Lab2go vs. cerascreen — Which Tool Is Right for You?

TL;DR: cerascreen is a Hamburg-based test kit provider with 65+ home tests and its own diagnostic lab in Schwerin. Lab2go is a tracking platform that imports lab results via OCR and visualizes them over years. cerascreen solves the measurement problem, Lab2go solves the history problem — and they often complement each other more than they compete.

Anyone serious about tracking biomarkers quickly encounters two very different types of tools: test providers that ship kits to your home and deliver results reports — and tracking platforms that collect lab values from any source and make them analyzable over time. cerascreen and Lab2go exemplify both worlds. This comparison explains when each tool is the better choice, where they overlap, and why combining them makes sense for many biohackers.

Quick Comparison at a Glance

Dimension	cerascreen	Lab2go
Core offering	Test kits + lab analysis + results report	Biomarker and supplement tracking, OCR import, long-term dashboard
Pricing model	Per test, one-time (approx. €27–€120+)	Subscription: Free / €5.99 / €12.99 per month
Panel coverage	65+ test kits (vitamins, hormones, allergies, gut)	Unlimited biomarkers — if it comes from a lab, you can log it
In-house lab	Own lab in Schwerin + partner labs	No in-house lab — aggregates external results
Tracking focus	Per test report, trend chart for cerascreen tests	Long-term history across all sources
OCR import of external results	No	Yes (PDF, JPG, PNG, HEIC up to 50 MB)
Languages	German (+ .co.uk)	German, English, French, Spanish, Italian
App	”mein cerascreen” (iOS/Android) with wearable sync (Fitbit, Oura, Apple Watch)	iOS/Android, Apple Health + Google Fit sync
Family / multi-user	Single person per account	Up to 10 profiles (Premium)
GDPR / hosting	GDPR-compliant, based in Germany	GDPR-compliant, hosted in Germany
Supplement tracking	Recommendations in report, no stack management	Full supplement stack with dose, timing, target biomarker

As of April 2026; all prices per provider websites. These are snapshots — check current pricing and feature scope before purchasing.

What cerascreen Does Especially Well

cerascreen is a Hamburg-based test kit provider founded in 2014, with its own accredited diagnostic lab in Schwerin. Its strength lies in the physical infrastructure: lancet, dried blood card, pre-paid return envelope, and lab analysis — all in one kit. For people without easy GP access, facing long waits for private lab appointments, or with highly specific questions (amino acid profiles, histamine, iodine, specific allergens), this is often the fastest path to a lab value.

Breadth of product range. Over 65 test kits cover vitamins and minerals, thyroid hormones, sex hormones, cortisol day profiles, food allergies and intolerances (gluten, lactose, fructose, histamine), gut microbiome analysis, cholesterol, and more. Many of these panels are not available at a standard GP without a specific medical indication or a private-pay invoice.

The results report. Every cerascreen result comes with reference values, a brief interpretation, and concrete recommendations (diet, exercise, and where relevant, supplements). This is genuinely useful for beginners — a raw lab value without context can be overwhelming. The report doesn’t replace medical advice, but it gives a first layer of guidance.

The “mein cerascreen” app. Enter your test ID, complete a short questionnaire, retrieve your result. Results from multiple cerascreen tests appear in a combined chart; wearable sync (Fitbit, Oura, Apple Watch) is included; and paid subscribers get an AI-powered nutrition planner on top. For the lifecycle within the cerascreen ecosystem, it’s a well-thought-out experience.

An in-house lab. cerascreen is a certified medical device manufacturer operating an accredited diagnostic lab in Schwerin. This is a trust signal: the provider controls the analysis process, not just the shipping.

What Lab2go Does Especially Well

Lab2go is not a testing brand — it’s a tracking platform. It doesn’t analyze blood itself; it accepts your lab results from any source and turns them into a searchable, comparable, exportable history.

