare 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.
That said, we’ve compiled a list of the top reasons why labs of all sizes love QBench LIMS.
Configurable automations
As you can see from the list above, automation is key for any scaling lab. With QBench, 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 tools such as a client portal, billing, QuickBooks, inventory management, and quality management systems.
What’s more, QBench is configurable, meaning that you can easily adjust automations on the fly. There is no need for complex development work or custom code — if you can dream it, you can build it.
Robust API support
The more connected your lab software and instruments are, the smoother things will go 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 and provides insights into lab performance.
QBench’s API support adds to the flexibility of its LIMS, helping you get more done and achieve your laboratory objectives.
Ease of use
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.
QBench consistently earns high marks for its responsive and helpful support on top of its powerful software platform.
Looking for the Best LabWare Alternative? Modern Labs Choose QBench
The LIMS market is growing, but don’t get overwhelmed by the options when looking for the best LIMS of 2025.
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
Then look no further than QBench.
A LIMS should help your lab work smarter and with unparalleled flexibility to drive whatever the future brings. It’s one of the reasons we’re so proud that this commitment is continually recognized by G2 and why QBench ranks among the best LIMS of 2025.
Click the button below to schedule a demo and see for yourself.
