Overleaf vs Zettlr
Overleaf
overleaf.com
Zettlr
zettlr.comSide by side
| Figure | Overleaf | Zettlr |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.20/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 9 | 1 |
| Spec score · Writing Apps | 9.5 (#2) | 8.3 (#41) |
| Audience | Overleaf says it was developed by researchers to make scientific and technical writing simpler and more collaborative, and serves research institutions and businesses. | Zettlr began as a Markdown editor built for academic researchers and is also used by students, journalists, authors, and others writing substantial amounts of text. |
| Founded | 2011 | 2017 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Overleaf documentation lists Git and GitHub synchronization, Dropbox, ReadCube, Zotero, Mendeley, R code (knitr), Grammarly, and Google Drive import among its integrations and add-ons. | The maker identifies LanguageTool integration and reference manager support for Zotero, JabRef, and Juris-M. |
| Purpose | Overleaf is an online platform for collaborating in LaTeX, compiling documents, and refining them. | Zettlr is a publication workbench for writing projects from initial notes through journal submission or book manuscripts. |
| Support | The Organizations plan includes personalized support, personalized onboarding, and a dedicated account manager. | Users can seek community help through the forum and Discord, consult the manual, or report errors on GitHub. |
Plans
Overleaf
- FreeFree
- Student$8.25 a month
- Standard$16.75 a month
- Pro$33.25 a month
- FreeFree
- Student$8.20 a month
- Standard$16.60 a month
- Pro$33.25 a month
- OrganizationsPriced on request
In their own words
Overleaf
Overleaf is an online platform for writing, compiling, and revising LaTeX documents with collaborators. Writers can choose a Visual Editor or a Code Editor, while shared documents support simultaneous editing and comments, plus in-document chat. Free templates and example projects cover journal articles, theses, and CVs. Listed connections and add-ons include Git and GitHub synchronization, Dropbox, ReadCube, Zotero, Mendeley, knitr for R code, and Grammarly. Google Drive content can be imported into projects, but Overleaf does not sync directly with Drive. The free plan costs nothing and allows unlimited projects with one collaborator per project. Student and Standard permit 10 collaborators per project, and Pro permits unlimited collaborators; no prices are listed for those tiers. An Organizations plan is described for 20+ users. A seven-day trial gives access to the selected plan, with the card charged afterward unless canceled. Overleaf was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Listed platforms are extension, self-hosted, and web.
Zettlr
Zettlr is a writing workbench for projects that can run from early notes through journal submissions and book manuscripts. It began as a Markdown editor for academic researchers and is also used by students, journalists, authors, and others writing substantial amounts. The app works offline on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and files stay on the user's computer. It supports standard Markdown and exports to formats supported by Pandoc. Citation manager support includes Zotero, JabRef, and Juris-M, with more than 9,000 citation styles. Note features include IDs, wiki-style internal links, related files, navigation, and graph view. Pandoc-powered profiles can apply templates to papers or prepare presentations for Beamer, reveal.js, or PowerPoint. Zettlr also renders LaTeX equations and Mermaid charts and supports extensive settings and custom CSS. It is free and open source, with no payment required to download. The maker says app data is not collected and update checks can be disabled. Older releases are unsupported; nightly releases may contain many bugs.