Labguru overview
Verdict. The best-reviewed ELN in our set, 4.6 out of 5 across 165 reviews, with feature coverage second only to Benchling: plate design, chemistry, dashboards and a first-party LIMS. The catch is evidence, not capability — beyond 21 CFR Part 11, ISO 27001 and GDPR, the compliance picture is unverified, with SOC 2, Annex 11 and HIPAA all unknown.
Last verified
At a glance
| Vendor | Cenevo (Battery Ventures), London, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Deployment | cloud |
| Lab size | small, mid, enterprise |
| Pricing | Quote only. No current public price verified. The model is commercial and quote-based, and no minimum licence count, annual commitment or setup fee is published. A free trial exists, though we could not capture its current duration. Cost for smaller labs appears as a recurring theme in independent reviews. |
| Modules | experiment-templates, protocols, inventory, sample-management, instrument-integration, chemical-drawing, plate-management, data-analysis, e-signature, lims-integration, reporting, collaboration, api |
Compliance evidence
| Standard | Evidence | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 21-cfr-part-11 | Documented | Dedicated help page covering electronic signature, witnessing, audit trail and record locking or versioning. source |
| iso-27001 | Documented | Security page states operation in accordance with ISO 27001. source |
| gdpr | Documented | GDPR referenced on the same security page. source |
| eu-annex-11 | Unknown | |
| gamp-5 | Unknown | |
| soc-2 | Unknown | |
| hipaa | Unknown | |
| iso-17025 | Unknown |
Assessment by dimension
Editorial reading of documented evidence, not a hands-on test. See how we assess.
- Overall fit Strong
Explicitly segmented from start-ups to large pharma and CRO or CDMO labs, and the documented platform scope matches that range.
- Compliance Mixed
Part 11, ISO 27001 and GDPR documented, but SOC 2, Annex 11, GAMP 5, HIPAA and ISO 17025 are all unverified.
- Deployment execution Mixed
Public and single-tenant private cloud documented with a good region spread, but on-premise status is ambiguous.
- Pricing transparency Limited
No current public price, no published minimum licences or commitment, and trial duration not captured.
- Usability Strong
4.6 out of 5 across 165 reviews, with an intuitive interface as the most recurring positive theme.
- Support Strong
Support recurs as a positive theme across a 165-review base, alongside flexibility and customisation.
What Labguru is
Labguru is an integrated platform that “integrates an electronic lab notebook, LIMS, inventory management, automation, and informatics”, with the notebook itself described as “created by scientists for scientists”. The product began in 2008 under BioData Inc. and has been through a corporate reshaping since:
- April 2024 — Battery Ventures acquires BioData and Labguru, pairing it with Titian Software
- 30 July 2025 — Labguru and Titian rebrand as Cenevo, headquartered in London
Labguru survives as the product name inside Cenevo, so expect to meet both names — Labguru in the interface and the documentation, Cenevo on the contract and in the G2 profile. That split is worth knowing before you search for reviews and wonder why the vendor name does not match.
The vendor segments its offer from start-ups and biotechs through large pharma, plus CRO and CDMO labs, and the documented feature scope genuinely spans that range.
Capabilities we could document
This is the widest documented coverage after Benchling: predefined and custom protocols, protocol workflows, inventory, LIMS and inventory sample workflows, instrument integration through a measurement API, a chemistry module that sketches, registers and queries structures, Plate Designer, Dashboards and Insights, a 21 CFR Part 11 electronic signature workflow, LIMS as a first-party product rather than an integration, reports, a Customer Portal for external collaboration, and an API offering broad CRUD access.
Two qualifications. The biological entity registry is only partially documented: collections and inventory support biological items, but we could not establish parity with Benchling’s registry. And there is no standalone quality management module, though validated controls exist.
The Customer Portal deserves a mention of its own — for a CRO or CDMO that has to give clients visibility into work in progress, an external-facing portal is a specific, hard-to-replace capability rather than a generic collaboration feature.
Deployment and implementation
Public cloud and single-tenant private cloud are both documented, with EU, US, Canada and UK options cited — one of the better hosting spreads here.
On-premise is the ambiguous one. Documentation exists for private and on-premise servers, but we could not establish whether it remains part of the current commercial offer for new customers. We record that ambiguity rather than resolving it in either direction: if running inside your own infrastructure is a hard requirement, ask the vendor and get the answer in writing. SciSure and SciNote both document on-premise unambiguously.
No generic implementation timeframe is published.
Pricing
No current public price. Quote-based, with no published minimum licence count, annual commitment or setup fee, and a free trial whose current duration we could not capture.
One signal from the review base is worth passing on: cost appears as a recurring negative specifically for smaller labs. That is not a price, and we will not turn it into one, but it suggests where the commercial model is pitched and what to probe in a negotiation if you are a small team.
Compliance
21 CFR Part 11 is documented on a dedicated help page that names the specific controls — electronic signature, witnessing, audit trail, record locking and versioning — which is the level of detail worth having. ISO 27001 and GDPR are documented on the security page.
Then it stops. SOC 2, EU Annex 11, GAMP 5, HIPAA and ISO 17025 are all unknown. For a product with this much capability, that is a thinner evidence base than SciNote’s public trust portal or Benchling’s dual Part 11 and Annex 11 documentation.
The distinction matters: unknown means our research found no sufficiently clear public proof, not that the controls are absent. A vendor with this customer base very likely has more to show than it publishes. But procurement acts on evidence, and right now the published evidence stops at three frameworks.
Who it’s for, and who it isn’t
Labguru fits labs that want the notebook, LIMS, inventory and automation from one first-party platform, teams needing plate design and chemistry registration together, and CRO or CDMO labs that must give clients a window into their work.
It does not fit labs that need a confirmed on-premise deployment, procurement teams that need SOC 2 evidenced today, or small labs where per-seat cost decides. On the evidence we could gather, it is the most capable platform here with the least documented compliance posture — and which of those two facts weighs more depends entirely on who has to sign off on your purchase.
Alternatives to Labguru
- Benchling: If a structured biological entity registry is the requirement, which Labguru only partially matches through collections.
- SciNote: If auditable compliance evidence and a local install matter more than feature breadth and interface polish.
- SciSure: The other ELN, LIMS and inventory platform here, with on-premise clearly documented rather than ambiguous.
- LabArchives: If published pricing and a permanent free tier decide it, and a records-focused notebook is enough.
FAQ
Is Labguru the same thing as Cenevo?
Labguru is the product, Cenevo is the company. Battery Ventures acquired BioData, the original publisher, in April 2024 and paired it with Titian Software; the two rebranded as Cenevo on 30 July 2025. Labguru continues as a product name within that group, so both names will appear in documentation and contracts.
Can Labguru be installed on our own servers?
We cannot confirm it for new contracts. Documentation exists for private and on-premise servers, but we could not establish whether on-premise is still part of the current commercial offer. Single-tenant private cloud is documented, which meets many isolation requirements. Ask the vendor directly if on-premise is a hard constraint.
How much does Labguru cost?
No current public price was verified. The model is quote-based, with no published minimum licence count, annual commitment or setup fee. A free trial exists but we could not capture its current duration. Independent reviewers raise cost specifically in the context of smaller labs, which is worth probing when you negotiate.
Is Labguru SOC 2 certified?
We found no clear current product-level proof, so we record SOC 2 as unknown. ISO 27001 is documented on the security page and GDPR is referenced there too. If SOC 2 is a procurement requirement, ask for the report itself and check its type, scope and period rather than accepting a general assurance.
Sources
- Labguru — Home (accessed 2026-09-18)
- Labguru — ELN (accessed 2026-09-18)
- Labguru — Security (accessed 2026-09-18)
- Labguru — 21 CFR Part 11 (accessed 2026-09-18)
- Cenevo — Labguru and Titian Software rebrand as Cenevo (accessed 2026-09-18)
- Cenevo — About (accessed 2026-09-18)
- G2 — Cenevo reviews (accessed 2026-09-18)