Comparison ·
Looking for a Quartzy alternative for sample tracking?
Quartzy is lab supply management — ordering, a 15-million-item catalogue, reagent inventory — from $50/month for academia. tinysamples tracks the samples your lab makes: register, log every action, search the history from a phone, free for 100 samples. Different jobs. If ordering is your problem, keep Quartzy. If sample custody is, that is what we do.
What does Quartzy do that tinysamples does not?
- Ordering and procurement, with a catalogue of over 15 million lab products
- Reagent and supply inventory — quantities, reorder points, barcode scanning
- An established company with years of labs on the platform
- Enterprise procurement: punchout and SAML integration on the Enterprise plan
tinysamples does none of that — no ordering, no catalogues, no stock quantities, no barcode scanning. If you came here to replace Quartzy’s procurement, the honest answer is that the category you want is procurement software, and we are not in it.
Why do labs end up comparing them at all?
Because Quartzy’s inventory module is where many labs try to keep research samples, and it fights back: it is built for reagents and supplies — quantities on a shelf, reorder points — not for the life of a sample. A sample needs a timeline: made by whom, passaged when, moved where, thawed by whom. Stock counts do not have biographies. If you are bending an inventory tool into a custody record, that is the itch this page is about.
Side by side, scoped to sample tracking
| Quartzy | tinysamples | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Supply management: ordering and reagent inventory | Sample tracking: registry, timeline, search |
| Entry price | $50/mo (Academia, 3 users, billed annually) | $0 for 100 samples · $12/mo unlimited |
| Team price | $250/mo (Industry, 5 users) · Enterprise custom | $29/mo flat, up to 20 users |
| Free plan | None listed | 100 samples, 1 user, no card |
| Per-sample history | Inventory quantities, not sample timelines | A who-did-what timeline per sample |
| Mobile | App with barcode scanning for inventory | Full app in the phone browser |
| Purchase orders | Yes | No |
| API | Punchout/SAML on Enterprise | No API today |
When should a lab run both?
When both jobs exist. A lab that orders through Quartzy and makes its own samples has two record-keeping problems, and neither tool solves the other’s. Keep Quartzy for the supply room; put the samples your lab makes and studies in a tracker. They do not integrate — nothing syncs — but they also do not overlap.
Free for 100 samples. No card.