Mendeley on iPad in 2026: Rectoly, PaperShip, Mendeley on the Web and GoodNotes Compared
Four ways to read and annotate Mendeley papers on an iPad, compared on whether highlights get back to Mendeley, Apple Pencil, offline reading, price and whether the app is still maintained. Written by Rectoly's developer, with every fact checked against the App Store.
Mendeley has had no app for iPad since Elsevier retired the mobile app on March 15, 2021 (the history is in What Happened to the Mendeley Mobile App?). That leaves four realistic ways to read a Mendeley paper on an iPad: Mendeley's own web library in Safari, PaperShip, a note-taking app such as GoodNotes with the PDF downloaded into it, and Rectoly for Mendeley.
I make Rectoly, so read that column with the scepticism you would apply to any vendor's comparison. Everything below was checked on September 24, 2026 against the App Store listings, and each claim that comes from somewhere else links to it. If something is wrong, tell me and I will correct it.
The Short Version
| Mendeley on the web (Safari) | PaperShip | GoodNotes (PDF downloaded) | Rectoly for Mendeley | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Made by | Elsevier | Shazino | Goodnotes | Independent developer |
| Last App Store update | Web app, no version to check | November 13, 2019 (3.8.5) | September 21, 2026 (7.1.24) | September 17, 2026 (3.0.1) |
| Price | Free with a Mendeley account | Free, annotation tools by in-app purchase | $28.99 once or $11.99 a year | $49.99 once after a 14-day trial |
| Opens your Mendeley library | Yes | Mendeley sync reported broken in 2025 | No, one PDF at a time | Yes |
| Highlights and notes go back to Mendeley | Yes | Reported not syncing | No, they stay in GoodNotes | Yes, saved into the PDF and written back |
| Apple Pencil handwriting | No ink tool | Drawn into the PDF file | Yes, stays in GoodNotes | Yes, kept with the paper as a Rectoly attachment |
| Reflows two-column papers | No | No | No | Yes (Reading Mode) |
| Reads offline | No | Yes, once downloaded | Yes | Yes, once downloaded |
| Also on Mac and Windows | Mendeley Reference Manager | Mac (same 2019 build) | Mac | Mac and Windows, same purchase |
The rest of this article is the reasoning behind each cell.
What "Back to Mendeley" Means
Mendeley's annotation model covers highlights, sticky notes and underlines, each positioned on a page, and it has no type for freehand ink. (The consequences for handwriting are worked through in How to Annotate Mendeley PDFs on iPad.) So the question for each option is two questions: do highlights and notes reach your Mendeley library, and where does handwriting end up.
If highlights reach Mendeley, they are there in Mendeley Reference Manager on your computer, they export with the paper, and they survive whatever app you used on the iPad. If they do not, the annotated copy and the catalogued copy are two different files, and you are the only link between them.
Mendeley on the Web, in Safari
The option nobody needs to install. Sign in at mendeley.com on the iPad, open the library, open a PDF, and the browser reader lets you highlight and add notes that are saved straight to your library. Everything you do here is real Mendeley data.
What it lacks is everything that makes an iPad an iPad. There is no ink tool, so Apple Pencil can only tap and scroll. There is no offline access: no paper opens on a plane. The PDF is shown as laid out, so a two-column paper means zooming and panning. And the browser does not remember your place the way a reader app does. It is the right choice for checking a paper, and the wrong one for an afternoon of reading.
PaperShip
PaperShip was, for years, the answer to this question for both Mendeley and Zotero users. It reads a library and annotates PDFs with highlights, notes, drawings and stamps, and it has 926 ratings on the US App Store to show for it.
The facts as of September 2026: the current version is 3.8.5, released on November 13, 2019, with no update since. Recent App Store reviews describe the Mendeley side as no longer working: a January 2025 review says annotations made in PaperShip do not sync to Mendeley, and reviews from October 2025 and March 2026 report that Zotero sign-in no longer completes. I have not verified the current behaviour myself, so treat this as "reported broken, unfixed for a year or more".
If it does work for you, its annotations are drawn into the PDF file. That is fine for reading on the device and a problem the day you want them anywhere else.
GoodNotes, With the PDF Downloaded
Not a Mendeley app, but how many people actually work. Download the PDF from the web library (the steps are in How to Get Mendeley PDFs onto an iPad), open it in GoodNotes, and read and write there. GoodNotes' pen is excellent, and its 455,000 ratings say so.
What you give up is the library. GoodNotes holds a copy of the file, and nothing you write in it goes anywhere near Mendeley. To get an annotated copy back you export a flattened PDF and attach it to the item by hand, at which point Mendeley shows the highlights as part of the page, not as annotations it knows about. Most people do not do this, and their reading notes end up living in GoodNotes permanently, separate from the paper's record.
The price is $28.99 once or $11.99 a year for the Essential plan. If you already pay for GoodNotes for other reasons, the marginal cost is zero, which is a real argument for it.
Rectoly for Mendeley
Rectoly is a paid third-party reader. It signs in with your Mendeley account, brings the library onto the device, and opens each paper in a reader built for reading. Highlights and text notes are saved into the PDF and written back to Mendeley, so they are there in Mendeley Reference Manager on your computer and stay yours outside Rectoly.
Handwriting is the part to understand before buying. Mendeley has no ink annotation type, so Rectoly keeps your Apple Pencil strokes as a separate file attached to the paper in Mendeley. Mendeley itself does not draw that file; Rectoly on your other devices does, and it is backed up to iCloud with a version history and exportable as JSON. In practice your handwriting follows the paper across your iPad, Mac and Windows PC, and does not appear inside Mendeley's own reader.
The two things that set it apart from the web library are Reading Mode, which reflows a two-column paper into one column you can highlight and write in, and offline reading: downloaded papers and their annotations stay on the device.
The honest limits. It is $49.99, once, after a 14-day trial, which is more than the Zotero edition because Mendeley's API imposes more work on the app. It is not affiliated with Elsevier, and a Mendeley account is required. And it is a one-person project: the usage guide is where its actual behaviour is documented, including what it does not do.
Which One
- You mostly read on a laptop and occasionally check a paper on the iPad: the web library in
Safari. Nothing to install, and the highlights are real.
- You read for hours on the iPad, offline, and want the highlights in Mendeley afterwards:
Rectoly. It is the only option here that does all three.
- Handwriting is your main way of thinking and you do not need it in Mendeley: GoodNotes, with
the PDF downloaded.
- PaperShip made sense until 2019. Until it is updated, it is hard to recommend to anyone who
needs Mendeley sync today.
If you want to check the Rectoly column yourself, the trial is 14 days and needs no card. If you want to check the web library, it is already there.