shouldiuse.io

Report

Should I Use JabRef?

jabref.org·Analyzed 1 week ago··Based on 14 sources

A free reference manager that helps you to discover, collect, organize and cite your scholarly literature and research in an efficient way.

Verdict

Depends

Use it if you write in LaTeX and want a free, local, BibTeX-native library.

Confidence: Medium

Word-first or casual users should pick Zotero or Mendeley instead.

Free open-source BibTeX manager: excellent for LaTeX academics, wrong tool for Word users or casual PDF collectors.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Entirely free, open-source, donations-funded
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Described user-friendly; BibTeX focus implies a learning curve
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Collect, organize, cite, browser import, dedup tools
  • Support quality. No support evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. Open code; one recorded vulnerability; no security page
  • 2003 Founded Per official site
  • $0 Price Free and open-source
  • Yes Open source Cross-platform desktop app on GitHub
  • 1 Recorded vulnerabilities Per CyStack CVE tracker

Pricing

JabRef Desktop

Free

  • All features included
  • Open-source; donations accepted
Best for and not for

Best for

  • LaTeX/BibTeX researchers
  • PhD students on a budget
  • Privacy-minded users wanting local storage
  • Cross-platform desktop workflows

Not for

  • Word/Docs-only writers — BibTeX-first design gets in the way
  • Casual users with a few PDFs — overkill
  • Teams needing cloud collaboration or shared libraries
  • Anyone expecting vendor support or SLAs

Biggest gotcha

  • mediumGuess: migrating from Zotero/Mendeley requires BibTeX export checks before committing.11
  • mediumSite's own security page failed to load ('no security page found').⁸
  • lowDonations-funded: no paid support tier, helpdesk, or SLA.⁵

Pros

  • Completely free and open-source²
  • Cross-platform desktop app²
  • Active since 2003; long track record¹
  • Browser import extension for grabbing references⁴
  • Widely cited in academic papers14

Cons

  • Desktop-only; no web or mobile app shown²
  • BibTeX-centric; assumes LaTeX familiarity⁹
  • No security page found on its own site⁸
  • One recorded vulnerability in CVE tracker⁷
  • Competitor EndNote described as more comprehensive13

Security

Open-source code on GitHub; CVE tracker records 1 vulnerability; official security page not found.

  • 1 recorded vulnerabilityCyStack CVE database counts one JabRef security vulnerability as of its latest update; no specifics published in sources reviewed.⁷

What users say

Sources describe JabRef as a powerful, free, user-friendly tool, though in-depth independent reviews are scarce.

“In summary, JabRefis a powerful and user-friendly tool for managing bibliographic references”
Glarity search summary
“There’s been a past request for reference managers (referencing Mendeley or Zotero)”
Literature & Latte forum
“The review of jabref.org is positive.”
ScamAdviser site review

Methodology

Based on ~20 public sources; mostly official pages and citations, few in-depth independent reviews.

Sources

  1. JabRef official sitejabref.org
    official
  2. JabRef GitHub repositorygithub.com
    official
  3. JabRef documentationdocs.jabref.org
    official
  4. JabRef on Xx.com
    official
  5. JabRef LinkedIn post (donations)linkedin.com
    official
  6. SourceForge listingsourceforge.net
    official
  7. CyStack CVE databasecystack.net
    security
  8. JabRef security page (no page found)jabref.org
    security
  9. ResearchGate: JabRef BibTeX-based softwareresearchgate.net
    review
  10. Glarity overviewaskai.glarity.app
    review
  11. Literature & Latte forum threadforum.literatureandlatte.com
    review
  12. ScamAdviser reviewscamadviser.com
    review
  13. SiteLike alternatives (EndNote)sitelike.org
    review
  14. PMC article citing JabRefpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
    news

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.