OCR import for external results. Upload a PDF from your GP, a cerascreen report, a private lab result, or even a photo of a printed blood panel — the OCR engine reads the values automatically and places them in the correct biomarker category. This is the core capability most tools lack: aggregating what you already have.

Long-term history with reference ranges. Every value lands in a time series with trend arrows and color-coded reference ranges. If your ferritin drops across three data points, you see it at a glance — including a potential correlation with when you started a supplement or changed your diet.

Supplement stack right alongside. Every supplement in Lab2go can be linked to a target biomarker, including dose, timing, cycle, and start date. Intervention and measurement merge into a clean N=1 experiment. More on this in the guide to supplement stack management in Lab2go.

Multilingual support and family profiles. Lab2go runs in five languages and allows up to 10 profiles on the Premium plan. Couples and families can track together without sharing accounts — which makes couples health tracking genuinely practical.

A real free tier. Lab2go Free allows up to 5 supplements, 1 active intake plan, 3 documents per month, and 1 profile — with no time limit. If you only need to store the occasional result, that’s enough. Plus (€5.99/month) and Premium (€12.99/month) expand to unlimited measurements, more profiles, and AI analyses. Details on the pricing page and a full overview of features.

The Key Differences

The difference between cerascreen and Lab2go is not one of degree — it’s categorical. They are two different types of product.

Testing method and scope. cerascreen produces and analyzes the tests itself — the result comes from a kit you ordered. Lab2go accepts results from any source: GP panel covered by insurance, private-pay GP invoice, other self-test providers (including cerascreen), private labs, hospital discharge letters. Lab2go is the data destination; cerascreen is a data source.

Cost structure. cerascreen is pay-per-test. Three panels at €70 each per year = €210 one-time test cost plus unlimited app use. Lab2go is a subscription: €0, €72, or €156 per year, regardless of how many values you enter. If you measure twice a year, cerascreen kits alone are cheaper. If you’re collecting 8–15 values per year from multiple sources, Lab2go gives you the overview that makes it worth it.

Tracking depth. The cerascreen app shows trends for cerascreen tests — external values from a GP PDF don’t land in the same chart. Lab2go shows every value from every source in the same time series.

Intervention integration. Supplement dose alongside a biomarker time series — that’s Lab2go territory. cerascreen makes recommendations in the results report but doesn’t track intake as a structured stack.

Multilingual and international use. Lab2go runs natively in five languages. cerascreen focuses on the German-speaking market (with a UK counterpart). For international households or multilingual tracking scenarios, that’s a clear advantage for Lab2go.

Physical access to lab tests. Here cerascreen wins clearly. Lab2go sells no kits and arranges no blood draws — that’s not the model. Anyone without a GP needs a test provider like cerascreen or a private lab partner.

Three Realistic Pricing Scenarios

To make the cost comparison concrete, here are three typical user profiles with rough estimated annual totals (as of April 2026, excluding insurance reimbursements):

Scenario 1 — Occasional tracker. One Vitamin D test in winter, plus one thyroid check. Two cerascreen kits: approx. €60–100. Lab2go Free covers the PDF storage. Total: €60–100 per year.

Scenario 2 — Active biohacker. Three specific cerascreen tests per year (e.g., minerals, cortisol day profile, gut microbiome) plus two GP blood panels (likely covered by insurance), plus ongoing supplement tracking. cerascreen: approx. €180–250. Lab2go Plus: €72 per year. Total: approx. €250–320 per year.

Scenario 3 — Family tracker. cerascreen kits spread across 3 family members, 2 tests each. cerascreen: approx. €300–400. Lab2go Premium (up to 10 profiles): €96 per year, all results centralized. Total: approx. €400–500 per year.

In none of these scenarios is one tool “cheaper” than the other — they pay for different things. cerascreen costs scale with the number of tests; Lab2go costs scale with the tracking feature level. The two variables are largely independent.

When Is cerascreen the Better Choice?

cerascreen is the right fit when you need fast, straightforward access to a specific lab value without scheduling a doctor’s appointment or building a tracking infrastructure.

