Comparing Glasswise and U-Label by Scantrust for wine e-labels. We look at design, data ownership, features, and what matters for independent wineries vs. large operations.
David Wippel
Founder of Glasswise
U-Label is one of the best-known names in wine e-labeling. It began as an industry initiative from the European wine and spirits trade associations, CEEV and spiritsEUROPE, and in 2024 it partnered with Scantrust, a QR-code technology provider, to run the platform as U-Label by Scantrust. Glasswise takes a different route, built around design and data ownership for independent wineries.
Disclosure: This article is written by the Glasswise team. We encourage you to evaluate both platforms yourself.
U-Label by Scantrust is built for the whole EU drinks industry at scale: wine, spirits, and aromatized wine, from small producers to large houses managing thousands of references. Glasswise is built for independent wineries where the e-label carries the brand, not just the mandatory compliance data.
U-Label's strength is reach and standardization. It comes from the trade associations, tracks regulatory change centrally, and offers enterprise features like serialized QR codes, anti-counterfeiting, and distributor traceability. For a large catalogue across drink categories, that institutional backing is reassuring.
Glasswise stays close to one job: making a winery's mandatory e-label feel like part of the brand. Every label is designed to match your winery, the wine data stays yours in a central hub, and the QR code doubles as a channel back to the people who scan the bottle.
U-Label charges in tiers that grow with the number of e-labels you publish, so a larger catalogue moves you up the plans. Glasswise charges one predictable annual price for unlimited e-labels, users, and updates. Which one works out cheaper depends on how many wines you carry and how fast that list grows.
We break the math down in the true cost of per-label e-label pricing. The short version is that per-label models look cheap at three wines and add up quickly at fifty, and most wineries add a wine or two every vintage.
U-Label offers template-based customization with a real-time preview and custom domains, tuned for consistency across a large catalogue. Glasswise treats design as the core of the product. Each e-label is built as a bespoke page in your winery's colors, typography, imagery, and story, closer to a landing page than a filled-in form.
Three things stand out. You own your wine data in a central hub and can export it whenever you want. The QR redirect keeps resolving for the life of the wine because the GS1 identity is yours. And every scan can open a marketing and loyalty layer instead of a static fact sheet. All of it is wine-native rather than adapted from a multi-category compliance tool.
The data hub means your producer-verified information sits in one place you control. Update a wine once and every label reflects it, and if you ever move on, the data comes with you. Because you hold the GS1 Digital Link identity, the QR codes already printed on your bottles keep working even if you change plans, so you are never tied to one vendor's redirect.
Scan with Glasswise turns the mandatory QR code into a channel worth having. The person holding your bottle can find tasting notes, your other wines, and a reason to stay in touch, rather than reading an energy table and closing the tab. Because Glasswise is built for wine and for the German-speaking market first, the workflow, the language, and the support speak your world rather than a generic drinks-and-food standard.
| Feature | U-Label (Scantrust) | Glasswise |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Wine, spirits, aromatized wine, all sizes | Independent wineries |
| Pricing model | Tiers by label volume | One annual price, unlimited |
| Custom brand design | Template customization | Full bespoke design |
| Bulk operations | Yes | Yes |
| GS1 Digital Link | Yes | Yes |
| 24 EU languages | Yes | Yes |
| Serialized QR codes | Yes | No |
| Anti-counterfeiting | Yes | No |
| Distributor traceability | Yes | No |
| Central wine-data hub, yours to export | No | Yes |
| Marketing QR redirect | No | Yes (Scan with Glasswise) |
| Done-for-you e-label setup | No | Yes |
| QR code guarantee | Not specified | For the life of the wine |
Choose U-Label by Scantrust if you manage a large or multi-category catalogue, need serialized QR codes or anti-counterfeiting, or want distributor traceability across the supply chain.
Choose Glasswise if you are an independent winery that wants the e-label to carry your brand, values owning your wine data, prefers one predictable annual price, or wants the QR code to work as a marketing channel.
