PERRLA vs EndNote: which fits student papers

You've built an EndNote library for a capstone: a few hundred search results, the duplicates cleared out, the studies you'll cite sorted into their own group. Then the paper is due, and the library is the easy part. The title page, the headings, the margins, and a reference list in APA's sentence case still have to come together in the document you hand in. That's where EndNote and PERRLA differ.

What EndNote does

EndNote is made by Clarivate, the company behind the Web of Science database. The current version is EndNote 2025, released in April 2025 and still the version on sale in October 2026. You organize reference libraries, import sources, work with and annotate PDFs, and insert citations and bibliographies with its Cite While You Write tools in Microsoft Word, Word Online, Google Docs, and Apple Pages. It comes in a few shapes, which confuses a lot of students:

• EndNote 2025 (desktop). The full program, for Windows and Mac, and the one compared here. One license covers one person on up to three computers.
• EndNote Web. The browser version that syncs with the desktop app, included with a desktop license.
• The free online version. A limited account, long called EndNote Basic. Library guides list its limits as 50,000 references and 2 GB of attachments, with a small set of styles.
• EndNote Fusion. A new cloud platform combining EndNote and RefWorks. If your school used RefWorks, you may see this name this year.

EndNote is a one-time purchase with a 30-day free trial. Its trial page says you'll be upgraded to a full license after 30 days unless you opt out, so read the terms when you sign up.

Your school may already pay for it. Many universities license EndNote for their students, often with library training; others, like Penn State, have no site-wide license. Search your library's website for “EndNote” before you buy, and ask what happens to your access after you graduate.

What PERRLA does differently

PERRLA starts from the paper rather than the library:

• Sets up the whole document in APA 7, MLA 9, or Turabian 9: title page, margins, spacing, page numbers, headings, tables and figures, and the references page or bibliography.
• Reads the finished paper against the format when you click I'm Finished: a citation after the period, a direct quote missing its page number, a reference you never cited, a title in the wrong case. It offers a one-click fix for most of what it finds.
• Asks APA's questions in the reference form. PERRLA has 47 reference types, each with guided options, so a retracted, republished, translated, or online-first article comes out in the form APA 7 shows.
• Gives you an editor of its own, PERRLA Online, alongside the Word add-in and the Google Docs add-on, with one library behind all three. The add-in and add-on are free to install; using them takes a PERRLA subscription.

PERRLA's reference engine was written and tested by people against the APA 7, MLA 9, and Turabian 9 manuals. It's deterministic: the same source gives the same reference every time. PERRLA never generates or alters the content of your paper.

Side by side

The learning curve

EndNote is powerful because it's deep, and deep takes time. None of it is hard, but it's a lot of new vocabulary for a student who needs a references page by Friday:

• Libraries. Your EndNote library is two pieces that must stay together: a .enl file and a .Data folder. Library guides warn against keeping an active library in Dropbox, OneDrive, or another cloud-syncing folder, because it can corrupt the library.
• Groups. Groups and group sets sort your references; smart groups fill themselves from a saved search.
• Output styles. Each style is a settings file you can edit, which is useful, and also an easy way to change how every reference prints. Save a copy under a new name first.
• Term lists, import filters, and connection files. Journal names and abbreviations some styles rely on, and how EndNote reads records from databases. When an import comes in strange, look here.

If your library runs EndNote workshops, go to one. An hour with a librarian beats a semester of guessing.

A real reference, two ways

Article records often store titles in title case, with every major word capitalized. APA 7 wants sentence case. This real nursing article's DOI record stores its title in title case.

As stored in the record:

Rachman, M., & Yen, P.-Y. (2026). The Influence of Nurse Staffing and Workload on Medication Administration Errors: A Scoping Review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(8), 7688–7703. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.70341

Correct in APA 7:

Rachman, M., & Yen, P.-Y. (2026). The influence of nurse staffing and workload on medication administration errors: A scoping review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(8), 7688–7703. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.70341

Nine words change. In EndNote, which version you get depends on the title capitalization setting in your APA 7th output style; library guides walk students through switching it to sentence case, then fixing proper nouns by hand. In PERRLA, the reference form flags a title typed in title case and offers Fix it for me, and I'm Finished checks the capitalization of every title on the references page before you submit.

Whatever tool you use, give every reference a quick look before you turn in the paper.

How each tool uses AI

EndNote 2025 has brought generative AI and machine-learning features into its research workflow: AI-assisted search, key takeaways pulled from papers, the EndNote Research Assistant for asking questions about a paper and translating it, and Find a Journal for choosing where to publish.

