Overleaf — The Complete Guide: LaTeX in the Browser, and Exactly What the Free Plan Includes
Overleaf is an online LaTeX editor: you write in the browser and the document is compiled to PDF on the service’s servers, with no TeX distribution to install. It is a convenient solution for students and engineers who write from several computers, and for anyone who does not want to deal with installations.
Overleaf
Overleaf (Digital Science)
Browser LaTeX editor with no installation, cloud compiling and ready templates — the free plan is limited to a 10-second compile and one collaborator.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Cloud compiling — no need for MiKTeX or TeX Live on your computer.
- Template gallery — for journals, theses, presentations and CVs.
- Side-by-side PDF preview — with command auto-completion.
- Visual editor — for people not used to writing LaTeX code.
- Sharing — invite a co-author to a project by link.
What is free and what is not
The free plan requires registration and has no time limit or cap on the number of projects. However: compiles are limited to 10 seconds, so a long thesis with many images may fail to compile; each project allows only one collaborator; history covers 24 hours; and there is no track changes or Git, GitHub and Dropbox sync. Those are reserved for paid plans. Organisations can also run the open-source Overleaf Community Edition on their own server.
Related tools
For a desktop LaTeX editor with no limits — TeXstudio. For visual writing — LyX. For a modern LaTeX alternative with fast compiling — Typst.
TeXstudio
TeXstudio team
Desktop LaTeX editor with a built-in PDF viewer, auto-completion, table and formula wizards, and reference and spell checking.
Get it from the vendor
LyX
LyX team
A graphical LaTeX-based document editor — theses, papers and technical reports with equations.
Get it from the vendor
Typst
Typst
Modern typesetting for technical reports and equations — simpler syntax than LaTeX and instant compiling.
Get it from the vendor
Zotero
Corporation for Digital Scholarship
Reference and bibliography manager — save papers and standards, annotate PDFs and cite automatically in Word.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
Excellent for short projects and a quick start. For a long thesis, keep a local copy and compile on your own computer as well.