Mendeleyvs
Obsidian
Obsidian: A powerful knowledge base on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files
Mendeley
The free all-in-one reference manager
As of 28 August 2026, Mendeley has a free plan and paid plans start at $4.99/month. Reference manager for organizing PDFs, generating citations and annotating research, free with paid storage upgrades. Softwr lists it under Research.
Overview
What Mendeley does
Reference manager for organizing PDFs, generating citations and annotating research, free with paid storage upgrades.
What people use it for
- Storing and organizing large research libraries
- Searching and querying PDFs in library
- Uncovering patterns and connections across references
- Comparing experimental data across multiple studies
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Mendeley.
- Free tier limited to 5 Reading Assistant questions per month and 2GB storage
- Annual billing required to receive one free month equivalent discount
- Storage limits restricted on Plus (5GB) and Pro (10GB) tiers
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Mendeley
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MendeleyvsRoam Research
Roam Research: A note-taking tool for networked thought
- MendeleyvsElicit
Elicit: The AI research assistant
- MendeleyvsNVivo
NVivo: Easy-to-use, collaborative qualitative analysis software
Pricing
What Mendeley costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- 2GB storage
- 5 Reading Assistant questions per month
Plus
$4.99 /mo
- Unlimited Reading Assistant
- 5GB storage
- $55/year annual billing
Pro
$9.99 /mo
- Unlimited Reading Assistant
- Compare Experiments
- Ask My Library
- 10GB storage
- $110/year annual billing
Max
$14.99 /mo
- Unlimited Reading Assistant
- Compare Experiments
- Ask My Library
- Unlimited storage
- $165/year annual billing
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
How much does Mendeley Premium cost?
Mendeley Plus costs $4.99 per month or $55 per year. Pro tier costs $9.99 per month or $110 per year. Max tier costs $14.99 per month or $165 per year. All annual plans include one free month of service.
SourceIs there a free version of Mendeley?
Yes, Mendeley offers a free tier with 2GB of storage and 5 Reading Assistant questions per month. No credit card is required for the free plan.
SourceWhat storage do different Mendeley plans include?
The free tier includes 2GB storage. Plus tier provides 5GB storage. Pro tier includes 10GB storage. Max tier offers unlimited storage across all your research libraries.
SourceKeep looking
Where to go from Mendeley
- Mendeley alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Mendeley pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Mendeley badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Research softwareThe full category
- Best Research softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Research software for
Compare Mendeley with
- Zotero
- Paperpile
- Roam Research
- Obsidian
- Elicit
- NVivo
- Terra
- Wolfram Mathematica
- Benchling
- LabVantage
- Sapio Sciences
- Dovetail
- DNAnexus
- Dotmatics
- Florence eBinders
- Form Bio
- Genedata
- Greenphire
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Pricing on request9 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Mendeley, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Mendeley
Mendeley alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Mendeley pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Mendeley
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Mendeley badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Research software alternatives
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