EasyBib Alternative
EasyBib was once the default free citation generator for US students, but the product has changed substantially since Chegg acquired the parent company in 2018.
All six styles free, no Premium gating
No account or email required ever
Does not sell or share usage data
Honest about unknown source fields
- Cost
- Free tier
- Sign-up
- Not required
- Processing
- Tool-specific
- Privacy
- Clearly disclosed
Add this Citation Generator to your website
Drop the Citation Generator into a blog post, product docs, intranet, or school portal with one iframe. Processing, privacy, and usage limits are the same as on the full tool page.
- One copy-ready line of HTML
- Responsive — adapts to any container width
- No API credentials are placed in the snippet
Embed code
<iframe
src="https://www.fixtools.io/ai/citation-generator?embed=1"
width="100%"
height="780"
frameborder="0"
style="border:0;border-radius:16px;max-width:900px;"
title="Citation Generator by FixTools"
loading="lazy"
allow="clipboard-write"
></iframe>Attribution-friendly: a small "Powered by FixTools" link appears in the embed footer.
What changed at EasyBib after Chegg and why students are looking for alternatives
EasyBib was acquired by Imagine Easy Solutions in 2010 and then by Chegg in 2016 as part of the larger Imagine Easy acquisition. The product underwent significant changes after the Chegg acquisition. The free tier was narrowed to MLA only, with APA, Chicago, and most other styles moved behind the Chegg subscription paywall. Account creation became a requirement for many features that had previously been available without sign-up. The privacy policy was updated to permit sharing of usage data across the broader Chegg platform, which includes the textbook rental, online tutoring, and homework help services. For students who simply needed a free citation generator without any of these additions, the post-Chegg EasyBib free tier was meaningfully worse than what they had used before the acquisition.
FixTools is built on different principles. The citation generator is free in the original sense, meaning all features available to all users without any account creation, payment, or data sharing. APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and BibTeX are all available without any subscription. No account is required, which means no email capture, no password storage, no profile that ties citation activity to your identity. The privacy policy permits no sharing of usage data with third parties because no usage data is collected in the first place; the citation generation runs in your browser and the content you paste is not stored on the FixTools servers. For students who switched away from EasyBib after the Chegg changes and are looking for a free generator with the older free tier semantics, FixTools matches that model.
The data-sharing concern is worth taking seriously. Chegg has had multiple data breaches across its platform, including a 2018 breach affecting roughly 40 million accounts that exposed names, email addresses, and hashed passwords. Citation activity tied to a Chegg account is part of the data profile that a future breach could expose. For students writing on sensitive topics, researchers citing controversial sources, or anyone who prefers to keep their academic search history private, the EasyBib account model creates a record that lives in the Chegg infrastructure for as long as the account exists. FixTools creates no such record because no account exists. The trade-off is honest: you see display advertising on the tool page, and you get a citation generator that does not retain a profile of your work.
The honest-about-uncertainty principle matters more for students than for most other users because students often cite sources they have not fully verified. Hallucinated citations from LLM-driven generators have appeared in student papers, been caught by professors, and led to academic integrity proceedings. FixTools is built to avoid this failure mode by marking unknown fields with [unknown] and flagging genuinely unidentifiable sources with a "Note" section rather than fabricating plausible-sounding metadata. As with any citation generator, verification still matters. Compare the metadata summary against the source before copying. If a field reads [unknown], fix the input or fill it in manually. The tool handles the formatting; you handle the verification.
How to use this tool
Paste a DOI, URL, ISBN, or raw citation. The tool returns APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and BibTeX in one output. No account, no paywall, no data sharing.
How It Works
Step-by-step guide to easybib alternative:
- 1
Open the FixTools Citation Generator
Click through to the Citation Generator. The page loads in your browser without any account requirement, email capture, or sign-up prompt.
- 2
Paste a DOI, URL, ISBN, or raw citation
Paste any of these inputs into the text box. DOI is most reliable; URL works for web sources; ISBN for books.
- 3
Click Run Citation Generator
The tool returns six citation styles in 5 to 10 seconds. No Premium gating, no upsell prompt, no account creation step.
- 4
Verify the metadata summary
Confirm author, year, title, and publisher match the source. Fix any [unknown] fields by adding more input or filling them in manually.
- 5
Copy the style your course requires
Scroll to the style required by your professor or journal and copy the formatted entry into your reference list. Close the tab when done. No record is retained on the server.
