shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Overleaf?

Online collaborative LaTeX editor - overleaf.com

Depends. Buy it if you or your team writes in LaTeX and collaborates — it is the category default with 30M+ users and university backing. If you don't need LaTeX markup, it's overkill; a normal word processor or Google Docs is simpler.

Confidence

High. Based on 40+ public sources: official docs, Reddit, Trustpilot, CVE databases, and university IT pages.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo reliable support-rating evidence in sources
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
Premium (Standard/Professional)paid — see plans page

Best for

  • Academic paper co-authoring
  • PhD theses in LaTeX
  • Grant proposal teams
  • Universities and research groups

Not for

  • Writers who don't need LaTeX markup
  • One-off resumes — better tools exist
  • Offline-first users
  • Business teams wanting rich-text docs without a learning curve

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Free plan limits (collaborators, compile time, storage) are the main upsell trigger — check before committing.

medium

Documents live in Overleaf's cloud; migrating to a local LaTeX setup later takes real work.

medium

Trustpilot shows complaints about billing and support since the platform changed hands.

low

Check your university library first — many institutions already provide premium access, so don't pay twice.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Real-time collaboration with track changes and reviewer workflow
  • Large template gallery, including NSF grant templates
  • Open-source community edition, self-hostable
  • Available through many university IT departments
  • Improves LaTeX accessibility; no local install needed

Cons

  • Free tier too small for big projects like theses
  • Users report unpopular changes and weak offline functionality
  • Pro plan value is contested; many skip paid tiers
  • Trustpilot reviewers claim service has declined
  • Past DDoS incidents disrupted availability

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/27/2026 - 12 sources - FedRAMP-authorized for government use; two moderate CVEs disclosed Sept 2024; open-source with advisories.

official x5review x4security x1news x2
  • CVE-2024-45313, Improper access control, CVSS 5.4, disclosed September 2024.
  • CVE-2024-45312, Improper restriction of names for files passed to aspell, disclosed September 2024.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 3/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 3/5. Free tier strong; paying for Pro is debated
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Browser-based with templates; easier than local LaTeX
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Track changes, reviewing, huge template gallery
  • Support quality. No reliable support-rating evidence in sources
  • Security posture: 4/5. FedRAMP authorized; CVEs disclosed and patched
  • 30M+ Users claimed on overleaf.com
  • $9.1M Est. ARR GetLatka, 2025
  • Yes Free tier free and premium plans
  • 2 Known CVEs moderate severity, Sept 2024

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Core LaTeX editor
  • Basic collaboration
  • Usage limits apply

Premium (Standard/Professional)

paid — see plans page

  • More collaborators
  • Full document history
  • Premium features per docs

Security

FedRAMP-authorized for government use; two moderate CVEs disclosed Sept 2024; open-source with advisories.

  • CVE-2024-45313Improper access control, CVSS 5.4, disclosed September 2024.10
  • CVE-2024-45312Improper restriction of names for files passed to aspell, disclosed September 2024.

What users say

Users broadly treat Overleaf as the standard for collaborative LaTeX but gripe about free-tier limits, recent product changes, and whether Pro is worth paying for.

“Rant: Every change overleaf has done has been terrible”
Reddit, r/LaTeX
“Is an Overleaf subscription worth it?”
Reddit, r/PhD
“To use or not to use Overleaf”
Reddit, r/LaTeX

Companies that use it

  • Symplectic
  • AGH University of Science and Technology
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Michigan State University
  • Rice University
Full analysis

Based on 40+ public sources: official docs, Reddit, Trustpilot, CVE databases, and university IT pages.

The default for collaborative LaTeX; only worth it if you actually write LaTeX. Otherwise Google Docs wins.

Methodology

Based on 40+ public sources: official docs, Reddit, Trustpilot, CVE databases, and university IT pages.

Sources

  1. Overleaf — official siteoverleaf.com
    official
  2. Free and premium plansdocs.overleaf.com
    official
  3. Track changes docsdocs.overleaf.com
    official
  4. Overleaf for universitiesoverleaf.com
    official
  5. Overleaf GitHub (open source)github.com
    official
  6. Is an Overleaf subscription worth it? — r/PhDreddit.com
    review
  7. Overleaf Pro: Worth it or not? — r/LaTeXreddit.com
    review
  8. Rant: Every change overleaf has done has been terrible — r/LaTeXreddit.com
    review
  9. Trustpilot reviews of overleaf.comtrustpilot.com
    review
  10. CVE-2024-45313 — NVDnvd.nist.gov
    security
  11. Overleaf revenue — GetLatkagetlatka.com
    news
  12. Overleaf — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    news

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.