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Research · head to head

LabArchives vs Remesh

LabArchives logo

LabArchives

Research

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Remesh logo

Remesh

Research

Live AI-moderated conversations with hundreds of participants at once, analysed in real time

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only LabArchives has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Remesh pricing is not published and third-party estimates put annual contracts in the tens of thousands of dollars, which puts it out of reach for teams that only run occasional qualitative studies and cannot commit to an annual platform fee.
  • They diverge on capability: LabArchives covers Versioned entries, Remesh covers Live moderated sessions.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which LabArchives and Remesh actually diverge.

Attributes where LabArchives and Remesh differ
AttributeLabArchivesRemesh
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelPer user per yearquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, API

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 LabArchives

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

Only in Remesh

  • Live moderated sessions
  • Collective dialogue
  • Flex asynchronous studies
  • Video research
  • Remy AI assistant
  • On-Demand Recruit
  • Real-time theme analysis
  • Practice sessions

What people use each for

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

LabArchives

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

Remesh

  • A brand team that needs to test three positioning statements with 400 target customers and know by the end of the day which one lands and with whomnot LabArchives
  • An HR function running an employee listening session across several thousand staff where anonymity and volume both matternot LabArchives
  • A public affairs team needing rapid citizen consultation on a policy option with evidence of how widely each objection is heldnot LabArchives
  • An insights team that has to replace six focus groups with one session because fieldwork time has been cut and the decision cannot waitnot LabArchives

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Remesh

  • Pricing is not published and third-party estimates put annual contracts in the tens of thousands of dollars, which puts it out of reach for teams that only run occasional qualitative studies and cannot commit to an annual platform fee.
  • The public review picture is inconsistent in a way worth investigating: a small number of positive buyer reviews on G2 sit alongside a poor Trustpilot rating driven mostly by participant complaints, so ask directly how participants are recruited and compensated before running a study on your own customers.
  • Funding has slowed sharply, from a 25 million USD round in 2021 to a 4.25 million USD round in late 2022, so procurement teams at large organisations should expect to run a vendor viability review.
  • The collective dialogue mechanic rewards views that many participants recognise and vote for, which systematically under-weights genuinely novel minority insight, so it is a poor fit for exploratory discovery work where the outlier is the point.
  • The discussion guide builder, especially spreadsheet import, is reported as unreliable, and because sessions are live with recruited participants a tooling failure during setup is expensive rather than merely annoying.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Remesh

On request
  • Remesh$undefined/year
    • Live moderated sessions
    • Flex asynchronous studies
    • Video research

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Remesh if

  • You need live moderated sessions.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want collective dialogue.
Remesh review

Questions people ask

Is LabArchives or Remesh better?
Neither clearly leads. LabArchives starts at Free and Remesh at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, LabArchives or Remesh?
LabArchives has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for LabArchives and On request for Remesh.
Does LabArchives or Remesh run on more platforms?
LabArchives runs on Web, iOS, Android. Remesh runs on Web, API.
Can I use LabArchives for free?
Yes. LabArchives has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Remesh starts at On request.
What is LabArchives best used for?
LabArchives is most often used for a university group that must keep research records after a phd student leaves, rather than losing them with a laptop, a core facility that needs instrument booking and a shared record of who ran what and when, a small biotech building patent-defensible evidence of invention with witnessed, timestamped entries, a teaching department running undergraduate laboratory courses where instructors need to see and grade notebook work. Of those, a university group that must keep research records after a phd student leaves, rather than losing them with a laptop and a core facility that needs instrument booking and a shared record of who ran what and when are not what Remesh is typically brought in for.
What can LabArchives do that Remesh cannot?
LabArchives covers Versioned entries, Witnessing and signing, Inventory, Scheduler. Remesh covers Live moderated sessions, Collective dialogue, Flex asynchronous studies, Video research.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Remesh: How many people can join one session?

Sessions are designed for several hundred participants at once, which is the core reason to choose it over a conventional focus group.

LabArchives: Who owns LabArchives?

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

Remesh: Does it publish pricing?

No. Contracts are quoted annually, typically scoped by session volume, and third-party estimates place them in the tens of thousands of dollars per year.

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.

Remesh: Can it replace a survey?

Not entirely. It produces open-ended language with agreement percentages, which is stronger than a survey for understanding reasoning but weaker for precise population estimates.

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.

Remesh: Does Remesh recruit participants for me?

Yes, through On-Demand Recruit, typically delivering a panel within about 24 hours, or you can bring your own list.

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