Date: September 11, 2025

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of online LaTeX editors and collaboration tools designed for academic writing. We examine leading platforms including Overleaf, Papeeria, Authorea, and other alternatives, comparing their features, pricing models, and collaborative capabilities. Special attention is given to available AI powered writing assistant and to data security and privacy compliance (particularly GDPR) for protecting sensitive academic content. Users should choose the solution that best fit requirements and budget constrains. Our analysis reveals that while in online LaTeX editors offer significant advantages for collaborative academic writing, institutions must carefully evaluate security implications when handling sensitive research data. Different set of features are made available at a cost ranging from free plan up to 40 €/month.

Introduction

LaTeX has become the gold standard for academic and scientific document preparation, especially in fields requiring complex notation, precise formatting, and strong bibliographic management. The evolution from desktop to cloud-based collaborative platforms has revolutionized research workflows.

Online LaTeX editors combine powerful typesetting with modern collaboration tools, enabling real-time editing, version control, and sharing across teams.

Online LaTeX Editors

The most popular and widely used online LaTeX editor is Overleaf, known for its collaborative features, real-time editing, document sharing, and extensive template library, making it a standard tool for academic and technical writing worldwide. Other popular online editors include Papeeria (https://papeeria.com) and Authorea (https://www.authorea.com). Beyond the most popular and established platforms, a new generation of online LaTeX editors is gaining traction. Also cloud based managed computation platforms such as CoCal (https://cocalc.com/) that include a LaTeX editor should be considered.

Getting started

All online LaTeX featured a very friendly on-boarding process that allow the user to start writing in less than 2 minutes. Only an e-mail address is required activate a fee plan instance. CoCal, due to the different nature of the platform, require some more effort for the initial setup and do not provide a free plan.

Overleaf

Overleaf is the dominant player, now serving over 17 million users. After merging with ShareLaTeX, it offers:

  • Real-time collaborative editing

  • 400+ academic templates

  • Integrated PDF view and SyncTeX support

  • Advanced bibliography management

  • Git integration and document history

  • Track changes and commenting system

Integration includes reference management tools (Zotero, Mendeley) and services like Dropbox and GitHub. Overleaf partners with Paperpal for grammar checking tailored to LaTeX documents.

Papeeria

Papeeria emphasizes simplicity but retains robust LaTeX functionality. Unique features include:

  • Real-time collaboration

  • Integrated plotting with gnuplot

  • Version control and Git sync

  • Auto-compiling on paid tiers

  • Mendeley integration for references

Pricing: Free plan includes unlimited public projects, the Delta plan (USD 5/month) unlocks private projects and advanced features. Verified students get Delta features free.

Authorea

Authorea, acquired by Wiley, goes beyond LaTeX and supports:

  • Data integration (embedding datasets, plotting)

  • Executable code blocks and Jupyter notebooks

  • Journal-specific formatting for 40+ publishers

  • Pre-print workflow integration

Best for computational research requiring close integration between text and data.

Emerging Alternatives

Crixet

Home site: https://crixet.com Crixet delivers a cross-browser, cross-device experience with LaTeX-aware intelligent autocompletion and inline error detection. Its standout feature, Chirp, functions as an AI co-pilot: users can type, speak, or even sketch ideas to generate LaTeX code, graphs, or tables seamlessly. Crixet also integrates fast citation search—tightly coupled with Zotero—and supports one-click refactoring of code into modular files. A forthcoming on-premise edition promises full feature parity with the cloud service, enabling organizations to host Crixet within their own infrastructure for maximum compliance and data control…. #### TeXPage

Home site: https://www.texpage.com TeXPage focuses on simplicity and security with end-to-end encrypted transmission and encrypted at-rest storage, along with multiple redundant backups. Its real-time collaboration supports synchronous editing, asynchronous workflows, and rich commenting with track-change visibility. Beyond standard LaTeX editing, TeXPage offers a visual formula editor, auto-generating tables via an intuitive GUI, and a dynamic file outline panel for quick navigation. Version history is fully transparent, allowing users to restore earlier drafts at any time. TeXPage’s commitment to encrypted workflows makes it especially appealing for institutions with strict data-privacy mandates.

inscrive.io

Home site: https://inscrive.io Positioning itself as the only fully GDPR-compliant cloud LaTeX editor, inscrive.io emphasizes performance and unmetered compilation. Collaborators enjoy real-time editing with unlimited participants, backed by extensive version control and AI-accelerated compile speeds. By guaranteeing EU-based data processing and compliance with the latest privacy standards, inscrive.io offers peace of mind to European universities and research consortia. Its streamlined interface prioritizes fast loading times and minimal configuration, so users can focus on content creation without infrastructure concerns.

AI Support

Modern online LaTeX platforms are increasingly embedding AI-powered assistants to streamline writing, debugging, and formatting workflows. By leveraging these AI assistants, researchers can focus more on substantive content and less on low-level formatting, making LaTeX more accessible to novices and veterans alike. Below are several concrete implementations.

