Clarivate
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're an institution, pharma company, or IP firm needing curated citation, patent, or drug-pipeline data and can absorb enterprise contracts.
Comparison
Clarivate vs Elsevier
Clarivate and Elsevier both land on Depends.
Elsevier
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Worth using if your institution's library pays and your field's top journals are Elsevier.
| Compare | Clarivate | Elsevier |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Universities and research libraries | University libraries with big budgets |
| Who it's not for | Individual researchers wanting quick citation lookups | Unfunded authors paying APCs personally |
| Privacy | Mature program: Trust Center, HackerOne disclosure program, and advisories issued for third-party CVEs in its software.⁷ | No public CVEs found, but third-party reports flag a domain hijack and leaked credentials. |
| Support quality | Trustpilot 2.8 average | Trustpilot 1.8, 'Poor' |
| Public sentiment | Sentiment splits: solid G2 product ratings but weak Trustpilot scores and lukewarm employee reviews.¹ | Acadics vent about fees, unpaid reviewing, and clunky tools; Trustpilot sits at 1.8 'Poor'.13 |
| Biggest gotcha | Pricing is negotiated per product and seat; expect sales-led contracts, no self-serve checkout.10 | APCs are set per journal; check the exact fee before submitting anything16 |
Pick Clarivate when
- Universities and research libraries
- Pharma and life-sciences R&D
- IP firms tracking patents
- Government research agencies
When Clarivate is not a fit
- Individual researchers wanting quick citation lookups
- Small startups without data budgets
- Buyers needing transparent, self-serve pricing
- Teams wanting lightweight single-purpose tools
Pick Elsevier when
- University libraries with big budgets
- Researchers targeting top-tier journals
- Clinicians needing decision support
- Institutions with read-publish agreements
When Elsevier is not a fit
- Unfunded authors paying APCs personally
- Reviewers expecting payment
- Open-access-only labs
- Small teams wanting a cheap literature tool
Sources
review
- Clarivate on Trustpilot (2.8/5)trustpilot.comreview
- Clarivate Glassdoor reviews (63% recommend)glassdoor.comreview
- Clarivate AmbitionBox reviews (3.7/5, 900+)ambitionbox.comreview
- Clarivate HackerOne vulnerability disclosure programhackerone.comsecurity
- Clarivate Trust Centerclarivate.comsecurity
- Clarivate Spring4Shell security advisoryknowledge.ag-software.clarivate.comsecurity
news
news
- Clarivate pricing marketplace (spend data)spendhound.comreview
- Clarivate official siteclarivate.comofficial
- Clarivate historic share prices (CLVT $1.90)ir.clarivate.comnews
- Trustpilot reviews of elsevier.comtrustpilot.comreview
review
- Journal pricing policyelsevier.comofficial