{"slug": "zotero", "name": "Zotero", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "Open-source reference manager for collecting, organizing, annotating and citing research papers and documents.", "recommenders": 14, "commenters": 20, "warners": 1, "score": 12.028, "rising": -3.25, "first": "2026-01-23", "latest": "2026-10-08", "why": "Recommended for organizing, reading and annotating large PDF libraries, with web snapshots and metadata-based imports that cut friction in literature reviews, and some use it well beyond academia.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 14, "neutral": 2, "compare": 3, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 6, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Library organization", "Reading and annotation"], "caveat": "BibTeX interop", "short_quote": "I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well.", "icon": true, "domain": "zotero.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.zotero.org/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Zotero"], "verdict": [{"text": "Recommended for organizing, reading and annotating large PDF libraries", "cites": [{"id": 782098064, "item_id": 48881129, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881129", "by": "NL807", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "can't say I'll be looking back any time soon.", "excerpt": "I just finished importing and sorting thousands of PDF research papers, about 50 GB I've accumulated over the decades. Originally, I was sorting them in file system directly, but the whole thing got out of hand at some point, and thus the Documents folder became a dumping ground for PDFs. So I decided to take control of the situation and use Zotero to manage all this stuff. First I used Claude Code to generate all th", "context": "has thousands of research papers", "use_case": "managing research PDF collection", "switched_from": "filesystem folders", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 747786720, "item_id": 46736670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736670", "by": "dakiol", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it.", "excerpt": "I've been using Zotero as my \"book\" organizer. I have all my epubs, pdfs, everything there. Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it. I keep custom labels so I easily search for stuff. The only feature I don't use is everything about citation (funny enough). Before Zotero I had everything in file system directories, but I wanted the feeling of having one place (one app) where I could see", "context": "", "use_case": "organizing books and PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 760620112, "item_id": 47538757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47538757", "by": "ashton314", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well.", "excerpt": "This is cool! I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well. I'll take Veil out for a spin some time and see if it works well in places where Zotero's algorithm fails. [1]: https://zotero.org", "context": "", "use_case": "managing and annotating papers", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 747803232, "item_id": 46737702, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737702", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It solved my problem of having a hundred arxiv tabs open. Highly recommended.", "excerpt": "I discovered it a few weeks ago. It solved my problem of having a hundred arxiv tabs open. Highly recommended. I'm also looking forward to trying out the new annotations feature.", "context": "", "use_case": "paper management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}]}, {"text": ", with web snapshots and metadata-based imports that cut friction in literature reviews", "cites": [{"id": 800081408, "item_id": 50005088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005088", "by": "nickledave", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.", "excerpt": "For folks who are wondering: This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/ If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero. It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this. I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/ It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can ma", "context": "", "use_case": "reading, annotating, saving posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 782118368, "item_id": 48882398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882398", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is amazing software.", "excerpt": "I used zotero through both a bachelor's and masters. It is amazing software. And it integrates with nearly everything. It completely takes the friction out of literature reviews and research whilst providing much more that a single text file. The snapshotting and auto pdf download are the best parts. I like me some cli, but if I was to do something similar it would be with csl-json and jq/nushell. I cannot see the ad", "context": "used through bachelor's and master's", "use_case": "literature reviews and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782114320, "item_id": 48882145, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882145", "by": "freehorse", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "in zotero you can drag and drop files and it generates a reference based on the metadata", "excerpt": "And moreover, something already mostly solved algorithmically. Eg in zotero you can drag and drop files and it generates a reference based on the metadata as long as that is enough (somebody mentions it is not possible in newer versions, I use the latest version and it works fine). Each one can choose their own tools of course, but we often see llms shown as solutions to something presented as unsolvable before, whil", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782099728, "item_id": 48881233, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881233", "by": "btrettel", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it would be more reliable to make a LLM generate a list of DOIs and have Zotero import the DOIs.", "excerpt": "> First I used Claude Code to generate all the BibTex files for the PDFs I think this has an unnecessary risk of hallucinated bibliographic data. For anyone doing something similar in the future, it would be more reliable to make a LLM generate a list of DOIs and have Zotero import the DOIs.