Writefull (an add-on for Overleaf) offers AI-powered language assistance tailored for academic writing.

Intelligent Autocompletion and Error Detection

Crixet’s “Chirp” co-pilot (https://crixet.com/) uses AI to offer context-aware suggestions for macros, environments, and symbols, plus inline error detection that highlights compilation issues in real time.

Natural Language to LaTeX Conversion

Overleaf’s integration with Paperpal (https://paperpal.com/) lets users describe content in plain English—such as “a quadratic formula”—and receive fully formatted LaTeX code in seconds.

Voice and Sketch-Driven Content Creation

Crixet (https://crixet.com/) allows voice dictation or freehand sketches to generate LaTeX code and vector graphics, accelerating drafts for users less familiar with raw syntax.

Grammar and Style Coaching

Writefull AI (https://writefull.com/) integrates directly into Overleaf, providing academic-style grammar checks, passive-voice alerts, and rephrasing suggestions that respect LaTeX document structure.

Citation and Bibliography Automation

TeXPage (https://www.texpage.com/) features AI-driven citation lookup with one-click DOI metadata retrieval, seamless Zotero integration, and automatic bibliography formatting for both numbered and author–year styles.

Collaborative AI-Driven Review

inscrive.io (https://inscrive.io/) employs AI to summarize recent edits, flag unresolved comments, and recommend missing citations or clarifications based on document content and version history.

Feature Comparison

When selecting an online editor, you should consider your needs, requirements (such as security, privacy, data residency), budged constrains. The available solutions should be compared along the following dimensions:

  1. Editing Capabilities and additional tools

  2. Collaboration

  3. Specific tools for academic writing (templates, journal submission automation)

  4. Simplicity

  5. Integration with external platform

  6. Cost and pricing plan available (including discounted offers for students or other categories)

  7. Resource limitations associated with the chosen plan such as compilation time, memory and storage limits

Editing Capabilities

All major platforms provide syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and error detection, but differ in specialist features:

  1. Overleaf: Most comprehensive mathematical palette

  2. Papeeria: In-editor plotting tools

  3. Authorea: Executable content (notebooks)

Templates

Overleaf: 400+ templates spanning papers, dissertations, CVs; Papeeria: Focused, specialist templates; Authorea: Journal-specific.

Collaboration… All offer simultaneous multi-user editing. Overleaf has conflict resolution and version history; Papeeria offers discussion features; Authorea emphasizes data-sharing.

Integration

Reference management (Zotero, Mendeley, Papers) and cloud sync (Dropbox, Google Drive, GitHub) vary by platform. The value of these features depend on your personal and team workflow.

Pricing Comparison

Overleaf

Free: Basic editing, 1 collaborator/project Standard ($199/year): 10 collaborators, history, advanced features Professional ($399/year): Unlimited collaborators, priority compile Institutional: Site-wide licenses with SSO, admin controls

Papeeria

Delta plan: 5 USD /month, lower cost, most core features included

Free premium for students

Authorea

Free for public docs; paid for private/research features

Data Security and Privacy

GDPR Compliance

EU institutions require platforms to meet GDPR for data processing, retention, deletion, and user control. Overleaf processes data in EU/US sites, is ISO/IEC 27001 certified, and meets data privacy framework requirements.

Technical Safeguards

All use HTTPS/TLS, encryption at rest, containerization, regular backups.

Academic Risks

Sensitive/unpublished content, patent material, or personal health data should be handled per institutional protocols. Platforms have had vulnerabilities in the past (e.g., ShareLaTeX command execution flaws), now mitigated with sandboxing and improved filtering.

Security Best Practices

Institutions should:

  • Train users on sensitive content recognition

  • Implement SSO/access controls

  • Audit usage and backups

  • Employ hybrid models for sensitive research

Comparative Recommendations

Based on the present survey and 5 years of daily user experience my favorite tools is Overleaf, but it is also the most expensive. I found a better features versus cost balance in TextPage and www.papeeria.com 5 € per month plans. My general advise are:

  • If your research institution provide institutional account probably you should take advantage of this benefit.

  • Create a free account, import a project representative of you typical paper a try to work on the project for at lest few hours. Some days is better if possible.

  • If you are a privacy-focused user (or you have to work under security constrains) consider on-premises solutions or at least an hybrid solution with most sensitive data keep in private server while using a public cloud based collaboration platform. EU based platform and data center may also help with security and privacy requirements.

AI integration (grammar, citation management, formula generation) are rising, with privacy risks to consider. End-to-end encryption, decentralized models, and zero-trust architectures are on the horizon.

Conclusion

Online LaTeX editors have radically improved academic writing workflows, with Overleaf leading in features and adoption. Data security and institutional policy remain central: hybrid approaches, regular audits, and robust training enable safe, productive research collaboration.