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How to Choose: EndNote, Mendeley, or Zotero

Comparison Table

EndNote Mendeley Zotero
Cost Free to Northwestern affiliates (site license) Free Free
Access Desktop application; syncing enabled through web application (very clunky) Desktop application syncs with web application Desktop application syncs with web application
Cross-Platform Mac, Windows Mac, Windows, Linux Mac, Windows, Linux
Organize PDFs and Other Documents Yes Yes Yes
Selective Syncing of Documents No Yes Yes
Annotate/Highlight PDFs Yes Yes Yes
Tagging Yes (keywords) Yes Yes
Full-Text Searching Across PDFs Yes Yes Yes
Private Groups Yes Yes Yes
Public Groups No Yes Yes
Community Network No Yes Yes
Mobile App iPad Official apps discontinued - third-party solution iPad and iPhone
Built-In Citation Formats >200 15 12

 

For more information on citation formats, click on the Writing Your Paper tab.

Questions? Contact the library's citation management support.