BibKit vs Papyrus

BibKit is a focused, modern citation manager designed for iPad. FREE PLAN Use every citation tool with a library of up to 10 references. No subscription is required to try BibKit. A BibKit Yearly subscription unlocks an unlimited library across iPad and Mac. IMPORT REFERENCES Import PDF and BibTeX files directly from the Files app. BibKit extracts available citation information and lets you review the result before adding it to your library. LOOK UP PAPERS Add a reference by entering any of the following: • A DOI, such as 10.1016/j.mechmat.2019.103215 • An arXiv identifier, such as 2503.12692v1 • An arXiv abstract or PDF URL • A HAL identifier, such as hal-01234567 • A HAL URL, such as https://hal.science/hal-01234567 • A ScienceDirect article URL containing a recognizable article identifier For publisher pages other than supported ScienceDirect links, enter the publication's DOI instead. When an arXiv preprint has a published version, BibKit can present both records so you can choose the version that belongs in your library. REVIEW AND EDIT Inspect extracted metadata before saving. Edit titles, authors, publication years, journals, volume and issue information, page ranges, publishers, DOI values, arXiv identifiers, URLs, and citation keys. ORGANIZE YOUR LIBRARY Search your references, mark favorites, apply labels, detect duplicates, retain source information, and undo accidental deletions. FORMAT AND EXPORT Generate consistent citation keys, normalize BibTeX formatting, abbreviate journal names, format author initials, and export selected references or your complete library. CREATE FORMATTED REFERENCES Copy references in APA, MLA, or Chicago style when you need a formatted citation instead of BibTeX. BUILT FOR IPAD BibKit provides a native split-view interface designed for reviewing and managing citations on a larger screen. On supported devices, Apple's on-device language model can assist with extracting citation metadata from PDFs. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION BibKit Yearly removes the 10-reference library limit on both iPad and Mac. The subscription costs US$2.99 per year in the United States. Prices may vary by country or region, and the applicable localized price is displayed before purchase. An introductory one-month free trial may be available to eligible new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple Account upon confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings. Existing references remain accessible if the subscription ends. Privacy Policy: https://siliconsuite.app/BibKit/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Papyrus is a native research workspace for reading, annotating, organizing, and citing PDFs — built for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. READ AND ANNOTATE Open a paper in a fast built-in reader. Highlight, underline, and mark up pages, and every highlight stays searchable and linked back to its source. Bookmark a page as you go, and pick the paper up later from a Reading card that remembers where you stopped. On iPad, a References tab looks up the open paper's reference list and related work, so you can follow a citation trail and add what matters to your library without leaving the page. WRITE ON THE PAGE WITH APPLE PENCIL Mark up a PDF directly on iPad — annotate a proof, sketch beside a figure, work a derivation out in the margin. Your ink belongs to the paper and travels with it, encrypted, to your other devices. NOTES BESIDE THE SOURCE Keep Markdown notes next to each paper: headings, tables, code blocks, LaTeX math, and [[note]] cross-references. Notes stay with the paper and export as PDF when you need to share them. NOTEBOOKS Gather notes from across your library onto themed shelves — a topic, a chapter you're drafting, a reading group. Filing a note copies nothing and moves nothing: it still belongs to its paper, still says which paper that is, and one tap takes you there and back. A note can sit on several shelves at once. Fill a new shelf from what you've already written, search it by a note's text or by the paper behind it, order it four ways — including oldest paper first, which reads your own notes forward through the literature — and export a whole shelf as one Markdown document. All Notes lists everything you've written in one place, filed or not. ORGANIZE THE WAY YOU THINK Folders — a paper can live in several — plus tags, star ratings, and seven colored flags you can name yourself, each with its own shape so they stay tellable apart at a glance. Smart Collections keep themselves current from rules you set, including flag rules. Review Duplicates finds look-alike papers and merges each set after you confirm, combining tags, folders, projects, notes, and highlights. FIND ANYTHING Search titles, authors, notes, and highlights — or the full text inside your PDFs. TURN READING INTO WRITING Projects are where a reading pile becomes a manuscript. Group the papers behind a chapter or article, give each one a role, and capture evidence — claims, quotes, and your own interpretation — tied back to the source paper and page. Write the project note from a template (related work, method comparison, experiment plan, thesis chapter, reviewer response), keep its revision history, and run a preflight that catches missing citation keys and metadata gaps before you export. Export a bundle with Markdown, a BibTeX bibliography, and the PDFs. IMPORT AND CITE Bring in PDFs, whole folders, or BibTeX and RIS files — including libraries exported from Mendeley and Zotero. Papyrus looks up metadata by DOI or arXiv ID and fills in the details. Save papers straight from Safari with the included extension. Copy citations in the style you write in, and export BibTeX or RIS whenever you need them. READ ANYWHERE Paste an arXiv link, a DOI, or a PDF URL and Papyrus imports it, looks up the details, and fetches the PDF. Add a paper to Read Later and its PDF downloads ahead of time, so a flight or a commute doesn't need a signal. Ask Siri, or search from the Home Screen, to pick up the paper you were last reading on the page you left it. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR DEVICES Your library syncs over iCloud across iPad, iPhone, and Mac. No account to create, no tracking, no ads. Free to download and use — every feature included, no in-app purchases, no subscription.