Custom synthesis services, compared on scope and published price

Advertised prices, verified

How custom work is scoped and priced

1. The specification comes before the quote. A custom quote is only as good as the specification behind it. Identity, quantity, purity, the analytical evidence you require and the delivery format are the five things that must be fixed before any number is meaningful, because each of them is a lever the vendor prices.
2. Purity and the analysis that proves it. Purity is a specification, not an adjective, and the method that demonstrates it is a separate decision. Ask which analyses are included, what the acceptance criterion is, and whether you receive the raw data or a summary certificate.
3. Scale changes the route, not just the number. Beyond a certain quantity a vendor may change synthetic route entirely, which changes cost per unit, lead time and impurity profile together. This is why per-unit prices quoted at research scale rarely extrapolate to a larger order, and why you should quote the scale you will actually need.
4. Risk sits somewhere, and it is priced. Difficult custom work either carries a guaranteed deliverable at a higher price, or a lower price with the risk of failure on you. Both are legitimate; what matters is knowing which you bought. Ask explicitly what happens, and what you pay, if the synthesis does not reach specification.

What a certificate of analysis should actually tell you

A certificate of analysis is the document that turns a delivery into evidence. It should state the identity of what was made, the method used to confirm it, the measured purity with the method and acceptance criterion, and the date and batch it applies to. A certificate without a method and a number is a label.

For anything entering a quantitative experiment, ask for the underlying trace as well as the summary. Reading the chromatogram or spectrum yourself takes minutes and catches the difference between material that meets your specification and material that meets the vendor's.

Research use, and the line this site does not cross

Everything in this index is scoped to research use: material bought by an organisation for laboratory work, compared on what suppliers publish. Where a compound also has a clinical or human-use context, that context is out of scope here entirely, and this site carries no dosing guidance, no human-use direction and no clinical referral.

That is a deliberate boundary rather than an omission. The buyer this site serves is choosing a supplier for a laboratory, and the questions that matter to that buyer are specification, evidence, lead time and price.

Common questions

What is a custom synthesis service?

A supplier making a specified material to order rather than selling it from a catalogue: nucleic acids, peptides, small molecules or proteins. It is bought when the material you need is not stocked, or when the quantity, purity or format you need differs from the catalogue product.

How is custom synthesis priced?

By material class. Nucleic acids are priced per base at a stated scale; peptides per residue with purity and modification uplifts; small molecules per project against a route. The vendors in this index that publish figures are shown above with their own wording and the date.

What should a quote include?

Identity, quantity, purity specification, the analytical evidence supplied, delivery format and lead time, plus what happens if the synthesis fails to meet specification. A quote missing the last item is not comparable to one that includes it.

How do I compare two custom quotes fairly?

Fix the specification first and send the identical text to both. Differences that remain are real vendor differences; differences that come from each vendor assuming a different purity or scale are an artefact of a loose brief, and they are the usual reason quotes look incomparable.

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• Compare Gene synthesis on advertised prices