# Citavi Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra

> With the help of Capterra, learn about Citavi Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Knowledge Management products and more.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/231999/Citavi

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# 

 Citavi Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons

Last updated on April 24, 2026

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team.

[Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews)

Citavi

## What is Citavi?

Citavi is the only all-in-one scholarly note taking and reference management application. Search, organize, collaborate, take notes, write and manage citations all within one platform.

## What is Citavi used for?

[Knowledge Management](https://www.capterra.com/knowledge-management-software/)[Content Management](https://www.capterra.com/content-management-software/)[Content Collaboration](https://www.capterra.com/content-collaboration-software/)

Top alternative

Featured

Overall rating

Based on 43 user reviews

Reviews sentiment

Positive

81%

Neutral

7%

Negative

12%

Starting price

$519

Per User, Per Year

Free trial  
available

Includes Free Version

Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products...

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

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## Compare with a popular alternative

Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status.

### Citavi

4.3 (43)

VS.

[4.6 (5,298)](https://www.capterra.com/p/153140/Connecteam/reviews/)

Starting Price

$519

Per User, Per Year

Starting Price

$29

Flat Rate, Per Month

Free Trial

Free Version

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

Ease Of Use

3.8 (43)

Ease Of Use

4.7 (5,430)

Value For Money

4.0 (35)

Value For Money

4.5 (3,362)

Customer Service

4.4 (38)

Customer Service

4.6 (3,242)

## Citavi alternatives

Highest Rated

[4.7 (24,147)](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/reviews/)

Starting price

$8.75

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

96%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[4.6 (6,072)](https://www.capterra.com/p/147657/monday-com/reviews/)

Starting price

$9.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

94%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[4.5 (93)](https://www.capterra.com/p/100251/LogicalDOC/reviews/)

Starting price

Contact vendor for pricing

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

94%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[4.2 (997)](https://www.capterra.com/p/113540/Bitrix24/reviews/)

Starting price

$69.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

82%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/231999/Citavi/alternatives/)

## FAQs about Citavi

Overview

### Which roles and teams benefit most from Citavi?

Citavi is most used by students, doctoral candidates, and academic researchers who need to collect sources, organize references, and structure papers or dissertations. Professors, lecturers, and legal or medical professionals benefit from it for literature reviews, citation management, and knowledge organization, while consultants and managers use it to document research efficiently.

Answer based on 43 reviews

Overview

### What company size and specific industries is Citavi built for?

Citavi is designed for organizations and individuals involved in collaborative research and note taking, making it suitable for small teams, mid-market organizations, and larger enterprises across academic, educational, and research settings.

Features and Usability

### What are the key features of Citavi?

Citavi offers document management, content management, and knowledge base management for organizing research materials. Core functions include metadata management, document classification, full text search, tagging, and filtering, plus collaboration tools such as commenting, chat/messaging, file sharing, and real-time notifications. It also includes task planning, task scheduling, access controls, and reporting & statistics.

Integrations

### Which third-party tools and platforms does Citavi integrate with?

Citavi integrates with Microsoft Word, ABBYY FineReader PDF, and NVivo. Its catalog centers on writing, OCR, and research workflows, with Microsoft Word as the main document editor connection and ABBYY FineReader PDF and NVivo supporting document processing and qualitative analysis tasks.

Answer based on 7 reviews

Getting Started and Support

### What training and onboarding options does Citavi offer?

Citavi provides webinars, documentation, and videos to help teams get started. Webinars support live instruction and guided learning, documentation offers written reference material for setup and use, and videos provide visual walkthroughs for reviewing features and steps at any time.

Answer based on 2 reviews

Getting Started and Support

### What customer support options does Citavi offer?

Citavi provides email/help desk, FAQ/forum, and a knowledge base for customer support. Users describe the support as responsive and helpful, with quick replies and practical guidance during setup and troubleshooting, though some note that questions may be routed through self-service resources before direct assistance.

Answer based on 8 reviews

Ease of use

### Is Citavi easy to use for research and citations?

Citavi covers research, citation, and knowledge management well, but ease of use depends on experience level. Graduate students, researchers, and academic writers often find the core workflow intuitive after setup, especially with Word integration, while some users find the interface crowded, certain features hard to locate, and the web tools buggy.

Answer based on 16 reviews

## Features

Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically.

