The Best Mendeley AlternativesTop Research Managers and other similar apps like Mendeley

Mendeley is described as 'Helps manage and share academic knowledge: Mendeley Desktop is free academic software (Windows, Mac, Linux) for organizing and sharing research papers and generating bibliographies with 1GB of free online storage to automatically back up and synchronize your library' and is a very popular research manager in the education & reference category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Mendeley for a variety of platforms, including Web-based, Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone apps. The best Mendeley alternative is Zotero, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Mendeley are Qiqqa, JabRef, BibSonomy and EndNote.

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Alternatives list

  1. Zotero icon

    Zotero

     470 likes
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    Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, share research and cite your research sources directly in your favourite word processor, with 300 MB free online storage.

    79 Zotero alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Google Chrome
    • Safari
    • Microsoft Word
    • Google Docs
    • LibreOffice
    • Mozilla Firefox
    Zotero screenshot 1
     
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    58
    Comments about Zotero as an Alternative to Mendeley
    Guest
    Positive
    9

    Amazing. Full featured; sqlite db, tagging, notes... Hey, knowledge at your fingertips

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Ron Bar-Ad
    1

    Zotero is great for referencing and integrates well with browsers and word processors. It's not the same as Mendeley Reference Manager, which not only holds references but also pdfs, and has annotation and notebook features.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    -5

    Open source and made in the U.S.A!

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Mendeley Icon
    Zotero icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Zotero is a great Mendeley alternative.

    • Zotero is the most popular Windows, Android, Mac & iPhone alternative to Mendeley.

    • Zotero is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Mendeley.

    • Zotero is Freemium and Open SourceMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Zotero is Privacy focusedMendeley is not according to our users
  2. Qiqqa icon

    Qiqqa

     422 likes
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    Qiqqa is a free research and reference manager. Search for, read and annotate your PDFs. Then review your work, write up and create bibliographies instantly.

    60 Qiqqa alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Qiqqa screenshot 1
     
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    31
    Comments about Qiqqa as an Alternative to Mendeley
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Has the feature to tag regions of a pdf with a keyword or add a note with a tag and later compile all occurrences of the tagged regions with a particular keyword across the whole library..

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Differently from Qiqqa, Mendeley has no annotation report feature, meaning that it is not possible to gather all highlights/annotations on a paper into a single file. This is very useful for large pdf.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Mendeley Icon
    Qiqqa icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Qiqqa is a great Mendeley alternative.

    • Qiqqa is Freemium and Open SourceMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  4. JabRef icon

    JabRef

     103 likes
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    Bibliography reference manager. The native file format used by JabRef is BibTeX, the standard LaTeX bibliography format.

    50 JabRef alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Vivaldi
    • Google Chrome
    • Mozilla Firefox
    JabRef screenshot 1
     
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    1
    14
    Comments about JabRef as an Alternative to Mendeley
    Guest
    Negative
    1

    JabRef only handles bibtex files.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Mendeley Icon
    JabRef icon

    • Most users think JabRef is a great Mendeley alternative.

    • JabRef is Free and Open SourceMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
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    AnswerThis icon
    AnswerThis

    Advanced AI tool for academic research delivers in-depth literature reviews, citing over 200 million sources, summarizing findings, supporting uploads, chat-based queries, user libraries, editable reviews, and free or pro access ...

    https://answerthis.io
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  6. BibSonomy icon

    BibSonomy

     44 likes
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    BibSonomy is a system for sharing bookmarks and lists of literature (BibTex format).

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    BibSonomy screenshot 1
     

    • BibSonomy is the most popular Web-based alternative to Mendeley.

    • BibSonomy is Free and Open SourceMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  7. EndNote icon

    EndNote

     44 likes
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    A reference management software, used for searching online publication databases, & managing publications / bibliographies, with the ability to insert the references into a word processor.

    46 EndNote alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Online
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    EndNote screenshot 1
     

    • Some users think EndNote is a great Mendeley alternative, some don't.

    • EndNote is the most popular commercial alternative to Mendeley.

    • EndNote is Paid and ProprietaryMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  8. Paperpile icon

    Paperpile

     57 likes
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    Organize your research papers in a Gmail-like web app, sync your PDFs to Google Drive and cite your references in Google Docs.

    45 Paperpile alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Google Chrome
    • Microsoft Office Word
    • Google Drive
    • Google Drive - Docs
    • Google Scholar
    Paperpile screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Paperpile as an Alternative to Mendeley
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    I like that this is web-based and can use it on any laptop, just by signing into my account.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Mendeley Icon
    Paperpile icon
    • Paperpile is Paid and ProprietaryMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  10. MyInfo icon

    MyInfo

     39 likes
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    MyInfo is a personal information manager for Windows. It will help you capture, organize, edit and share ideas, documents, tasks, and web pages.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    MyInfo screenshot 1
     
  11. Citavi icon

    Citavi

     52 likes
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    Reference management and knowledge organization with integrated task planner. Solution for work groups with data sharing in intranet available.

    39 Citavi alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Simple Navigation on the left, the editing pane in the middle, preview on the right (for PDF and text documents, images, Web pages, etc.). All You Need You can add ratings, quotations, comments, thoughts, tasks, locations, and links to other references and files. Citavi is your complete toolbox for academic writing.
     
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    7
    Comments about Citavi as an Alternative to Mendeley
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Great knowledge item management.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Mendeley Icon
    Citavi icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Citavi is a great Mendeley alternative.

    • Citavi is Freemium and ProprietaryMendeley is also Freemium and Proprietary
  12. ReadCube Papers icon

    ReadCube Papers

     71 likes
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    Papers helps you collect and curate the research material that you're passionate about. This award-winning reference manager will improve the way you find, organize, read, cite, and share.

    42 ReadCube Papers alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Google Chrome
    • Safari
    • Firefox
    ReadCube Papers screenshot 1
     
  13. MyBib icon

    MyBib

     16 likes
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    A new FREE citation generator. Automatically create bibliographies, references, and citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and over 8000 more styles with a totally free and no-ads citation generator.

    19 MyBib alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Google Chrome
    MyBib screenshot 1
     
  14. Litmaps icon

    Litmaps

     6 likes
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    Discover the world of Scientific Literature - LITERATURE REVIEW SOFTWARE FOR FASTER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY

    9 Litmaps alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    Litmaps screenshot 1
     
  15. Research Rabbit icon

    Research Rabbit

     8 likes
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    ResearchRabbit is a research platform that enables you to discover and visualize relevant literature and scholars, create alerts for awesome newly-published papers, share collections with colleagues and the world, and so much more!.

    9 Research Rabbit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    See a graph of papers that cite the ones you have saved, or vice versa, sorted by similarity of chronology
     
12 of 81 Mendeley alternatives