Overleaf
Hacker ApprovedLaTeX editor in Productivity & writing
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.
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.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 24
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 24 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Real-time collaborative editing
“The first three things are, in this order: collaborative editing, collaborative editing, collaborative editing.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “It really simplifies collaborative editing and the version history is good enough”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “the killer features of Overleaf are the collaborative ones”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism” - Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Microsoft Office running with Wine on Linux with no virtualization”
- Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism”
Removes local LaTeX setup hassles
“It's great - esp. for smaller research teams - to have the maintenance outsourced to a commercial provider.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “Overleaf has done a pretty good job of removing the tooling pain points”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Slug Text Rendering Algorithm Dedicated to Public Domain” “switched to Overleaf, because it was just too finicky”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Typst 0.15.0” - Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Prism”
Same version and packages for all
“Overleaf ensures that everyone looks at the same version of the document and processes the document with the same set of packages and options.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “Arxiv can't compile what overleaf and your local latex install can.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “ArXiv Declares Independence from Cornell” Made by academics for academics
“overleaf with their good docs on LaTeX something positive for science”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “made by academics for academics”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Prism”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Key features behind paid tier
“It is more open core than actual open source, and the paywalled features of the online version are missing.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Fontcrafter: Turn Your Handwriting into a Real Font” “I do self-host Overleaf which is annoying but ultimately doable if you don't want to pay the $21/mo (!).”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “On Overleaf's cloud the Git integration is a premium feature”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Aldine. Self-hosted Overleaf alternative. Every paper = 1 Git Repo” - Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Prism”
Weak LaTeX experience overall
“Overleaf's main value is as a collaborative authoring tool and not a great latex experience”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “there is no in-principle reason why overleaf and prism have to be so much worse”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Prism” “overleaf is just an antipode of latex original philosophy”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “WASM TeX Engines (PdfLaTeX/XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX)” - Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs”
- Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Typst 0.15.0”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OverleafThis page | 24 | 10 | 71% | 6 | — | Approved |
| TeXbrain | 7 | 2 | 78% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
30 of the 37 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“On Overleaf's cloud the Git integration is a premium feature”
“since it allowed shared collaborative editing”
“I was tired of using Overleaf”
“Overleaf would simply time-out”
“It works well enough that we occasionally used it for short chat conversations”
“overleaf is just an antipode of latex original philosophy”
“switched to Overleaf, because it was just too finicky”
“overleaf isn’t all that great”
“Arxiv can't compile what overleaf and your local latex install can.”
“Overleaf has done a pretty good job of removing the tooling pain points”
“It is more open core than actual open source, and the paywalled features of the online version are missing.”
“IMO Overleaf is a terrible experience”
“so yeah maybe Overleaf is the way to go now”
“made by academics for academics”
“there is no better option than Overleaf”
“It's great - esp. for smaller research teams - to have the maintenance outsourced to a commercial provider.”
“The first three things are, in this order: collaborative editing, collaborative editing, collaborative editing.”
“Managing that locally is just not worth it.”
“there is no in-principle reason why overleaf and prism have to be so much worse”
“using the lualatex engine does not work in the free version”
“Overleaf's main value is as a collaborative authoring tool and not a great latex experience”
“It really simplifies collaborative editing and the version history is good enough”
“Overleaf ensures that everyone looks at the same version of the document and processes the document with the same set of packages and options.”
“collaboration is the killer feature tbh”
“the killer features of Overleaf are the collaborative ones”
“It feels like working in a word processor, not in a code editor.”
“Overleaf is a little curious to me. What's the point?”
“overleaf with their good docs on LaTeX something positive for science”
“I do self-host Overleaf which is annoying but ultimately doable if you don't want to pay the $21/mo (!).”
“Overleaf appears to be open source and at least partially self-hostable”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.