Product: LabWare LIMS, current generation LabWare 8, part of LabWare's Enterprise Laboratory Platform with LabWare ELN. Related products: LabWare ELN, LabWare MOBILE, the LabWare Integration Platform, SaaS configurations (QAQC, ASSURE, WATER, GROW for CBD/THC), and the CompassRed analytics business (acquisition agreed 2022). Vendor: LabWare, Inc., Wilmington, Delaware. U.S. awards use LABWARE, INC. (UEI LBC1TE5DNKW9) and LABWARE HOLDINGS, INC. (UEI SXV7MWFEJFG9). Category: Laboratory information management system (LIMS) for QC, QA, and analytical labs, including pharmaceutical and biopharma QC. The ELN, MES, and QMS are separate systems. Verification date: 2026-10-02. Scope: Public web sources only.

1. Overview

LabWare LIMS is an enterprise LIMS for regulated QC and QA labs, sold on one platform with LabWare ELN and deployed self-hosted or as LabWare-run SaaS. LabWare says 21 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies use it, and U.S. federal labs from NIH to the Army buy it through GSA schedules and direct orders.

The system covers the sample lifecycle from login through testing, review, reporting, and storage, configured for routine QC or multi-protocol studies. LabWare has sold it for more than 30 years. (LabWare LIMS.) Its markets are pharmaceutical and biopharma QA/QC and R&D, food and beverage, environmental and water, petrochemical, forensics, clinical, bioanalysis, contract services, and mining and metals. (Pharmaceutical laboratory software.)

Outside the LIMS:

• LabWare ELN. The 12 June 2020 LabWare 8 release combines LIMS and ELN in the Enterprise Laboratory Platform but still names them as two products. The LIMS page sells native ELN as a fully integrated add-on with data visible both ways. Paperless GMP method execution belongs to the ELN. (LabWare 8 announcement; ELN features.)
• MES. LabWare interfaces to Körber PAS-X MES through a sample-request exchange. (Körber and LabWare, 9 Nov 2023.)
• QMS. LabWare positions a QMS (SOPs, deviations, CAPA, training records, audits) alongside the LIMS and names SAP and TrackWise as ERP and QMS systems it interfaces to.
• LabWare MOBILE and the Integration Platform are separate add-ons.

The product line is current. LabWare 8 shipped on 12 June 2020, and a 2023 U.S. Geological Survey order paid for an upgrade "from V.6 to V.8."

2. Company and product identity

Point	Fact	Source
Founding	1987, Wilmington, Delaware, by Vance Kershner, still President and CEO. The 28 February 2022 CompassRed release says "Founded in 1978"; 1978 is the year Kershner graduated from the University of Delaware.	About LabWare; CompassRed announcement
Headquarters	Wilmington, Delaware, home of all R&D. LabWare, Inc., 3 Mill Road, Suite 102, Wilmington, DE 19806.	About page; Contact
Legal entities	Two contract parties: LABWARE, INC. (UEI LBC1TE5DNKW9) and LABWARE HOLDINGS, INC. (UEI SXV7MWFEJFG9), which holds the GSA schedules. A 22 August 2024 order in Cincom Systems, Inc. v. LabWare, Inc., S.D. Ohio No. 1:20-cv-83, says that in 1992 "Labware Holdings, formerly known as LabWare Inc.," bought the licenses used to develop LabWare LIMS, and that LabWare, Inc. is "a subsidiary of LabWare Holdings, focuses on the sale of LIMS products in the United States."	USAspending; Cincom order
Footprint	About page: offices in 25 countries, employees in more than 50, customers in 125. Contact page: "over 40 offices across 6 continents."	About page; contact page
Scale	About page: 30,000 laboratories, 2,500 companies, 125 countries, 1,000,000,000 samples a year, 150,000 daily users. LIMS page: "over 30,000 labs." In November 2023 LabWare's Mark Gonzalez cited "more than 29,000 laboratories."	About page; LIMS page; Körber note
LabWare 8	Production release dated 12 June 2020 (page updated 23 August 2024). LabWare calls it "the most adaptable and functionally complete LIMS system," focused on data integrity, end-user functionality, performance, administration, technology, and security. Customers range from single-user sites to global organizations with more than 100 sites and thousands of users.	LabWare 8 announcement
Versions in contracts	2009 APHIS: version 6.0 licenses. 2019 NIH: upgrade 5.0 to 7.0. 2023 USGS: upgrade v6 to v8.	USAspending (section 7)
CompassRed	On 28 February 2022 LabWare Holdings signed a definitive agreement to acquire CompassRed and embed its analytics in the core platform, with a Data Analytics Innovations Center. No price or closing was announced.	CompassRed announcement

