eLabFTW
Online lab notebook for research labs. Store experiments, use a database to find reagents or protocols, use trusted timestamping to legally timestamp an experiment, export as pdf or zip archive….
- CMS
- PHP
- AGPL-3.0
- Docker
- Actively maintained
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 1,437
- Forks
- 337
- Open issues
- 259
- Commits, last 12 months
- 825
- Last commit
- Oct 5, 2026
- Latest release
- 6.0.6Oct 4, 2026
- Created
- Dec 14, 2012
Data from the GitHub API, refreshed daily.
About eLabFTW
Online lab notebook for research labs. Store experiments, use a database to find reagents or protocols, use trusted timestamping to legally timestamp an experiment, export as pdf or zip archive…. eLabFTW is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license and written mainly in PHP, so you can read the code, run it on your own hardware and keep full control of your data.
The project has 1,437 stars and 337 forks on GitHub, with 825 commits over the last year. It ships a Docker image, which makes it a good fit for a small VPS or a home server running Docker Compose.
Topics
- laboratory
- notebook
- lims
- php
- mysql
- docker
Repository preview
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What is eLabFTW?
eLabFTW is a free, open-source app you can host on your own server, listed in our CMS category. Online lab notebook for research labs. Store experiments, use a database to find reagents or protocols, use trusted timestamping to legally timestamp an experiment, export as pdf or zip archive…. The source code lives at github.com/elabftw/elabftw, where it has 1,437 stars.
Is eLabFTW free and open source?
Yes. eLabFTW is open-source software released under the AGPL-3.0 license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run eLabFTW with Docker?
Yes. eLabFTW provides a Docker image, so you can run it on any Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose installed. The project README lists the image name and the environment variables to set.
What are the best alternatives to eLabFTW?
Popular open-source alternatives to eLabFTW include Strapi, Payload CMS and WordPress.
Is eLabFTW actively maintained?
The most recent commit to eLabFTW was on Oct 5, 2026 with 825 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is 6.0.6, published Oct 4, 2026. Check the open issues on GitHub to gauge how quickly maintainers respond.