5 Best APA Citation Generator (Free Options Included)
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5 Best APA Citation Generator (Free Options Included)

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5 Best APA Citation Generator (Free Options Included)

by Ashwin Mason
Updated
June 23, 2022
in Software Review
The best APA generator
Opendemia

The tool is especially useful when creating APA citations for a large number of assignments.

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The most accurate
Bibme

Bibme is one of the most powerful tools available for APA citation generation, and it is owned by a giant in the educational technology field

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Best Free Generator
Citation Machine

This tool works exactly like any other, allowing you to create citations in MLA, APA, and Harvard formats.

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Best for students
Cite This For Me

This tool works exactly the same as any other, now offers citation and bibliography creation based on over 30 different types of sources.

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Disclaimer

All of our finest applications roundups breakdown are written by me who have spent a significant portion of my careers using, testing, and writing about software

We’re reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Best APA citation generators

  1. Opendemia the best APA citation generator
  2. Bibme the most accurate APA citation generator
  3. Citation Machine the best free APA citation generator
  4. Cite This For Me for the best APA citation generator for students
  5. Citefast for the best website APA citation generator

Opendemia

Best overall APA citation generator

Opendemia can save the day when you’re scrambling in academia since it is more than just a citation generator. The tool is especially useful in cases where you need to create AMA citations for a large number of assignments. It doesn’t just let you generate citations and references in different formats, it also lets you keep track of all the sources you’ve cited, creating a personal library that will be accessible whenever you need it.  

Obviously, you can also copy and paste citations into your paper right away

Features

  • Generate citations with ease
  • Stay Organized
  • Image Citation
  • Universal Access
  • Commenting
  • Mark Sources

Generate citations with ease

Easily generate APA, MLA, and Chicago style citations.

Stay Organized

You can stay organized by arranging all of your notes and citations by assignment.  

Image Citation

In the Opendemia image citation option is also available where you can upload and cite images.

Universal Access

Attach PDFs of each source and access them on any device.

Commenting

Commenting is also made easy – you can add comments about why the source or quote will be useful to the paper.

Mark Sources

You get to have the ability to mark sources as used so they automatically appear on your works cited page.

User Experience

To use Opendemia is made really easy as you land on the website you will have to make an account, it will take up all of your necessary details and let you move forward to a 71 seconds tutorial which is really helpful for a newbie.

One thing that made me uncomfortable was after watching the complete tutorial they show you a chevron sign to move forward not on the right but on the left. If you don’t find it on the right don’t worry. The right-side green chevron indicator perfectly works.  

Upon clicking that chevron you will see a new window pop up with different options to create a new project or source. But overall once you get in it’s pretty easy to use Opendemia.

What I Like/Dislike About Opendemia

What I Like

Unlike, with most other citation tools, students can use Opendemia as a virtual library for every source that they have used throughout the college, keeping them neatly organized and stored for use in future assignments. Isn’t that great?

What I Dislike

You have to register yourself first and go through the complete process before actually getting to work.

Recent Updates

In a recent update, Opendemia has included institutional pricing in the overall scenario in which you can contact them if you are managing a school or are a group of any size.

Overall Thoughts

If you are willing to go through the trouble of registering and learning how to use this web-based platform, then Opendemia is actually the best free APA citation generator.

Visit Opendemia

Bibme

The most accurate APA citation generator

Citation generator Bibme does a pretty good job in terms of citation generation and is one of the most powerful tools available, which is owned by a giant in the educational technology field named “Chegg”.

There is no professional focus here, but solely and exclusively dedicated to the student experience.  

This project originated during the academic year 2007-08 at Carnegie Mellon University’s Information System Department as a student project. The tool uses an automatic citation engine developed by Bibme that generates MLA, APA, and Chicago formatted citations.

Features

  • Four Citation Formats
  • Add Citations Directly
  • Smart Search
  • Extras

Four Citation Formats

BibMe allows you to create citations in 4 different formats such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian.

Add Citations Directly

You can now add references to your paper and cite them directly.

Smart Search

BibMe comes with a smart search feature, which makes it easy to find sources, whether they are in print or digital format, based on author names or ISBN numbers.

Extras

You get extras with BibMe. It suggests up to 20 ways to improve your paper. Different factors such as grammar, punctuation, style, and sentence structure fall under this category.

User Experience

Bibme greets you with a choice of options the moment you land on its website.

  1. Create Citations
  2. Check your paper for plagiarism and for grammar errors.

You do not even need to register to perform any actions. However, if you sign up, bibme will keep all of your citations in one place, which is a pretty neat solution, I mean who doesn’t want that.

Overall, I have found the design to be easy on the eyes, and the site’s navigation to be straightforward.

What I Like/Dislike About Bibme

What I Like

Bibme works the same way as Opendemia. The system does not require registration or a series of steps to get things done. The process is straightforward and I appreciate that.

What I Dislike

Reports aren’t available, and there is only an English language version available.

Product Updates

A recent update discussed the partnership between Chegg and Purdue OWL in helping students develop their writing skills with the world’s best tools.

Overall Thoughts

If you are a student who needs help putting a paper together, this is a great APA citation generator.

Visit Bibme

Citation Machine

The best free APA citation generator

Researchers tend to rely on “Citation Machine” to write their papers due to the ease and simplicity of using it, particularly among students. Founded in the year 2000 and used for citation generators, it is one of the most popular MLA format generators.

