Oleafly vs Texpile

Oleafly is a free desktop workspace for writing technical documents such as papers, theses, and resumes. It brings writing, PDF preview, references, and an optional AI assistant together, and supports LaTeX, Typst, and Markdown projects. Research search covers alphaXiv and OpenAlex, citations can be checked against Crossref, and reference libraries can be imported from BibTeX, RIS, EndNote XML, and Zotero RDF. Local spelling and grammar checks use Hunspell and Harper, with a focus on prose rather than LaTeX commands and mathematics. Writing, local compilation, PDF review, and proofreading work offline without AI, once packages, fonts, and tools are downloaded. Projects can be imported from folders or ZIPs and exported as PDF, DOCX, HTML, Markdown, or source ZIP files. GitHub push and pull and Git-based collaboration are supported, but real-time co-editing, comments, and managed sync are not available. Oleafly is open source under AGPL-3.0 for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The desktop app has no subscription; paid AI providers may charge for usage.

Texpile is a free, open-source desktop editor for LaTeX, Typst, and Markdown on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It combines visual and source editing in the same file, with live previews for LaTeX and Typst as users type. Editing works offline and does not require a compiler. LaTeX compilation requires the user's own TeX distribution, while Typst compiling and preview use tinymist. A built-in shell can run latexmk or another compile command. The editor can save project versions, show changes, and restore earlier versions. For collaboration, users can share a folder for real-time editing, and guests can join by code without an account. Shared sessions are end-to-end encrypted; the documentation identifies them as the feature that uses the network. Texpile can search a Zotero library and insert citations when Zotero is running with Better BibTeX installed. An optional local MCP server lets Claude Code or Codex read editor state and control app actions. The software is licensed under AGPL-3.0.