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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Mendeley

    Score2.7 out of 10
    N/AMendeley, an Elsevier company headquartered in London, offers their eponymous reference management software suite, including Mendeley Reference Manager, Web Importer, the Citation Plugin add-on, available in Premium package.N/A

    Zotero

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AZotero 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
    MendeleyZotero
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    MendeleyZotero
    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
    MendeleyZotero
    Considered Both Products
    Mendeley
    Chose Mendeley
    In ~2014 I and our Lab chose Mendeley over Zotero because it had more functionalities (annotate directly in pdf) and being a commercial product it might have had more support.

    Ten years have passed and it turns out that there was never support (latest versions of Mendeley …
    Incentivized
    Chose Mendeley
    I now use Zotero, and prefer Zotero. Mendeley's occasional glitches caused too much stress for this busy grad student. The research team I joined already used Zotero, so making the shift to the new software was based on group needs.
    Incentivized
    Open Source
    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. …
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    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, …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    User Ratings
    MendeleyZotero
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.1
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    MendeleyZotero
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Mendeley
    Mendeley Desktop used to be a decent software, and comparatively one of the best among Reference Managers. The new online version is beyond expectations
    Read full review
    Open Source
    Zotero is well suited for any researcher, student or writer that wants to easily cite sources for web platforms that do not have easy citing tools integrated within the website. There are many browser plug-ins built for Zotero that allow users to click a button directly from the source into the main software and from there can be more organized for citation export. Zotero doesn't work well if you open an external PDF from a website as it cannot pull author information correctly from a PDF source.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Mendeley
    • Easy to use interface
    • The use of font size and style makes information easily discoverable within the article previews
    • Drag-and-drop functions make article indexing particularly simple
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • Zotero, when paired with the Zotfile plugin, makes it incredibly easy to index sources and documents on a project-by-project basis. Users can store document files locally in a Zotero project filesystem, or merely store links to files stored elsewhere.
    • Zotero plays extremely nicely with PDF documents, thanks again to the Zotfile plugin: I can highlight sections of a PDF article's text and Zotero indexes these "pull quotes" in a searchable and well-organized manner for easy extraction when it comes time to synthesize my sources into a new paper.
    • Zotero automates the production of properly-formatted references (including APA, MLA, Chicago, and others), making it a breeze to create accurate and complete bibliographies.
    • Zotero's library system provides a straightforward graphical user interface to manage multiple research projects and associated files, including the ability to easily add items to a project by ISBN, DOI, PMID, and arXiv IDs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Mendeley
    • In my opinion, terrible web-based function in the new version
    • Very difficult to annotate and search in PDF's
    • New version removed many previous functions
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • Libre office integration was iffy
    • Using different word processors (i.e, Word, then Google Docs on the same file) can "break" embedded citations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Mendeley
    There are a lot of references that do a good job troubleshooting, although I am not sure there is a direct number to an actual person.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    I was not involved with the implementation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Mendeley
    Microsoft EndNote. Mendeley has better user interface and is able to store, sort and organize a large number of articles effectively. Also can import and extract information from citations from articles online without the entire full text pdf availability. Can be used and accessed from portable devices such as iPads and mobile phones as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Mendeley
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    Skipping - did not work with their professional services for my purchase
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Mendeley
    • It is great that for instance, you download the paper you need once, and share it with your entire team.
    • You can present your annotation with the team!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • More Credibility on Our Online Posts that is Informational
    • Less Chances of Potential Legal Issues When Writing
    • Less Time Spent Grabbing Sources from Browser History When Researching
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots