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

     482 likes

    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.

    82 Zotero alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • 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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    3
    Zotero vs Mendeley Comments
    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.
    • 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

    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.

    63 Qiqqa alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Qiqqa screenshot 1
     
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    2
    Qiqqa vs Mendeley Comments
    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.
    • Qiqqa is Freemium and Open SourceMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  4. JabRef icon

    JabRef

     105 likes

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

    53 JabRef alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Vivaldi
    • Google Chrome
    • Mozilla Firefox
    JabRef screenshot 1
     
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    1
    JabRef vs Mendeley Comments
    Guest
    Negative
    1

    JabRef only handles bibtex files.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • JabRef is Free and Open SourceMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
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  7. EndNote icon

    EndNote

     44 likes

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

    49 EndNote alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Online
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    EndNote screenshot 1
     
  8. Paperpile icon

    Paperpile

     58 likes

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

    48 Paperpile alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • 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
    Paperpile vs Mendeley Comments
    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.
    • Paperpile is Paid and ProprietaryMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  10. MyInfo icon

    MyInfo

     40 likes

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

    307 MyInfo alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    MyInfo screenshot 1
     
  11. Citavi icon

    Citavi

     52 likes

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

    40 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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    1
    Citavi vs Mendeley Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Great knowledge item management.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • Citavi is Freemium and ProprietaryMendeley is also Freemium and Proprietary
  12. ReadCube Papers icon

    ReadCube Papers

     71 likes

    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.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • 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

    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.

    21 MyBib alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

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

    Litmaps

     6 likes

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

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    Litmaps screenshot 1
     
  15. Research Rabbit icon

    Research Rabbit

     8 likes

    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!.

    13 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 84 Mendeley alternatives