Seal vs STARLIMS

1STARLIMS and Seal, side by side.

STARLIMS and Seal both aim to connect the laboratory with the manufacturing floor.¹ STARLIMS does it with a suite of products: its LIMS with ELN, LES, SDMS and analytics, and, since its agreement in 2026 to acquire Lonza’s MODA Platform, electronic batch records and environmental monitoring that integrate with the LIMS.²¹ Seal configures laboratory, manufacturing and quality workflows on one platform around a shared ontology, so a monitoring result, the batch exposed to it and the investigation it opens are records in the same system.

2What STARLIMS is built for.

STARLIMS is built for laboratories in regulated industries that want an established LIMS with execution, data management and, increasingly, manufacturing modules from one vendor. It was founded in 1986 and is found in more than 2,000 laboratories.³ Abbott ran the business for more than a decade before agreeing in July 2021 to sell the STARLIMS product suite to Francisco Partners.⁴ In January 2026 StarLIMS, based in Hollywood, Florida, announced a strategic investment by the software private equity firm Turn/River Capital, with Francisco Partners exiting its investment.⁵ Trade coverage described the transaction as Turn/River buying StarLIMS from Francisco Partners.⁶ In March 2026 StarLIMS agreed to acquire the MODA Platform from Lonza, with closing expected in the second quarter of 2026,⁷ and MODA now appears on the STARLIMS website as part of its portfolio, with its own general manager at STARLIMS.¹³

STARLIMS sells platforms by market: Quality Manufacturing, Clinical and Public Health, each combining its LIMS with SDMS, the Labstep ELN and Advanced Analytics, and with its LES for quality manufacturing and clinical work.² Labstep, described as a STARLIMS company, is a cloud ELN with version-controlled interactive protocols and inventory.⁸ The Quality Manufacturing LIMS has more than 15 workflows, from batch testing with certificates of analysis and stability studies to environmental monitoring, sample receipt, outsourced testing and continuous process support, with hundreds of ready-to-use reports, full audit trails and electronic signatures.⁹ It includes a certified SAP connector, connectors for common laboratory equipment and a request portal for sending test requests to contractors.¹⁰ The LES enforces test-method execution at the bench, captures data from instruments and devices, and lets analysts review and approve tests before data is sent to the LIMS.¹¹

For smaller batch manufacturers, QM Essentials is a cloud LIMS with pre-loaded workflows for batch login, environmental monitoring and outsourced samples, deployable in as little as four to six weeks, and able to grow into the full Quality Manufacturing LIMS without a major migration.⁹ STARLIMS is deployed on premises, by cloud hosting or by cloud subscription, and has partnered with Amazon Web Services for private cloud hosting.¹²

The MODA Platform has four modules: MODA-EM for environmental monitoring, MODA-ES for electronic batch record execution, MODA eLogs and MODA-ES Weigh and Dispense. STARLIMS says MODA is used by more than 90 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cell and gene therapy and CDMO customers, including 13 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies.¹

3Laboratory and manufacturing: integrated products or shared records.

Both approaches connect a laboratory result to the batch it affects. STARLIMS connects products; Seal keeps one set of records.

STARLIMS describes MODA as combining manufacturing and laboratory data into a single source to speed pharmaceutical product release.¹ MODA-ES brings manufacturing and quality activities into a single batch record, validates calculations, signatures and workflow requirements and highlights only the deviations and exceptions that need attention, and integrates with LIMS, ERP, QMS, LES and equipment platforms.¹³ MODA-EM is built from three modules: data captured in the field flows into MODA-EM for review and approval and into a visual intelligence portal for trending, and a mapping tool correlates results with facility floor plans. MODA-EM integrates with the customer’s LIMS.¹⁴

In Seal, the monitoring plan, the room, the batch being filled and the investigation share one set of records and one clock. In the example in Seal’s microbiology blueprint, an excursion in filling suite B-02 opens with the batches in process, the personnel present, the adjacent locations and the pending organism identification already attached. Room state, operations, batches, interventions, cleaning, alarms and samples share facility identity and time, so the excursion finds the products, people and equipment exposed in the relevant interval, and batch review shows the monitoring evidence for its own window.

