Bookends vs Qiqqa
Bookends
sonnysoftware.comQiqqa
jimmejardine.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Bookends | Qiqqa |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1.25/mo | $6.67/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 3 |
| Spec score · Citation Management Software | 8.3 (#7) | 8.7 (#2) |
| Integrations | The maker lists imports from EndNote, Papers, Sente, Zotero, and Mendeley; integrations with Microsoft Word, Mellel, Nisus Writer Pro, Tinderbox, DEVONthink, and Scrivener; and AppleScript support. | Import is supported from Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote, JabRef and other BibTeX exporters, with Word, BibTeX and LaTeX export options. |
| Privacy | For Mac purchases, Sonny Software may receive name, postal address, and email, but says it never receives or stores personal financial information such as card numbers. | The privacy policy says uploaded documents are not shared with third parties unless the user explicitly shares them, and that industry-standard techniques protect stored personal information. |
| Research discovery | The Mac app includes hundreds of built-in searches and can import references and PDFs from scholarly sources and institutional libraries. | Expedition automatically groups a library into themes, and Qiqqa can help find papers through citations, authors, keywords, and related-document tools. |
| Support | The maker offers a technical support request form and directs users to its FAQ, email, and user forum for help or questions. | The maker lists a support forum, manual, screencasts, and direct contact by email as help options. |
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
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.
Qiqqa
Qiqqa is a research and reference manager for finding, reading, and annotating PDFs and turning research into bibliographies. Its library tools include document previews, duplicate detection, automatic PDF import, OCR, and full-text search across multiple libraries. It imports references from Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote, JabRef, and other BibTeX-exporting programs. Expedition groups library contents into themes, while citation, author, keyword, and related-document tools help locate papers. The PDF viewer supports highlights, annotations, and free-form drawing, with reports that can collect abstracts, notes, and marked passages. Qiqqa InCite supports Microsoft Word citations and bibliographies using community-contributed styles, and can suggest papers from a library while writing. Users can share libraries, assign roles, and collaborate on annotations and metadata. A free Android companion app supports offline viewing, annotation, and highlighting. The open-source repository describes a Windows tool and says commercial Web Library cloud sync ended in 2021. Premium costs $6.67 a month; Premium+ costs $41.67 a month.