New check

Comparison

JabRef vs Zotero

JabRef lands on Depends, and Zotero lands on Worth it.

JabRef

Depends

Confidence: Medium

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

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Zotero

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you write papers or manage more than a handful of sources . it is free, open source, and taught by university libraries.

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JabRef versus Zotero
Compare	JabRef	Zotero
Verdict	Depends	Worth it
Best for	LaTeX/BibTeX researchers	Grad students and academics
Who it's not for	Word/Docs-only writers . BibTeX-first design gets in the way	Casual bookmarkers . browser folders suffice
Privacy	Open-source code public on GitHub; CVE tracker records 1 vulnerability; official security page not found.^⁷	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.¹⁶
Support quality	No support evidence found	Docs and community forums only
Public sentiment	Sources describe JabRef as a powerful, free, user-friendly tool, though in-depth independent reviews are scarce.¹⁰	Users and librarians consistently call Zotero the best free reference manager, especially for students and literature reviews.
Biggest gotcha	Guess: migrating from Zotero/Mendeley requires BibTeX export checks before committing.¹¹	Sync storage is capped on the free tier; large PDF libraries push you into paid plans

Pick JabRef when

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

When JabRef is not a fit

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

Pick Zotero when

Grad students and academics
Literature review-heavy projects
Group bibliographies and labs
Zero-budget researchers

When Zotero is not a fit

Casual bookmarkers . browser folders suffice
Teams wanting AI research summaries
Market research teams needing survey platforms
Firms requiring vendor SLAs and dedicated support

Sources

JabRef official sitejabref.org
official
JabRef GitHub repositorygithub.com
official
JabRef documentationdocs.jabref.org
official
JabRef on Xx.com
official
JabRef LinkedIn post (donations)linkedin.com
official
SourceForge listingsourceforge.net
official
CyStack CVE databasecystack.net
security
JabRef security page (no page found)jabref.org
security
ResearchGate: JabRef BibTeX-based softwareresearchgate.net
review
Glarity overviewaskai.glarity.app
review
Literature & Latte forum threadforum.literatureandlatte.com
review
ScamAdviser reviewscamadviser.com
review
SiteLike alternatives (EndNote)sitelike.org
review
PMC article citing JabRefpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
news
Zotero | Your personal research assistantzotero.org
official
Product security pagezotero.org
security