Content Management

4.0 (10)

80.00% of 10 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Handles digital content throughout its lifecycle, from creation and storage to distribution and archiving

Commenting/Notes

3.9 (8)

62.50% of 8 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Leave comments and notes on documents for others to view

Full Text Search

4.3 (8)

75.00% of 8 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Search for specific words or phrases within a document or database

Collaboration Tools

4.0 (6)

50.00% of 6 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Provides a channel for team members to share AI models, media files, communicate, and work together

Document Management

4.2 (6)

100.00% of 6 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Store, manage, and track all electronic documents in a centralized location

Access Controls/Permissions

4.0 (4)

75.00% of 4 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems

Citavi 29 features

Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems

Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges

Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases

Communicate using direct chat or messages within the system

Provides a channel for team members to share AI models, media files, communicate, and work together

Leave comments and notes on documents for others to view

Centralized repository to store content and assets

Handles digital content throughout its lifecycle, from creation and storage to distribution and archiving

Facilitates online authoring and publishing of the content

Import and export data to and from software applications

Synchronizing data between two or more devices/systems and automatically updating changes to maintain consistency

Assign categories, labels, tags, or attributes to documents for organization, search and storage

Store, manage, and track all electronic documents in a centralized location

Assemble applications and processes by dragging over and arranging pre-built components

Create, save, and store files

Public or private sharing of digital files such as documents, audio/video, images, and more

Search for specific words or phrases within a document or database

Collect and maintain structured information that describes data or content

Manage and support multiple languages

Plan and coordinate all the resources, costs and time needed to execute assignments

Preview and make real-time changes in the web content

Notifications that are delivered to users as soon as an event occurs

Collection, analysis, and representation of numerical data and generation of reports to understand various patterns

Search and filter data across systems to locate required information by entering keywords or certain criteria

Allow users to access multiple services after entering their login credentials once

Attach digital tags to documents and assets for identification, search, or monitoring purposes

Create, manage and track all task activities and progression

Track and manage the scheduling of tasks

Manage user accounts, profiles, roles, permissions, and other details across applications, devices or networks

Get Advice

We can help you find the software with the features you need.

Features

4.2 (43)

4.2

Based on 43 reviews

## Pricing

Value for money

4.0 (35)

Free Trial

Basic

$519.00

Per User,Per Year

Value for money

4.0 (35)

4.0

Based on 35 reviews

Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation

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## Support, customer service and training options

Customer Service

4.4 (38)

Support

-   Email/Help Desk
-   FAQs/Forum
-   Knowledge Base
-   Phone Support
-   24/7 (Live rep)
-   Chat

Training

-   In Person
-   Live Online
-   Webinars
-   Documentation
-   Videos

Deployment

-   Web
-   Android
-   iPhone/iPad

Typical users

-   Freelancers
-   Small businesses
-   Mid size businesses
-   Enterprises

Customer Service

4.4 (38)

4.4

Based on 38 reviews

## User reviews

Overall rating

4.3

Based on 43 reviews

Filter by rating

5(31)

4(4)

3(3)

2(0)

1(5)

Mentioned topic

Sorted by most recent

JO

Julius O.

Industrial Engineer

Research

### "Bad tool for citing"

1.0

Overall Rating

1.0

1.0

Ease of Use

1.0

1.0

Features

1.0

1.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

2/10

April 4, 2026

Pros

It's free through my university. The colour theme they use is okay. The name itself is not offensive.

Cons

It's not working as it's supposed to. It's extremly slow as a browser extension(loading times of 3min+ are the norm not the expection) and currently in chrome it's not working at all. And it is the complete opposite of intuitive.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AN

Anonymous User

CEO

Fine Art

### "Citavi 7 leider mit wirklich schlechter Kompatibilität zu Word"

3.0

Overall Rating

3.0

3.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

3.0

3.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

4/10

November 26, 2025

Insgesamt bietet Citavi alles, was ein Studentenherz von einem vernünftigen, inhaltlich verlässlichen Zitierprogramm wünscht - auch für eine enorm große Literaturverwaltung. Alle Versionen vor Citavi 7 hatten mich überzeugt - diese leider (noch) nicht.

Pros

Ich beurteile die Version 7.1.0.1 im Vergleich zur Version 6.20: Das neue Design ist anfänglich zwar gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber durch die recht intuitive Handhabung eine absolute Verbesserung.

