Castor EDCvs
Benchling
Benchling: Better if the need is preclinical R&D data rather than regulated clinical trial data capture
Castor EDC
Electronic data capture and eConsent for clinical trials, built for investigator-initiated studies as well as sponsors
As of 31 August 2026, Castor EDC's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. A cloud EDC that academic and investigator-initiated trials can actually get funded, alongside a sponsor-grade offering. Softwr lists it under Research. Castor EDC is made by Castor, available on Web, iOS, Android.
Overview
What Castor EDC does
Castor EDC builds and runs the electronic case report forms, randomisation, eConsent, ePRO and data export for a clinical study. Study designers configure forms in a browser rather than requiring a programming team, which is the reason it spread through academic medical centres and investigator-initiated research before it moved into commercial sponsor work. What separates it from the classic EDC vendors is the entry point. Traditional systems assume a sponsor with a study startup budget and a validation team. Castor sells per study, supports grant-funded and non-profit pricing paths, and lets a clinical researcher build a database without a contract with a data management CRO. That changes who can run a compliant trial, which is the commercially interesting part. Buyers are academic research units, investigator-initiated trial groups, medical device companies and small to mid sized biotechs. The trade off is that pricing is entirely quoted, the platform is deliberately narrower than the full sponsor suites, and a study that grows into a multi-region registrational programme will eventually meet the limits of what the platform and its services layer cover.
What people use it for
- An academic hospital running an investigator-initiated trial that cannot fund a sponsor-grade EDC contract or a data management CRO
- A medical device company collecting post-market clinical follow-up data with Part 11 audit trails
- A multi-site registry that needs remote eConsent because participants are recruited nationally rather than at a clinic
- A biotech running a small phase two study that wants the database built by its own clinical team in weeks rather than commissioned
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Castor EDC.
- Nothing is published: pricing is quoted only after a scoping call and protocol review, so budgeting a grant application means asking for a quote months before the study is funded and hoping the scope holds.
- Price scales on protocol complexity rather than a simple unit, so two studies with the same participant count can be quoted very differently and there is no public benchmark to argue against.
- Modules such as eConsent, ePRO and randomisation are quoted on top of the base platform, so the headline EDC figure is rarely the number that appears on the final proposal.
- It is deliberately lighter than the full sponsor suites, so a study that grows into a global registrational programme needing integrated CTMS, safety, IRT and full trial supply management will need additional systems and the interfaces between them.
- Regulatory responsibility does not transfer with the software: the platform supports Part 11 compliant workflows, but system validation for your intended use, SOPs and audit readiness remain your obligation and your cost, which sponsors new to EDC consistently underestimate.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Castor EDC
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Castor EDCvsLabVantage
LabVantage: A different problem entirely: laboratory information management rather than clinical study data
- Castor EDCvsSapio Sciences
Sapio Sciences: Choose it if you want a configurable science platform spanning lab and clinical data rather than a dedicated EDC
Pricing
What Castor EDC costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Castor EDC
On request
- Priced per study on protocol complexity, duration, sites and modules
- 21 CFR Part 11 and ICH GCP workflows
- eConsent, ePRO and randomisation modules quoted separately
- Academic, non-profit and grant-funded pricing paths available
- Proposal issued after protocol review, typically within five business days
Capabilities
Features
Browser-based study build
Case report forms configured by researchers without programming or a vendor build cycle
21 CFR Part 11 workflows
Audit trails, electronic signatures and access controls for regulated submissions
eConsent
Remote informed consent with identity verification and version control
ePRO and surveys
Patient-reported outcomes collected on participant devices
Randomisation
Built-in randomisation and blinding within the same study database
Per-study licensing
Sold by study rather than as an enterprise platform contract
Grant-funded pricing paths
Academic, non-profit and impact programmes for grant-constrained studies
Data export
Exports to SAS, SPSS, R and CDISC-oriented formats for analysis and submission
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is there a free academic version?
No published free tier. There are academic, non-profit and grant-funded pricing paths, but each is quoted rather than self-service.
Is it 21 CFR Part 11 compliant?
It supports Part 11 compliant workflows with audit trails and electronic signatures. Validating the system for your specific use remains your responsibility.
Do I need a programmer to build a study?
No. Case report forms are configured in the browser, which is the main reason academic groups adopt it.
How long does a quote take?
Castor states a full pricing proposal within five business days of sharing the protocol.
Keep looking
Where to go from Castor EDC
- Castor EDC alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Castor EDC pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Castor EDC badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Research softwareThe full category
- Best Research softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Research software for
Compare Castor EDC with
- Benchling
- LabVantage
- Sapio Sciences
- Medidata Rave
- REDCap
- Greenphire
- Florence eBinders
- Genedata
- Wolfram Mathematica
- LabArchives
- Aurelius
- Reduct
- OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
- Paperpile
- Remesh
- Schrodinger
- Medidata Rave
- Reduct
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Castor EDC, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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