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Research · head to head

Greenphire vs Terra

Greenphire logo

Greenphire

Research

Clinical trial participant payments, reimbursement and travel, now part of Suvoda

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Terra logo

Terra

Research

Open biomedical research platform for genomic analysis, priced only by the cloud you consume

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Terra has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Greenphire the standalone greenphire.com site now redirects to Suvoda and the brands have been integrated, so buyers are contracting with a randomisation and supply vendor and should expect cross selling rather than an independent payments specialist.; Terra the absence of a licence fee hides the real cost driver: an idle notebook virtual machine left running overnight, or a workspace bucket full of intermediate workflow outputs, quietly consumes grant money with no vendor invoice to prompt a review.
  • They diverge on capability: Greenphire covers ClinCard, Terra covers No platform licence fee.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Greenphire and Terra actually diverge.

Attributes where Greenphire and Terra differ
AttributeGreenphireTerra
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure

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 Greenphire

  • ClinCard
  • Direct to bank payment
  • Expense reimbursement
  • Travel and logistics
  • Site payments
  • Budgeting and benchmarking
  • Tax handling

Only in Terra

  • No platform licence fee
  • Cloud pass-through billing
  • WDL workflow execution
  • Notebook environments
  • Controlled-access data
  • Workspace sharing
  • Compliance posture
  • Multi-cloud

What people use each for

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

Greenphire

  • A global Phase III trial paying stipends across many countries where participants cannot practically be reimbursed by sponsor accounts payablenot Terra
  • A decentralised or hybrid trial where participants travel long distances and the sponsor funds flights and accommodationnot Terra
  • A trial in a population where slow reimbursement drives dropout and same day payment materially helps retentionnot Terra
  • A sponsor that wants site payment milestones and participant payments handled by one vendor rather than twonot Terra

Terra

  • A genomics lab running whole-genome alignment and variant calling pipelines without provisioning or maintaining a local clusternot Greenphire
  • A consortium sharing controlled-access human data across institutions where the data cannot be copied to each sitenot Greenphire
  • A health system analysing patient genomic data under a HIPAA business associate agreementnot Greenphire
  • A federal or federally funded project needing FedRAMP Moderate authorisation for its analysis environmentnot Greenphire

Where each one falls short

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

Greenphire

  • The standalone greenphire.com site now redirects to Suvoda and the brands have been integrated, so buyers are contracting with a randomisation and supply vendor and should expect cross selling rather than an independent payments specialist.
  • Nothing is published on price, and the typical shape of a platform fee plus per participant and per transaction charges means the cost of a trial is not knowable until enrolment is known.
  • Payment method availability varies sharply by country, so a global protocol may end up with card payments in some regions and slow manual processes in others, which undermines the retention argument that justified the purchase.
  • Sites bear the administrative work of enrolling participants and triggering payments but are not the buyer, so adoption depends on the sponsor mandating it and site resistance is a real implementation risk.
  • Participant payments create tax reporting obligations that differ per jurisdiction, and the tooling helps but does not remove sponsor liability, so legal and finance review is required in every country the trial runs in.

Terra

  • The absence of a licence fee hides the real cost driver: an idle notebook virtual machine left running overnight, or a workspace bucket full of intermediate workflow outputs, quietly consumes grant money with no vendor invoice to prompt a review.
  • Cost governance is entirely the customer responsibility, and grant-funded groups without a cloud engineer routinely overspend before anyone reads the Google or Azure bill in enough detail to find the cause.
  • It assumes genuine bioinformatics competence: writing or adapting WDL workflows, managing data tables and debugging failed tasks are all on you, so a wet lab without computational staff cannot use it productively.
  • Feature parity between the Google Cloud and Azure deployments is not identical, so a decision on cloud provider constrains which capabilities and datasets you can reach and is expensive to reverse later.
  • It is a research platform rather than a regulated clinical system: it is not a validated GxP environment and does not carry the qualification package a diagnostic or submission workflow would require, so clinical use needs additional infrastructure and validation you provide yourself.

Pricing, plan by plan

Greenphire

On request
  • Greenphire Patient Payments$undefined/year
    • Priced per study through a sales process
    • Typically a platform fee plus per participant and per transaction charges
    • Funding of the payment float is separate from the software fee

Terra

Free
  • Terra platformFree
    • No charge for the platform, administration, security controls or frontline support
    • Workspaces, workflow execution and notebook environments included
    • Available on Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure
  • Cloud consumption$undefined/month
    • Google Cloud or Azure charges passed through at cost with no markup
    • Running notebook virtual machines around 0.22 USD per hour, roughly 0.027 USD per hour when paused
    • Storage billed continuously on workspace buckets and intermediate workflow outputs

Which should you pick?

Choose Greenphire if

  • You need clincard.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want direct to bank payment.
Greenphire review

Choose Terra if

  • You need no platform licence fee.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure.
  • You also want cloud pass-through billing.
Terra review

Questions people ask

Is Greenphire or Terra better?
Neither clearly leads. Greenphire starts at On request and Terra at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Greenphire or Terra?
Terra has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Greenphire and Free for Terra.
Does Greenphire or Terra run on more platforms?
Greenphire runs on Web, iOS, Android. Terra runs on Web, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure.
Can I use Terra for free?
Yes. Terra has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Greenphire starts at On request.
What is Greenphire best used for?
Greenphire is most often used for a global phase iii trial paying stipends across many countries where participants cannot practically be reimbursed by sponsor accounts payable, a decentralised or hybrid trial where participants travel long distances and the sponsor funds flights and accommodation, a trial in a population where slow reimbursement drives dropout and same day payment materially helps retention, a sponsor that wants site payment milestones and participant payments handled by one vendor rather than two. Of those, a global phase iii trial paying stipends across many countries where participants cannot practically be reimbursed by sponsor accounts payable and a decentralised or hybrid trial where participants travel long distances and the sponsor funds flights and accommodation are not what Terra is typically brought in for.
What can Greenphire do that Terra cannot?
Greenphire covers ClinCard, Direct to bank payment, Expense reimbursement, Travel and logistics. Terra covers No platform licence fee, Cloud pass-through billing, WDL workflow execution, Notebook environments.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Greenphire: Is Greenphire still sold?

Yes, as Greenphire Patient Payments on the Suvoda platform. The independent website and social presence have been consolidated into Suvoda.

Terra: Is Terra really free?

The platform is. There is no licence fee. Everything you pay is Google Cloud or Azure compute, storage and egress, passed through at cost.

Greenphire: What is ClinCard?

The reloadable debit card Greenphire issues to participants. Greenphire Patient Payments was formerly known as ClinCard.

Terra: What actually drives the bill?

Running virtual machines and stored data. Pausing notebooks drops a virtual machine from about 0.22 to about 0.027 dollars an hour, and deleting intermediate workflow outputs is the other main saving.

Greenphire: Does it publish pricing?

No. Pricing is per study and quoted through sales, and funding the payments themselves is separate from the software fee.

Terra: Can I use it with protected health information?

Yes. Terra signs HIPAA business associate agreements and GDPR data processing agreements, and the Azure deployment holds FedRAMP Moderate authorisation.

Greenphire: Can it pay participants outside the United States?

Yes, in more than thirty currencies, but the available payment method depends on the country.

Terra: Is it validated for clinical or GxP use?

No. It is a research platform. Regulated clinical or submission workflows need validation and controls you build yourself.

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