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Benchling Pros and Cons: Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages

Quick AI Summary Based on G2 Reviews

Generated from real user reviews

Users value the collaboration features of Benchling, facilitating seamless teamwork and enhanced productivity in research. (1 mentions)
Users value the comprehensive history and repository offered by Benchling, ensuring compliance in their processes. (1 mentions)
Users value the comprehensive history and repository provided by Benchling for seamless compliance management. (1 mentions)
Users value the comprehensive history and repository offered by Benchling in a Part 11 compliant environment. (1 mentions)
Users enjoy the ease of use in Benchling for managing digital laboratory notebooks and collaboration. (1 mentions)
Users find difficult navigation in Benchling frustrating, impacting their overall experience and usability of the system. (2 mentions)
Users find difficult usability in Benchling, struggling with navigation and functionality, leading to abandoned usage. (2 mentions)
Users find navigation difficult in Benchling, making it challenging to use effectively for data tracking. (2 mentions)
Users find navigation issues with Benchling frustrating, impacting their ability to utilize the platform effectively. (2 mentions)
Users find data management issues with Benchling, citing difficulties in navigation and usability despite complex setups. (1 mentions)

5 Pros or Advantages of Benchling

5 Cons or Disadvantages of Benchling

Nikita C.
NC
Nikita C.
Research associate
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Great for Centralized Notebooks and Sharing, but Bulk Upload Needs Work"
3.5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

It’s nice to have all my electronic notebooks and protocols stored in one place. It’s also great for sharing them with peers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

It’s not great for uploading multiple cell lines or boxes at once. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

RK
Robert K.
Director of Science
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Robust Compliance Features, But Navigation Needs Improvement"
5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

comprehensive history and repository in a Part 11 compliant environment Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

Not sure how to use the audit trails, and it can be difficult to navigate intuitively Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Biotechnology
UB
Verified User in Biotechnology
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Good as a digital laboratory notebook"
3.5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

I liked the ease of use as a digital laboratory notebook, the ability to add in functional tables, link detailed protocols, and tag people. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

I disliked the use of benchling as a data and sample tracking system. It was very difficult to both use and navigate even after getting something more complex built out for our use. We ended up scraping our use it for that purpose. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Andrew L.
AL
Andrew L.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Benchling: A great tool for graduate school and industry"
4.5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

I love the integration of an electronic lab notebook with a suite of tools for molecular cloning. As a molecular biologist, I use benchling constantly and it has made me a better scientist. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

The worst thing about Benchling by far is the file management. It is tedious to move and duplicate files and challenging to search for files. Copying and pasting files is very clunky. I don't understand why they can't just do a normal file management set up like other programs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ciaran L.
CL
Ciaran L.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Seriously streamlined, intuitive, and user friendly"
5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

Setting up new entity schemas and templates for users is super fast, thanks largely to the easy to use interface, and the great selection of built-in entities to choose from (dropdowns, dates, Sequence data etc). This allows us to very quickly set up new classes of data, and new types of document. The flexibility this comes with allows us to store a great variety of data within benchling, so we can have everything organized in one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

The most obvious struggle with benchling is transferring objects from the test instance of benchling, to the live instance. Though it is great that these 2 instances are kept totally separate, it does mean that I am repeating the process of object setup every time I want to create a new entity schema or notebook template etc. Some mechanism to download finished objects from test and upload to live would save so much time and human error. Additionally, there are still some niche functionalities that would be useful for us, such as linking out to internal web-apps. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Research
UR
Verified User in Research
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"So Easy and Convenient"
5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

I have worked for many companies and they all use Benchling, the best part is Benchling's versatility (i.e. designing plasmids, ELNs, SOPs) and its ease of use - it is very easy to use and learn it. It also helps that it is a website and not an app and can be accessed anywhere. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

The downsides of Benchling is sometimes it is unclear where the document is within projects. It sometimes is hard to organize documents within these subcategories. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Biotechnology
UB
Verified User in Biotechnology
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Very useful tool and so much more than just an online lab book!"
4.5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

Benchling is very easy to use, with a lot of readily available online training courses and webinars. It's been great for everyday note taking, SOP writing and sample tracking. It makes sharing experimental details and lab notes simple across the organisation simple and user friendly. Benchling offers much more than being an electronic lab book. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

Sometimes it can be a bit slow, specially when trying to upload gel images onto the notebook entry. The sequence data analysis feature is a bit basic, and doesn't let you link specific sequences to particular entities in your notebook entry. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Pharmaceuticals
UP
Verified User in Pharmaceuticals
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"An user-friendly online labbook"
4/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

the user-friendly interface and the template tab makes easy and fast to keep record of the experiment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

I can't think of any disadvantages. It would be great to have customizable tag/category for the template to simplify the search. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Biotechnology
UB
Verified User in Biotechnology
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Useful tool"
4/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

Benchling is a great resource, you can easily use it as an electronic lab book and auto-populate things like SOPs, while also updating procedures. It's a great way to keep track of work and the insights are very helpful for tracking changes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

Benchling isn't necessarily intuitive, it does take a while to get used to it. The training helps and time is important, you have to practice using it to really get the value out of it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Christoph G.
CG
Christoph G.
Founder and CEO at Unlocked Labs
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"I wish I had know about Benchling when I began my PhD a lifetime ago"
5/5
What do you like best about Benchling?

All-in-one suite that is much more than electronic lab notebook or inventory Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Benchling?

It is a bit of a learning curve, but that is unavoidable for this much of an all-round solution Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.