eLabFTW is an electronic lab notebook manager for research teams. It lets you store and organize your research experiments easily. It also features a database where any kind of objects (such as antibodies, plasmids, cell lines, boxes, etc.) can be stored. It is accessed via the browser. Several research teams can be hosted on the same installation. This means eLabFTW can be installed at the institute level and host all team members at the same place. This is what is done at Institut Curie and in several other research centers around the globe.
eLabFTW is designed to be installed on a server, and people from the team can log in from their browser. Without a server, even an old computer with 1 GB of RAM and an old CPU can be used. Make sure to install a recent GNU/Linux distribution on it and plug it to the intranet.
With eLabFTW you get a secure, modern and compliant system to track your experiments efficiently but also manage your lab with a powerful and flexible database. If you do experimental research, then eLabFTW is for you. Whatever your field is. It is also well suited for universities, tinkerers or biotech companies.
eLabFTW is powered by PHP/MySQL in Docker containers. It should be installed on a server. One install can be for a team, or the whole institution. You can also install it on your computer just for yourself.
eLabFTW features :
- Free : Open-source with an AGPL licence means free as in beer but also free as in freedom. You have the freedom to modify it, look how it works and even redistribute your changes!
- Secure : Strong encryption, good practices and modern codebase offers the best security for your data. The only ELN with A+ rating on Mozilla’s Observatory.
- Responsive : You can access your lab book from any device, running any operating system, from anywhere in the world!
- Cross platform : Use your favorite operating system. You only need a recent browser.
- Timestamps : RFC 3161 compliant timestamping of experiments (for intellectual property).
- Inventory management : Store reagents, protocols, plasmids, cell lines, mice or anything you want, you can customize everything!
- Stay master of your data : Import and export your data in common file formats (PDF, ZIP, CSV, JSON). Your data is not locked somewhere.
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Internationalization : eLabFTW is translated in several languages because not everyone is comfortable with english.
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Scheduler : Use the integrated scheduler to book anything you need to like microscopes, rooms, machines, etc.
Features for users
- Can fit any kind of lab/company (chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, deep tech startup, etc.)
- Timestamp legally your experiments
- Export in PDF, ZIP, CSV, JSON
- Draw doodles directly with your mouse
- Use templates for your experiments
- Add steps to your protocols or experiments
- Use the REST API for accessing programmatically your data with an external program (see API Documentation)
- Upload any type of files, embed images in the text
- Draw molecules with Chemdoodle
- Be part of a growing community of users and contributors
- Highly customizable: you can change the colors, the status list, the items types list, etc.
- Todolist
- Custom shortcuts
See some gifs of eLab in action
Features for sysadmins
- One eLabFTW instance can host a hundred teams and thousands of users
- No need for a lot of RAM or CPU, eLabFTW is efficient and doesn’t use a lot of resources
- Works in Docker containers
- SAML2 authentication with a centralized identity provider
- PRO support available from Deltablot
- CSRF, XSS, bruteforce login protections
- Automated vulnerability scanning, secure configuration, high code quality and best practices to make secure software (see page on security)
- Perfect score on Mozilla’s Observatory test for security: A+
eLabFTW is an open source software written in PHP and released under a GPL v3 license. For more information https://www.elabftw.net/
