Mendeley vs BibDesk

Struggling to choose between Mendeley and BibDesk? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Mendeley is a Office & Productivity solution with tags like reference-manager, citation-manager, pdf-annotation, collaboration, research-sharing.

It boasts features such as Reference management, PDF organization and annotation, Collaboration tools, Citation plugins for Word and LibreOffice, Web importer browser extension, Suggested papers based on library, Mobile apps and pros including Free basic plan with 2GB storage, Intuitive interface, Large academic user base, Good collaboration features, Many citation style options.

On the other hand, BibDesk is a Office & Productivity product tagged with bibliography, citation, reference, research, latex, bibtex.

Its standout features include Manages bibliographies and references, Supports BibTeX format, Integrates with LaTeX, Organizes PDFs, Generates bibliographies, Supports tagging, Supports smart groups, and it shines with pros like Free and open source, Clean and simple interface, Good LaTeX integration, Active development and support.

Feature	Mendeley	BibDesk
Overall Score	N/A	N/A
Primary Category	Office & Productivity	Office & Productivity

Product Overview

Mendeley

Description: Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research. It provides tools to manage references and citations, read and annotate PDFs, and create online groups and networks to share research papers and collaborate.

BibDesk

Description: BibDesk is a free open source reference management software for macOS. It helps organize documents and references for research papers and projects, integrates well with LaTeX, and supports BibTeX formatted databases.

Key Features Comparison

Mendeley Features

• Reference management
• PDF organization and annotation
• Collaboration tools
• Citation plugins for Word and LibreOffice
• Web importer browser extension
• Suggested papers based on library
• Mobile apps

BibDesk Features

• Manages bibliographies and references
• Supports BibTeX format
• Integrates with LaTeX
• Organizes PDFs
• Generates bibliographies
• Supports tagging
• Supports smart groups

Pros & Cons Analysis

Mendeley

Pros

• Free basic plan with 2GB storage
• Intuitive interface
• Large academic user base
• Good collaboration features
• Many citation style options

Cons

• Limited storage in free version
• No offline access in free version
• Less citation style options than competitors
• Collaboration requires all users to have accounts

BibDesk

Pros

• Free and open source
• Clean and simple interface
• Good LaTeX integration
• Active development and support

Cons

• Mac only
• Limited citation styles
• No browser integration
• No collaborative features

Pricing Comparison

Mendeley

• Freemium

BibDesk

• Open Source