Typical scenarios: A one-off Vitamin D check in winter. Suspected food intolerance that your GP isn’t taking seriously. An annual thyroid check where your GP only measures TSH and you want free T3 and T4 as well. A gut microbiome analysis ahead of a probiotic intervention. Suspected histamine intolerance. An amino acid profile to assess protein intake. Any question where a single kit with a ready-made report is the most direct answer.

Also a good fit: If cerascreen’s recommendations are sufficient as a guide and you don’t want to maintain your own tracking system. For occasional check-ups and people new to self-testing, the app is more than adequate.

When Is Lab2go the Better Choice?

Lab2go is the right fit when you’re already collecting lab values from multiple sources or tracking over the long term — regardless of where the values come from.

Typical scenarios: You’ve had blood panels from your GP for years and have a stack of PDFs you want to organize. You combine cerascreen kits, private labs, and GP blood panels and want everything in one time series. You’re experimenting with supplement stacks and want to attribute effects on biomarkers clearly (see the long-term biomarker tracking playbook). You track for a partner or your family in a shared view. You work in two or more languages.

Also a good fit: When you’ve moved past “measure once” and want to operate systematically. The baseline checklist and the blood draw protocol describe what clean measurements look like — Lab2go manages what comes out of them.

Better Together? The Combination Strategy

The most honest answer: for many biohackers, cerascreen and Lab2go aren’t alternatives — they’re partners in a workflow.

The flow: You order a specific test from cerascreen that you can’t get elsewhere — for example, a hormone panel or a gut microbiome analysis. cerascreen ships the kit, you collect the sample, mail it back, and receive the results report as a PDF. That PDF then goes into Lab2go via OCR upload. There it sits alongside your GP blood panel from last week, your self-test result from June, and the supplement stack you’re currently running.

This lets you use cerascreen’s strength (making specific tests easily accessible) and Lab2go’s strength (centralizing all values over years). No data loss, no duplicate entry, no app fragmentation.

For a closer look at how PDF import works in Lab2go, the PDF lab report import guide is worth reading. It explains how the OCR handles different lab formats.

Data Export and the Switching Scenario

An underrated consideration: what happens if you want to switch providers or pause your subscription?

cerascreen stores your test reports in the app and on your account. Individual PDF reports can be downloaded. A structured export of all values as CSV (with units, timestamps, and reference ranges) is not the primary use case — the app is built for use within the cerascreen ecosystem.

Lab2go supports CSV and PDF export of all measurements on Plus and Premium. Even if you later replace Lab2go with another tool, you get your complete biomarker and supplement history out in structured form. Data portability is a serious factor when tracking is supposed to run for several years.

Anyone planning long-term is therefore well-advised to start building a central tracking archive by the time they take their second test at any given provider. The lab archive automation strategy describes what a systematic archive looks like that survives tool changes.

Conclusion

cerascreen and Lab2go address different needs. If you need fast access to a specific test without a doctor’s appointment, cerascreen is the right choice — 65+ test kits with results reports and an app cover a wide range of diagnostic questions. If you want to organize lab values from many sources, track them over years, and link them to supplement stacks, Lab2go is the data hub.

The better question is often not “either/or” but “how do I combine both.” cerascreen delivers values that a GP doesn’t typically measure. Lab2go ensures those values — together with all your other data — don’t get stuck in an app silo but become part of your long-term health history.

For a first look at structured tracking, the Lab2go features and pricing page are a good starting point — the free tier is enough for initial PDF imports and building a baseline.

This article is an editorial comparison. All information about cerascreen is based on publicly available data from the cerascreen.de website (as of April 2026) and may change. cerascreen did not authorize or review this article. If any details differ from the current product, the provider’s official information takes precedence.

This article is not medical advice. Biomarker interpretation, diagnosis, and treatment are matters for qualified medical professionals. Self-tests and tracking tools can support conversations with healthcare providers but cannot replace them.