Overleaf, Online LaTeX Editor
An online LaTeX editor that’s easy to use. No installation, real-time collaboration, version control, hundreds of LaTeX templates, and more.
Categories:
Overleaf is a web-based, open-source collaborative LaTeX editor for researchers, students, academics, and technical teams to create, edit, and share professional scientific documents.
🚀 Overview
Overleaf is an online platform that makes it easy to write, edit, and collaborate on LaTeX documents in real-time, eliminating the need for local installations and simplifying complex formatting for technical content.
It solves key problems in scientific writing: producing beautifully formatted documents with formulas, tables, citations, and figures; enabling seamless team collaboration; and providing instant previews without compilation hassles. Founded in 2011 by researchers John Hammersley and John Lees-Miller, Overleaf was built to democratize LaTeX—a powerful typesetting system used in academia and science—making it accessible to beginners while supporting advanced users. Acquired by Digital Science in 2014 and merged with ShareLaTeX in 2017, it now serves over 25 million users worldwide.
The project prioritizes user-friendliness, reliability, and innovation to support the global research community.
✨ Key Features
- Real-time collaborative editing with simultaneous access, track changes, and in-line commenting for teams (why it matters: enables remote co-authoring like Google Docs for LaTeX)
- Dual visual and source code editors, thousands of templates, smart citations, and easy insertion of figures/tables (streamlines document creation)
- GitHub/Git integration, version history (premium), and project sharing across devices (ensures version control and portability)
- Upcoming/experimental: Enhanced AI tools and institutional integrations
🛠 Tech Stack
- Frontend: JavaScript, TypeScript, SCSS, Pug
- Backend: TypeScript, Java
- Database: MongoDB
- Auth: Custom
- Hosting: Docker-based self-hosting, Cloud (Digital Science)
👥 Who Is This For?
This project is useful for:
- Researchers who want to collaborate on papers, theses, and reports
- Students learning LaTeX for assignments and publications
- Teams and institutions looking for scalable document collaboration tools
📸 Screenshots / Demo
- Live demo: https://www.overleaf.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf
🔥 Project Status
- 🟢 Actively building
Last updated: 2026-03-24
❓ FAQ
Is this project free?
Freemium (Free for basic use with unlimited public projects; paid Pro ($15/mo), Teams, and Institutional plans unlock private projects, more storage, history, and support.)
Is the source code available?
Yes — https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf
Can I contribute?
Yes — Review CONTRIBUTING.md on GitHub for guidelines; open issues for bugs/features, submit PRs, or share feedback in discussions.
📬 Contact & Links
- Website: https://www.overleaf.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/overleaf
- Email: Via contact form at https://www.overleaf.com/contact
Built with ❤️ and kept warm on WarmIndex.
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