ProQuest Central vs CORE

ProQuest Central9.3Visit CORE8.5Visit

Higher score ProQuest Central #2 in Academic Research Databases 9.3/10 Pricing on request ✓ 5 of 5 features Visit ProQuest

vs

CORE #10 in Academic Research Databases 8.5/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit CORE

• ProQuest Central fits best

  Comprehensive institutional research access

• CORE fits best

  Free open-access literature discovery

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Side by side

Feature	ProQuest Central 9.3/10 Visit ↗	CORE 8.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.3	8.5
Ranking	#2 in Academic Research Databases	#10 in Academic Research Databases
Best for	Comprehensive institutional research access	Free open-access literature discovery
Pricing model	Paid	Free plan + paid
Starting price	Pricing on request	—
Free plan	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud, Browser extension
Platforms	Web	Web, Chrome extension
Support	Docs	Email, Docs
Built for	Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features ProQuest Central 5/5 · CORE 5/5
Full-text access	✓	✓
Advanced search	✓	✓
Theses and dissertations	✓	✓
Conference proceedings	✓	✓
Institutional access	✓	✓
Specs
Subject coverage	Multidisciplinary	Multidisciplinary
Content types	scholarly journals; trade and professional titles; newspapers; magazines; dissertations; working papers; case studies; market reports; conference papers	research papers, journal articles, preprints, theses, dissertations, conference proceedings, reports, books
Our review
Pros	Full-text coverage across multidisciplinary scholarly journals Includes dissertations, reports, newspapers, and conference papers AI-assisted research with ProQuest Research Assistant	Free search with open-access full-text research discovery Multidisciplinary coverage includes theses, dissertations, and proceedings API, bulk data, Chrome extension, and related-article tools
Cons	Pricing follows a contact-sales model Web access only Designed for institutional rather than open access	Institutional API access is tied to the Supporting tier Repository and compliance tools target academic organisations The broad collection may suit discovery better than narrow subject research
Our verdict	ProQuest Central is a multidisciplinary academic research database for students, faculty, researchers, and libraries. It brings together full-text scholarly journals with dissertations, working papers, conference papers, case studies,… Read the review →	CORE is a not-for-profit academic research database and open scholarly infrastructure service hosted by The Open University. It is designed for researchers, students, institutions, developers, and members of the public who need to discover… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• ProQuest Central — where it wins

  • Full-text coverage across multidisciplinary scholarly journals
  • Includes dissertations, reports, newspapers, and conference papers
  • AI-assisted research with ProQuest Research Assistant

  Where it doesn't

  • Pricing follows a contact-sales model
  • Web access only
  • Designed for institutional rather than open access

• CORE — where it wins

  • Free search with open-access full-text research discovery
  • Multidisciplinary coverage includes theses, dissertations, and proceedings
  • API, bulk data, Chrome extension, and related-article tools

  Where it doesn't

  • Institutional API access is tied to the Supporting tier
  • Repository and compliance tools target academic organisations
  • The broad collection may suit discovery better than narrow subject research

• ProQuest Central9.3/10 · Pricing on request

  Broad institutional access to scholarly, professional, and research content.

  Visit ProQuestFull verdict →
• CORE8.5/10 · Free plan

  A free, multidisciplinary route to open-access papers, theses, proceedings, and research data.

  Visit COREFull verdict →