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

The best free alternative to Mendeley is Zotero, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Mendeley and loads of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to Mendeley are Qiqqa, JabRef, BibSonomy and Citavi.

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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
  5. Ad
    Screenshot
    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
    Learn More
  6. BibSonomy icon

    BibSonomy

     45 likes

    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
     
  7. 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
  8. 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

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

    Litmaps

     6 likes

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

    12 Litmaps alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    Litmaps screenshot 1
     
  11. 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. Research icon

    Research

     5 likes

    The Research app is designed to streamline your workflow, offering a minimalist yet powerful platform for collecting, organizing, and analyzing research materials.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    Research screenshot 1
     
  13. SciSpace icon

    SciSpace

     6 likes

    Search the largest scientific corpus in the world Discover and study research papers better with SciSpace copilot.

    15 SciSpace alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    SciSpace screenshot 1
     
  14. ResearchGate icon

    ResearchGate

     27 likes

    Enables users to upload and share scientific papers, connect with researchers globally, discover and follow research topics, access datasets, send direct messages, participate in discussions, track citation metrics, and explore academic job opportunities.

    40 ResearchGate alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    • iPhone
    ResearchGate screenshot 1
     
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    1
    ResearchGate vs Mendeley Comments
    youdaoyzbx
    Positive
    0

    ResearchGate is a platform to share ideas and papers.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • ResearchGate is Free and ProprietaryMendeley is Freemium and Proprietary
  15. Consensus icon

    Consensus

     5 likes

    Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to instantly extract, aggregate, and distill findings directly from scientific research.

    17 Consensus alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    Consensus screenshot 1
     
12 of 62 Mendeley alternatives