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}]}, {"text": ", and some use it well beyond academia.", "cites": [{"id": 747793616, "item_id": 46737101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737101", "by": "whimsicalism", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend everyone to use Zotero.", "excerpt": "I highly recommend everyone to use Zotero. Their original marketing as being 'for academics' is entirely wrong and it is a first-in-class bookmark/knowledge manager.", "context": "", "use_case": "bookmark and knowledge management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 800081408, "item_id": 50005088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005088", "by": "nickledave", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.", "excerpt": "For folks who are wondering: This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/ If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero. It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this. I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/ It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can ma", "context": "", "use_case": "reading, annotating, saving posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 747786720, "item_id": 46736670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736670", "by": "dakiol", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it.", "excerpt": "I've been using Zotero as my \"book\" organizer. I have all my epubs, pdfs, everything there. Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it. I keep custom labels so I easily search for stuff. The only feature I don't use is everything about citation (funny enough). Before Zotero I had everything in file system directories, but I wanted the feeling of having one place (one app) where I could see", "context": "", "use_case": "organizing books and PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}]}, {"text": " Complaints are scattered, with clunky BibTeX interop raised most often", "cites": [{"id": 763788512, "item_id": 47736782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736782", "by": "ktpsns", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system.", "excerpt": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system. As a research group/company we switched from bibtex to zotero because it allows to put the PDFs also into the collection and has web based browsing included without custom software. However, the interop with bibtex could be much more seamless. The zotero db feels a bit like a silo, which is sad. Thankfully it is open source so somebody (including me) could improve this i", "context": "research group/company", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "BibTeX", "story": "Zotero 9"}, {"id": 782105969, "item_id": 48881623, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881623", "by": "arutar", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I think Zotero is an excellent tool and I used it for a long time.", "excerpt": "I think Zotero is an excellent tool and I used it for a long time. However, like the author, I also felt that Zotero was not the ideal tool for me. But a straight BibTeX file is also rather unwieldy. Essentially, bibliographic data has provenance (say, a DOI identifier), and it is very useful to keep track of this in a structured way. A friend and I have been working (slowly, over the past few years, since we are bot", "context": "academic", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}]}, {"text": ", alongside unreliable automatic metadata and a poor iPad app.", "cites": [{"id": 782272640, "item_id": 48892040, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892040", "by": "NL807", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The entire point of me using Zotero is to manage PDFs and being able to read them.", "excerpt": ">At least with Zotero Version 6, you could have just selected all your PDFs and drag-n-dropped them into the interface. I'm on version 9. I did the drag and drop for some of the files, but Zotero has only like 50% hit rate with finding the correct bibtex, and those are not that high quality either. People talk about hallucinations using LLMs, but I found them to be more reliable and produces richer metadata than Zote", "context": "", "use_case": "managing PDFs and references", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 765999264, "item_id": 47874954, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874954", "by": "paultopia", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "its iPad app is so godawful", "excerpt": "Hard disagree. The iPad is a fantastic mac replacement for many purposes. I use the iPad Pro w/ the \u201cmagic keyboard\u201d case for working essentially whenever I\u2019m not physically in home or office in similar ways that I do my Mac, for two really big reasons: (1) The (11-inch) size is fantastic: you get enough screen real estate to see what you\u2019re reading and writing, but it still fits into an arbitrarily small bag and is ", "context": "academic", "use_case": "academic reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Neo and How the iPad Should