Colony.care vs Pristima, Full Comparison for 2026
Summary
Pristima is Instem's web-based study management platform for preclinical research. It covers protocol design, study data capture, pharmacy and test-material inventory, necropsy and pathology, vivarium scheduling, and CDISC SEND datasets for regulatory submission. Colony.care does a different job: colony and vivarium management, meaning animal records, housing, breeding, health, per diem billing and compliance reports. If you run GLP studies that end in a SEND submission, Pristima covers that workflow. If you need to manage the animals themselves, Colony.care is built for it, with a free Starter plan and published pricing.
What Pristima Is
Pristima is a suite for running preclinical studies from protocol to report. It is delivered as a web-based system with no local installation, supports GLP standards and has built-in audit trails.
- Study management: protocols, data capture and workflows in one place
- Master study schedule and resource management across studies
- Pharmacy management: test-material inventory and usage records
- Pathology: data capture for necropsy, histology and digital pathology
- SEND reporting: CDISC SEND dataset creation, validation and submission tools
- Vivarium management: scheduling and workflows
Pristima details are taken from instem.com (October 2026).
What You Get with Colony.care
Colony.care manages the animal side of the facility, the work that happens before and alongside a study. It tracks animal identity, housing, breeding, health observations, clinical cases, surgery, procurement, pharmacy inventory and per diem billing. It prints QR code cage cards, draws interactive pedigrees and produces CCAC and IACUC reports.
Colony.care does not produce SEND datasets or CDISC-formatted data. If your facility submits SEND packages, you need a tool built for that.
Colony.care Pricing
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. The Lab plan starts with a 14-day trial, no credit card required.
When to Choose
Pristima may fit if: you run GLP toxicology or safety studies and need study data capture, pathology and SEND submission in one platform.
Colony.care may fit if: you need colony and vivarium management: animal records, breeding, health, billing and compliance reports, running the same day you sign up.
FAQ
Can Colony.care and Pristima be used together?
They do different jobs, so they can run side by side: Colony.care for colony management and vivarium operations, a study platform for GLP study execution and SEND submission. Colony.care's REST API gives your team programmatic access to animal data for other systems.
Does Colony.care support GLP studies?
Colony.care provides the technical pieces a GLP workflow relies on: an audit trail kept indefinitely, electronic signatures, structured protocol records and complete data export. GLP compliance itself is determined at the facility level and depends on your SOPs and validation procedures. Colony.care holds no GLP certification.