JabRef vs Mendeley
February 19, 2026
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JabRef is an open-sourced, cross-platform citation and reference management software. It uses BibTeX and BibLaTeX as its native formats and is therefore typically used for LaTeX. It can retrieve and link full-text articles, fetch complete bibliographic information based on ISBN, DOI, PubMed-ID and arXiv-ID, import new references directly from the web browser extension. You can complete and improve bibliographic data by comparing with curated online catalogues such as Google Scholar, Springer or MathSciNet, automatically rename and move associated files according to customizable rules, group links into hierarchical collections, organize articles based on keywords, tags, search terms or your manual assignments. Advanced search and filter features are also available.
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Free, universal reference manager for managing and sharing research papers, as well as creating bibliographies for research articles. Mendeley allows to search over 100 million articles from multiple publishers, quickly add PDFs to your library, organize them with collections and tags, then read and annotate them. You can work with a single database across the desktop app, web version and Word plugin. It provides 2 GB of free storage. The program features an AI assistant that thoroughly understands your library and quickly finds what you need, identifying patterns, relationships, and missing links in your references. Mendeley's AI interprets the logic behind your queries, extracting context-rich information from your documents.
JabRef vs Mendeley in our news:
2021. Reference Management software Mendeley mobile app for Android and iOS is retired
Mendeley developers have decided to withdraw lesser used mobile app from service to focus on those products that are used by more of the Mendeley Community. The app has been withdrawn from the App Store and Google Play. While some researchers indeed used the native Mendeley mobile apps, unfortunately overall usage figures showed that this feature does not support the majority of Mendeley users. Having discontinued the mobile app the developers will now focus on the solutions that the majority of the suite users value most. This includes making improvements to Mendeley Reference Manager, Mendeley Cite and Mendeley Web Importer. In order to continue the use of their Mendeley library, app users are advised to sync their library to the cloud in advance. Users can then access their library on Mendeley Reference Manager web or desktop application.