3. Pharma and biotech relevance

LabWare sells to GMP QC and QA labs for finished-goods testing and CoA, raw-material testing, in-process batch testing, stability, and environmental monitoring in sterile and aseptic plants. On the R&D side it lists discovery, preclinical and DMPK, analytical development, chemical development, clinical-trial sample management, and pilot-plant support. (Pharmaceutical page.)

LabWare's regulatory claims:

• LIMS page: 21 CFR Part 11, ISO 17025, GLP, and GMP are "built into how the system operates," with electronic signatures, access controls, and audit trails as standard. It also cites EU Annex 11 and CLIA traceability.
• Pharmaceutical page: the LIMS and ELN platform is "fully compliant with all technical controls" of 21 CFR Part 11, GMPs, and "regulatory requirements from many international regulatory agencies." The audit trail can require a reason and an electronic signature.
• Validation page: LabWare classes the product as GAMP Category 4 configured software (section 8).

Part 11 and Annex 11 compliance still rests on the buyer's configuration and validation. LabWare's own validation page says workflows, data-entry controls, instrument connections, and reports must be tested as the lab uses them.

Named pharma interfaces: SAP and TrackWise; Körber PAS-X MES; Waters Empower, Agilent OpenLab, and Chromeleon.

4. Capabilities

Function	What LabWare documents	Where it sits	Source
Sample login	Flexible login, file import, schedulers; single or multiple samples.	LIMS	Self-hosted LIMS; LIMS page
Result entry	Controlled manual entry and bidirectional instrument entry.	LIMS	Self-hosted page; LIMS page
Batch manager	Batches by test, sample, or result; batch calculations; instrument integration.	LIMS	LIMS page
Lot management and CoA	Lot status from submission to reporting, KPIs, review, lot release, automatic CoA and approvals.	LIMS	LIMS page; pharmaceutical page
Stability	Protocols, storage locations, pulls, assignment, chain of custody, results, review, reporting.	LIMS	LIMS page
Environmental monitoring	Scheduled and unscheduled sampling, including personnel monitoring, in sterile and aseptic facilities.	LIMS	LIMS page; pharmaceutical page
Instrument integration	Balances, pH meters, titrators; file parsing; web services; direct database links; modules for Waters Empower, Agilent OpenLab, and Chromeleon.	LIMS, plus the Integration Platform	LIMS page; Integration platform
Inventory	Quantity, location, expiry, and vendor for chemicals and consumables.	LIMS	LIMS page
Analyst certification	Method and instrument certification with recertification dates; blocks uncertified users from entry or review.	LIMS	LIMS page
Barcodes	1D and 2D, Windows-compatible scanners and printers.	LIMS	LIMS page
Dashboards and trending	Role-based dashboards, charts, statistics, SQC, SPC, annual product review, KPIs.	LIMS / platform	LIMS page; pharmaceutical page
External portal	Web access to project, order, and result status, with alerts.	LIMS	LIMS page
Reporting	Query reports and formal CoA; Crystal Reports, Microsoft Office reports, and secure PDF.	LIMS	Self-hosted page; pharmaceutical page
Audit trail and e-signature	Extensive audit trail; configurable reason prompts and electronic signature.	LIMS and ELN	Pharmaceutical page
Paperless method execution	GMP methods run against SOPs and standard test methods, with a Compliance View and supervisor alert on deviation; specs, training, calibration, and solutions pulled from the LIMS.	ELN	Pharmaceutical page
Modules	"More than 250 purpose-built software modules" that, per LabWare, extend the platform without a version move or full revalidation.	Platform	Pharmaceutical page
Mobile	LabWare MOBILE app (App Store, Google Play).	Add-on	LIMS page
AI / ML	LabWare says its SaaS LIMS uses built-in machine learning and AI. It publishes no model, feature list, or validation statement.	Vendor claim	About page