Seal also keeps each state distinct. A missed sample cannot appear as a zero result, an unexposed plate cannot appear as no growth, and a corrected count does not replace the original plate observation. The disposition view shows required samples, incubation status, organism work and open investigations, and pending work stays pending.

To compare the two, run one excursion through each, including a missed location and a corrected count, and follow it to the batch disposition.

4Where STARLIMS is the better fit.

STARLIMS is the better fit when you want an established laboratory vendor whose portfolio now extends into manufacturing execution.

• You want a long-standing LIMS used in more than 2,000 laboratories, with dedicated platforms for clinical and public health laboratories.³²
• You are a small or mid-sized batch manufacturer that wants a cloud LIMS with pre-loaded workflows, live in weeks, with room to grow into the full product.⁹
• Your quality laboratory exchanges data with SAP and wants a certified connector.¹⁰
• You want electronic batch records, environmental monitoring, electronic logbooks and weigh and dispense from the same vendor as your LIMS, from a platform already used by many large pharmaceutical companies.¹
• You need on-premises deployment, or private cloud hosting on AWS.¹²

5Where Seal is the better fit.

Seal is the better fit when laboratory, manufacturing and quality decisions should rest on the same records rather than on integrations between products.

• Your monitoring, testing, batch and investigation records should share identity and time, so an excursion or an out-of-specification result reaches the affected batch without reconciliation.
• Your quality work should run on the same platform. In Seal a corrective action can be released as a verified change to the workflow, and its effectiveness measured on the runs that follow.
• You expect to keep changing the process. A change to a monitoring plan, alert level or incubation step is versioned and approved with its own evidence, and earlier results stay tied to the plan they were collected under. Selected acceptance tests run when a changeset is prepared for review, and publication requires current passing results.
• You want an agent that prepares the work. Neil configures a proposed workflow from your procedure and assembles investigation evidence from the linked records, for your team to check and approve. In line with the EU’s draft GMP Annex 22 on AI, Neil is not used in GMP execution. It helps set up configuration, which your team verifies and releases under change control.

6Running Seal alongside STARLIMS.

Seal has no dedicated STARLIMS connector. Where a system is not on Seal’s integrations list, Seal’s REST API and Scripts can connect it, and Seal can review its interfaces with you.

Confirm with your STARLIMS administrator which interfaces and exports your release exposes, and agree the records, the direction of transfer, the credentials and the failure handling before setting up anything. Scripts are versioned Python in Seal that can call an external service after an event or on a schedule; they are edited in a changeset, tested and published like other Seal records. Instruments can also be connected to Seal directly: Seal IoT watches an export folder on the instrument workstation and keeps the original file with the result it produced.

Start with read access. Keep the STARLIMS sample identifier on the linked Seal record rather than creating a second sample identity, and decide which of the sample, test, analyte, replicate and revision the connection reads. Test missing, delayed and duplicate records, and reconcile what arrives against the source. Treat any write-back as a separate decision with its own operation, review gate and audit evidence. The LIMS integration guide and the regulatory guide set out these checks.

7Moving from STARLIMS to Seal.

Move one workflow first. STARLIMS stays the record for the rest.

1. Choose one workflow that crosses the laboratory and the floor, such as one manufacturing exposure window for environmental monitoring, or one release test that feeds batch disposition.
2. Bring the monitoring plan or method, a redacted specification, representative results and an instrument export. Start with sample material, or arrange an NDA before sharing confidential records.
3. Neil proposes the workflow, and your team checks it against the source and how the work runs. Once the scope is agreed and the inputs received, Seal prepares the first working process and its validation pack within 48 hours. Production timing then depends on scope, interfaces, migration and your release requirements.
4. Exercise the failure cases before release: a missed location, an incubator excursion, a corrected count and a failed instrument transfer.
5. Agree which system owns each record during the transition, how identifiers map and what must reconcile. Evaluate historical records, original files, versions and review status before deciding what to migrate; work outside the scope stays in STARLIMS.

The LIMS blueprint and the environmental monitoring blueprint describe these workflows in detail.