EndNote vs Papis

EndNote is a bibliography maker and reference organizer for searching, storing, annotating, and citing research. It provides more than 7,000 citation styles, including APA, MLA, and Chicago, and over 4,000 connection files for searching and importing references from databases and library catalogs. Cite While You Write supports Microsoft Word, Word Online, Google Docs, LibreOffice, and Apache OpenOffice Writer; Apple Pages is also listed as a macOS integration. EndNote 2025’s Research Assistant can answer questions about a document, summarize research, and translate PDFs or selected text. Find a Journal and Web of Science records support research discovery. Desktop libraries can sync with EndNote Web, and sharing can include up to 1,000 people with access and editing permissions. The 30-day trial includes paid-version features. Listed one-time prices are 94.00 USD for the Upgrade License, 113.00 USD for the Student License, and 206.00 USD for the Full License. EndNote is available on Windows, macOS, web, iOS, and as an extension.

Papis is a free, open-source command-line manager for documents and bibliographic records. It stores records in human-readable YAML files and lets users search by fields such as author, title, and tags. Importers can bring data from other bibliography managers and retrieve metadata from sources including arXiv and Crossref. Records can be exported to BibTeX and other formats. The project lists plugins for Vim, Neovim, and Emacs, plus integrations with rofi, dmenu, Zotero, and Firefox. Third-party Python entry-point plugins can add importers and downloaders, and a Python API supports custom scripts. A local web app starts with `papis serve`; the documented address is `http://localhost:8888`. Installation is described through pip, source code, Arch Linux AUR, Nix, and Guix. The project directs questions to GitHub Discussions and bugs to GitHub Issues. If no importer exists for a website, users may need to download its PDF and enter metadata manually.