EndNote vs. Zotero

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
EndNote
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Clarivate Analytics headquartered in Philadelphia offers EndNote, a reference library and management software. Endnote helps users save time, stay organized, collaborate with colleagues, and get published.
$99.95
Zotero
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Zotero is a free reference management tool developed as a project developed at Carnegie Mellon and supported by a small team at George Mason University.N/A
Pricing
EndNoteZotero
Editions & Modules
Upgrade License
$99.95
Student License
$115.95
Full License
$249.95
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
EndNoteZotero
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
EndNoteZotero
Considered Both Products
EndNote
Chose EndNote
Although Mendeley has comparable functionality, the two applications are not compatible, and it is harder to import non-formatted citations into Mendeley. However, Mendeley does offer superior analytics compared to EndNote. I continue to use EndNote due to a history of …
Chose EndNote
I like the ease of using EndNote inbuilt tools and add-ins. The best part is, I can simply copy the reference from the EndNote library and paste it into the Word document. When my file is ready, I select the journal style or download it and it does the job quickly. Another good …
Chose EndNote
I have not used any other reference managers.
Chose EndNote
I enjoy reading on the Mendeley interface more than EndNote but EndNote is superior for exporting references and the EndNote word plugin works much better. EndNote is also easier to use as a citation manager with multiple people or documents.
Chose EndNote
Currently have not found any other solutions that address our needs the way that EndNote does. There are many features that are exclusive to EndNote that works for us the way we need it to.
Zotero
Chose Zotero
the interface of those is quite better, but Zotero's usability is more intuitive and straightforward. The price of the others might seem a bit more affordable, but the functions are restricted to the sucription. Zotero's free use is magnificent, paying for the cloud space seems …
Chose Zotero
Zotero is far superior. First of all, it is free! These other programs cost money. Second, because Zotero is open source, there are many more online resources and forums to find help. Third, Zotero is well-known to have a far friendlier interface and ability to read articles, …
Chose Zotero
Mendeley isn't open source like Zotero and doesn't have well-built browser plug-ins, although it has a better, more modern interface. Zotero has limitations with PDFs, but Mendeley doesn't support them at all. For Qiqqa, it is a better alternative and is open source as well. …
Chose Zotero
For a brief time I tried Mendalay, since at the time Zotero didn't have a Google Docs plug in. Mendalay is not as intuitive as Zotero and if I recall correctly, was more expensive. Zotero works very well, and ultimately I found myself back in Zotero because it's easier to use …
Chose Zotero
Zotero is much less prone to glitches than Mendeley, and has much easier to use web extensions and word processor plugins. I found Zotero easy and intuitive to use.
Chose Zotero
Like Zotero, Mendeley is also available for MacOS, Windows, and Linux. It's also available for iOS and Android, whereas Zotero is not. Mendeley is not open source but is free, as well. Zotero's browser integration is superior to Mendeley's, however.

Qiqqa is limited to …
User Ratings
EndNoteZotero
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
EndNoteZotero
Likelihood to Recommend
There are lot of bibliographic compilation softwares in the market but no other product have these extensive tools and options to facilitate the easy of use and effective work done on EndNote. Price wise bit high end but work wise highly effective. Transferring the libraries and accessing on multiple devices also a added advantage in EndNote. The newly enabled synchronisation option was very useful.
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Zotero (with its good buddy Zotfile) is well suited for any researcher who wants to go completely paperless in their research process, or who wants a centralized library system to manage their research projects, including attachments, notes, annotations, sources, and bibliographies. It is geared towards academic and social sciences researchers. Zotero is a powerful tool with a learning curve, and as such it might not be worth the investment of time and energy for end-users with simple research project needs.
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Pros
  • Citation insertion
  • Easy merge and updation of documents with cited references
  • Bibliography compilation and maintenance
  • Better integrated tools with other applications
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  • Zotero's MS Word and Google Docs plug-ins and Chrome extension makes the process of storing, indexing, and citing sources seamless
  • Zotero's automated retrieval of embedded metadata in PDFs and websites is incredibly accurate, which increases my confidence in the citations created by Zotero
  • The library of available citation styles is extensive and largely accurate
  • I love that Zotero syncs your work and citations online, which allows me to work from multiple devices (e.g., laptop, office desktop, computer labs)
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Cons
  • The reading pdf feature could be improved
  • removing duplicates can be tricky
  • journal abbreviations are difficult to manage and usually require manual input
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  • the cloud space is very scarce for the free version
  • consolidation of library could be better when migrating the data
  • ipad app need much more iteration
  • UI could improve its aesthetics
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
Zotero is a fantastic software for researchers. We do pay for 6 GB of storage for each user, so their libraries can be backed to the cloud beyond the 300 MB of allowed free storage. It's low-cost, or can be free if you don't opt into that version. No other citation manager comes even close to Zotero in its capabilities, user-friendly nature, and cost, nor do they innovate their features constantly like Zotero and have open source support online
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Usability
No answers on this topic
once you adapt to the interface, which could feel a bit outdated and old school, its incredible intuitive. An aesthetic improvement could make it reach a whole other level, just if it does not lose any of its usability features. Its quite intuitive and the learning curve is very short.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
Always available. I have it downloaded on my desktop and it opens quickly/immediately, holds open the articles I was reading on the page I was at, and is always ready-to-go for something like Word integration for adding citations
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Everything loads shockingly quickly. PDFs open much faster in Zotero than they do in Adobe Acrobat, all changes to PDFs are saved, the citation manager opens relatively quickly in Word, the tool updates with the online Zotero interface and automatically syncs seamlessly
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Support Rating
Support seems to be good both on the technical side of the software the actual usage of the software. We have encountered minor as well as some major issues especially during upgrades but were able to work through them very quickly with the help of the support team and this allowed us to stay on track when there have been time crunches.
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I have never used Zotero support. I can answer the questions I need to from googling or finding others who have asked my same question in the Zotero support community forums
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
I was not involved with the implementation
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Alternatives Considered
Although Mendeley has comparable functionality, the two applications are not compatible, and it is harder to import non-formatted citations into Mendeley. However, Mendeley does offer superior analytics compared to EndNote. I continue to use EndNote due to a history of successful use of EndNote and the widespread use of the app by my peers.
Read full review
Mendeley isn't open source like Zotero and doesn't have well-built browser plug-ins, although it has a better, more modern interface. Zotero has limitations with PDFs, but Mendeley doesn't support them at all. For Qiqqa, it is a better alternative and is open source as well. However, like Mendeley, there isn't a good base of plug-ins like Zotero has and, as a result, suffers from ease of use.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
All features of Zotero have always worked just fine to me. In my many years using it, I've never run into issues. And when I do want to maximize my use of some feature or learn more, the product support communities are helpful. It's an extremely consistent, reliable software
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Return on Investment
  • Saves a minimum of 10 hours of author rework and review of citations per publication
  • Decreased editor labor budget by ~20%
  • Ease of introduction of new primary authors for scholarly publications
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  • Much easier to integrate sources into scholarly writing
  • Much easier to keep track of source library
  • Much easier to switch citation styles when necessary
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ScreenShots