CitePlain vs Scholarly
CitePlain
citeplain.com
Scholarly
scholarly.soSide by side
| Figure | CitePlain | Scholarly |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $3.25/mo | $12/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 8 |
| Spec score · Citation generators | 8.9 (#4) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Audience | CitePlain describes itself as suited to quickly generating an individual citation and says it is not trying to replace Zotero as a research reference manager. | Scholarly describes use by students, researchers, educators, professionals, training teams, research groups, and organizations. |
| Privacy | CitePlain says saved references on the free tier live in browser local storage and never leave the device. | Scholarly does not use private User Content to train general-purpose AI models by default, and optional training requires separate informed opt-in. |
| Support | Email support is handled by one person, with replies promised within one business day and often within a few hours. | Users can contact Scholarly at [email protected] and the help center provides a Discord community link. |
| What it does | CitePlain creates formatted citations for web pages, journal articles, books, tweets, YouTube videos and podcasts. | Scholarly is a source-grounded AI workspace that turns users’ PDFs, recordings, videos, websites and notes into learning and research outputs. |
Plans
CitePlain
- FreeFree
- Pro monthly$4.99 a month
- Pro yearly$39 a year
- Founder Lifetime$89, paid once
- Lifetime Founder$89, paid once
- Lifetime$199, paid once
- Lifetime$199, paid once
Scholarly
- FreeFree
- Premium$30 a month
- Premium for Teams$35 a month
- Laureate$99 a month
- Laureate for Teams$110 a month
- Premium$144 a year
- Premium for Teams$336 a year
- Laureate for Teams$1,056 a year
In their own words
CitePlain
CitePlain creates citations and bibliographies from web pages, journal articles, books, tweets, YouTube videos, and podcasts. It accepts URLs, DOIs, or ISBNs, and uses publisher citation and Open Graph metadata, with Crossref lookup for DOIs and Open Library for ISBNs. The free plan includes APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 17, Vancouver, CSE, and BibTeX, plus a bibliography builder for up to 50 sources per batch. The extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox can read metadata from the active tab and provide BibTeX with a stable cite key for Overleaf or Zotero. Pro adds 24 specialised styles, batch URL import for up to 50 sources, and cloud storage synced across the web app and extension. Free-tier references stay in browser local storage. Pro costs $4.99 a month or $39 a year. Lifetime options are listed at 89.00 USD once and 199.00 USD once. CitePlain describes its focus as individual citations rather than replacing a research reference manager.
Scholarly
Scholarly is a browser-based AI workspace that uses your source material to create study and research outputs. Add PDFs, recordings, notes, slides, webpages, videos, images, YouTube links, or pasted text, then make flashcards, quizzes, practice exams, study guides, podcasts, video lectures, slides, mind maps, worksheets, and timelines. Chat answers include checked citations, with a Sources button opening the page supporting each claim. Deep Research searches the web, evaluates sources, and produces cited reports with charts and inline links.
Scholarly works in a browser on laptops, tablets, and phones, and syncs work through your account. Its Google Drive connection can use selected files as sources and save finished work as new Docs or Slides. Teams can use shared libraries, roles, central billing, and model controls. A free plan and free trial are available; paid plans start at $12/user/mo (annual). Scholarly says private user content is not used to train general-purpose AI by default; training requires separate opt-in.