Be"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Library organization", "summary": "Commenters use it to tame thousands of papers, books and browser tabs in one place.", "quotes": [{"id": 782098064, "item_id": 48881129, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881129", "by": "NL807", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "can't say I'll be looking back any time soon.", "excerpt": "I just finished importing and sorting thousands of PDF research papers, about 50 GB I've accumulated over the decades. Originally, I was sorting them in file system directly, but the whole thing got out of hand at some point, and thus the Documents folder became a dumping ground for PDFs. So I decided to take control of the situation and use Zotero to manage all this stuff. First I used Claude Code to generate all th", "context": "has thousands of research papers", "use_case": "managing research PDF collection", "switched_from": "filesystem folders", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 747786720, "item_id": 46736670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736670", "by": "dakiol", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it.", "excerpt": "I've been using Zotero as my \"book\" organizer. I have all my epubs, pdfs, everything there. Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it. I keep custom labels so I easily search for stuff. The only feature I don't use is everything about citation (funny enough). Before Zotero I had everything in file system directories, but I wanted the feeling of having one place (one app) where I could see", "context": "", "use_case": "organizing books and PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 747803232, "item_id": 46737702, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737702", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It solved my problem of having a hundred arxiv tabs open. Highly recommended.", "excerpt": "I discovered it a few weeks ago. It solved my problem of having a hundred arxiv tabs open. Highly recommended. I'm also looking forward to trying out the new annotations feature.", "context": "", "use_case": "paper management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}]}, {"label": "Reading and annotation", "summary": "Built-in PDF reading and annotation, including a PDF inverter, are well liked.", "quotes": [{"id": 760620112, "item_id": 47538757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47538757", "by": "ashton314", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well.", "excerpt": "This is cool! I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well. I'll take Veil out for a spin some time and see if it works well in places where Zotero's algorithm fails. [1]: https://zotero.org", "context": "", "use_case": "managing and annotating papers", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 747786720, "item_id": 46736670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736670", "by": "dakiol", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it.", "excerpt": "I've been using Zotero as my \"book\" organizer. I have all my epubs, pdfs, everything there. Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it. I keep custom labels so I easily search for stuff. The only feature I don't use is everything about citation (funny enough). Before Zotero I had everything in file system directories, but I wanted the feeling of having one place (one app) where I could see", "context": "", "use_case": "organizing books and PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 800081408, "item_id": 50005088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005088", "by": "nickledave", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.", "excerpt": "For folks who are wondering: This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/ If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero. It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this. I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/ It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can ma", "context": "", "use_case": "reading, annotating, saving posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}]}, {"label": "Capture and import", "summary": "Web snapshots, automatic PDF download and import from files or DOIs save manual work.", "quotes": [{"id": 782118368, "item_id": 48882398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882398", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is amazing software.", "excerpt": "I used zotero through both a bachelor's and masters. It is amazing software. And it integrates with nearly everything. It completely takes the friction out of literature reviews and research whilst providing much more that a single text file. The snapshotting and auto pdf download are the best parts. I like me some cli, but if I was to do something similar it would be with csl-json and jq/nushell. I cannot see the ad", "context": "used through bachelor's and master's", "use_case": "literature reviews and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782114320, "item_id": 48882145, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882145", "by": "freehorse", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "in zotero you can drag and drop files and it generates a reference based on the metadata", "excerpt": "And moreover, something already mostly solved algorithmically. Eg in zotero you can drag and drop files and it generates a reference based on the metadata as long as that is enough (somebody mentions it is not possible in newer versions, I use the latest version and it works fine). Each one can choose their own tools of course, but we often see llms shown as solutions to something presented as unsolvable before, whil", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782099728, "item_id": 48881233, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881233", "by": "btrettel", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it would be more reliable to make a LLM generate a list of DOIs and have Zotero import the DOIs.", "excerpt": "> First I used Claude Code to generate all the BibTex files for the PDFs I think this has an unnecessary risk of hallucinated bibliographic data. For anyone doing something similar in the future, it would be more reliable to make a LLM generate a list of DOIs and have Zotero import the DOIs.