When should I NOT use the MyLabBook approach?

The MyLabBook approach would not be a good choice for several scenarios at this time. This may change in the future as there is no inherent limitation for WordPress in these scenarios. However, at this time if you have any of the following requirements, then it would be advisable to use an alternate solution.

• You need a large company to support you that is focused entirely on using WordPress for an ELN. There are numerous well-established WordPress hosting companies and numerous well-established WordPress agencies that could host, support, and develop your custom WordPress site. But to our knowledge, there are currently no well-established companies that focus primarily on using WordPress for an ELN.
• You need an ELN that is tightly integrated with a Laboratory Information System (LIMS) for tracking your materials
• You need extensive capabilities for documenting chemical reactions that include drawing chemical structures, analyzing spectra, and mining of chemical data
• You need out-of-the-box capabilities to physically automate your lab workflow (e.g., with robotics) and have the automation be integrated with your ELN
• You will need to collect and analyze large datasets with this platform. Anything above 100,000 data points would probably be better to collect and analyze with a different approach. However, the MyLabBook approach could prove useful even for large datasets if the data collection and processing was performed using another approach and then the WordPress features are used for features like social networking, graphics display, learning and educational system, blogging, or as a public facing website to share conclusions.

For many other situations, your financial resources, time constraints, personnel constraints, or your particular situation and resources would lead to the use of commercial ELNs or a capable open source approach like eLabFTW as the better choice instead of the MyLabBook approach.