Quartzy Review: Optimize Lab Inventory, Leave Excel & Email Behind

Inventory headaches slowing your research down?

If you’re searching for a way to escape spreadsheet chaos and missed reagent orders, you’re definitely not alone in looking at Quartzy for help.

The big problem for most labs is wasting hours on manual tracking and mistakes—which really cuts into the pace and quality of your research.

Quartzy’s all-in-one lab management platform is built to fix that, with interactive inventory tools, flexible request workflows, and a massive built-in shop that makes procurement surprisingly easy. The barcode scanning and mobile features also stand out, helping your lab ditch manual errors for good.

In this review, I’ll break down how Quartzy actually helps your lab run smoothly instead of getting buried in admin work.

You’ll get a full walkthrough of their core features, pricing, integrations, real user pros and cons, and how Quartzy stacks up against other top lab software—all in this Quartzy review.

So by the end, you’ll have the features you need to assess if Quartzy is the right fit—without second-guessing your choice later.

Let’s get started.

Quartzy Overview

Quartzy’s mission is to simplify lab management, letting scientists focus on their actual research. I learned they’ve been tackling this specific problem since 2011, operating from their headquarters in Hayward, California.

They primarily serve academic and industrial research labs, especially within the biotech sector. What I find compelling is their focus on the complete supply lifecycle. This approach makes them more than a simple inventory tool; it’s a unified purchasing ecosystem for how modern labs work.

Their integrated Quartzy Shop has seen massive expansion, hosting over 10 million products from trusted brands. As we’ll explore through this Quartzy review, this smartly connects real-time inventory needs directly to procurement.

Unlike all-in-one platforms like Labguru, Quartzy feels built by people who understand lab work. They avoid feature bloat to streamline the entire procurement process, which I find is far less overwhelming for busy lab managers.

You’ll find them in thousands of labs, from major university research centers and government facilities to fast-growing biotech startups where operational efficiency is critical for achieving research milestones.

From my analysis, Quartzy’s strategy is to own the lab’s complete operational workflow, from request to delivery. This directly addresses your team’s growing pressure for better spend visibility and process automation.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

Quartzy Features

Lost in a sea of lab supplies and manual tracking?

Quartzy features are designed to streamline your lab’s operations, making inventory management and procurement far more efficient. Here are the five main Quartzy features that can transform your lab.

1. Inventory Management

Is your lab’s inventory a mystery?

Manual tracking methods often lead to errors, stockouts, and wasted time searching for supplies. This frustration can cripple your research flow.

Quartzy’s robust inventory feature lets you track everything from reagents to equipment with custom details. What I found impressive is how you can generate barcode labels and scan them with a mobile device for instant updates. This solves the problem of outdated stock levels.

This means you get real-time visibility into your supplies, ensuring you always know what you have and where it is.

2. Order Requests and Approval Workflows

Tired of endless email chains for lab requests?

Fragmented communication and unapproved purchases can derail your lab’s budget and efficiency. It’s a common, irritating bottleneck.

Quartzy centralizes all requests, allowing lab members to submit needs and managers to approve them within the platform. From my testing, the ability to customize approval workflows is a game-changer for controlling spending and compliance. This feature truly streamlines communication.

So, you can gaining clear oversight and ensuring every purchase is approved properly.

3. Quartzy Shop and Vendor Integration

Struggling to find the right lab supplies at the best price?

Sourcing from multiple vendors can be time-consuming, leading to missed savings and procurement headaches. This is where most labs lose valuable time.

The Quartzy Shop integrates an online marketplace with over 10 million products from 1,800+ brands. This feature allows you to compare pricing and order directly from a single source, often with “recommended equivalents.” What I love about this is the simplified procurement process.

This means you get a one-stop shop for all your consumables, saving time and potentially securing better deals effortlessly.

4. Shipment Tracking and Order Management

Can’t keep track of incoming lab deliveries?

Disorganized order tracking leads to confusion, duplicate orders, and items sitting forgotten upon arrival. This wastes time and resources.

Quartzy provides a single dashboard to monitor all orders and deliveries, notifying lab members when items arrive. I found the automated Purchase Order (PO) generation particularly helpful, preventing errors and tracking expenses accurately. This feature provides vital financial transparency.

The result is complete control over your lab’s spending, clear delivery tracking, and reduced administrative burden on your team.

5. Customization and Integration

Is your lab software too rigid for your unique needs?

A lack of flexibility means you can’t tailor the system to your specific research, leading to workarounds and inefficiencies. This can be incredibly frustrating.