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}]}, {"label": "Beyond academia", "summary": "Some see it as a strong general bookmark and knowledge manager, not just an academic tool.", "quotes": [{"id": 747793616, "item_id": 46737101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737101", "by": "whimsicalism", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend everyone to use Zotero.", "excerpt": "I highly recommend everyone to use Zotero. Their original marketing as being 'for academics' is entirely wrong and it is a first-in-class bookmark/knowledge manager.", "context": "", "use_case": "bookmark and knowledge management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 800081408, "item_id": 50005088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005088", "by": "nickledave", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.", "excerpt": "For folks who are wondering: This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/ If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero. It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this. I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/ It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can ma", "context": "", "use_case": "reading, annotating, saving posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 747786720, "item_id": 46736670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736670", "by": "dakiol", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it.", "excerpt": "I've been using Zotero as my \"book\" organizer. I have all my epubs, pdfs, everything there. Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it. I keep custom labels so I easily search for stuff. The only feature I don't use is everything about citation (funny enough). Before Zotero I had everything in file system directories, but I wanted the feeling of having one place (one app) where I could see", "context": "", "use_case": "organizing books and PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}]}, {"label": "Sync and access", "summary": "Sync works across devices, can be self-hosted via WebDAV, and includes web-based browsing.", "quotes": [{"id": 800081408, "item_id": 50005088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005088", "by": "nickledave", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.", "excerpt": "For folks who are wondering: This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/ If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero. It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this. I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/ It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can ma", "context": "", "use_case": "reading, annotating, saving posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 800125488, "item_id": 50007843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50007843", "by": "epihelix", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time)", "excerpt": "What difficulties are you having? All you need is WebDAV. I use a nextcloud server for mine and my partner's zotero storage, and its entirely trivial to set up. I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time) \u2013 but easy private sync is definitely not one of them.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 763788512, "item_id": 47736782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736782", "by": "ktpsns", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system.", "excerpt": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system. As a research group/company we switched from bibtex to zotero because it allows to put the PDFs also into the collection and has web based browsing included without custom software. However, the interop with bibtex could be much more seamless. The zotero db feels a bit like a silo, which is sad. Thankfully it is open source so somebody (including me) could improve this i", "context": "research group/company", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "BibTeX", "story": "Zotero 9"}]}, {"label": "Integrations", "summary": "It integrates with many tools, and some want other apps to support it as an import source.", "quotes": [{"id": 782118368, "item_id": 48882398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882398", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is amazing software.", "excerpt": "I used zotero through both a bachelor's and masters. It is amazing software. And it integrates with nearly everything. It completely takes the friction out of literature reviews and research whilst providing much more that a single text file. The snapshotting and auto pdf download are the best parts. I like me some cli, but if I was to do something similar it would be with csl-json and jq/nushell. I cannot see the ad", "context": "used through bachelor's and master's", "use_case": "literature reviews and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 784038576, "item_id": 49002411, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49002411", "by": "toomuchtodo", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Recommend supporting Zotero as a first class citizen for importing papers", "excerpt": "Great work! Recommend supporting Zotero as a first class citizen for importing papers, as well as