Local Deep Research vs Scholarly
Local Deep Research
github.com
Scholarly
scholarly.soSide by side
| Figure | Local Deep Research | Scholarly |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $12/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 8 |
| Spec score · AI Research Assistants | 7.3 (#25) | 8.3 (#12) |
| Privacy | The project says it has no telemetry, analytics, tracking, or crash reporting, and that network calls are initiated by the user’s configured search, model, or notification services. | Scholarly does not use private User Content to train general-purpose AI models by default, and optional training requires separate informed opt-in. |
| Security | The project says each user receives an isolated SQLCipher database encrypted with AES-256, with the key derived from the login password. | Scholarly says it has implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures but does not guarantee that electronic storage or transmission is completely secure. |
| Support | The project directs users to Discord and Reddit for community help and GitHub Issues for bug reports. | Users can contact Scholarly at [email protected] and the help center provides a Discord community link. |
Plans
Scholarly
- FreeFree
- Premium$30 a month
- Premium for Teams$35 a month
- Laureate$99 a month
- Laureate for Teams$110 a month
- Premium$144 a year
- Premium for Teams$336 a year
- Laureate for Teams$1,056 a year
In their own words
Local Deep Research
Local Deep Research has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Scholarly
Scholarly is a browser-based AI workspace that uses your source material to create study and research outputs. Add PDFs, recordings, notes, slides, webpages, videos, images, YouTube links, or pasted text, then make flashcards, quizzes, practice exams, study guides, podcasts, video lectures, slides, mind maps, worksheets, and timelines. Chat answers include checked citations, with a Sources button opening the page supporting each claim. Deep Research searches the web, evaluates sources, and produces cited reports with charts and inline links.
Scholarly works in a browser on laptops, tablets, and phones, and syncs work through your account. Its Google Drive connection can use selected files as sources and save finished work as new Docs or Slides. Teams can use shared libraries, roles, central billing, and model controls. A free plan and free trial are available; paid plans start at $12/user/mo (annual). Scholarly says private user content is not used to train general-purpose AI by default; training requires separate opt-in.