Bookends vs Mendeley Reference Manager
Bookends
sonnysoftware.com
Mendeley Reference Manager
mendeley.comSide by side
| Figure | Bookends | Mendeley Reference Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1.25/mo | $4.58/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 7 |
| Spec score · Reference Management Software | 8.3 (#7) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Spec score · Citation Management Software | 8.3 (#7) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Purpose | Bookends is a reference management app for students and professionals to collect, organize, annotate, cite, sync, share, and publish research. | Mendeley Reference Manager is a free web and desktop reference management application for organizing references and supporting research workflows. |
| Support | The maker offers a technical support request form and directs users to its FAQ, email, and user forum for help or questions. | The download page directs users to the Mendeley Support Center and release notes for help and updates. |
Plans
Bookends
- Bookends for iOS Premium$14.99 a year
- Bookends for iOS Standard$14.99, paid once
- Bookends for Mac upgrade$49.99, paid once
- Bookends for Mac single-user license$74.99, paid once
Mendeley Reference Manager
- FreeFree
- Plus$4.99 a month
- Pro$9.99 a month
- Max$14.99 a month
- Plus$55 a year
- Pro$110 a year
- Max$165 a year
In their own words
Bookends
Bookends is a reference-management app for students and professionals working with research. It collects, organizes, annotates, cites, syncs, shares, and publishes references across macOS, iOS, and a browser extension. The Mac app includes hundreds of searches for scholarly sources and institutional libraries, and can import references and PDFs. Its reader combines PDF annotations, notes, deep links, and searches across reference records and attached file contents. Bookends can scan manuscripts, replace temporary citations, and create in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies using built-in or CSL styles. Imports include EndNote XML, RIS, BibTeX, PubMed, and SenteXML, with integrations for Microsoft Word and other listed applications. Bookends Bridge connects browsers to the Mac app. MCP-capable AI assistants can search references, read PDFs, add notes and highlights, locate citations, and create bibliographies. Mac and iOS libraries sync through iCloud and can be shared with colleagues.
Mendeley Reference Manager
Mendeley Reference Manager is a web and desktop application for organizing references and supporting research workflows. Users can import PDFs or folders into a library, read and annotate documents, and collect thoughts in Mendeley Notebook. Mendeley Cite inserts citations and builds bibliographies in Microsoft Word using a chosen style. Shared groups let colleagues, course-mates, or co-authors contribute references and annotate PDFs together. Web Importer saves papers, web pages, and other documents from search engines and academic databases; it is available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. Watched Folders can import PDFs placed in a selected desktop folder. Offline mode syncs library changes after reconnecting. Free accounts include 2GB of storage and five Reading Assistant questions. Paid plans start at $4.99 per month, with higher tiers listing additional storage and Reading Assistant features. Mendeley is available on web, Windows, Linux, macOS, and as a browser extension. The Windows download page lists Windows 10 and above as supported.