Karakeep. That should cover paper and bookmark storage for importing context. Do you have a recommendation on how to important all of a specific user\u2019s HN comments as part of this workflow for knowledge base compiling? https://www.zotero.org/ https://github.com/karakeep-app/karakeep https://docs.karakeep.app/integrations", "context": "", "use_case": "paper storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: MindBase \u2013 an LLM that maintains a wiki from your notes and papers"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "BibTeX interop", "summary": "Its database can feel like a silo, and BibTeX interop could be more seamless.", "quotes": [{"id": 763788512, "item_id": 47736782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736782", "by": "ktpsns", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system.", "excerpt": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system. As a research group/company we switched from bibtex to zotero because it allows to put the PDFs also into the collection and has web based browsing included without custom software. However, the interop with bibtex could be much more seamless. The zotero db feels a bit like a silo, which is sad. Thankfully it is open source so somebody (including me) could improve this i", "context": "research group/company", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "BibTeX", "story": "Zotero 9"}, {"id": 782105969, "item_id": 48881623, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881623", "by": "arutar", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I think Zotero is an excellent tool and I used it for a long time.", "excerpt": "I think Zotero is an excellent tool and I used it for a long time. However, like the author, I also felt that Zotero was not the ideal tool for me. But a straight BibTeX file is also rather unwieldy. Essentially, bibliographic data has provenance (say, a DOI identifier), and it is very useful to keep track of this in a structured way. A friend and I have been working (slowly, over the past few years, since we are bot", "context": "academic", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}]}, {"label": "Metadata accuracy", "summary": "One user found automatic metadata lookup matched only about half of their PDFs.", "quotes": [{"id": 782272640, "item_id": 48892040, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892040", "by": "NL807", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The entire point of me using Zotero is to manage PDFs and being able to read them.", "excerpt": ">At least with Zotero Version 6, you could have just selected all your PDFs and drag-n-dropped them into the interface. I'm on version 9. I did the drag and drop for some of the files, but Zotero has only like 50% hit rate with finding the correct bibtex, and those are not that high quality either. People talk about hallucinations using LLMs, but I found them to be more reliable and produces richer metadata than Zote", "context": "", "use_case": "managing PDFs and references", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}]}, {"label": "iPad app", "summary": "One academic called the iPad app very poor.", "quotes": [{"id": 765999264, "item_id": 47874954, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874954", "by": "paultopia", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "its iPad app is so godawful", "excerpt": "Hard disagree. The iPad is a fantastic mac replacement for many purposes. I use the iPad Pro w/ the \u201cmagic keyboard\u201d case for working essentially whenever I\u2019m not physically in home or office in similar ways that I do my Mac, for two really big reasons: (1) The (11-inch) size is fantastic: you get enough screen real estate to see what you\u2019re reading and writing, but it still fits into an arbitrarily small bag and is ", "context": "academic", "use_case": "academic reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Neo and How the iPad Should Be"}]}, {"label": "Search and large files", "summary": "One commenter wanted better multi-file search and a viewer that handles big files.", "quotes": [{"id": 785857635, "item_id": 49116102, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49116102", "by": "rayiner", "date": "2026-07-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Like Zotero, but with better multi-file search and a viewer that doesn't choke on big files.", "excerpt": "LLMs open up huge possibilities to do work that you otherwise wouldn't do. I vibe coded a PDF viewer yesterday in a couple of hours using Claude and Grok. I've been itching for a native Mac app that meets some very basic requirements: one window with file tree on the left and tabbed view on the right, with the ability to call out to pdfgrep and jump to results. Like Zotero, but with better multi-file search and a vie", "context": "", "use_case": "PDF management", "switched_from": "", "story": "2x, not 10x: coding with LLMs in 2026"}]}, {"label": "Power users", "summary": "One long-time user says it has been simplified at the expense of power users.", "quotes": [{"id": 800125488, "item_id": 50007843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50007843", "by": "epihelix", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time)", "excerpt": "What difficulties are you having? All you need is WebDAV. I use a nextcloud server for mine and my partner's zotero storage, and its entirely trivial to set up. I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time) \u2013 but easy private sync is definitely not one of them.