Quartzy is designed to be customizable, letting you tailor it to your lab’s specific needs and track relevant attributes. What you’ll find beneficial is its ability to integrate with tools like QuickBooks and Slack, ensuring data synchronization. This feature adapts to diverse laboratory settings.

So, you can mold the platform to fit your workflow, enhancing efficiency and ensuring your data flows seamlessly across systems.

These Quartzy features work together to create a comprehensive lab management ecosystem that consolidates procurement and inventory tasks.

Quartzy Pricing

What’s the real cost of lab management?

Quartzy pricing offers transparent tiers designed for various lab sizes, making it easier for you to budget and select a plan that fits your specific operational needs.

Plan	Price & Features
Academic	$49/month (3 users, +$15/additional user) • Designed for academic labs • $100 Quartzy Shop Credit • Inventory & request management
Starter	$249/month (5 users, +$39/additional user) • Centralized supply workflows • $250 Quartzy Shop Credit • Basic integrations
Professional	$399/month (10 users, +$59/additional user) • Expert support • $500 Quartzy Shop Credit • More integrations & features
Enterprise/University-wide	Custom pricing (50+ users) • Custom catalog pricing • Lab supply rebates • Tailored solutions

1. Value Assessment

Great pricing transparency here.

From my cost analysis, what impressed me is how Quartzy provides clear per-user pricing, allowing your budget to scale directly with your team’s size. The inclusion of Quartzy Shop Credit adds tangible value, essentially offsetting some initial supply costs, and helps you manage lab expenses more effectively.

This means your monthly costs stay predictable, and you gain real savings on lab supplies, which directly impacts your bottom line.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Smart evaluation approach available.

Quartzy offers a free trial, allowing you to thoroughly evaluate its inventory, request, and procurement features before committing. What I found valuable is how the trial helps you validate the platform in your specific lab setting, ensuring it meets your unique workflow requirements.

This lets you test the software with your team, reducing the risk of a misaligned investment before subscribing to full pricing.

3. Plan Comparison

Choosing the right tier matters.

The Academic plan is perfect for smaller university labs, while the Professional tier offers robust features for growing research teams. What stands out is how the Enterprise plan offers custom solutions and rebates for large organizations, ensuring pricing aligns with massive scale.

This tiered approach helps you match Quartzy pricing to your actual usage requirements rather than overpaying for unused features.

My Take: Quartzy’s pricing strategy is straightforward and value-driven, making it ideal for labs of all sizes seeking predictable costs and integrated supply chain savings.

The overall Quartzy pricing reflects transparent, scalable value for diverse lab operations.

Quartzy Reviews

What do real customers actually think?

This section dives into Quartzy reviews, analyzing real user feedback to provide balanced insights into what customers truly think about the software’s performance and impact on their lab operations.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Most users are quite satisfied.

From my review analysis, Quartzy generally receives positive feedback, especially concerning its ability to streamline lab operations. What I found in user feedback is how Quartzy simplifies daily lab tasks, making a noticeable difference in efficiency for researchers and lab managers.

This suggests you can expect a positive impact on your team’s workflow and productivity.

2. Common Praise Points

Users love its simplicity and centralized approach.

Customers consistently praise Quartzy’s intuitive interface and its “one-stop shop” feel for managing lab consumables. Review-wise, the centralized management of requests and inventory significantly reduces the burden of manual tracking, saving considerable time.

This means you’ll likely find it easier to manage supplies and reduce errors in your lab.

3. Frequent Complaints

Shipping times can be a concern.

While generally positive, some Quartzy reviews highlight issues with shipping times being longer than expected from direct vendors. What stands out in customer feedback is how pricing competitiveness sometimes falls short when compared to specific existing vendor relationships, requiring direct comparisons.

These issues are typically minor annoyances rather than significant deal-breakers for most users.

Overall, Quartzy reviews demonstrate strong user satisfaction with clear value, despite minor frustrations that are generally manageable.

Best Quartzy Alternatives

Considering other lab management software options?

The best Quartzy alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different lab sizes, research focuses, and specific operational requirements.

1. Labguru

Need a fully integrated research platform?

Labguru excels when your lab requires comprehensive integration of experiment documentation (ELN), sample tracking (LIMS), and inventory management. From my competitive analysis, Labguru offers a broader suite of features, making it ideal for labs needing a holistic solution beyond just inventory and procurement.

Choose Labguru if you require an integrated ELN and LIMS in addition to your inventory and purchasing needs.

2. Benchling

Focused on complex biological R&D?

Benchling provides a more extensive platform for biological research and development, particularly for managing complex experiments and data. What I found comparing options is that Benchling offers advanced ELN and LIMS capabilities tailored for biological labs, going deeper than Quartzy’s core focus on procurement.

