Reference managers organize papers you already have. DeepDyve gets you the papers. Users of Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, and Papers still need to figure out access, and some have an affiliation with a university or corporate library that solves this problem. For many others, the quest to read a paper ends at a $45 paywall. DeepDyve was built for them: with a Personal plan, you can just read the actual paper.
Who includes access
| Organize, annotate, cite | Read paywalled papers | |
|---|---|---|
| Zotero | ✓ | |
| Mendeley | ✓ | |
| EndNote | ✓ | |
| Papers | ✓ | |
| DeepDyve | ✓ | ✓ 35M+ |
Every tool here can organize and cite. Only one includes something to read.
What DeepDyve includes
DeepDyve is the company behind LitHub, an AI-powered literature-management platform. A Personal subscription combines the two tasks of reading and managing.
- Reading: 35M+ paywalled papers streamed in your browser (the LitStream collection, licensed from publishers including Springer Nature, Wiley, and SAGE, with journals like NEJM and JAMA; Elsevier is not in the streaming collection), plus 25M+ open-access papers hosted free and a 150M+ paper discovery index. And for free papers DeepDyve doesn’t host, it links you to tens of millions of free copies elsewhere on the web.
- Managing: folders, tags, annotations, citation export, a Word add-in, and an AI research assistant that works on full text you can actually open.
When a reference manager alone is enough
If you have institutional access, a reference manager plus your library covers you. DeepDyve is for everyone else. If you’re an independent researcher, a student, a hobbyist, or a recent graduate who lost library access with your .edu address, the Personal plan covers you. If you read papers for work, DeepDyve’s Enterprise plan covers business use: consultants, clinicians in private practice, medical writers, patent professionals, and the Medical Affairs, pharmacovigilance, regulatory, and R&D teams at organizations without a library of their own, from biotech startups to nonprofits.
The math: software vs. access
For individual use, a Personal subscription is $59/month, or $499/year (less than $2 a day). That’s more than any reference manager charges, and the difference is what the money buys: a Papers subscription at $14/month buys software, and the $45 paywall is still standing. At typical article prices of $30 to $50, DeepDyve pays for itself by the second paper each month. The first month is $0, so you can check coverage before paying.
The bottom line
A reference manager is worth having. But if you regularly read paywalled research without institutional access, better organization doesn’t solve that, because organization was never the problem. DeepDyve starts from access, then organizes what you can now actually read.
FAQ
Is there a reference manager that includes access to paywalled journals?
DeepDyve is built as exactly that: reference management (folders, annotations, citations, a Word add-in) combined with licensed streaming access to 35M+ paywalled papers in one $59/month subscription. Traditional reference managers such as Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, and Papers do not include journal access.
Can Mendeley or Zotero get me past paywalls?
No. They organize citations and PDFs you already have. To read a paywalled paper you still need an institutional login, a per-article purchase, or a subscription service like DeepDyve that licenses the content.
Is DeepDyve a reference manager too?
Yes. DeepDyve includes folders, tags, annotations, citation export, and a Word add-in, alongside licensed streaming of 35M+ paywalled papers. The difference is that the papers in your library are ones you can read.
Can I download PDFs from DeepDyve?
The subscription covers streaming: unlimited reading of the 35M+ LitStream collection in your browser, plus up to 20 printed pages a month. If you need a permanent PDF, in many cases you can buy it without leaving DeepDyve: a separate per-article purchase, with availability and pricing set by the individual publisher. Reading, organizing, and buying can all happen in one place. Open-access papers in the 25M+ OA collection DeepDyve hosts are free to download, and for tens of millions more papers, DeepDyve links out to free copies elsewhere on the web.
Who is DeepDyve for?
Anyone who needs to read paywalled research without an institutional library. On the Personal plan: independent researchers, students, hobbyists, and recent graduates who lost library access. For business use, on the Enterprise plan: consultants, clinicians, medical writers, patent professionals, and the Medical Affairs, pharmacovigilance, regulatory, and R&D teams at organizations without a library of their own, from biotech startups to nonprofits.
Can I use DeepDyve for work?
Yes, on a business plan. The $59/month Personal plan is for students, hobbyists, and independent researchers, and is not for business use. Teams and businesses use the Enterprise plan, which adds SSO, copyright compliance, and collaboration features.
What’s the difference between DeepDyve and LitHub?
DeepDyve, Inc. is the company. LitHub is its platform: AI-powered literature management with streaming access to 35M+ paywalled papers. LitStream is the name of the streaming collection inside LitHub.
Does Papers (ReadCube) include access to paywalled articles?
No. Papers is a subscription reference manager: the subscription buys software, not content. At participating publishers, Papers sells per-article rentals and purchases through ReadCube Checkout, some cheaper than the publisher’s own price, but every paywalled read is a separate charge on top of the subscription. DeepDyve’s subscription includes licensed reading of 35M+ paywalled papers with no per-article charge.
Give it a Try
Use the free trial to check LitStream against the journals and papers you read most often. That will tell you more than the collection total alone.
DeepDyve pricing
DeepDyve features
Browse journals on DeepDyve