openBIS
Electronic lab notebook (ELN) software
Lab inventory management software
Laboratory software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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CHF 3,000 per server per year
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What is openBIS
openBIS is an open-source laboratory information system used to register, track, and manage experimental data, samples, and related metadata across research workflows. It is commonly deployed by research institutes and lab IT teams that need a configurable platform for data management, sample tracking, and integration with instruments or analysis pipelines. The system emphasizes structured metadata, auditability, and extensibility through APIs and custom data models rather than a notebook-first user experience.
Strong data and metadata model
openBIS supports structured registration of samples, experiments, and datasets with configurable metadata schemas. This approach helps labs enforce consistent naming, provenance, and relationships between entities. It fits environments that need more than free-form notes and require traceable, queryable records over time.
Open-source and self-hostable
openBIS is available as open-source software, which can reduce vendor lock-in for organizations with internal engineering capacity. Self-hosting supports data residency requirements and internal security controls. Teams can inspect and modify the codebase to align with institutional policies and specialized workflows.
Integration and automation friendly
openBIS provides programmatic interfaces that support integration with instruments, ETL processes, and downstream analytics. This enables automated ingestion of files and metadata from lab systems and pipelines. It is well-suited to labs that treat data capture as an automated process rather than manual entry.
Higher implementation effort
openBIS typically requires configuration and technical administration to model entities, metadata, and ingestion processes. Compared with more turnkey ELN/LIMS offerings, initial setup and ongoing maintenance can be heavier. Organizations without dedicated lab IT support may struggle to deploy and evolve the system.
ELN experience may feel secondary
While openBIS can store experimental context and attachments, it is not primarily designed as a narrative, notebook-centric authoring tool. Users expecting rich, guided ELN templates, in-line editing, and collaboration features may find the experience less streamlined. Many deployments rely on complementary tools or custom UI work for notebook-style usage.
Ecosystem and support variability
As an open-source platform, support options and release cadence depend on the maintainers and any contracted service providers. Enterprises that require guaranteed SLAs, packaged validations, or regulated-industry documentation may need additional services. This can increase total effort compared with fully managed commercial platforms.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted (openBIS, Apache 2.0) | Free — open-source (Apache Licence 2.0) | Binary releases available for download; documentation (ReadTheDocs); SIS provides "best effort" email support. |
| openRDM.swiss (ETH Zurich hosted openBIS service) | First year: CHF 6,000 excl. VAT per server (one-time setup + yearly maintenance & support). Following years: CHF 3,000 excl. VAT per server per year. + infrastructure costs billed separately (SWITCHengines). | Includes installation, 100 GB storage (expandable at additional cost), daily geo-redundant backups, regular upgrades, limited customer support (business hours), yearly billing. A 4-week free test period is offered before charges begin. |
| openBIS Cloud (cloud-native offering) | Public pricing not listed on site — contact provider / sales | Cloud-native, container-based hosted offering; site provides status/manual/admin dashboard but no public pricing page. |
Seller details
openBIS (open-source project; originally developed at ETH Zurich / SISB)
Zurich, Switzerland (project origins)
Open Source
https://openbis.ch/
