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Education
Productivity
What is the best reference manager?
11
Options
Considered
263
User
Recs.
Jan 30, 2024
Last
Updated
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10
Options
Considered
Best reference manager
Price
Platforms
License
88
Zotero
Free/Paid
Windows, Mac, Linux, Android (not official), iOS (not official), Web
AGPL (FOSS)
--
citavi
Freemium
Windows
-
--
Paperpile
$2.99/mo
-
-
--
JabRef
Free
Windows, Mac, Linux
MIT
--
ReadCube Papers
$3-5/month
-
-
See Full List
88
Zotero
My Rec
ommendation
for
Zotero
My Recommendation for
Zotero
All
23
Experiences
2
Pros
17
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Cross-platform
See More
Top
Con
•••
No official app for Android
See More
CuriousGelos's Experience
good
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux, Android (not official), iOS (not official), Web
License:
AGPL (FOSS)
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
See More
Top
Con
•••
Only one Library
Only one offline library for all references, collections.
See More
PowerfulKul's Experience
Excellent for offline (Word) and Google-docs. Free and very stable. Actively maintained.
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Top
Pro
•••
Stable with very large libraries
See More
Top
Con
•••
Storage limit (300Mb)
Very expensive for additional storage.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Import from/export to many formats
BibTeX, RIS, Endnote, etc.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Automatic reference extraction from websites
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Microsoft Word integration
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Collaboration tools
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Snapshot of web page for offline view
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Integrates with Word, LibreOffice, LyX, and Google Docs
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Tag suggestios from existing list; tag pane to find related items
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cloud sync allows web access and sync across devices
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Collect references effortlessly from the Web
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Libre Office Integration
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Google-docs integration
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multiple libraries for better management
See More
Hide
See All
Free/Paid
Recommend
72
6
--
citavi
My Rec
ommendation
for
citavi
My Recommendation for
citavi
All
7
Experiences
2
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Windows Only
See More
ReflectiveAltjira's Experience
Comprehensive
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows
Top
Con
•••
Proprietary
See More
FlexibleNuha's Experience
This is an EXTREMELY powerful tool that combines reference and knowledge management. I would be lost without it!!
See More
Top
Con
•••
Free one limited to 100 references per project
Citavi Free can be downloaded at no cost, but it is limited to 100 references per project (in Citavi, databases are called projects). There is no limit on the number of projects.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No online library or dashboard
See More
Hide
See All
Freemium
Recommend
33
1
--
Paperpile
My Rec
ommendation
for
Paperpile
My Recommendation for
Paperpile
All
5
Experiences
1
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Web interface that is synced in the cloud with Google Drive
So there is no need for a backup and you can access it from everywhere.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Only works with Chrome for Desktop
Only works with Chrome for Desktop - which has notoriously battery impacts on Mac systems.
See More
citator's Experience
Coming from Endnote, Mendeley, and Zotero I cannot recommend Paperpile enough. It is fast, convenient and works flawlessly. This is actually the first time that I can focus on writing and don't have to waste time with things like licensing problems, updates, manually downloading and inserting papers, wrong output styles, and so on. It must be hard to develop a simple, fast and good working citation manager. But Paperpile did it!
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Papers can be added directly from the browser
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Makes collaborative writing easy as it's built around Google Docs
See More
Hide
See All
$2.99/mo
Recommend
21
2
--
JabRef
My Rec
ommendation
for
JabRef
My Recommendation for
JabRef
All
13
Pros
11
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
FOSS
Free and Open Source Software
See More
Top
Con
•••
Requires Java
Java is now shipped with the application and no longer needs to be installed separately.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux
License:
MIT
Top
Pro
•••
Organize articles based on keywords, tags, search terms or manual assignments
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Browser Extension
Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge browser Extension. Import new references directly from the web browser with one click using the official browser extension
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Hierarchical collections
Group your research into hierarchical collections
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Regular expressions
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Find unlinked files
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Native BibTeX and BibLaTeX support
Perfect for text-based typesetting systems such as LaTeX and Markdown.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cross Platform
Windows, Mac, Linux
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Keep track of what you read: ranking, priority, printed, quality-assured
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Word and LibreOffice/OpenOffice upport
Support for Word and LibreOffice/OpenOffice for inserting and formatting citations
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Create Entry From XMP Metadata
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
12
--
ReadCube Papers
My Rec
ommendation
for
ReadCube Papers
My Recommendation for
ReadCube Papers
All
5
Experiences
2
Pros
3
Top
Pro
•••
Best UI & Workflow
Their browser integration is amazing. Wherever you are on the web, shows you if you have that paper in a personal or shared library and lets you stream the paper, annotate right on the webpage you are on.
See More
NiceIpabog's Experience
I've used this since it was just Papers. The ability to locate the metadata for a PDF and to locate the references and turn them into clickable links are really useful. Web import is also pretty easy. Compared with EndNote, the interface is logical, uncluttered and intuitive.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fast and accurate lookup of metadata
ReadCube Papers can find the metadata for most papers, and can also convert the bibliography into clickable links to the original papers. Killer.
