Qiqqa
Qiqqa is a research and reference manager for organizing, searching, reading, and annotating PDFs, then using those materials in bibliographies.
What Qiqqa is
Qiqqa is a research and reference manager for organizing, searching, reading, and annotating PDFs, then using those materials in bibliographies. It supports multiple libraries, document previews, duplicate detection, automatic PDF import, OCR, and full-text search. References can be imported from Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote, JabRef, and other BibTeX-exporting programs. Expedition groups library material into themes, while citation, author, keyword, and related-document tools help locate papers. The PDF viewer supports highlighting, annotations, and free-form drawing; reports can collect abstracts, notes, and marked passages. Qiqqa InCite supports citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word using community-contributed styles. Users can share libraries, assign roles, and collaborate on annotations and metadata. A free Android companion app supports offline viewing, annotation, and highlighting. The open-source repository describes Qiqqa as a Windows tool and says commercial Web Library cloud sync ended in 2021. A Premium plan is listed at $6.67 a month, while Premium+ costs $41.67 a month.
Good
- Searches PDF text and supports OCR
- Imports references from BibTeX-exporting programs
- PDF viewer supports annotations and drawing
- Microsoft Word citation and bibliography support
- Free Android companion works offline
Watch out
- Commercial Web Library cloud sync was discontinued in 2021
- The open-source repository describes a Windows tool
- Premium+ costs $41.67 a month
Who it suits
Qiqqa suits researchers and other readers who manage PDF collections, annotate papers, and build bibliographies. Its library sharing and role controls may also suit groups collaborating on research materials.
Verdict
Qiqqa combines PDF library management, annotation, reference importing, and bibliography tools, with an Android companion for offline document work. Note the discontinued commercial cloud sync and the distinction between its Windows tool and listed web and self-hosted platforms.
Plans and prices
From Qiqqa's own pricing page, checked 15 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | super charged PDF management · Annotation Reports · Expedition · ad supported · 2GB free online storage · $ 0 /month |
| Premium | $6.67 a month | no adverts · annotation report filtering · password-protected PDFs · more than 10 libraries · private intranet read-only syncing · 10GB free storage · $ 6.67* /month; educational $ 3.33* /month |
| Premium+ | $41.67 a month | Premium features · private intranet syncing · MS Word-to-PDF conversion · business-focused · 50GB free online storage · $ 41.67* /month |
The facts
Each one read from Qiqqa's own pages, with the date it was checked.
Where it runs
- Android
- The maker describes a free Android companion app for viewing, annotating, and highlighting documents offline.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Android app
- The Android companion is free, works offline and can view, annotate and edit highlights, although the manual says Android cannot add highlights.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Integrated browser
- Its research browser can search multiple academic engines, import PDFs and convert web pages to PDF.checked 15 Oct 2026
What it does
- Annotation reports
- Custom reports can combine abstracts, notes, annotations, highlights, inks and OCR text from selected documents.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Brainstorming
- Brainstorming provides mind maps whose nodes can contain files, images, text, documents and web links.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Citation workflow
- InCite inserts citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word using thousands of community citation styles without a word-processor plug-in.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Cloud discontinuation
- The open-source README says Web Library cloud synchronization was removed and commercial cloud libraries were discontinued in 2021.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Collaboration
- Group libraries support administrator, contributor and viewer roles, shared metadata, discussion walls and private download links.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Developer build
- Build instructions require Windows 10, .NET tooling, Visual Studio 2019, Git, Node/npm, submodules and a Release setup build.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Discovery
- Expedition analyzes a library into themes and helps users identify influential or specific papers.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Documentation
- The project README says user documentation still needs substantial work and directs support questions to GitHub issues.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Duplicate detection
- Qiqqa alerts users when the same paper appears more than once in a library.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Import is supported from Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote, JabRef and other BibTeX exporters, with Word, BibTeX and LaTeX export options.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: AlternativeTo
- AlternativeTo comments repeatedly mention stagnating development, glitches, weak support and non-Windows compatibility.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: data recovery
- A GitHub issue records a user reporting weeks of downtime, crashes and inability to access or synchronize a Web Library.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: G2 support and loss
- A G2 reviewer reported a paid renewal followed by an empty account, loss of more than 3,000 annotated PDFs and no effective support response.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: release stability
- The README warns that v82 prereleases were lightly tested and could contain bugs.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Local network option
- The maker describes Premium+ as suitable for organizations with data privacy restrictions because it can keep documents within a corporate intranet.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Metadata
- Qiqqa can infer metadata from document text and use a BibTeX sniffer to search Google Scholar for matching records.checked 15 Oct 2026
- OCR
- Built-in OCR makes image-based PDFs searchable and supports extracted abstracts and keywords.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Open-source licence
- The public repository identifies Qiqqa as GPL-3.0 software.checked 15 Oct 2026
- PDF annotation
- The viewer supports highlights, notes, tags, ratings, follow-up dates and freehand drawing.checked 15 Oct 2026
The company
- Company incorporation
- Quantisle Limited was incorporated in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2009.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company size
- A UK company profile lists Quantisle with one employee in its 2026 accounts and a London registered office.checked 15 Oct 2026
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