Labl.it is a well-made UK food label printer — handheld, purpose-built hardware, a clean app, and a growing user base. It does one thing and does it well. CompliChef Labels does the same thing, but it is not a standalone product — it is the labelling module of a complete food safety compliance platform, and allergens come directly from your KitchenPortal recipe data, not a manually maintained product list.
Here is an honest look at both, covering what each does well and where they differ.
Labl.it requires you to set up each product in their system, including manually entering the allergen information for every menu item. Their platform highlights all 14 declarable allergens in bold and underlined on printed labels, which is correct and compliant.
The accuracy of the allergens on the printed label depends entirely on how accurately the product was set up in the first place — and whether it gets updated when a recipe changes. If a chef swaps an ingredient and nobody updates the Labl.it product database, the label will be wrong.
For most kitchens, this manual maintenance is manageable — but it creates a gap between what your kitchen actually uses in a dish and what your label says. The responsibility for keeping those two things in sync falls on whoever manages the Labl.it account.
CompliChef Labels pulls allergen data directly from your KitchenPortal recipe data. When a chef adds or removes an ingredient from a recipe in KitchenPortal, the allergens on every future label for that dish are automatically updated — no separate step, no separate system to maintain.
This matters because allergen errors on labels are one of the most serious food safety failures a kitchen can make. A system that connects labelling to the source of truth — your actual recipes — is systematically safer than one where the two are maintained separately.
The staff member printing the label sees the allergens pulled live. They are not relying on whoever last updated a product list. The label reflects what is actually in your recipe, right now.
Labl.it is a specialist product and it is genuinely good at what it does. It prints compliant food labels quickly and reliably. The device is purpose-built for kitchens — handheld, ruggedised, drop-tested, with an optional 4G SIM for outdoor catering. That focus gives the product a polish that comes from doing one thing well.
Every label print is logged in the Labl.it cloud platform, so you have a record of what was printed and when. That is useful for basic traceability.
But Labl.it is only a label printer. If your kitchen also needs to log fridge temperatures, record a cleaning schedule, conduct a HACCP audit, manage staff rotas, or store HR records, you need to run separate systems alongside it. Those other compliance obligations don't go away just because labelling is solved.
CompliChef Labels is not a product on its own — it is part of a platform that covers the complete compliance picture for a UK food business. Every label print sits alongside your temperature records, cleaning logs, HACCP checks, supplier records, and staff HR records in the same system.
When an EHO visits and asks to see your food safety records, you open one system. Everything is there: temperatures logged, cleaning completed, labels printed, staff trained. That complete audit trail is harder to demonstrate when your labelling is in a separate system from everything else.
Labels are also connected to StaffPortal — every print is timestamped against the staff member who printed it. If a label is ever questioned, you can trace exactly who printed it, at what time, and what allergen data was shown at that point.
Labl.it is priced as a standalone subscription — reported at around £25–30/month for the device and software access (a Booker exclusive offer advertises £25.20/month). The 14-day free trial is generous: the device is yours to keep at the end regardless of whether you continue.
On top of the monthly subscription, there are ongoing consumable costs. Thermal label rolls are £1.95 per roll: a 40mm roll gives approximately 180 labels, and an 80mm roll approximately 90 labels. For a busy kitchen printing dozens of labels per shift, this is a meaningful recurring cost alongside the subscription.
If you also need a separate kitchen compliance system (which you do — Labl.it doesn't cover temperature logs, cleaning records, or HACCP), you are running two subscriptions. The total spend on compliance tooling across both systems is typically higher than CompliChef's all-in-one pricing.
CompliChef Labels is included as part of a CompliChef platform subscription, which starts at £29/month for a single site. That same subscription also includes KitchenPortal (full kitchen compliance — temperature logs, cleaning records, HACCP, cooldown, hot holding, and more), StaffPortal (rota, HR, training), and access to all future features.
You are not paying a separate subscription for labelling on top of a compliance system. One subscription covers both. For a food business that needs labelling AND compliance records — which is almost every food business — this is typically more cost-effective than two separate tools.
A 14-day free trial gives full access to every feature including Labels, with no credit card required and no sales call needed.
Both products print compliant food labels. The question is whether you need just labels — or labels as part of a complete compliance system.
Allergens are pulled from KitchenPortal recipe data. Change an ingredient in a recipe and every future label is automatically correct. No separate product database to maintain.
Every print sits alongside your temperature records, cleaning logs, and HACCP checks in one system. One place to show an EHO — not labels here, compliance records elsewhere.
Each label is timestamped and attributed to the specific staff member who printed it via their StaffPortal login. Full traceability back to the individual.
Quick Add on the Sunmi lets staff add a new menu item in the kitchen. It syncs back to KitchenPortal — the item is immediately available for every label type.
Scan Labels include a QR code that can be scanned to verify freshness and check prep date — adding a traceability layer beyond what standard label printing provides.
Labels, KitchenPortal, StaffPortal, and more — all in one subscription from £29/month. No separate label printer subscription on top of your compliance software.
No spin. There are areas where Labl.it genuinely leads, and for some kitchens, those things matter.
If you only need label printing and are happy running a separate compliance system, Labl.it is a solid, well-made choice. If you need both labelling and compliance in one place — with allergens linked to your actual recipes — CompliChef Labels is the better fit.
14-day free trial. No credit card. Full access to Labels, KitchenPortal, and StaffPortal from day one.