5. Architecture and deployment

LabWare offers four deployment models. (Cloud-hosted LIMS, SaaS LIMS, self-hosted LIMS.)

Option	Commercial terms	Who runs it	Other terms
LabWare SaaS	Monthly subscription; not offered in every region.	LabWare runs system and infrastructure; upgrades included.	"Deploy in 30 days," validated, SOC-2 certified, 99.5% availability guarantee, ISO 17025 and 21 CFR Part 11 named. Can move to a customer-optimized setup.
Hosted	Annual subscription; regional.	A LabWare-certified supplier runs infrastructure; LabWare-managed system optional; customer controls changes.	"99% guaranteed uptime."
Your cloud	Annual subscription; "available in all regions."	Customer cloud; LabWare-managed system optional; customer controls changes.	Cloud provider not named.
Self-hosted	No license metric published.	Customer data center.	Pitched for existing infrastructure, in-house IP, cloud-averse buyers, and isolated networks. The full suite runs self-hosted or in the cloud.

LabWare also sells named SaaS LIMS configurations: QAQC (analytical testing, "full-featured SaaS LIMS"), ASSURE (food testing), WATER (utilities and environmental labs), and GROW (CBD/THC testing, with seed-to-sale tracking).

6. Integrations

The LabWare Integration Platform sits beside the core sample workflow. It connects directly, by file, or by API over REST/JSON, "IoLT/MQTT," XML, ASTM, HL7, and CSV, and LabWare says it removes the need for third-party middleware. Named systems: Körber PAS-X MES, Mettler Toledo LabX, Molecular Devices SoftMax Pro, SAP ERP, Thermo Scientific Chromeleon, Waters Empower, and Phizzle. The pharmaceutical page adds TrackWise, web services, file transfer, direct database links, and point-to-point or enterprise-service-bus designs, and says customers will "never be locked out" of building interfaces.

The PAS-X MES exchange runs as follows: MES triggers a sample request, LIMS returns label data, MES confirms the sample, the lab tests, LIMS manages results, and results return to MES. LabWare is a certified partner in Körber's "PAS-X LIMS Integration" program. No interface specification is public.

LabWare's llms.txt (29 August 2025) lists partners Agilent Technologies, APHL, Northwest Analytics, SAP, Simplica, Waters, METTLER TOLEDO, and Körber.

7. Pricing and commercial model

Pricing is quote-only. LabWare publishes no LIMS list price. SaaS is billed monthly; hosted and customer-cloud deployments annually; self-hosted terms are not published. LabWare markets SaaS as "budget friendly" and says it "eliminates burdensome upgrade costs." Implementation and validation are separate services. One LIMS-page reviewer, Kevin Kelleher, Sr. Scientific Officer (EPA Ireland logo), calls LabWare "not the cheapest (but still the best)."

Public contract records

The GSA schedule and federal orders below are the only public dollar figures. Each is one buyer's contract. Amounts are USAspending obligations.

GSA schedule 47QSMS25D002F (LABWARE HOLDINGS, INC.; USAspending period 20 December 2024 to 19 December 2029; eLibrary current option end 19 December 2029, ultimate end 19 December 2044; small business; SINs 334516, 54151, 54151S, 611420, OLM). It prices no LIMS license.

• Price list, 16 December 2025: consultants at USD 165.59, 211.54, 231.64, and 251.74 an hour; Customer Care Program USD 3,627.20 a year; annual software maintenance at 0.16 (unit P1), "expressed as a percentage of License cost"; LIMS training at USD 10,881.61 for a five-day class, USD 2,811.08 and 1,994.96 per person, and USD 10,881.61 for LIMS Administration 1 on site.
• Authorized price list, modification PS-0004 (15 September 2025): the only product price is "LabWare Insights - Concurrent," a separate product, at USD 566.75 including the industrial funding fee. Quantity discounts apply "For LabWare ELN and LabWare LIMS Licenses only": 5 percent at 11–25 licenses, 10 percent at 26–50, 15 percent at 51–75, 20 percent at 76–100, 25 percent above 100.

The predecessor schedule GS07F5446R ran 2004-11-01 to 2024-10-31. A February 2026 Department of Labor order (1605TB26F00015, USD 69,085) corrected its schedule number to 47QSMS25D002F.

Order	Buyer	Signed	Recipient	Description	USD	Contract codes
AG32KWD100027	USDA APHIS, Ames, Iowa	2009-11-16	LabWare Holdings	"LABWARE LIMS VERSION 6.0 CONCURRENT USER LICENSE, PART NO. 2100.60 QUANTITY 20 @ $4750.00 EACH"	95,000.00	PSC 7045; GSA GS07F5446R; 1 offer
75N93019F00218	NIH	2019-06-20	LabWare Holdings	"UPGRADE OF LABWARE LIMS VERSION 5.0 TO 7.0"	184,527.90	PSC 7030; GS07F5446R; 1 offer
140G0223F0334	USGS, Denver	2023-09-20	LabWare Holdings	"LABWARE LIMS UPGRADE FROM V.6 TO V.8"	121,372.90	PSC DA01; GS07F5446R; 1 offer
HT942523P0142	Defense Health Agency, Dover AFB	2023-09-25	LabWare, Inc.	"LABWARE LIMS MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT"	398,957.40	PSC DA10; 1 offer
W911S624P0026	Army MICC Dugway, Utah	2024-09-17	LabWare, Inc.	"PURCHASE, DESIGN, AND INSTALL OF LIMS FOR CTD"	121,459.00	PSC 7A20 (perpetual license software); 10 offers
W911S626PA002	Army MICC Dugway, Utah	2026-02-11	LabWare, Inc.	"DEVELOPMENT OF EXISTING LABWARE LIMS SYSTEM"	321,680.00	PSC DA10; 2 offers

USD 4,750 per concurrent user (2009, version 6.0) is the only LIMS unit price in any public record. Smaller orders exist: maintenance around USD 32,130 in 2018 and 2019, a 2022 USGS upgrade of USD 12,005.91, and a 2008 Navy "VERSION 5.0 LICENSE."

Questions a buyer should ask

1. What is the license metric: concurrent user, named user, site, sample volume, or SaaS subscription?
2. Which deployment models are offered in the buyer's country?
3. Is LabWare ELN in the LIMS price?
4. Are stability, environmental monitoring, mobile, and the Integration Platform priced separately?
5. Are the PAS-X, Empower, OpenLab, Chromeleon, SAP, and TrackWise interfaces software, services, or a separate Körber-certified package?
6. Does "validated" SaaS cover the customer's IQ, OQ, and PQ, or only LabWare's base package?
7. What does the upgrade to LabWare 8 cost?
8. Which entity signs, LabWare, Inc. or LabWare Holdings, Inc.?
9. What do the 99.5% and 99% availability figures measure, and is there one SOC 2 report?
10. What do "30,000 laboratories" and "21 of the top 25" count?

