What String does

STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins) is a non-profit academic consortium database of functional protein association networks, jointly operated by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) in Lausanne, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (CPR) at the University of Copenhagen, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. As of version 12.0, released in July 2023, STRING indexes 59.3 million proteins across 12,535 organisms and documents more than 27.5 billion protein-protein interactions, integrating evidence from experimental assays, curated databases, textmining, coexpression, gene fusion, co-occurrence, neighborhood, and homology channels with confidence scoring from 0.150 to 0.900.

The platform is accessed through an interactive web interface, a REST API with human-readable URLs, bulk downloadable datasets exceeding 500 GB under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, and a Cytoscape App/plugin for network visualization. It supports functional enrichment analysis across Gene Ontology, KEGG pathways, and diseases, k-means/MCL/DBSCAN clustering, and in version 12.0 introduced pre-computed protein network embeddings and ProtT5-derived eukaryotic protein sequence embeddings, alongside an experimental "STRING chat" interface.

STRING is funded institutionally rather than commercially and has no pricing tiers or paying customers. It is designated a Core Data Resource by both the Global Biodata Coalition and ELIXIR. Weekly usage runs at approximately 7–16 million HTTP requests from 50,000–110,000 distinct hosts, serving academic molecular biology and bioinformatics researchers as its primary segment and pharmaceutical/biotech researchers as a secondary segment for drug-target identification and biomarker discovery.

Name

String

Legal name

STRING Consortium

Website

https://string-db.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

STRING is a non-profit academic consortium database that provides curated protein-protein interaction networks for 59.3 million proteins across 12,535 organisms, freely serving academic and pharmaceutical researchers worldwide via web, API, and bulk downloads.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biological Database & Bioinformatics Software

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519), Libraries and Archives (519210)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Transcriptomics & Gene Expression Profiling Services (HLAGANAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Molecular & Genetic Testing (PCR/NGS/qPCR) (HLAGADAF), Search / Index Databases (HDAEAAAK), GraphQL, gRPC & Modern API Protocols (BPAMAOAK)

Keywords

• Protein interaction database
• Bioinformatics research tools
• Functional enrichment analysis
• Biological network analysis
• Protein association networks

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Free Academic Access: All data and downloads in STRING are freely available under Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. The consortium is funded by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Novo Nordisk Foundation Center Protein Research (CPR), and European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

STRING is a free biological database and web platform that provides functional protein-protein interaction networks for 12,535 organisms, containing 59.3 million proteins and over 20 billion interactions. Users search proteins by name, sequence, or pathway, and the system returns interaction networks with confidence scores integrated from multiple evidence channels (experiments, databases, textmining, coexpression, gene fusion, co-occurrence, neighborhood, and homology). All data is freely available under Creative Commons BY 4.0 license.

Product overview

STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins) is a database for functional protein association networks. The core offering is the STRING Database, which provides protein-protein interaction data across 12,535 organisms with 59.3 million proteins and over 20 billion documented interactions. Users access the platform through the STRING Web Interface for interactive searching and visualization, the REST API for programmatic access, or bulk Downloads for large-scale data analysis. The Cytoscape App provides integration with the Cytoscape desktop application. All data is freely available under Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. The platform supports functional enrichment analysis, multiple evidence channels (experiments, database curated, coexpression, textmining, gene fusion, co-occurrence, neighborhood), and clustering algorithms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• STRING Database Comprehensive database of functional protein-protein interaction networks providing interaction data for 12,535 organisms with 59.3 million proteins and over 20 billion interactions, integrating evidence from experiments, curated databases, textmining, coexpression, gene fusion, co-occurrence, neighborhood, and homology. Used by academic and pharmaceutical researchers for protein function prediction, pathway analysis, and disease gene identification.
• STRING Web Interface

Quantifiable outcome

• Covers 12,535 organisms with 59.3 million proteins and 27.5 billion interactions
• +1 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• SIB - Swiss Institute of BioinformaticscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSIB is one of three founding consortium members that maintain and operate STRING database. Provides computational infrastructure and scientific expertise for protein interaction data curation and analysis.
• CPR - Novo Nordisk Foundation Center Protein ResearchcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCPR at University of Copenhagen is a founding consortium member contributing to STRING database development, maintenance, and scientific governance.
• EMBL - European Molecular Biology LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory hosts STRING consortium activities, contributing computational resources and bioinformatics expertise.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Reactome: Reactome is a curated, peer-reviewed pathway database covering metabolic, signaling, and disease pathways. It overlaps with STRING's pathway/process enrichment analysis functionality but emphasizes pathway curation over direct interaction networks.
• InterPro: InterPro classifies protein sequences into families and predicts functional domains and sites. While narrower than STRING in scope, it serves the same bioinformatics audience and is often used alongside STRING in functional annotation pipelines.
• UniProt: UniProt is the canonical protein sequence and functional annotation database, maintained by a consortium of EBI, SIB, and PIR. While broader than STRING (sequences + functional annotation rather than interaction networks), UniProt increasingly ingests PPI data and competes for the same researcher attention.
• Alliance of Genome Resources: The Alliance integrates model organism databases (mouse, yeast, fly, worm, zebrafish, rat) with cross-species gene and interaction data. It competes with STRING for the model-organism research community and offers curated orthology and interaction evidence.
• KEGG: KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) provides curated pathway maps, molecular interaction networks, and functional annotations. It is one of the most established life-science databases and overlaps with STRING in pathway-level analysis use cases.

Emerging players

• GeneCards: GeneCards is a searchable integrated database of human genes that aggregates information from ~150 sources including interaction data. It overlaps with STRING's human-protein focus and is commonly used by translational researchers as a complementary resource.
• Open Targets Platform: Open Targets integrates genetic, omics, and PPI-derived evidence for systematic drug target identification. It draws on STRING-like interaction evidence but adds target-disease associations, representing an emerging competitor for translational pharma workflows.

Direct peers

• BioGRID: BioGRID is one of the most widely cited curated protein-protein interaction databases, providing physical and genetic interaction data across multiple species. It is the most direct functional peer to STRING, often co-cited in the same studies.
• IntAct: IntAct is EMBL-EBI's open-source molecular interaction database, offering curated PPI data with similar evidence-channel curation to STRING. Strong direct overlap in target users (molecular biologists, systems bioinformaticians) and use cases.
• GeneMANIA: GeneMANIA is a gene function prediction tool that builds functional association networks from multiple data sources, conceptually very similar to STRING's network expansion and prediction approach. It is a direct niche competitor for gene-function-prediction workflows.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about String