A small early-phase trial typically runs from the low hundreds of thousands of dollars into the low millions, and a pivotal Phase 3 trial can run into the tens of millions. Sites, monitoring and staff time drive most of it, not the software.
Free sandbox · No credit card · 21 CFR Part 11 aligned
Completed by
Completed on
Repeats
Participant instructions
Complete before bed each evening.
Site instructions
Review missed entries at each visit.
$100K+
typical floor for a small early-phase trial
$10M+
typical floor for a pivotal Phase 3 trial
3
biggest cost drivers: sites, monitoring, staff time
0
setup fees on Capture
The breakdown
Per-participant site payments, CRA monitoring visits and travel, lab costs and staff time make up most of a trial's cost. Software is a real cost, but usually a small fraction of the total, so the more useful question for most sponsors is not which EDC is cheapest, but which setup gets the study running with the fewest people and the least delay.
11
visits
9
draft forms
2
diaries
The software line item
Build your study in the free sandbox and see the real setup, not a quote.
Before you switch
No setup fees and no long contract. You pay for a plan once the study goes live, not to evaluate it.
21 CFR Part 11-aligned controls, audit trail and e-signatures are included, not sold as a separate compliance package.
Most teams have a working draft study within an afternoon, which removes weeks of implementation from the schedule.
Bringing over an existing protocol or paper CRFs does not require a separate implementation project.
Email support and documentation are included on every plan, with dedicated support available on Enterprise.
Early-phase, single or few-site trials commonly run from the low hundreds of thousands of dollars into the low millions, driven mostly by site fees, monitoring and staff time.
Pivotal, multi-site Phase 3 trials commonly run into the tens of millions of dollars, scaling with the number of sites, participants and trial duration.
Usually not. Software is a real line item, but site payments, monitoring and staff time dominate most trial budgets. Where software affects cost most is setup fees, implementation time and how much manual work it creates.
Yes. The most common places to save without cutting quality are avoiding software setup fees, cutting time-to-first-site with self-serve setup, and reducing manual query resolution with automated edit checks.
It removes the cost and time of evaluating software through a sales cycle, and lets you test the real build before any spend, which shortens the time to your first site.
Keep exploring
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Low-cost clinical trial software
More on where Capture removes cost from the software side.
Clinical trial software for biotech founders
Running a trial on a lean budget without a CRO.
How to choose an EDC system
What to check before you commit budget to any vendor.
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