See More
CompassionateAlamvusha's Experience
I was a ReadCube user... then ReadCube merged with Papers (hello ReadCube Papers). I was skeptical. but no lie - the new app is awesome. They are constantly adding new features every month and their support is great.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very easy to use
See More
Hide
See All
$3-5/month
Recommend
17
--
qiqqa
My Rec
ommendation
for
qiqqa
My Recommendation for
qiqqa
All
5
Pros
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Open Source
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Web, Android
License:
GPL 3
Mobile App:
Android
Top
Pro
•••
Brainstorm option
See More
Top
Pro
•••
OCR Support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Freemium
Free Available
See More
Hide
See All
Freemium
Recommend
7
6
--
F1000workspace
My Rec
ommendation
for
F1000workspace
My Recommendation for
F1000workspace
All
9
Pros
7
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Annotations on PDF and web pages
See More
Top
Con
•••
Has been transformed under a new bossiness model with a new name which requires registration to use the product
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web, Windows, Android, iOS
Top
Pro
•••
Import from identifiers (DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, URL)
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Google Docs add-on
Access citations instantly as you write. Get smart citation suggestions. Search PubMed directly from Google Docs.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
iOS/Android mobile apps
Save references, highlighting, notes After saving to reference to a project with share in your browser, you open the Sciwheel app. Search for the reference, open it and tap the "full text button". Then you can highlight and/or add notes.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Chrome extension
Save references directly from your browser. Annotate webpages and PDFs online.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Import from PDF, Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote, Papers, ReadCube, Reference Manager, RefWorks
Works well
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Word plugin
Access citations instantly as you write Get smart citation suggestions Search PubMed directly from Word
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
6
--
EndNote
My Rec
ommendation
for
EndNote
My Recommendation for
EndNote
All
5
Pros
2
Cons
3
Top
Pro
•••
Industry leader
Stable, industry leader for researchers and academics. Most journals and periodicals provide citation/reference style files for EndNote, desktop integrates well with cloud, and browser, as well as WYSIWYG Word add-in macro.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Expensive
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Mature
See More
Top
Con
•••
No mobile app
See More
Top
Con
•••
Poor web interface
See More
Hide
See All
$249.95
Recommend
10
8
--
Mendeley
My Rec
ommendation
for
Mendeley
My Recommendation for
Mendeley
All
23
Experiences
5
Pros
9
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Proprietary software, acquired by Elsevier
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Web interface, native applications and mobile apps are available
See More
EncouragingDespoina's Experience
Deleted all the annotations in my entire library randomly during some botched Linux upgrade. Removal of mobile apps makes it useless for those of us that like to annotate with a tablet.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web, Windows, Linux, Mac
Top
Con
•••
Removed mobile apps
Elsevier removed the mobile apps at about a month's notice, effectively removing most of the functionality for anyone using an iPad as a laptop replacement.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very good PDF management capability
See More
HelpfulDonbettyr's Experience
Easier to use interface than Zotero. Excellent for multiple ref management and Word integration.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not very good web import capability
To support importing citation from your browser.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Citation plugin for Word and LibreOffice
Can be found here.
See More
PleasantTiberinus's Experience
Their new desktop manager needs to be uninstalled and reinstalled every 5 days to get it to run at proper speed... I've asked and asked for the reason it's slow as molasses, after a laptop reboot and they tell me I have to uninstall and reinstall!!!!
See More
Top
Con
•••
Inconsistencies in the edition of references
Fields are not always relevant for each reference type.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Papers can be added directly from the browser (via extension)
More information can be found here.
See More
NiceIpabog's Experience
Mendeley encrypts your bibliographic data, so other apps can't read it, so it locks you into the system. If they can't retain customers by the quality of their service, the shouldn't lock them in!
See More
Top
Con
•••
Doesn't work on all platforms
Mendeley currently has 2 versions of their product -- Mendeley Desktop/Word Plugin and Mendeley Reference Manager/Mendeley Cite . Neither work on all Mac operating systems and the new version is still in development so it's not fully functional.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Moderately high cloud space
See More
SharpPan's Experience
Wonderful
See More
Top
Con
•••
Proprietary and non-standard PDF annotation
If you annotate the PDFs you have to open it with Mendeley since it uses non-standard formats to annotate PDFs.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Ability to edit, import, and export references in multiple formats
See More
Top
Con
•••
PDF viewer performs poorly on macOS
The build-in PDF viewer stutters especially for larger files (compared to Preview or Skim).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Good video tutorials
Official video tutorials can be found here that take you through what the software is capable and how to go about using it.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Annotations from external PDF viewers can't be imported anymore (macOS?)
This was possible before but they changed it at some point.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Great web interface
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Good sharing and community support
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
17
26
--
Citato
My Rec
ommendation
for
Citato
My Recommendation for
Citato
All
3
Experiences
1
Pros
2
Top
Pro
•••
Affordable
Pretty reasonably priced. One time purchase, so no monthly fees.
See More
StrongPeckols's Experience
Citato is easy to use. It’s great for creating bibliographies and keeping references at hand.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use
Unlike Zotero, Citato is straightforward to use.
See More
Hide
See All
12.99
Recommend
1
Don't see your favorite option? Add it.
--
Citationsy
My Rec
ommendation
for
Citationsy
My Recommendation for
Citationsy
Free
Recommend
18
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