Fidus Writer

A semantic word processor built for academics

Fidus Writer is a free, open-source, web-based collaborative editor for academic writing. It brings citation management, real-time collaborative editing, and multiple publishing options into one environment, helping researchers and writers manage long-form texts and their references without switching between separate tools.

Its capabilities include real-time collaboration, academic citation handling, and export to PDF, EPUB, HTML, DOCX and ODT. It also offers plugins for publishing workflows, including a Git repository export plugin that supports individual documents, multiple Git hosting platforms, and formats such as DOCX and ODT, plus an OJS plugin for peer review and a Website plugin. A Large Language Model Plugin is available, and comments can be exported to DOCX and ODT files.

Fidus Writer is aimed at academics, research groups, publishers, libraries, and institutions working on papers, books, and publication workflows. The software itself is free to use, study, share, and improve. Professional services are offered separately, including programming and installation support, design work, and custom development or integrations for larger projects, with individual pricing available on request.

12 alternatives to Fidus Writer

Ranked by how well each tool replaces Fidus Writer: shared features, audience, price and popularity.

SciFlow
Academic writing and publishing, simplified.
Covers 2 of 15 key features.
Free planCommentsPlugins
70 out of 100 matchContact sales
Zotero
Your personal research assistant
Covers 3 of 15 key features.
Free planOpen sourceFile creation and editingCollaborationOpen source
63 out of 100 matchContact sales
Overleaf
Online collaborative LaTeX editor for scientific and technical writing
Covers 4 of 15 key features.
Free planVersioningFile creation and editingPublishingResearch
62 out of 100 match$7.25/mo
CryptPad
End-to-end encrypted collaborative office suite.
Covers 4 of 15 key features.
Free planOpen sourceOpen sourceSelf hostingCustomizationCollaboration
62 out of 100 matchContact sales
Etherpad
Real-time collaborative document editing for teams that need to work together.
Covers 8 of 15 key features.
Open sourceVersioningCollaborationSelf hostingOpen source
62 out of 100 match—
JabRef
Free reference manager for scholarly literature
Covers 5 of 15 key features.
Free planOpen sourceOpen sourceSelf hostingFile creation and editingDocumentation
61 out of 100 matchContact sales
EndNote
Building ideas, one citation at a time.
Covers 0 of 15 key features.
Free plan
60 out of 100 matchContact sales
ONLYOFFICE
Secure online office suite for viewing, editing and collaborating on documents
Covers 3 of 15 key features.
Free planOpen sourceCollaborationFile creation and editingComments
60 out of 100 matchFree
LaTeX
A document preparation system.
Covers 7 of 15 key features.
Free planOpen sourceFile creation and editingPublishingCollaborationDocumentation
60 out of 100 matchFree
Apache OpenOffice
The Free and Open Productivity Suite
Covers 4 of 15 key features.
Free planOpen sourcePublishingCollaborationResearchFile creation and editing
60 out of 100 matchFree
Foswiki
The Free Enterprise Collaboration Platform
Covers 7 of 15 key features.
Open sourceCollaborationCustomizationDocumentationOpen source
60 out of 100 match—
Notion
Connected workspace for docs, wikis and projects
Covers 1 of 15 key features.
Free planPublishing
59 out of 100 match$10/mo