Cons

Mit der Umstellung auf Version 7 wurde die Kompatibilität mit Windows (über 365) leider um ein Vielfaches schlechter! Trotz größerem Prozessor und deutlich mehr RAM als bei meinem vorherigen Rechner, stürzt Citavi immer wieder ab oder (schlimmer noch!) lässt Windows einfrieren. Erneutes Installieren oder auch "reparieren" führt zu keinen Verbesserungen, sodass sich die neue Version als echter Zeitfresser entpuppt. Dabei ist es völlig gleich, ob das Projekt in der Cloud oder auf dem Rechner gespeichert ist, das Resultat ist immer dasselbe. Derzeit bereue ich das Update vorgenommen zu haben und hoffe auf enorme Verbesserungen durch weitere Versionen.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

SR

Sher R.

Doktorand

Higher Education

### "Citavi Web: Absolut unzuverlässig und nervenaufreibend"

1.0

Overall Rating

1.0

1.0

Ease of Use

1.0

1.0

Features

1.0

1.0

Customer Service

1.0

1.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

May 10, 2025

Ich beziehe mich auf meine Erfahrungen mit Citavi Web: die Lizenz kostet sehr viel Geld und die Webseite sollte dementsprechend einwandfrei funktionieren. Mehr als die Hälfte der Nutzungszeit stehen aber wesentliche Funktionen nicht zur Verfügung und es gibt ständig irgendwelche Bugs. Es ist natürlich, dass bei derart komplexen Programm wie Citavi Web Fehler unvermeidbar sind. Was mich aber enorm stört und verärgert ist die Häufigkeit und die Dauer, in der diese Fehler und Bugs auftreten! Mehr als die Hälfte der Zeit sind irgendwelche Funktionen eingeschränkt oder nicht verfügbar. Ein anständiges, wissenschaftliches Arbeit ist so nicht möglich! Mal funktioniert die Suchfunktion nicht, mal verschwinden Dokumente (die man zuvor aufwendig und zeitintensiv bearbeitet, markiert und kategorisiert hat), mal können Dokumente für mehrere Tage einfach nicht geöffnet werden, mal können Texte nicht markiert werden. Von der Nutzung von Citavi Web kann ich nur abraten. Für Mac-Nutzer gibt es bessere Alternativen auf die ich nun auch zurückgreife.

Pros

Die Nutzeroberfläche ist ziemlich gut und die Auswahl an Möglichkeiten, seine Literatur zu organisieren, ist groß und gut durchdacht.

Cons

Die Webseite ist absolut unzuverlässig. Man schlägt sich die meiste Zeit mit Bugs und sonstigen Fehlern rum. Zum eigentlichen Arbeiten kommt man selten. Man verliert unglaublich viel Zeit damit, gewünschte Dokumente zu finden, zu öffnen und anständig zu bearbeiten/zu lesen.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

KB

Karen B.

Student

Research

### "Does not function as expected - promise refunds they do not honour"

1.0

Overall Rating

1.0

1.0

Ease of Use

1.0

1.0

Features

1.0

1.0

Customer Service

1.0

1.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

October 4, 2023

Terrible. I have contacted them three times and they have promised finance will contact me about a refund. They don't and no refund is forthcoming.

Pros

The sales pitch is great. The technical support do come back to you even if it is to say hey that is how our product works sorry about that.

Cons

It does not do what you need it too. It is very cumbersome and has bizarre quirksYou need to spend a lot of time watching videos and working it out to learn how to do things that should be pretty easy to do. They promise refunds but do not honour them.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

RC

Raul C.

Director

Sports

### "Mal servicio "

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

2.0

2.0

Features

3.0

3.0

Customer Service

1.0

1.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

May 2, 2023

Dejó de funcionarme y tardaron 7 días en resolverme el problema. Solicité una factura con el nº de IVA y me han ignorado en tres ocasiones. Nada recomendable.

Pros

Citavi era antes un programa asequible y con buen servicio técnico.

Cons

Hace un años se incorporo al grupo Lumivero y su precio se duplicó y el servicio técnico se volvió extremadamente lento. Es un programa obsoleto

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JV

Johannes V.