Switching does not mean reprinting a single bottle. You keep the GS1 identity and QR codes you already have, repoint them to your new Glasswise labels, and bring your wine data across. Most wineries are live within a season, with the old labels still resolving the whole time.
The path is straightforward:
The mechanics are the same whichever provider you leave, and we walk through them in how to switch e-label provider without reprinting QR codes.
U-Label brings the weight of the trade associations and enterprise tooling for producers who need scale and supply-chain features. Glasswise brings wine-native design, data you own outright, and a QR code that markets for you. If your bottle is your brand and you want to keep it that way, Glasswise is built for exactly that.
See Glasswise pricing or read the true cost of per-label e-label pricing. For the wider field, compare all wine e-label providers for 2026.
Start your free 30-day trial. No credit card required. Set up your first e-labels in minutes and see what a branded wine data platform looks like.
Effortlessly fulfill all labeling requirements for nutritional values and ingredients, compliant with regulations across Europe. This gives you the freedom to focus on what truly matters: your wine.
Six requirements that tell you a professional e-label provider apart before the label goes to print, from availability and GS1 Digital Link to data ownership.
A comprehensive comparison of every major wine e-label provider in Europe. Bottlebooks, U-Label, IMERO, Glasswise, APyS, LITTLEWINE, and more. Pricing models, features, and what matters.
A dynamic marketing QR code lets you point a printed code anywhere and change it any time, without reprinting. Here is how it differs from your e-label QR and where to use it.
Export all bottle formats at once, include QR codes in your export, and more improvements to the Excel export.
APyS bundles e-labels into their wine ERP system. Glasswise offers e-labels independently. Here is why that difference matters for your winery.
How the prestigious Vinea Wachau wine association chose Glasswise to provide compliant, branded e-labels for over 100 member wineries in one of Austria's most renowned wine regions.
An honest comparison of Glasswise and Bottlebooks for wine e-labels. We break down pricing, design, the consumer-capture layer, data ownership, and how to switch.
Everything Austrian wineries need to know about e-label requirements in 2026. EU regulation compliance, QR code obligations, and how to set up your digital wine labels.
Your physical wine label is a work of art. Your e-label should not be a generic template. Here is why e-label design matters and how custom design strengthens your brand.
Per-label pricing seems affordable at first. But as your wine portfolio grows, the costs add up quickly. Here is a comparison with flat-rate pricing.
IMERO e-label.eu is an established EU e-label platform. Here is how Glasswise compares on brand design, data ownership, marketing QR codes, and switching.
Worried about switching e-label providers because of your printed QR codes? Here is how to migrate without reprinting a single label.
Weinlabel.at joined Glasswise earlier this year. After the former operator retired, all users and labels were migrated to Glasswise to ensure long-term stability and ongoing development.
Glasswise, the Austrian market leader in digital wine labeling, acquires the Croatian E-Label system from Craft Technology. This strategic acquisition enables Craft Technology to focus on its core product while Glasswise expands its offering and gains access to the Croatian market. A win for winemakers across Europe.
Free e-label solutions may sound tempting, but what are the hidden costs and risks? Learn why sustainable solutions are crucial for long-term e-label compliance and what questions you should ask your provider.
This overview summarizes all changes and updates to our application in February 2025.
This overview summarizes all the changes and updates to our application in January 2024.
This guide shows you as a winemaker the five key factors in choosing an e-label tool, including legal compliance, user-friendliness, and flexibility to provide value beyond legal requirements.
The EU Commission has presented important changes and clarifications to wine labeling regulations in a recent announcement. This post summarizes the key elements of the new regulations, including the placement of mandatory information on labels and specific requirements for QR codes and ingredient lists.
'Scan with Glasswise,' an innovative feature that maximizes your QR code's potential. Learn how you can legally add extra value to your winery and directly connect your wines with customers.
In this post, you'll learn why it's crucial to choose an E-Label solution that uses a URL shortener.
Why I developed Glasswise, my vision, and what's next: Learn more about the future plans and goals of this project.