# Overleaf

24 Hacker News commenters recommended Overleaf and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Overleaf for real-time collaborative LaTeX writing, with one shared build environment and version history. Critics say paid features are gated and the LaTeX experience is weak.

## Why people recommend it

- Real-time collaborative editing (5 comments): "The first three things are, in this order: collaborative editing, collaborative editing, collaborative editing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793923)) "It really simplifies collaborative editing and the version history is good enough" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46788035)) "the killer features of Overleaf are the collaborative ones" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786338))
- Removes local LaTeX setup hassles (4 comments): "It's great - esp. for smaller research teams - to have the maintenance outsourced to a commercial provider." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46794165)) "Overleaf has done a pretty good job of removing the tooling pain points" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47430485)) "switched to Overleaf, because it was just too finicky" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547771))
- Same version and packages for all (2 comments): "Overleaf ensures that everyone looks at the same version of the document and processes the document with the same set of packages and options." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787021)) "Arxiv can't compile what overleaf and your local latex install can." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47452556))
- Made by academics for academics (2 comments): "overleaf with their good docs on LaTeX something positive for science" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46785703)) "made by academics for academics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46797625))

## What people warn about

- Key features behind paid tier (4 comments): "It is more open core than actual open source, and the paywalled features of the online version are missing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47308725)) "I do self-host Overleaf which is annoying but ultimately doable if you don't want to pay the $21/mo (!)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46785608)) "On Overleaf's cloud the Git integration is a premium feature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49865950))
- Weak LaTeX experience overall (5 comments): "Overleaf's main value is as a collaborative authoring tool and not a great latex experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46788228)) "there is no in-principle reason why overleaf and prism have to be so much worse" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46792978)) "overleaf is just an antipode of latex original philosophy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49007758))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [TeXbrain](https://hackerapproved.com/p/texbrain.md): 7 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.overleaf.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Overleaf", https://hackerapproved.com/p/overleaf/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).