8. Implementation and validation support

LabWare implements with more than 420 certified consultants in 40 countries, each assessed yearly against more than 100 credentials. Its GOLD method ("Goal Oriented LIMS Delivery") runs in four stages: project initiation (training and workflow review), pilot development (iterative configuration of a slice of requirements), system completion (the pilot becomes the go-live system), and rollout (test scripts, user training, production). The goal is a self-sufficient customer team. LabWare says a full waterfall specification before configuration is a poor fit. Fees and durations are not published. (Implementation services.)

Validation is a separate service. LabWare has qualified the base LIMS and ELN, recommends a GAMP lifecycle with the product as GAMP Category 4, and helps customers test installation, configured objects, and business processes. Deliverables: requirements, strategy, test scripts, summary reports, defect handling, risk and impact assessments, system SOPs, and master-data verification planning, across IQ, OQ, and PQ. A pre-validated SaaS core supports go-live "within 30 days"; the customer still validates its own configuration. Change control after go-live is an ongoing service. (LIMS validation services.)

LabWare also sells training and technical support, including a Customer Care Program (USD 3,627.20 a year on the GSA list).

9. Customer evidence

Name	Evidence	Limit
Quasfar	SaaS-page quote: LabWare "provides a positive Return On Investment," citing productivity, process improvement, data integrity, compliance, integration, paperless lab, and cost reduction. Labeled "Small Pharmaceutical Services Company."	No site, year, or version.
LIMS-page reviewers	Andrea Lucca (ALFAPARF Italy), Neiman Eaton (Mitsubishi Chemical), Jason Gardner (Merck), Harry Mock (Tyson Foods, "after 18 years of using LabWare"), Matt Meyer (Zinpro), Dr. Milind Dagadu More (Intas Pharma India), Kevin Kelleher (EPA Ireland).	Employers shown as logos beside each review.
Top pharma	"21 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies"; "over 2,500 active customers" for "the #1 LIMS/ELN Platform."	No names.
U.S. federal labs	DHA, Army Dugway, USGS, NIH, and APHIS (section 7).	Purchases.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., Bachupally, India	ECA Academy (10 January 2024) reports an FDA Form 483 from a 19–27 October 2023 inspection, published by FDA on 29 November, citing weak controls over "the Laboratory Information Management System (LabWare LIMS)": samples and tests cancelled without adequate controls, samples created without justification, entries not reviewed. The Form 483 itself (FDA copy) is not quoted here.	A site-level data-integrity observation about the user's controls, not a finding against LabWare.

10. Competitive and third-party context

LabWare's past awards: Scientific Computing and Instrumentation Readers' Choice Award in LIMS every year from 2000 to 2008; Frost & Sullivan Product Quality Leadership Award in LIMS, 2004; Frost & Sullivan European LIMS Company of the Year, 2008; Delaware Bioscience Association Company of the Year, 2016. No current analyst ranking is cited.

LabWare publishes a "LabWare vs. ThermoFisher Scientific" comparison of its Bioanalysis LIMS against Thermo Fisher Watson LIMS; its cell values did not render.

LabWare is a certified partner in Körber's PAS-X LIMS Integration program, which helps PAS-X customers find compatible LIMS suppliers.

11. Changes and renames

• LabWare 8 (2020) is the current generation. Federal orders reference versions 5, 6, 7, and 8.
• The ELN is sold both as part of one platform and as an add-on.
• CompassRed: agreement announced 28 February 2022; closing, price, and product impact were not announced. LabWare's AI claims are not tied to CompassRed.
• FDA warning-letter and EMA searches on 2 Oct 2026 returned no record naming LabWare LIMS. UK and EU tender searches on 2 Oct 2026 found no award to LabWare; a University of Glasgow veterinary diagnostic LIMS award (notice 2026/S 000-002984, £202,652, 14 user licences) went to Autoscribe Informatics Ltd.

12. Source library

Pages retrieved 2026-10-02. Full URL list: sources note. Every claim above is in the product's evidence set with its source, type, and confidence.