1Your brand here: book this slot2Your brand here: book this slot3Your brand here: book this slot4Your brand here: book this slot5Your brand here: book this slot1Your brand here: book this slot2Your brand here: book this slot3Your brand here: book this slot4Your brand here: book this slot5Your brand here: book this slot
6Your brand here: book this slot7Your brand here: book this slot8Your brand here: book this slot9Your brand here: book this slot10Your brand here: book this slot6Your brand here: book this slot7Your brand here: book this slot8Your brand here: book this slot9Your brand here: book this slot10Your brand here: book this slot
Skip to content
Day 58: new resources are added every day. See what's new
Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Desktop App

JabRef

Collect, organise and cite your research references in one library.

Visit JabRefFree4.5

Built with love by Shushant Lakhyani. Building bestproductivityresources.com

Free: 1,100+ ways people make money onlineFree: 399+ ways to make money online

What is JabRef?

JabRef is a free, open-source reference manager built around BibTeX and BibLaTeX. Add papers by DOI, ISBN or arXiv ID, fetch details from online databases, attach and rename PDFs, group and search your library, and cite straight into LaTeX, Word or LibreOffice documents.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros

  • Adds full references from a DOI or ISBN
  • Keeps PDFs and citations together
  • Free and open source

Cons

  • Built mainly for LaTeX users
  • The interface takes some getting used to

Who should use JabRef

Students and researchers who write in LaTeX and manage large reading lists.

Who may not need it

People who cite only a handful of sources now and then.

JabRef alternatives

Similar resources to JabRef, picked from the directory.

All Research resources

Zotero

Focus: pdf. Shares citations and reference manager with JabRef. Adds iOS, Chrome and Firefox. Rated 4.8 (JabRef: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.8Visit

Zettlr

Focus: markdown editor and academic writing. Shares citations and open source with JabRef. Adds Offline. Same 4.5 rating.

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.5Visit

llmwiki

Focus: knowledge base, llm wiki and markdown. Shares open source and github with JabRef. An AI tool, not a desktop app. Same 4.5 rating.

AI ToolFreeCross-Platform, macOS
4.5Visit

OpenDraft

Focus: research papers and literature review. Shares citations and open source with JabRef. An AI tool, not a desktop app. Rated 4.4 (JabRef: 4.5).

AI ToolFreeCross-Platform
4.4Visit

Logseq

Focus: PKM, Note-Taking and Graph Database. Shares Open Source with JabRef. Adds iOS, Android and Web. Rated 4.6 (JabRef: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Jan

Focus: local ai, llm and offline. Shares open source with JabRef. Same 4.5 rating.

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.5Visit

Free alternatives to JabRef

Free resources that cover similar ground.

1000UserGuide

Focus: user acquisition, marketing channels and indie developer. Shares open source with JabRef. A website, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.7 (JabRef: 4.5).

WebsiteFreeWeb
4.7Visit

Fast GraphRAG

Focus: rag, graphrag and knowledge graph. Shares open source with JabRef. A framework, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.7 (JabRef: 4.5).

FrameworkFreeCross-Platform, Web
4.7Visit

Handy

Focus: speech to text, dictation and whisper. Shares open source and github with JabRef. Rated 4.7 (JabRef: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.7Visit

SiYuan

Focus: second brain, block editor and backlinks. Shares open source and github with JabRef. Adds iOS and Android. Rated 4.7 (JabRef: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.7Visit

massCode

Focus: code snippets, developer notes and http client. Shares open source and github with JabRef. Rated 4.6 (JabRef: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Xournal++

Focus: handwriting, pdf annotation and pen input. Shares open source and github with JabRef. Rated 4.6 (JabRef: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.6Visit
Are you the maker of JabRef?Get a free Featured badge for your site, a share image and ready-to-paste posts. No sign-up.

Free Notion database

1,100+ ways people are making money online

Real online businesses, creators and projects, broken down by how they make money: apps, online stores, AI tools and more. Free on Gumroad.

Get the free database

Free Notion database

399+ ways to make money online

Hundreds of online income methods in one place, so you can compare options and pick one to try. Free on Gumroad.

Get the free list

For research and ideas only. Results vary and nothing here is a promise of income. See our Disclaimer.

Weekly newsletter

Everything new, every Monday.

One short email every Monday with everything shipped that week: new free tools and websites, new guides, new free browser tools and what's new in my free Gumroad libraries, plus how the site is growing. Free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Join the newsletter

You sign up on Gumroad, which stores your email to send the newsletter. See our Privacy Policy.