Sub­scrip­tion-free soft­ware, unlim­it­ed user installations

Subscription-based software has become increasingly common in scientific instrumentation. For a lab, that means equipment saddled with annual cost overhead.

With GelCount, we have deliberately taken a different approach.

The core imaging and analysis software provided with GelCount is supplied free of annual subscriptions or recurring fees. 

Within-version updates are free, and the software is supplied on a site-license basis, with no limit to the number of workstation installations or number of simultaneous users.

Why should improvements to the GelCount platform mean additional cost for the lab? Within-version updates, including improvements suggested by our global user base are provided at no charge.

The only exception being optional add-ons developed for specialized applications, including tools that take advantage of deep-learning for improved object detection. These are separate capabilities for labs that need them, not an automatic recurring charge for the standard software. 

GelCount software can be installed on unlimited lab computers without requiring additional user licenses. That matters in shared labs, core facilities and groups where several researchers use the same instrument.

The GelCount can be used to rapidly generate and save images without local processing or data extraction, with image analysis instead carried out independently, in the user’s own time, and on a separate computer. This frees up the instrument for the next user, all while the lab is spared the trouble and cost of juggling the number of software seats to match the number of users.

Our approach is intentionally straightforward:

• No annual software subscription
• No recurring fees 
• Core software updates provided free of charge
• Unlimited workstation installations for no additional fee 
• Single site-wide user license 
• Paid add-ons only for optional, application-specific tools
   

The result is a system that is easier to share, more flexible, better value, and inexpensive to run over the long term.

In a world of subscription-based science, we are happy to be the outlier.