PERRLA uses AI in one place: looking up references. When a PDF you upload has a DOI or ISBN, PERRLA looks it up in Crossref or a book database, with no AI involved. When it doesn't, AI reads the first pages for details like the title and authors, and any author it names has to appear in the PDF, or it's dropped. Your paper is never sent to it. When you look up a source in PERRLA, the reference comes from the real record, and PERRLA never makes one up.

If you want AI help with research discovery and summaries, EndNote has it. Whatever you use, follow your instructor's or school's AI policies.

Cost

Both are paid, and both have a free trial (PERRLA's needs no credit card). As of October 2026:

• EndNote 2025: $275 one time, or $150 with a verified student license (EndNote's own student page lists $125, so check at checkout). Upgrading from EndNote 21 or earlier is $125.
• PERRLA: $79.95 for a year, $12.95 a month, or $129.95 for two years. Every plan includes every feature. PERRLA Pro ($99.90 a year) and PERRLA Unlimited ($124.90 a year) add more file storage and Priority Support. Every purchase comes with a 30-day full refund.

The honest version: over a four-year degree, EndNote's one-time student license costs less than PERRLA, especially if you skip an upgrade or two. What PERRLA's price buys is the rest of the paper: the title page, headings, citations, references, and a check before you submit. There are also free site licenses for qualifying associate-level nursing programs and a 50% military discount; every plan is on the pricing page.

Platforms, storage, and support

A few details the table leaves out: EndNote's Google Docs citing needs EndNote 21 or later and a library that syncs with EndNote Web, and EndNote's buy page tells owners to upgrade “to ensure your unlimited storage does not expire.” In PERRLA, papers never count toward your storage, and the support team answers Monday through Friday 10 AM to 10 PM Central and weekends 1 PM to 10 PM Central, with free live PERRLA 101 webinars every week.

EndNote has the edge on round-the-clock support, Apple Pages, and storage for the money. PERRLA's edge is that every place you write with it formats the paper itself.

Bring your EndNote library with you

The honest part first: PERRLA has no direct EndNote connection. It imports .bib files, and EndNote can export one. (EndNote's menu wording differs a little between Windows and Mac.)

In EndNote:

1. Open your library.
2. Click All References. To move just one group, click that group instead.
3. Open the File menu and choose Export.
4. Set the file type to plain text (.txt).
5. Open the Output style list and choose Select Another Style.
6. Pick BibTeX Export and click Choose.
7. Save the file.
8. Rename the file so it ends in .bib instead of .txt.

In PERRLA Online:

1. Open Create reference.
2. Click Create from file.
3. Drag your .bib file in, or click Select a file.

Every reference in the file lands in your library in one pass, and if PERRLA can't tell what kind of source something is, it asks you to pick the type. The import also works in the Word add-in, but not the Google Docs add-on. A few things to know:

• PDFs don't come along. EndNote's export is text only, so attach the PDFs you need to each reference in PERRLA.
• Import once. Importing the same file twice creates duplicates.
• Give it a quick look. Check a few references after the import, especially author names with “van,” “de,” or “Jr.”
• Need your PDFs too? Take the longer route: Zotero, which is free, can import an EndNote library with its attachments, and PERRLA connects directly to Zotero and brings over references, attached files, and notes. The catch: PERRLA reads the files from Zotero's online storage, and Zotero's free storage is 300 MB.

Can you use both?

Yes, and for a capstone or DNP project built on a systematic or scoping review, it can be the best setup. Collect, de-duplicate, and screen your search results in EndNote. Put the studies you'll cite in a group, export it as a .bib file, import it into PERRLA, and write the paper there. One tip: let one tool handle the citations inside any given paper. Two tools each building a references page in the same document is not a midnight problem you want.

Where EndNote is the better tool

We won't pretend PERRLA is better at everything. For some projects, EndNote's depth is exactly the point. It's the better pick when:

• You're doing a systematic review: Find Duplicates compares records side by side, and medical librarians have published step-by-step methods for de-duplicating review searches in EndNote
• Your library runs into the thousands
• You want help finding full text, from EndNote's full-text search or its free EndNote Click extension
• You need references kept current with Find Reference Updates and retraction flags
• You're publishing in journals with their own styles
• Your school has a site license and a librarian who teaches it
• You want support around the clock, or you write in Apple Pages

If you're graded on APA 7, MLA 9, or Turabian 9 papers, title page and headings included, PERRLA fits that job. Your professor grades the paper you submit, not the software you used to organize your research.

Other comparisons

• PERRLA vs Zotero
• PERRLA vs Mendeley
• PERRLA vs Grammarly
• PERRLA vs Citation Machine
• PERRLA vs Paperpile
• PERRLA vs Scribbr
• PERRLA vs Word's built-in references
• All comparisons

Questions about PERRLA and EndNote