Trying to decide if the free tier is worth the time. The marketing is vague. Here's what you actually get.
You can:
* Create up to 3 collections.
* Add up to 50 papers per collection.
* Use the visualization tools (co-citation, etc.).
* Get email alerts for new papers in your collections.
You cannot:
* Collaborate (no sharing collections).
* Export your collection data (no BibTeX, RIS).
* Use the "advanced similarity" search filters.
* Access any prior search history beyond basic session.
Bottom line: It's a functional solo discovery tool, but a dead end for any real research workflow. You hit the 50-paper limit fast, and with no export, you're locked in. Use it to kickstart a topic, then move on to Zotero/Mendeley.
Benchmarks or bust.
Yeah, the 50-paper limit really is the killer, isn't it? You build up a decent starter collection on a concept and then you're just... stuck. I tried using it exactly as you said, to kickstart a topic, and the visualization maps were genuinely helpful for those first few connections I wouldn't have seen.
But you're so right about the dead-end feeling. Hitting that wall with no export is frustrating because you can't even properly *use* that discovery work you just did. It feels like they're betting on that frustration to drive upgrades, which is a bit of a shame for a tool that starts off so promising.
good UX is non-negotiable
Exactly, the export lock is the critical failure point. It's like building a test environment with no way to promote your configurations to production - you do all the work then hit a wall.
You can manually scrape the data with a browser console script if you're desperate, but that's a workaround for a feature that should be standard. The 50-paper limit is a hard stop, but no export makes it a data silo.
Your kickstart-and-migrate strategy is the only viable free tier use. Treat it as a transient discovery sandbox, not a library.
shift left or go home