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}]}, {"label": "Learning curve", "summary": "One academic writer tried it repeatedly but never got into it.", "quotes": [{"id": 782098368, "item_id": 48881148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881148", "by": "pelagicAustral", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I tried to use Zotero so many times... and then I just tried a few other options", "excerpt": "I tried to use Zotero so many times... and then I just tried a few other options, and in the end I realised that Zotero is the standard for academic writing... and I just could never got into it... in the end I used a text file, a literal text file and I am quite proud of my academic writing, I don't wish to do it again, but in the end, what worked for me was a literal piece of crap txt file.", "context": "academic writer", "use_case": "academic writing references", "switched_from": "Zotero", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}]}], "who": [{"by": "ifh-hn", "context": "used through bachelor's and master's", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882398", "date": "2026-07-12"}, {"by": "pelagicAustral", "context": "academic writer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881148", "date": "2026-07-12"}, {"by": "NL807", "context": "has thousands of research papers", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881129", "date": "2026-07-12"}, {"by": "ktpsns", "context": "research group/company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736782", "date": "2026-04-11"}, {"by": "kstrauser", "context": "parent of a college student", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736871", "date": "2026-01-23"}], "tags": ["for academics", "for research groups", "for ebook and PDF libraries", "self-hostable sync", "runs on ARM"], "use_cases": ["reference management", "paper management", "reading, annotating, saving posts", "pdf management", "paper storage", "managing pdfs and references"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809916", "title": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46735616", "title": "Zotero 8", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49980346", "title": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326075", "title": "Show HN: LinXiv v0.4.0; paper manager now using n0's iroh for P2P collaboration", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49047839", "title": "2x, not 10x: coding with LLMs in 2026", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49001892", "title": "Show HN: MindBase \u2013 an LLM that maintains a wiki from your notes and papers", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 6}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 1, "compare": 2}, "2026-08": {"compare": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800125488, "item_id": 50007843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50007843", "by": "epihelix", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time)", "excerpt": "What difficulties are you having? All you need is WebDAV. I use a nextcloud server for mine and my partner's zotero storage, and its entirely trivial to set up. I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time) \u2013 but easy private sync is definitely not one of them.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 800081408, "item_id": 50005088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005088", "by": "nickledave", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.", "excerpt": "For folks who are wondering: This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/ If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero. It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this. I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/ It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can ma", "context": "", "use_case": "reading, annotating, saving posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Slow Formation of Durable Software"}, {"id": 789217440, "item_id": 49326090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326090", "by": "kooi", "date": "2026-08-16", "stance": "compare", "quote": "How does this compare to zotero and why would I use it over that?", "excerpt": "How does this compare to zotero and why would I use it over that?", "context": "", "use_case": "paper management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LinXiv v0.4.0; paper manager now using n0's iroh for P2P collaboration"}, {"id": 785857635, "item_id": 49116102, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49116102", "by": "rayiner", "date": "2026-07-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Like Zotero, but with better multi-file search and a viewer that doesn't choke on big files.", "excerpt": "LLMs open up huge possibilities to do work that you otherwise wouldn't do. I vibe coded a PDF viewer yesterday in a couple of hours using Claude and Grok. I've been itching for a native Mac app that meets some very basic requirements: one window with file tree on the left and tabbed view on the right, with the ability to call out to pdfgrep and jump to results. Like Zotero, but with better multi-file search and a vie", "context": "", "use_case": "PDF management", "switched_from": "", "story": "2x, not 10x: coding with LLMs in 2026"}, {"id": 784038576, "item_id": 49002411, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49002411", "by": "toomuchtodo", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Recommend supporting Zotero as a first class citizen for importing papers", "excerpt": "Great work! Recommend supporting Zotero as a first class citizen for importing papers, as well as Karakeep. That should cover paper and bookmark storage for importing context. Do you have a recommendation on how to important all of a specific user\u2019s HN comments as part of this workflow for knowledge base compiling? https://www.zotero.org/ https://github.com/karakeep-app/karakeep https://docs.karakeep.app/integrations", "context": "", "use_case": "paper storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: MindBase \u2013 an LLM that maintains a wiki from your notes and papers"}, {"id": 782272640, "item_id": 48892040, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892040", "by": "NL807", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The entire point of me using Zotero is to manage PDFs and being able to read them.", "excerpt": ">At least with Zotero Version 6, you could have just selected all your PDFs and drag-n-dropped them into the interface. I'm on version 9. I did the drag and drop for some of the files, but Zotero has only like 50% hit rate with finding the correct bibtex, and those are not that high quality either. People talk about hallucinations using LLMs, but I found them to be more reliable and produces richer metadata than Zote", "context": "", "use_case": "managing PDFs and references", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782118368, "item_id": 48882398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882398", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is amazing software.", "excerpt": "I used zotero through both a bachelor's and masters. It is amazing software. And it integrates with nearly everything. It completely takes the friction out of literature reviews and research whilst providing much more that a single text file. The snapshotting and auto pdf download are the best parts. I like me some cli, but if I was to do something similar it would be with csl-json and jq/nushell. I cannot see the ad", "context": "used through bachelor's and master's", "use_case": "literature reviews and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782114320, "item_id": 48882145, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882145", "by": "freehorse", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "in zotero you can drag and drop files and it generates a reference based on the metadata", "excerpt": "And moreover, something already mostly solved algorithmically. Eg in zotero you can drag and drop files and it generates a reference based on the metadata as long as that is enough (somebody mentions it is not possible in newer versions, I use the latest version and it works fine). Each one can choose their own tools of course, but we often see llms shown as solutions to something presented as unsolvable before, whil", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782105969, "item_id": 48881623, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881623", "by": "arutar", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I think Zotero is an excellent tool and I used it for a long time.", "excerpt": "I think Zotero is an excellent tool and I used it for a long time. However, like the author, I also felt that Zotero was not the ideal tool for me. But a straight BibTeX file is also rather unwieldy. Essentially, bibliographic data has provenance (say, a DOI identifier), and it is very useful to keep track of this in a structured way. A friend and I have been working (slowly, over the past few years, since we are bot", "context": "academic", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782099728, "item_id": 48881233, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881233", "by": "btrettel", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it would be more reliable to make a LLM generate a list of DOIs and have Zotero import the DOIs.", "excerpt": "> First I used Claude Code to generate all the BibTex files for the PDFs I think this has an unnecessary risk of hallucinated bibliographic data. For anyone doing something similar in the future, it would be more reliable to make a LLM generate a list of DOIs and have Zotero import the DOIs.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782098368, "item_id": 48881148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881148", "by": "pelagicAustral", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I tried to use Zotero so many times... and then I just tried a few other options", "excerpt": "I tried to use Zotero so many times... and then I just tried a few other options, and in the end I realised that Zotero is the standard for academic writing... and I just could never got into it... in the end I used a text file, a literal text file and I am quite proud of my academic writing, I don't wish to do it again, but in the end, what worked for me was a literal piece of crap txt file.", "context": "academic writer", "use_case": "academic writing references", "switched_from": "Zotero", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 782098064, "item_id": 48881129, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881129", "by": "NL807", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "can't say I'll be looking back any time soon.", "excerpt": "I just finished importing and sorting thousands of PDF research papers, about 50 GB I've accumulated over the decades. Originally, I was sorting them in file system directly, but the whole thing got out of hand at some point, and thus the Documents folder became a dumping ground for PDFs. So I decided to take control of the situation and use Zotero to manage all this stuff. First I used Claude Code to generate all th", "context": "has thousands of research papers", "use_case": "managing research PDF collection", "switched_from": "filesystem folders", "story": "Ditching Zotero for a Text File"}, {"id": 781957793, "item_id": 48872362, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48872362", "by": "btrettel", "date": "2026-07-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "for about 15 years now, I've stored various documents (mostly PDF files) in a folder hierarchy with Zotero for bibliographic data.", "excerpt": "I would suggest looking at more powerful file managers. I use Midnight Commander, which isn't perfect, but is far more powerful than what is provided by