shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Citationmachine?

Citation Machine, a Chegg service — citation generator for APA, MLA & Chicago - citationmachine.net

Depends. Fine for a student who needs a handful of quick APA/MLA citations and can tolerate ads. Anyone citing in volume, doing thesis-level research, or allergic to upsell pop-ups should use Zotero or MyBib instead.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 40+ public sources; many review snippets were truncated, lowering confidence on specifics like exact premium pricing.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence in sources
  • Security postureNo findings; no public security page found

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
PremiumSubscription (price not listed in reviewed sources)

Best for

  • Students writing papers with a few citations
  • Quick one-off APA/MLA lookups
  • High school and undergrad essays

Not for

  • PhD students and researchers — use Zotero
  • Anyone citing 50+ sources; manual checking drags
  • Users who hate ads and upsell pop-ups
  • Teams needing a reliable plagiarism checker

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Free tier is ad-heavy with constant premium upsell prompts

medium

Guess: copying or exporting full bibliographies likely requires a paid plan

medium

Verify every generated citation against the official style guide before submitting

low

Chegg ownership means cross-selling into Chegg Writing and Study subscriptions

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Covers APA, MLA, Chicago, AMA, Bluebook and many journal-specific styles
  • Free tier available for basic citation generation
  • Plagiarism checker available alongside citations
  • Long-standing tool listed by many university library guides

Cons

  • Aggressive ads and upsells dominate the free experience
  • Generated citations often contain errors requiring manual fixes
  • Guess: citation saving and export gated behind premium
  • Plagiarism checker gets mixed marks versus dedicated tools

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/27/2026 - 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed; no security page found on the site.

official x1review x6news x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 2/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 2/5. Free tier works; ads and paywalls sting
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Form-based, popular with students for speed
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Many styles plus plagiarism checker, thin manager
  • Support quality. No support evidence in sources
  • Security posture. No findings; no public security page found
  • Yes Free tier Ad-supported; premium upsells
  • 2,100+ G2 reviews Per G2 listing on Evernote
  • 5+ Styles covered APA, MLA, Chicago, AMA, Bluebook
  • $3.4M Funding Per Crunchbase profile

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Citations in APA, MLA, Chicago and more
  • Ad-supported
  • Style guides included

Premium

Subscription (price not listed in reviewed sources)

  • Plagiarism checker
  • Ad-free experience
  • Citation saving

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed; no security page found on the site.

What users say

Students find it fast for quick citations but widely complain about ads, upsells, and citations that need manual correction.

“citation machine you cannot be serious 😭”
Reddit, r/assholedesign
“I just wasted 30 minutes”
Reddit, r/college
Full analysis

Based on 40+ public sources; many review snippets were truncated, lowering confidence on specifics like exact premium pricing.

Quick free citations for students, but aggressive ads and paywalls; Zotero or MyBib are cleaner picks.

Methodology

Based on 40+ public sources; many review snippets were truncated, lowering confidence on specifics like exact premium pricing.

Sources

  1. Citation Machine homepagecitationmachine.net
    official
  2. Citation Machine by Chegg Review: APA, MLA & Morejenni.ai
    review
  3. CitationMachine Review 2025: Comprehensive Breakdownacademichelp.net
    review
  4. Citation Machine Plagiarism Checker Review: Pros, Consquetext.com
    review
  5. Reddit r/assholedesign thread on ads/upsellsreddit.com
    review
  6. Reddit r/college thread seeking alternativesreddit.com
    review
  7. Course instructor perceptions of computer-generated citationsemerald.com
    review
  8. Citation Machine — Crunchbase profilecrunchbase.com
    news

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