Accepted answer
The short version: same compound, same laboratory, same method, ideally same week — otherwise you are comparing laboratories rather than suppliers.
Cost per milligram of actual peptide is the honest price comparison, which means dividing by measured content rather than by label claim.
Compare documentation on a fixed checklist rather than by impression: lot specificity, method section, chromatogram availability, quantified content, water and counter-ion figures, and whether the code is on the vial.
Inter-laboratory spread on identical peptide material is routinely half a per cent to a per cent by RP-HPLC, which is the noise floor for any cross-laboratory comparison.
One laboratory, one method, one submission. Otherwise it is not a comparison.
edited 20 Jan 2026 by tobias_maartens — updated for the 2026 guidance change