Polyclonal antibodies are inexpensive and they have short preparation times (normally 4-6 weeks).

Polyclonal antibodies recognize multiple epitopes of an antigen. They are more likely to maintain recognition of antigenic epitopes even when small changes in conformation or aggregation occur. Therefore they are a preferably choice for detection of denaturated proteins. Polyclonal antibodies are also capable of recognizing different epitopes with different affinities. Because of this ability, polyclonal antibodies have a broader range of potential applications than monoclonal antibodies.