Sachbearbeiter Steuerbüro

Law Practice

### "Super Literaturverwaltung"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

December 16, 2022

Pros

Das beste an der Software ist der Import von neuen Dokumenten per Drag‘n‘Drop. Dabei werden direkt ein Großteil der Stammdaten eingepflanzt (automatisch).

Cons

Anfangs benötigt man aufgrund der vielfältigen Funktionen eine gewisse Einarbeitungszeit und das ein oder andere Tutorial.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AN

Anonymous User

PhD

Writing and Editing

### "Good software for reference management"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

December 10, 2022

Pros

The category function, where you can categorize your literature sources, meaning divide your literature sources per topic. You can take notes or extract portion of a document and label it as direct or indirect citation

Cons

It's free of charge until 100 references. This is few for a normal project/manuscript or for a thesis

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

HE

Helmut E.

Jurist

Government Administration

### "Langer Citavi Nutzer"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

November 4, 2022

Teamarbeit in kurzer Zeit, gemeinsame Stellungnahmen und Gutachten schreiben.

Pros

Das Produkt ist insgesamt gut bis sehr gut! Die vielen Zitierstile könnten noch etwas ausgebaut werden.Meistens steht man unter Zeitdruck und in früheren Jahren brauchte ich dabei auch Hilfe, diese kam sehr prompt. Die Picker-Funktion ist gut. Bitte aber darauf achten, es nicht zu überfrachten. Wichtiger als alle möglichen Zusatzfeatures sind Stabilität, Einfachheit und Sicherheit!

Cons

Bitte nicht noch mehr überfrachten. Die Chatfunktionen und anderes mehr bieten auch andere Services. Man braucht in den meisten Fällen keinen Mercedes, der alles bietet, sondern wichtig sollen weiterhin Stabilität, Einfachheit und Durchschaubarkeit auch für nicht IT-Experten sein.

Reasons for choosing Citavi

War von Anfang an überzeugt

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Lorenzo S.

Psicólogo

Civic & Social Organization

### "El mejor gestor de citas bibliográficas y referencias del mercado."

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

October 6, 2022

Lo he utilizado desde hace aproximadamente 5 años, desde su versión 5 hasta la más reciente, sumamente útil para crear mis "bibliotecas" digitales y realizar de forma organizada mis lecturas.

Pros

Permite gestionar una gran cantidad de material bibliográfico, así como su captura mediante la extensión del explorador web, y su facilidad de manejo mediante el Plug-in de Citavi en Word, haciendo posible añadir citas textuales y sus respectivas referencias de manera sencilla en nuestros escritos, lo cual posibilita que los procesos de lectura y escritura vayan de la mano en todo momento.

Cons

El único aspecto negativo se debe a que no cuenta con un plug-in para software libre de procesamiento de textos, como lo es OpenOffice.

Switched from

[Mendeley](https://www.capterra.com/p/233913/Mendeley/)

[EndNote](https://www.capterra.com/p/234808/EndNote/)

Hice el cambio debido a que Citavi me permite exportar citas textuales junto al formato de referencia bibliográfica que deseemos utilizar a Word, así como, su sencilla sincronización con un proyecto que estemos trabajando, lo cual permite actualizar tanto el formato de referencia (APA, Chicago, etc.) como la versión del mismo.

Alternatives considered

[EndNote](https://www.capterra.com/p/234808/EndNote/)

Reasons for choosing Citavi

Precio y la posibilidad de poderlo utilizar en diferentes equipos propios de trabajo (computadoras) con una misma licencia.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AN

Anonymous User

Juristin

Legal Services

### "Völlig unbrauchbar "

1.0

Overall Rating

1.0

1.0

Ease of Use

1.0

1.0

Features

1.0

1.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

April 16, 2022

Pros

Habe Citavi6 versucht zu nutzen im Rahmen einer Campuslizenz. Das funktionierte gar nicht und ist so kompliziert, dass ich es aufgegeben habe nach mehreren Tagen. Ich konnte das Programm gerade mal runterladen, weiter bin ich nicht gekommen, da das Programm mich dann mit der Campuslizenz nicht zugelassen hat. Schade, weil ich das Ganze gerne nutzen wollte. Ein neues Projekt konnte ich auch nicht anlegen, warum, weiß ich nicht. Würde niemanden empfehlen, Citavi6 zu kaufen.

Cons

Siehe oben sehr schlecht. .........................

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

[View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/231999/Citavi/reviews/)

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