Zotero Can't be Beat as a Reference Manager / Citation Tool!!
Updated May 24, 2025

Zotero Can't be Beat as a Reference Manager / Citation Tool!!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Zotero

Zotero is used in order to manage the large volume of literature that researchers read, as well as a reference tool. Firstly, as those of us with PhDs amass a large volume of papers that we have read, Zotero is a great tool to retain all of the citation information and PDFs for these papers, especially the ability to highlight and comment in articles, and add notes to each reference in your library, plus organize papers amongst different individual and shared libraries. Second, Zotero is used in conjunction with Word to cite papers in-text and develop an automatic end-of-paper reference list. This process helps to develop publications for academia and beyond.

Pros

  • Citation
  • Organizing reference libraries
  • Tool to read empirical article PDFs
  • Gather article metadata

Cons

  • Pulling metadata from certain academic editor websites
  • Greater shared library functionality when working in teams
  • Improved ability to publish
  • Neater reference libraries for current and future publishing
  • Saves time in getting work to publishing stage
  • Saves time in pulling together references while writing a paper
Zotero is extremely user-friendly. It also has a large, friendly online community forums where you can find support to questions or ask your own question. It's not really hard to figure out in the first place either, and there's so many ways you can use it (cloud or local storage, app version or online deskop, etc.)
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, keep track of notes, and integrate the sofware with tools like Word for in-text citations.

Do you think Zotero delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Zotero's feature set?

Yes

Did Zotero live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Zotero go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Zotero again?

Yes

Zotero is well-suited for any scenarios where you are working with larger literature bases and citing articles. It's also generally a great tool to sort articles and keep track of various academic publications that one has read and wants to grab at a later date. In my opinion, it's far superior to any other paid tools (Zotero is free!). You can't beat it.

Using Zotero

10 - They conduct research, drive the decision-making for what data to collect, and need to keep up with the latest in the field to ensure our studies are theory-driven.
Zotero is very user-friendly and has a large online support community. It is also free software to download (open source). There's no reason why you'd need in-house support for the software.
  • Storage
  • Organization
  • Research References
  • Sharing Article Libraries
  • Create shared article libraries
  • Have a free means to organize the various academic articles we read
  • Have research libraries backed up to the cloud
  • Take notes on articles / highlight important sections, create tags to reference articles
  • Depends on what new capabilities they come out with
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.

Evaluating Zotero and Competitors

  • Cloud Solutions
  • Ease of Use
  • Other
Firstly, everyone can download Zotero at no cost. That is the most important factor. Secondly, Zotero's tools are more advanced by far than it's competitors, and its competitors do not have a free version.
No changes. Zotero is an easy choice amongst its' competition.

Zotero Implementation

I was not involved with the implementation
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - It is so user-friendly, it is very easy to figure out how it works. Really don't need to be concerned with those less technologically-savvy picking up the product, managing change, or having someone else to help with implementation and adoption.
  • None

Zotero Training

  • No Training
Yes, the product is quite intuitive, no training required. Would recommend everyone try to use Zotero for themselves, and look at community support forums if they're getting stuck. Might be worthwhile to read about features so you can make sure you're maximizing your use of the tool.

Configuring Zotero

No configuration required. Again, it's a very straightforward app you can download to your computer or just use the online version. Lots of options.
None
No - there is no facility to customize the interface
No - the product does not support adding custom code
None

Zotero Support

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
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No need to purchase premium support - it is not a buggy software in the first place, and I can get my questions answered through online support forums
Yes, many times. One example is where I wanted to better understand how to use some of the PDF editing features that were built into Zotero, and how I could edit PDFs that I'd added to Zotero but did not have OCR text. Others had asked similar questions and I was able to get guidance on how to convert articles to readable text outside of Zotero and then re-add them to my library.

Using Zotero

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Adding PDFs to Zotero and having the functions automatically find citation information
  • Organizing articles into folders and shared libraries
  • Opening PDFs within Zotero and highlighting/commenting
  • Using Zotero tools to cite articles in-text in Microsoft Word
  • Create reference lists using Zotero
  • Switch reference style within an already-written document with the click of a button
  • None

Zotero Reliability

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.
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.
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.

Integrating Zotero

Integrated Zotero with Microsoft Word to put in-text citations and reference lists. The integration is quite smooth. I do wish it came with some automatic keyboard shortcuts for adding a Zotero citation while typing up a paper, but I'm not sure that's necessairly under Zotero's control as much as Microsoft's.
  • Microsoft Word
  • Google Docs
  • University library systems
Integration through download and implementation of an "add on" service within each of the above softwares. Not very difficult at all. Can be a bit trickier to integrate with your university library so that you'll get all PDFs for papers for free and recognized by Zotero to auto-download into the Zotero library, but pretty decent enough and can contact support to get it figured out easily.
  • None
I don't know that there's other softwares that Zotero supports integration with.
  • File import/export
None
None - It is all pretty straightforward! Helps to read about the full list of Zotero capabilities and integration as you're downloading it to make sure you have all the right add-on tools

Relationship with Open Source

Didn't work with a vendor - was able to purchase myself online
Not working with a vendor. Easy to work with tool online
Skipping - did not work with their professional services for my purchase.
N/A
None - Don't need to work with the vendor, can simply make purchases easily through their online system.

Upgrading Zotero

Yes - When Zotero did a massive upgrade a few years ago, the process was smooth. Everything worked easily, I didn't have to do any work on my end that I can remember. And even for small upgrades, it just pops up to let you know there's an upgrade and otherwise takes care of itself in the background. I've never run into issues related to a software update.
  • Opening PDFs within the Zotero software
  • Enhanced tools and colors for highlighting in document
  • Neater folder display
  • Not expecting it, but would love to see greater ease of adding notes on the sides of PDFs
  • Not expecting it, but would love to see more than 9 color-coded tags that you can include with your library
Yes - As I move devices or can experience crashes and have built a very large library, and now that I make a good income, I pay myself for the upgraded Cloud software just to make it easier and safeguard my Zotero library. I'm also happy to support the software since they offer so much for free to millions of students and others.
Yes - See last answer - upgraded as my Zotero library grew and I wanted to ensure I could back up my library. Also, obtaining a new high-paying position means I don't need to stress my budget to afford their prices (which are cheap to begin with).

Comments

More Reviews of Zotero

  1. Home
  2. Reference Management Software
  3. Zotero Reviews
  4. User Review of Zotero