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Research · head to head

Aurelius vs LabArchives

Aurelius logo

Aurelius

Research

UX research repository for tagging notes, building insights and finding them again years later

From
$49/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
LabArchives logo

LabArchives

Research

Electronic lab notebook with witnessing, version history and long-term institutional retention

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only LabArchives has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Aurelius aurelius does not recruit participants or run unmoderated studies, so it is always a second tool alongside a testing or recruitment platform and never the whole research budget.; LabArchives the corporate rate is roughly 75 per cent above the academic rate for the same product, so a university spinout crossing into commercial status faces a step change in cost at exactly the point its budget is tightest.
  • They diverge on capability: Aurelius covers Research repository, LabArchives covers Versioned entries.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Aurelius and LabArchives actually diverge.

Attributes where Aurelius and LabArchives differ
AttributeAureliusLabArchives
Starting price$49/monthFree
Pricing modelFlat monthly fee, unlimited usersPer user per year
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Research).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Aurelius

  • Research repository
  • Analysis board
  • Tagging
  • Insights and recommendations
  • Transcription
  • AI assist
  • Automatic report builder
  • Universal search

Only in LabArchives

  • Versioned entries
  • Witnessing and signing
  • Inventory
  • Scheduler
  • Education edition
  • Single sign-on
  • Structured data entry
  • DOI and repository publishing

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Aurelius

  • A research team of three whose findings currently live in individual Miro boards and Google Docs that nobody outside the team can find six months laternot LabArchives
  • A product organisation that wants every designer and product manager to search past research without paying forty repository seatsnot LabArchives
  • A consultancy running discovery for multiple clients that needs tagged evidence kept separate per client but searchable internallynot LabArchives
  • A team preparing a repeat study who need to know what was already learned about the same problem two years ago before they recruit anyonenot LabArchives

LabArchives

  • A university group that must keep research records after a PhD student leaves, rather than losing them with a laptopnot Aurelius
  • A core facility that needs instrument booking and a shared record of who ran what and whennot Aurelius
  • A small biotech building patent-defensible evidence of invention with witnessed, timestamped entriesnot Aurelius
  • A teaching department running undergraduate laboratory courses where instructors need to see and grade notebook worknot Aurelius

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Aurelius

  • Aurelius does not recruit participants or run unmoderated studies, so it is always a second tool alongside a testing or recruitment platform and never the whole research budget.
  • Integrations are thin, with Zapier, Jira and Slack rather than direct connections to the call recording and testing tools most teams already run, so getting material in often means manual upload.
  • The tag vocabulary is only as good as the discipline applied to it, and repositories where several researchers invent overlapping tags become unsearchable within a year with no built-in governance to prevent it.
  • Unlimited users is genuinely unlimited but permissions are basic below Enterprise, so a team that needs client-safe or stakeholder-only views has to buy the quoted tier for something that reads as a table-stakes control.
  • It is a small independent vendor competing with much better funded repositories, which is a real procurement risk for an organisation storing years of research in it, and enterprise assurance material such as penetration test reports sits behind the top tier.

LabArchives

  • The corporate rate is roughly 75 per cent above the academic rate for the same product, so a university spinout crossing into commercial status faces a step change in cost at exactly the point its budget is tightest.
  • Inventory and Scheduler are separate per-user line items, so a lab that assumed one price per person for a working system ends up paying two or three.
  • It is now a Dotmatics product inside a large scientific software portfolio, which puts roadmap priority with enterprise pharmaceutical buyers rather than with the academic labs that made it popular.
  • The interface is functional rather than pleasant, and adoption typically fails not on features but on researchers quietly continuing to keep notes elsewhere; you need a mandate, not a rollout email.
  • Instrument integration is thin compared with dedicated laboratory information management systems, so automated capture from analytical equipment usually still means manual upload or custom scripting.

Pricing, plan by plan

Aurelius

$49/month
  • Professional$49/month
    • Unlimited users
    • Unlimited projects and storage
    • Notes, tags and documents
  • Premium$199/month
    • Everything in Professional
    • Recommendations
    • Universal search across projects
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Everything in Premium
    • SSO with SAML 2.0
    • IP allowlisting

LabArchives

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Limited storage
    • Core notebook and versioning
    • Intended for evaluation and individual use
  • Professional (Academic)$330/year
    • Full ELN with witnessing and signing
    • Academic rate per user per year
    • Corporate rate is $575 per user per year
  • ELN plus Inventory bundle$360/year
    • Notebook plus sample and reagent inventory
    • Academic rate; corporate rate is $675 per user per year
  • Inventory standalone$99/year
    • Sample tracking without the notebook
    • Academic rate; corporate rate is $199 per user per year

Which should you pick?

Choose Aurelius if

  • You need research repository.
  • You also want analysis board.
Aurelius review

Choose LabArchives if

  • You need versioned entries.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want witnessing and signing.
LabArchives review

Questions people ask

Is Aurelius or LabArchives better?
Neither clearly leads. Aurelius starts at $49/month and LabArchives at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Aurelius or LabArchives?
LabArchives has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $49/month for Aurelius and Free for LabArchives.
Does Aurelius or LabArchives run on more platforms?
Aurelius runs on Web. LabArchives runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use LabArchives for free?
Yes. LabArchives has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Aurelius starts at $49/month.
What is Aurelius best used for?
Aurelius is most often used for a research team of three whose findings currently live in individual miro boards and google docs that nobody outside the team can find six months later, a product organisation that wants every designer and product manager to search past research without paying forty repository seats, a consultancy running discovery for multiple clients that needs tagged evidence kept separate per client but searchable internally, a team preparing a repeat study who need to know what was already learned about the same problem two years ago before they recruit anyone. Of those, a research team of three whose findings currently live in individual miro boards and google docs that nobody outside the team can find six months later and a product organisation that wants every designer and product manager to search past research without paying forty repository seats are not what LabArchives is typically brought in for.
What can Aurelius do that LabArchives cannot?
Aurelius covers Research repository, Analysis board, Tagging, Insights and recommendations. LabArchives covers Versioned entries, Witnessing and signing, Inventory, Scheduler.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Aurelius: Does the price really include unlimited users?

Yes. Professional at 49 US dollars a month and Premium at 199, both billed yearly, both with unlimited users, projects and storage.

LabArchives: Does LabArchives satisfy patent evidence requirements?

Its versioning, timestamping and witnessed signatures are designed for that purpose, and it is widely accepted for it, but the legal weight depends on your institution's process being followed, not on the software alone.

Aurelius: Can I run usability tests in it?

No. Aurelius stores and analyses research; it does not recruit participants or host sessions. Pair it with a testing tool.

LabArchives: Who owns LabArchives?

Dotmatics. The product is branded LabArchives by Dotmatics and shares that company's corporate footprint.

Aurelius: What is the difference between Professional and Premium?

Premium adds universal cross-project search, collections, recommendations and Zapier. If your value comes from finding old research, Premium is the tier that delivers it.

LabArchives: Is there really a free tier?

Yes, with limited storage. It is suitable for trialling or a single researcher, not for a group that needs retention guarantees.

Aurelius: Is there single sign-on?

Only on Enterprise, along with IP allowlisting, Jira and advanced permissions. Everything below is quoted separately.

LabArchives: Can we export everything if we leave?

Yes, notebooks export in bulk, but exported archives lose much of the interactive structure, so treat the export as an archive rather than as a migration path into another ELN.

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