Zotero, Paperpile or Nerdi: which do you need?
By Koray Özcan · Updated October 10, 2026
They solve different problems. Zotero and Paperpile are reference managers: they store the papers you have found and turn them into citations. Nerdi is a reading app: it brings you a few new papers a day so you find them in the first place. Most researchers need one reference manager, and some also want a reading app; Nerdi exports to both Zotero and Paperpile.
At a glance
| Zotero | Paperpile | Nerdi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main job | Collect and cite papers | Collect and cite papers | Discover and read papers |
| Finds new papers for you | No | No | Yes, three a day |
| Citations in Word or Google Docs | Yes | Yes | No |
| BibTeX and RIS export | Yes | Yes | Yes, with Plus |
| iPhone app | Yes | Yes | Yes (iPhone only) |
| Price | Free; paid storage | Paid, from about $4.15 a month billed yearly | Free to read; Plus $29.99 a year |
Paperpile's price is from its pricing page at the time of writing.
Choose Zotero if
You want a free, open-source library that works with Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs, and you are happy to set it up once. Zotero is the default for students on a budget.
Choose Paperpile if
You write in Google Docs or Overleaf and want the smoothest citation workflow in the browser, and you are willing to pay for it.
Add Nerdi if
Your problem is not citing papers but reading enough of them. Nerdi shows three papers a day from the fields you choose, out of 20, with the original abstract and the free PDF when one exists. When a paper matters, save it, and later export your library as BibTeX or RIS into Zotero or Paperpile.
Can I use them together?
Yes, and that is the intended setup: Nerdi for discovery, a reference manager for writing. Neither replaces the other.
Written by the developer of Nerdi, one of the apps mentioned.
Nerdi is free to read. No account needed.