Nutrition studies are won on adherence, diet records and small biomarker changes, not on a complicated drug-safety workflow. The best EDC is the one that makes daily self-report easy, keeps diet data and labs in one record and lets a small team build without a programmer. Here are eight criteria, a category-level comparison and Capture's honest limits.
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| Question | Option A | Option B | Option C | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily diary on a participant phone, no app | Ask | Ask | Ask | |
| Diet recall and adherence in the study record | Ask | Ask | Ask | |
| Crossover and washout scheduling | Ask | Ask | Ask | |
| Audit trail for claim substantiation | Ask | Ask | Ask | |
| Build without a programmer | Ask | Ask | Ask |
The short answer
What is different
A drug trial is organised around visits and safety reporting. A nutrition or supplement trial is organised around what happens between visits. Participants eat a controlled diet, take a capsule or powder every day and record what they ate, how they felt and whether they missed a dose. The investigator measures a handful of outcomes at the start and end: weight and body composition, blood markers, a performance test or a symptom score. Most of the useful data therefore comes from the participant, and most of the risk to data quality is non-response rather than a missing signature.
That shifts the criteria. A tool that handles lab queries beautifully but sends participants to a clumsy portal loses to one that opens a diary from a link on their phone. A tool that is cheap per user but cannot schedule a crossover with a washout loses on design. And if the study will feed a marketing claim, regulators and retailers care whether the dataset is traceable, an area where a spreadsheet or a general survey tool tends to be weakest. See supplement claim substantiation study software for that angle.
For single-product pages on the same topic, see EDC for supplement clinical trials, EDC for nutraceutical clinical trials and clinical trial software for nutrition research. This page is the comparison view: how to choose between platforms.
Selection criteria
Score each option on the same sheet, using the same protocol, and keep the written answers.
Can a participant answer a daily diary from a phone link with no app install? Capture questionnaires open in the phone browser; see BYOD ePRO without an app download.
Can you build a meal diary, a 24-hour recall or a food frequency form and a dose log? See the 24-hour recall template and food frequency template.
Parallel, crossover with washout, and multi-arm. Ask how visit windows and arms are scheduled, not only whether a crossover is possible.
Calculated BMI, waist-hip ratio and similar fields at entry, plus lab ranges. Capture calculates BMI, BSA and waist-hip ratio, among others, read-only during entry.
Field-level audit trail with user, time, old value, new value and reason, and not editable; controlled form approval. See audit trail software.
Can a coordinator see who is overdue by site and day? See ePRO compliance and reminders.
Can a non-programmer build and amend forms? Time the build of one form and the first mid-study change.
Setup fee, per-user or per-participant charges, term, and what a pilot costs. Capture is free in the sandbox with every feature; you pay when you go live. No numbers are quoted here, and none are published on this site.
Comparison
Neutral descriptions, not feature, hosting or pricing claims. Confirm every point with the vendor and in a hands-on trial.
| Option | Category | Often evaluated for | Verify for a nutrition study |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capture | Self-serve, all-in-one clinical trial platform | Phase 1 to 3 and investigator-run studies wanting EDC, ePRO, eConsent and randomization in one system with a free sandbox | Diary and recall forms, crossover scheduling for your design; no food database or nutrient analysis; wearable sync only for configured devices |
| Castor | Commercial EDC and decentralised platform | Mid-market sponsors and CROs | ePRO and diary scope, commercial model. See Capture vs Castor |
| REDCap | Institution-hosted research data capture | Academic studies with institutional support | Who hosts and validates it, audit trail and signature needs for claim studies. See Capture vs REDCap |
| Medrio | Commercial EDC for sponsors and CROs | Early-phase and small-to-mid-size trials | Participant-facing diary options and included modules. See Capture vs Medrio |
| Viedoc | Commercial clinical trial platform | Studies running across many countries | Diary and ePRO scope, language scope and commercial model. See Capture vs Viedoc |
| OpenClinica | EDC with an open-source heritage | Teams wanting configurability and hosting choice | Who hosts, who builds and the participant diary route. See Capture vs OpenClinica |
| Survey tool plus spreadsheet | General-purpose tools | Very small pilots | Audit trail, role-based access, consent records and change control |
No pricing, hosting or feature claims are made about any vendor other than Capture. This is not a ranking.
The free sandbox includes every feature. Build a daily intake diary, add a washout visit, enter sample data and read the audit trail. No credit card, no time limit.
Where Capture fits
For a nutrition study the most useful thing to try is the diary. In Capture a participant opens a short questionnaire from a secure link on their phone, answers meals, supplement intake and symptoms, and the answers land in the same study record as the clinic weight, waist and blood markers.
Daily intake and supplement diary
Day 18 · Evening
Did you take today’s capsule?
Time taken
Meals eaten today
Energy level today
Honest limits
Capture is not a food composition database and does not turn a meal description into nutrient totals. If you need automated nutrient analysis, a dietitian’s software or a validated dietary assessment tool will do that, and its summary outputs can be entered or imported into Capture by your team. It does not sync with food-logging apps or most consumer devices; native wearable sync is configured per study for the devices the platform supports, with Oura named on its intro page. If your protocol needs a particular device, ask before you shortlist us.
It is also not a CRO, a CTMS or a safety database. If a university sponsor already runs REDCap well and the study is low-risk with no regulatory or claim-substantiation use, the institutional tool may be the right and cheapest answer; the Capture vs REDCap comparison sets out where the trade-off tips. And if your sponsor or retailer mandates its own system, you will use theirs. None of this is about trial phase: Capture is suitable for Phase 1, 2 and 3. For the wider market view, see best EDC software in 2026 and how to choose an EDC system.
How to run the evaluation
Use the same protocol and the same questions with every vendor.
Study design, diary content, adherence measure, labs, claim use and team size.
Rebuild the same daily diary in each tool and time the build and the first amendment.
Open it on a real phone, answer for a week and see the reminders and the coordinator view.
Change a value with a reason and read the audit trail; log in as a site user and as a researcher.
Ask for the commercial model in writing, including setup, modules and what a pilot costs.
It depends on your design, how much participant-reported data you collect, whether the result will support a claim and the size of your team. Shortlist on the criteria above and test each with the same diary.
It can be, especially in an academic setting with institutional support and low regulatory exposure. Check who validates it, and whether you need a field-level audit trail with reasons and e-signatures. See the Capture vs REDCap comparison.
No. It collects diary and recall responses. Nutrient analysis comes from a separate dietary tool, and its outputs can be entered or imported by your team.
Capture supports arms, visit schedules and windows; confirm the specific washout and sequence set-up for your design in the sandbox before committing.
No. Questionnaires open from a secure link in the phone browser.
No. It is a selection method with category-level descriptions. Capture is listed alongside other options, all of which should be verified with each vendor.
Open the free sandbox, with every feature, no credit card and no time limit. You pay only when you go live with real participants.
Keep exploring
EDC for supplement clinical trials
Supplement-specific build guidance.
Clinical trial software for nutrition research
Diet RCTs and meal diaries.
Supplement claim substantiation software
Traceable data for product claims.
Capture vs REDCap
Head-to-head comparison.
Best EDC software in 2026
The wider market guide.
Capture ePRO
Phone questionnaires and reminders.
Free sandbox, every feature. No credit card, pay only when you go live.