Consider this alternative if your lab needs a robust platform for managing intricate biological experiments and data.

3. ProcureDesk

Prioritizing advanced procure-to-pay automation?

ProcureDesk is a more specialized procurement system with comprehensive procure-to-pay functionalities, including catalog management and automated PO tracking. From my analysis, ProcureDesk offers stronger, dedicated purchasing automation, making it a robust alternative for labs that prioritize streamlined procurement processes.

Opt for ProcureDesk if your primary need is a dedicated, robust procure-to-pay system with extensive automation.

4. SciNote

Is experiment documentation your top priority?

SciNote’s primary strength lies in its Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) capabilities, providing a robust digital platform for documenting experiments. Alternative-wise, SciNote focuses on experiment documentation first, with inventory as a supporting feature, unlike Quartzy’s procurement-centric approach.

Choose SciNote if robust ELN functionality for experiment documentation and data management is your lab’s main need.

The best Quartzy alternatives depend on your lab’s specific research focus and workflow priorities beyond just inventory.

Quartzy Setup

Worried about complicated software setup and training?

This Quartzy review section breaks down what your business can expect during deployment, focusing on practical preparation and realistic expectations for a smooth implementation.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Getting started is surprisingly fast.

Quartzy’s web-based platform means you avoid lengthy installations, often allowing a quick transition from spreadsheets within a single day. From my implementation analysis, the intuitive design contributes to smoother setup, making it accessible even for less technical teams.

You’ll need to allocate time for initial data migration and familiarization, but major project planning isn’t typically required.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal technical hurdles to overcome.

As a cloud-based solution, Quartzy primarily requires internet access and a web browser, plus mobile app use if desired. What I found about deployment is that integrations with tools like QuickBooks require some configuration, but the core system has low technical demands.

Plan for basic IT readiness and a review of your existing software if you intend to utilize Quartzy’s integration capabilities.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is generally straightforward.

While Quartzy is easy to use, some staff might face an initial learning curve due to feature depth or interface aspects. From my analysis, new lab members typically learn quickly for basic requests, but formal training can address specific feature utilization.

Invest in readily available documentation, videos, or internal champions to ensure all users maximize the platform’s benefits.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support simplifies your rollout.

Quartzy’s customer support is highly responsive, often providing answers within hours, which significantly streamlines troubleshooting during deployment. What I found about deployment is that quick support helps resolve early user questions, preventing adoption roadblocks and frustration.

Leverage their help desk, FAQs, and forums for any setup challenges to ensure a successful and efficient launch.

Overall, Quartzy setup emphasizes ease and quick adoption, making it a manageable implementation for most lab environments seeking streamlined operations.

Bottom Line

Should you use Quartzy for your lab?

My Quartzy review offers a comprehensive assessment, highlighting who stands to benefit most from its robust lab management and procurement capabilities, helping you make an informed decision.

1. Who This Works Best For

Life science labs seeking streamlined procurement.

Quartzy is ideal for biotechnology companies, academic institutions, hospitals, and non-profits managing lab supplies and seeking to centralize their purchasing. What I found about target users is that small to mid-sized R&D organizations especially benefit from its integrated inventory and ordering system, reducing manual efforts significantly.

Your lab will thrive with Quartzy if disorganized inventory and inefficient ordering are significant pain points holding back your research.

2. Overall Strengths

Integrated marketplace simplifies lab procurement.

The software excels in streamlining lab supply management, offering a vast integrated marketplace and powerful tools for inventory tracking and order requests. From my comprehensive analysis, its ability to centralize requests and orders into a “one-stop shop” directly translates to notable time and cost savings for your lab.

These strengths mean your team can focus more on research and less on administrative burdens, boosting overall lab productivity.

3. Key Limitations

Limited ELN/LIMS functionalities for complex needs.

Quartzy’s primary focus is on inventory and procurement, meaning it offers less comprehensive Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) or Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) features. Based on this review, labs requiring extensive experiment documentation or complex sample tracking may find these areas less emphasized than dedicated solutions.

While these limitations are notable, they are manageable trade-offs if your core need is efficient supply chain management, not a full-fledged LIMS.

4. Final Recommendation

Quartzy earns a strong recommendation for lab supply management.

You should choose Quartzy if your lab prioritizes streamlining procurement, gaining spending visibility, and improving inventory control. My recommendation is based on the platform’s exceptional ability to optimize supply chain processes for research organizations, leading to significant efficiency gains.

My confidence level is high for labs looking to conquer inventory chaos and simplify purchasing, making it a valuable investment.

This Quartzy review demonstrates strong value for labs optimizing their supply chain, providing clear guidance on its fit and capabilities.