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Mendeley vs Paperlib: catalog facts
Mendeley	Paperlib
Freemium Free with 2 GB of storage, with paid options.	Free Free and open source, supported by donations.
Web, Browser extension	Windows, macOS, Linux
PDF reading, highlighting and annotation built in Generates references and citations	Accurate metadata scraping, including conference papers Tags, flags, folders and Markdown notes
Owned by the publisher Elsevier Free storage is limited to 2 GB	No mobile app Smaller ecosystem than Zotero
Downloadable app, Web application, Browser extension	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.