Alternatives to JabRef
An open-source reference manager for collecting, organising and citing literature in BibTeX and BibLaTeX. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
JabRef
An open-source reference manager for collecting, organising and citing literature in BibTeX and BibLaTeX.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as JabRef.
EndNote
A long-running reference manager for collecting sources and formatting citations in academic writing.
EndNote is paid, closed-source software widely used in academic institutions, with a desktop app plus EndNote Web and an AI assistant, rather than plain-text BibTeX libraries.
Also worth comparing
These listings name JabRef as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Mendeley
A reference manager from Elsevier for collecting, annotating and citing research papers.
JabRef is free and open source, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and stores libraries as plain text BibTeX files suited to LaTeX writing.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Overleaf
Collaborative LaTeX editor that runs in the browser.
LyX
Document processor that writes LaTeX for you.
TeX Live
The reference cross-platform TeX and LaTeX distribution.
MiKTeX
TeX distribution that installs missing packages on demand.
Typst
A typesetting system as capable as LaTeX but far easier to learn, with fast incremental compilation and readable error messages.
Pandoc
Converts documents between almost any two markup formats: Markdown, Word, LaTeX, EPUB, HTML, PDF and dozens more.
