It's the night before the paper is due. You have nine sources open in nine tabs, and you run each one through a citation generator, copy the result, and paste it at the bottom of your document. Then you go back for the in-text citations. Then you alphabetize the list, fix the hanging indents the paste broke, and wonder whether the title page needs a running head. A citation generator gets you the reference lines. Everything around them is still yours to do, and that is where the difference between Citation Machine and PERRLA starts.
What Citation Machine does
Citation Machine is one of Chegg's citation sites, alongside EasyBib, BibMe, and Cite This For Me. You pick a source type from about 60, or search by title, ISBN, DOI, URL, or keyword, and it formats the reference in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (Turabian), or Harvard. Your citations collect in a list you can copy or export to Google Drive or Microsoft Word.
The generator is free with ads. Citation Machine Plus removes the ads and adds a plagiarism scan, grammar checks, an AI-powered writing assistant, up to 30 Expert Checks a month, and more than 7,000 additional citation styles.
What PERRLA does that Citation Machine doesn't
PERRLA starts from the paper rather than the citation:
- Sets up the whole document in APA 7, MLA 9, or Turabian 9: title page, margins, spacing, page numbers, headings, and the references page or bibliography.
- Puts the citation where you are typing. Pick the source mid-sentence and the in-text citation, or the Turabian footnote, lands in place. Nothing to copy, nothing to paste.
- Builds the references page from what you cited, alphabetized, with hanging indents, and keeps it in sync when you add, move, or delete a citation.
- Works inside Word and Google Docs, as an add-in and an add-on, and in PERRLA Online in your browser.
- Reads the finished paper against the format when you click I'm Finished, and offers a one-click fix for most of what it finds.
- Keeps a research library: your references, their PDFs, and your notes, shared across every paper you write.
PERRLA's rule engine was written and tested by people against the APA, MLA, and Turabian manuals. It's deterministic: the same source gives the same reference every time.
Side by side
| What you need | Citation Machine | PERRLA |
|---|---|---|
| A reference for one source | Yes, its core job | Yes, saved to your library and placed in your paper |
| In-text citations | Generated to copy and paste | Inserted at your cursor, kept in sync |
| Title page, headings, margins, page numbers | No | Yes |
| Turabian footnotes | Footnote text to copy | Real footnotes, placed and numbered, shortened for repeat citations |
| The reference list | A list to copy or export to Google Drive or Word | Built from what you cited, alphabetized, hanging indents |
| Checks the paper against the format | No | Yes, I'm Finished |
| Grammar, plagiarism, paraphrasing | In Plus: grammar checks, a plagiarism scan, an AI writing assistant | None. PERRLA never rewrites a sentence. |
| Citation styles | APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, Harvard, and 7,000+ more in Plus | APA 7, MLA 9, and Turabian 9 |
| Works in | Its website, with export to Google Drive or Word | PERRLA Online, Word, Google Docs, and a Chrome extension |
| Saved sources | Citation lists, with an account | A research library with PDFs, notes, and Collections |
| Ads | On the free version | None |
| Price | Free with ads. Plus: $9.95 a month after a 3-day free trial; renews monthly; its terms say fees aren't refundable | $79.95 a year or $12.95 a month, free 7-day trial with no credit card, 30-day refund |
Where Citation Machine is the better tool
We won't pretend PERRLA is better at everything. Citation Machine is the better pick when:
- You need one quick citation and don't want a subscription
- Your assignment uses a style PERRLA doesn't format, like Harvard or a journal's house style
- You want grammar and plagiarism checks in the same subscription as your citations
- You only need a tool for a single month
If the reference line is all you need, a generator does that job.
Do you need both?
Usually not. In PERRLA, the reference work happens inside the paper: you look the source up once, cite it as you write, and the references page follows. The common exception is a course that asks for a style PERRLA doesn't support. For that paper, a generator fills the gap.
A note on accuracy
Both tools fill in references from data on the web, and that data is sometimes thin: a missing volume number, an author's initials, a title in the wrong case. PERRLA looks sources up in the published record (the DOI registry, PubMed, and book databases like Open Library) and formats them with rules people wrote from the manuals, but no lookup is better than its source. Whichever tool you use, give each reference a glance before you submit. The Purdue OWL says the same about using citation generators responsibly.
A note on AI
Citation Machine Plus includes an AI-powered writing assistant that suggests grammar, clarity, and paraphrasing changes. If your syllabus limits AI tools, ask your instructor where that falls. PERRLA never writes or rewrites a word of your paper and never invents a source. In the software, AI is used in one narrow spot: when you upload a PDF of an article, AI reads its first pages to help fill in the reference, and the details are checked against published databases. Your paper is never sent to it.
Other comparisons
- PERRLA vs Grammarly
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