Comparison of the selected characteristics of the nanoscopy techniques and confocal microscopy discussed, where bold indicates the best and italics the worst in each category.

Technique	Resolution XY	Resolution Z	Live-cell imaging	Multi-colour	Temporal resolution	Quantification	Overall simplicity of technique	References
Confocal microscopy	∼200 nm	∼400 nm	Yes	Yes (3 colours)	ms–s	Worst	Simple	30,54,56,66 and 144–149
EM	∼1 nm	NA	No	No	ms	Good	Complex	18,30,58,60–62,64,66–74,76–78 and 150–153
SMLM	∼20 nm	∼80 nm	Noa	Yes (2–124 colours)	min	Good	Complex	81–85
STED	∼50 nm	∼150 nm	Yes	Yes (3 colours)	s	Good	Simple	98–101
SIM	∼100 nm	∼300 nm	Yes	Yes (3 colours)	ms–s	Bad	Simple	107 and 112–115
CLEM	∼1 nm (EM)	Dependent on LM technique	No	Dependent on LM technique	Dependent on LM technique	Best	Very complex	68,72 and 141–143

^aSMLM does not allow live cell imaging in most cases, but there are few examples.^87,89