Whether you’re looking for citations for movies, sound recordings, or whatever, this site can help. Basically, it applies to the 7th edition. of MLA, 6th ed. APA, and 16th edition of Chicago. The 8th edition of Chicago follows the Chicago manual. 8th ed. of Turabian. Accurately identifies various elements across different sources.  

Features

  • Add Citations Directly
  • Multiple Citation Formats
  • Cite An Array of Resources
  • Autofill

Add Citations Directly

Citations and bibliographies can now be added directly to your paper.

Multiple Citation Formats

The citation machine allows you to create citations in different formats such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and 13 other formats.

Cite An Array of Resources

With Citation Machine you can make 57 styles of references, and that also includes manuscripts, films, and podcasts among others.

Autofill

You can make use of the auto-fill feature to locate a wide range of resources simply by typing the title into the search bar.

User Experience

As far as the user experience goes, it’s very similar to BibMe since it’s also offered by Chegg. But with a different color scheme that works perfectly for students.

You select “Create Citation” and work on your citations. For those of you who are just starting out, you can also access a guide to help you with this.

What I Like/Dislike About Citation Machine

What I Like

These amazing citation generators are offered for free since they are designed for students. The system gives you numerous options to choose from when it comes to citations.

What I Dislike

Note – crowded with ads, won’t work with adblockers. Other than that, it’s a useful site for students.

Recent Updates

Previously, Citation Machine was known for its citation generator, however, they have recently added grammar checking and plagiarism detection to make Citation Machine an all-in-one platform.

Overall Thoughts

Finally, you do not have to spend time scratching your head when creating bibliographies for your academic papers. With Citation Machine APA citation generator, you can create a bibliography tailored specifically to your needs.

Visit Citation Machine

Cite This For Me

The best APA citation generator for students

This tool works exactly the same as any other; it lets you create citations in MLA, APA, and Harvard formats. Moreover, Cite This For Me now offers citation and bibliography creation based on over 30 different types of sources.

This enables you to use citations in any field and according to any individual style preference, which can be requested by publishers. And you can accomplish all of this within minutes.  

Another great feature is that you can add multiple references at once and copy them all. The application is free and easily integrated with Microsoft Word. For manual citations, please refer to instructions on where to place each citation.

Features

  • Smart Search
  • Multiple Citation Formats
  • Ease of exporting
  • More Flexibility

Smart Search

You can easily search for sources in their database quickly by using the author, title, or ISBN as an auto citation tool.

Multiple Citation Formats

It provides citations in multiple formats such as MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, ASA, AMA, and IEEE, among others.

Ease of exporting

If you want to share your bibliography with others, you can export it.

More Flexibility

You can always make changes to the style, even after you have generated the citation.

User Experience

Having an easy-to-use interface and the ability to process citations instantly with the right format makes citation management easier for publishing authors to manage the submission process.

There are so many options for citations, and they are all right at your fingertips. Furthermore, a comprehensive, step-by-step guide is available to help new users. Alternatively, you can manually generate citations, which only require you to select the appropriate options in order to get your desired results.

What I Like/Dislike About Cite This For Me

What I Like

Cite This For Me comes with a chrome extension designed to auto-generate citations from websites. Awesome, right?

What I Dislike

This website also has too many ads on it which makes it hard to actually find the spot on the page where you get to create citations.

Recent Updates

Earlier this year, the Chicago Manual of the Style 17th edition was published by the University of Chicago, which contains some new standards regarding references in research papers.

Overall Thoughts

This is a pretty handy APA citation generator that should not be missed by anyone. It puts everything at your fingertips. To make a citation, simply choose the type of citation you wish to create, paste the link in, and BAM, you’ve got your citation ready in no time.

Visit Cite This For Me

Citefast

The best website APA citation generator

The CiteFast is one of the most popular APA citation generator out there, offering a wide range of features that will make your document stand out. Simple but a fast alternative when it comes to citing sources in the APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.

You can find a wide variety of sources in Citefast, such as books, webpages, journals, newspapers, and online videos, among other print and digital sources of information.

Citations can be generated automatically from web page URLs, ISBN numbers, and other information. The information can also be manually entered. As you hover over the fields in the reference section, you’ll see hints explaining the proper way of formatting the sources.

Features

  • Subscription-free program
  • Easy to export
  • Flexibility
  • Data storage capability

Subscription-free program

The features offered by Citefast are all free of charge.

Easy to export

Citefast allows you to easily copy, paste, and export your data to Microsoft Word.

Flexibility

Flexible enough to be able to easily switch between APA, MLA, and Chicago styles

Data storage capability

Citations are stored on your computer, so they remain available if you continue to visit. Citations will be deleted in four days if you do not use them.

No account is necessary to use the site; your previous searches will be displayed when you return.

User Experience

The user interface of Citefast is considered outdated by many, a point I agree with. But they didn’t have compromised on the functionality of the APA citation generator, and I am sure you will feel that too once you start using it.

What I Like/Dislike About Citefast

What I Like

It’s completely free and pretty functional in terms of citation generation.

What I Dislike

Using the full potential of the site requires you to register first in order to use all the features.

Recent Updates

There is no longer a reference to the publisher’s location, plus ebooks do not need to be listed according to their types, for example, pdf.

Overall Thoughts

All in all, it was very easy to use, was a bit annoying from a user interface perspective, but the results were completely satisfactory.

Visit Citefast

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Article by
Ashwin Mason
I review the best software for freelance designers, photographers, and developers to run their businesses and hire the most appropriate freelancers for your project.