Real-world examples
Common situations where this approach makes a real difference:
Student switching from EasyBib after Chegg changes
A college junior who used EasyBib free for two years switches to FixTools after running into the new account requirement and the paywall around APA. She generates 30 APA citations for a psychology paper in a single 20-minute session without creating any account or hitting any Premium gate.
Privacy-conscious researcher citing sensitive sources
A journalism graduate student writing on whistleblower cases needs to cite sensitive primary sources that she would rather not have associated with a permanent account profile. She uses FixTools because no account is required and the content she pastes is not retained on the server. The citations land in her paper without creating a vendor record of her research activity.
High school teacher recommending a free tool
A high school English teacher needs to recommend a citation tool that works on the school network without account creation, because the district IT policy blocks new student account creation on unverified vendor services. FixTools meets the requirement because no account is needed, and the teacher recommends it to all sections of her AP Literature classes.
International student avoiding US vendor accounts
An international student studying in the US prefers to minimize the number of US vendor accounts that hold her data, both for general privacy reasons and because her home country has stricter data protection norms. She uses FixTools because no account is required and the tool runs in her browser without persistent storage of her usage history.
When to use this guide
Use this when you want a free citation generator without account creation, paywalled styles, or data-sharing concerns. A direct alternative to the post-Chegg EasyBib free tier.
Pro tips
Get better results with these expert suggestions:
Skip account creation across every citation tool when possible
The convenience of saving citations to an account is small compared to the privacy cost of building a profile of what you cite. For most student work, copying citations directly into your reference document as you generate them is faster than logging into a tool, generating, saving, and exporting later. Treat account creation as a default-off rather than default-on choice for citation tools.
Use a local reference manager instead of a cloud account
If you want a persistent library of citations, use Zotero or JabRef on your own computer rather than relying on a vendor cloud account. These tools store your library locally (with optional cloud sync that you control) and can import the BibTeX output from FixTools directly. The result is the same persistent library without the vendor lock-in or data-sharing concerns.
Verify the metadata summary on every citation
The output starts with author, year, title, publisher, and DOI. Spend ten seconds confirming the summary matches the source before copying. Wrong metadata produces wrong citations in all six styles in the same way, and a careful grader will catch the error. Verification is the single highest-value habit in academic citation work.
Prefer DOI input when one exists
A DOI resolves to authoritative publisher metadata, so the tool can produce more accurate citations from a DOI input than from a URL or raw text input. Look for the DOI on the publisher landing page or the first page of the article PDF. Most journal articles published since 2000 have a DOI.
No account means no breach exposure
Citation activity tied to an account becomes data that a future breach could expose. FixTools creates no account, so there is nothing to breach.
All styles are free, not just MLA
Unlike post-Chegg EasyBib free tier, FixTools includes APA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and BibTeX without any Premium gating.
Bookmark the tool for the semester
No account means no login. Just bookmark the page and reopen whenever you need a citation. The tool works the same every time.
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
More use-case guides for the same tool:
Related tools
Other tools you might find useful:
PDF Summarizer
Summarize papers without an account before citing them.
Resume Tailor
Tailor resumes for academic applications without sign-up.
Quiz Generator
Generate study quizzes from source material without an account.
APA 7 Citation Generator
Generate APA 7th edition citations from a DOI, URL, ISBN, or raw text. Free, no sign-up, flags unknown fields instead of fabricating. Built for students.
Citation Generator for Students
Free citation generator built for students. APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, BibTeX from one paste. No sign-up, no Premium, honest about uncertainty.
MLA 9 Citation Generator
Generate MLA 9th edition citations from a DOI, URL, ISBN, or raw text. Free, no sign-up, honest about unknown fields. Built for humanities students.
Cite This For Me Alternative
A free alternative to Cite This For Me. No account, no premium upsell, no watermarks. APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, BibTeX from a single paste.
Chicago Citation Generator
Generate Chicago Manual of Style citations in notes-bibliography or author-date format. Free, no sign-up, honest about unknown fields. Built for history students.
DOI Citation Generator
Paste a DOI and get citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and BibTeX. Free, no sign-up. DOI is the most reliable input for accurate citations.
Ready to get started?
Open Citation Generator to review its free limits and processing method.
Open Full Citation GeneratorFree tier · No account needed · Transparent limits