Colony.care vs mLIMS, Full Comparison for 2026
Summary
mLIMS is BioInfoRx's web-based animal colony management system. It comes in a free single-user version, plans priced by number of users for research labs, and separate editions for biotech companies, departments and animal facilities. Colony.care is also web-based. It has a free Starter plan and one paid plan, Lab, that includes every feature for an unlimited number of members. Both products manage breeding, genotypes, pedigrees, cage cards and protocols. mLIMS's published prices are lower. Colony.care puts per diem billing, CCAC and IACUC reports, SSO and a bilingual English and French interface in the same plan.
At a Glance
| Feature | Colony.care | mLIMS |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Cloud, in the browser | Web-based, in the cloud; local server installation also available |
| Free plan | Starter: 1 project and up to 100 animals | mLIMS Free: single user, up to 100 active cages and 500 animals |
| Paid plans | Lab, CA$549.99/mo, unlimited animals and members, 10 projects | Yearly plans priced by number of users for researchers, plus Biotech, Enterprise and Facility editions |
| Trial | 14 days on the Lab plan, no credit card | 60 days, then the account moves to mLIMS Free |
| Species | 25, with reproduction models for litters, single births, clutches and insect colonies | Any species on paid plans; mice, rats, zebrafish, primates, guinea pigs, rabbits and tree shrews are named |
| Phones and tablets | Runs in the mobile browser | Mobile-friendly on any internet-enabled device |
| Cage cards | QR code cards printed from the browser, scanned with a phone camera | Cage cards you design; barcoded cards and batch-scan census in the Facility edition, cage census as an add-on for Researchers and Biotech |
| Per diem billing | Included in the Lab plan | In the Biotech and Facility editions |
| Protocols | Animals linked to protocols, CCAC and IACUC annual reports | IACUC protocol usage and expiration tracking, protocol reports |
mLIMS details and prices are taken from bioinforx.com (October 2026). Its prices are shown as listed there, in dollars.
What mLIMS Is
BioInfoRx describes mLIMS as a web-based animal colony management system for researchers and animal facility managers, and has worked on mouse colony software since 2006. The product is split into editions.
- mLIMS Free: one user, up to 100 active cages and 500 animals, with cage and animal cards, genes and genotypes, breeding, pedigrees, import and export.
- mLIMS for Researchers: the lab edition, priced by number of users, with IACUC protocol tracking and reports.
- mLIMS for Biotech and mLIMS Enterprise: for companies, and for departments that manage several labs.
- mLIMS Facility: for animal facilities and vivariums, with cage census by barcode scan, per diem billing, medical records, staff tasks and room inspections. Researchers get read-only access.
Pricing and Plans
mLIMS lists its academic and non-profit prices by number of users, on a 12-month contract: $360 per year for a single user, $400 for 2 users, $600 for 3 to 5 users and $840 for 6 to 10 users. The Biotech edition starts at $720 per year, Enterprise at $360 per lab per year and Facility at $1000 per year.
Colony.care has two published prices. The Starter plan is free: 1 project and up to 100 animals. The Lab plan is CA$549.99/month, or CA$439.99/month billed yearly, with unlimited animals and members and 10 projects included. Additional projects are CA$34.99/month each. Organization plans are quoted for multi-site deployments.
On published prices, mLIMS costs less. Colony.care's Lab plan is one flat price: it does not change with the number of members, and billing, compliance reports and SSO are all included in it.
What You Get with Colony.care
- 25 species in one account, from mice and zebrafish to non-human primates, poultry and insect colonies.
- QR code cage cards printed from the browser and scanned with a phone camera.
- Per diem billing calculated from cage-days, with invoices and chargeback reports.
- CCAC and IACUC annual reports, with animals linked to their protocols.
- An audit trail that logs every change with user and timestamp, kept indefinitely by default.
- SSO/SAML and SCIM provisioning, included in the Lab plan.
- A REST API (v1) with API keys.
- A full English and French interface, and prices in Canadian dollars.
When to Choose
mLIMS may fit if: price is the deciding factor, your work is mostly rodent breeding and genotypes, or you want the software installed on a local server.
Colony.care may fit if: you run a team or a facility with several species, you want billing, compliance reports and SSO in one plan, or your staff work in both English and French.
FAQ
Is mLIMS free?
mLIMS has a free version for a single user, limited to 100 active cages and 500 animals. Its paid plans are yearly. Colony.care's free Starter plan covers 1 project and up to 100 animals.
Can I move my data from mLIMS to Colony.care?
Animal records can be moved through CSV. mLIMS lists import and export among its features. If your export is a spreadsheet, save it as a CSV file, then load it into Colony.care's import wizard. The wizard detects your column headers, suggests a mapping you can adjust by hand, and shows a dry-run preview. Nothing is written until you commit, and a committed import can be rolled back.
Which one handles species other than mice?
Both do. mLIMS's paid plans can be used with any animal species. Colony.care ships 25 species with their own reproduction models, so a zebrafish clutch, a macaque pregnancy and a mouse litter are each recorded in the form that suits them.