ReadCube Papers vs refbase
ReadCube Papers
about.readcube.comrefbase
wiki.refbase.netSide by side
| Figure | ReadCube Papers | refbase |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $7.92/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 2 |
| Spec score · Reference Management Software | 8.1 (#13) | 8.3 (#9) |
| Purpose | ReadCube is a platform to discover, read, organize and cite scientific literature. | refbase is a web-based, multi-user interface for managing scientific literature and bibliographic references. |
| Support | Enterprise plans include dedicated support, training and onboarding, while the site provides a help center and support-ticket channel. | The project directs users to its documentation, forums, and mailing lists for help and discussion. |
Plans
ReadCube Papers
- Essentials$10 a month
- Plus$20 a month
- Essentials$95 a year
- Plus$185 a year
- EnterprisePriced on request
- TeamPriced on request
In their own words
ReadCube Papers
ReadCube Papers brings scientific literature discovery, reading, organization, and citation into a platform for individual researchers and teams. Its research answers draw on 165M+ publications and 182M+ patents. Readers can annotate PDFs with highlights, underlines, drawings, notes, and sticky comments. The AI assistant answers questions about a library and compares up to 20 papers, but is available only in the web version. Saved searches can add new papers to a library and send daily, weekly, or monthly alerts. For systematic reviews, it supports dual-reviewer screening, custom data-extraction forms, AI autofill, and PRISMA exports. A browser extension imports articles from Dimensions, PubMed, Google Scholar, and journal websites, with associated PDFs when possible. ReadCube can connect to Overleaf, and enterprise workflows can link libraries with systems including Veeva Vault, SharePoint, and Salesforce. It runs on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and the web, with an API and browser extension. Essentials costs $10 a month; Plus costs $20 a month per user. Both have a 30-day trial, and there is no free plan.
refbase
refbase is a web-based, multi-user application for managing scientific literature and bibliographic references. It offers quick, simple, advanced, and SQL searches, including searches within results. Records can be shown in citation or print views, and the application generates formatted citation lists. It imports and exports records in formats such as MODS XML, RIS, BibTeX, and EndNote. The feature list names compatibility with desktop clients including Zotero and EndNote, as well as an open API and command-line client. Dynamic RSS feeds can track recently added or edited records and custom queries. Users can keep personal keywords and notes in user-specific fields. refbase is a free, self-hosted application licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0. Running it requires a web server, PHP 4.4.0 or greater, and MySQL 4.1.x or greater for Unicode support. The web installer requires a MySQL user with full database access, and some shared hosts may require manual installation. Bibutils is optional and recommended for added import and export functionality.