JabRef vs Qiqqa
JabRef
jabref.orgQiqqa
jimmejardine.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | JabRef | Qiqqa |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $6.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Citation Management Software | 8.8 (#1) | 8.7 (#2) |
| Collaboration | Teams can work with a shared SQL database, and JabRef supports SSL database connections; its documentation says SSL has only been tested with PostgreSQL. | Group libraries support administrator, contributor and viewer roles, shared metadata, discussion walls and private download links. |
| Documentation | The project publishes user documentation, FAQs, developer documentation, a forum and GitHub issue tracking. | The project README says user documentation still needs substantial work and directs support questions to GitHub issues. |
| Rating on AlternativeTo | 4.3 out of 5 from 3 ratings | 3.8 out of 5 from 10 ratings. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.7 out of 5 from 12 reviews | 2.0 out of 5 from 2 reviews. |
| Support | The project directs users to its documentation and community forum for help, with bug reports handled through GitHub. | The maker lists a support forum, manual, screencasts, and direct contact by email as help options. |
Plans
In their own words
JabRef
JabRef is a free, open-source citation and reference manager for collecting and organizing research sources. It works natively with BibTeX and BibLaTeX libraries stored as text, imports references from more than 15 formats, and extracts metadata from PDFs. Users can search scientific catalogs such as CrossRef, Google Scholar, PubMed, Springer, arXiv, and zbMATH. Library tools include hierarchical collections, keywords and tags, advanced search and filters, duplicate merging, and customizable citation keys. JabRef supports cite-as-you-write workflows with Word and LibreOffice/OpenOffice, and can send citation keys to editors including Emacs, LyX, TeXstudio, Vim, and WinEdt. Its browser extension collects bibliographic information from websites, though the documentation warns it is non-functional on Chrome. Teams can share a SQL database, and SSL connections are supported; SSL testing is documented only for PostgreSQL. Since version 6, users can summarize papers and chat with them through external AI providers, which process requests and linked PDFs. The project directs users to documentation and a community forum for help, with bug reports handled through GitHub.
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.