Trust
Trust is not a feeling you can market your way into. It is a set of claims a lab can check. This section lays out the four claims ResearchOS makes about itself and points you at the public, verifiable evidence behind each one.
Why this section exists
Picking an electronic lab notebook means handing it years of irreplaceable work. That is a big ask, and the honest answer to “why should I trust this” should never be “because we said so.” ResearchOS is built so that the important promises are things you can confirm yourself, either by reading the code, by opening a public page in your browser, or by watching the app behave in DevTools.
There are four pillars. Each one has its own page below, and most of them link out to a live, public page that anyone can open without an account.
The four pillars
1. Your data never leaves your machine
ResearchOS reads and writes a folder you pick on your own computer. There is no database we control, so there is nothing for us to lose, sell, or get breached. How your data and privacy work walks through it with a clickable explainer, including the three ways work can be shared and why all of this keeps the tool cheap. The Security section is the audit-grade version, including the narrow exceptions and how to verify it in your browser.
2. The science is validated against tools labs already trust
Every sequence and lab calculation ResearchOS performs is checked, on every commit, against the peer-reviewed reference tools the field already relies on (Biopython, primer3, pydna). The numbers cannot silently drift, because a drift fails the build. Method validation explains how, and links to the public agreement page.
3. The code is open
ResearchOS is licensed under AGPLv3, which means a lab can read the whole thing, fork it, and self-host it. The project also credits and thanks the open-source work it builds on. Open source and license covers what the license gives you and where the credits live.
4. The incentives are clean
ResearchOS is open source and local-first, not venture-backed. The local app is free with every feature included. Cloud services are pay-for-what-you-use, a small base fee plus your usage at a fair markup, with storage at roughly cost, so the tool stays reachable for low-resource labs. How it stays free explains the model honestly.