default and is also extensible through things like its user menu. My organization system makes heavy use of various Bash/Python scripts and Midnight Commander user menu items to make the file system work for me. *** A friend of mine has a similar single folder PDF or", "context": "", "use_case": "bibliographic data for PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Documentation is still in your Mum's filing cabinet"}, {"id": 765999264, "item_id": 47874954, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874954", "by": "paultopia", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "its iPad app is so godawful", "excerpt": "Hard disagree. The iPad is a fantastic mac replacement for many purposes. I use the iPad Pro w/ the \u201cmagic keyboard\u201d case for working essentially whenever I\u2019m not physically in home or office in similar ways that I do my Mac, for two really big reasons: (1) The (11-inch) size is fantastic: you get enough screen real estate to see what you\u2019re reading and writing, but it still fits into an arbitrarily small bag and is ", "context": "academic", "use_case": "academic reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Neo and How the iPad Should Be"}, {"id": 763788512, "item_id": 47736782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736782", "by": "ktpsns", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system.", "excerpt": "Zotero is my primary reference keeping system. As a research group/company we switched from bibtex to zotero because it allows to put the PDFs also into the collection and has web based browsing included without custom software. However, the interop with bibtex could be much more seamless. The zotero db feels a bit like a silo, which is sad. Thankfully it is open source so somebody (including me) could improve this i", "context": "research group/company", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "BibTeX", "story": "Zotero 9"}, {"id": 760620112, "item_id": 47538757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47538757", "by": "ashton314", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well.", "excerpt": "This is cool! I use Zotero [1] to manage/read/annotate all my papers and it's got a built-in PDF inverter that works pretty well. I'll take Veil out for a spin some time and see if it works well in places where Zotero's algorithm fails. [1]: https://zotero.org", "context": "", "use_case": "managing and annotating papers", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 747889376, "item_id": 46743086, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46743086", "by": "bn-l", "date": "2026-01-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was extremely effective", "excerpt": "What a blast from the past (for me at least). When I used this 5 or so years ago (17 years ago) it was extremely effective.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 747885408, "item_id": 46742838, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46742838", "by": "ktallett", "date": "2026-01-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm delighted it's now become available on ARM", "excerpt": "I'm delighted it's now become available on ARM as I now can have it on my lab computer (Pi) and the Pocket Reform that I use day to day. I still need to come up with an optimal folder system for it though.", "context": "", "use_case": "reference management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 747803232, "item_id": 46737702, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737702", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It solved my problem of having a hundred arxiv tabs open. Highly recommended.", "excerpt": "I discovered it a few weeks ago. It solved my problem of having a hundred arxiv tabs open. Highly recommended. I'm also looking forward to trying out the new annotations feature.", "context": "", "use_case": "paper management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 747793616, "item_id": 46737101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737101", "by": "whimsicalism", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend everyone to use Zotero.", "excerpt": "I highly recommend everyone to use Zotero. Their original marketing as being 'for academics' is entirely wrong and it is a first-in-class bookmark/knowledge manager.", "context": "", "use_case": "bookmark and knowledge management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 747789936, "item_id": 46736871, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736871", "by": "kstrauser", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I started to suggest that they check out Zotero", "excerpt": "My kid was talking about all the papers they had to cite in their college class. I started to suggest that they check out Zotero, but they stopped me to explain that their teachers already had them all using it. Thank you for getting the kids started off on the right foot, professor!", "context": "parent of a college student", "use_case": "citations for college", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}, {"id": 747786720, "item_id": 46736670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736670", "by": "dakiol", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it.", "excerpt": "I've been using Zotero as my \"book\" organizer. I have all my epubs, pdfs, everything there. Since version 7 I think you can read PDFs within Zotero, and I love it. I keep custom labels so I easily search for stuff. The only feature I don't use is everything about citation (funny enough). Before Zotero I had everything in file system directories, but I wanted the feeling of having one place (one app) where I could see", "context": "", "use_case": "organizing books and PDFs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zotero 8"}]}