bpython
iPython
Jupyter
IDLE
ptpython
PyCharm
Python
Spyder
LetX.app
Overleaf
ShareLaTeX
Authorea
CoCalc
Papeeria
TeXstudio
Texmaker
LetX is a free, browser-based collaborative LaTeX editor and an alternative to Overleaf.
Your documents are never used to train AI models. LetX declares ai-train=no and is not tied to any LLM vendor — which matters for unpublished research.
In production since January 2026. 2000+ users across 140+ universities and research labs in 40+ countries, including INGV Italy, INPE Brazil, CAB CSIC-INTA Spain, UCSD, TUM and Korea University.
bpython LetX.appNo LetX.app videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.
LetX.app's answer:
Overleaf charges as you add collaborators and gates version history behind a subscription. LetX gives unlimited collaborators and 15 versions free, with full history at $18/month, or $9/month for students.
Against the newer AI-native LaTeX editors, the difference is data: those route your unpublished manuscript through third-party models, while LetX keeps it out of training entirely.
Against desktop editors like TeXstudio or Texmaker, there is nothing to install or maintain, no TeX distribution, no package management, and an identical environment for every co-author.
LetX.app's answer:
LetX started because collaborative LaTeX was either expensive or private in name only. Overleaf's pricing scales with the people you write with, which is backwards for a thesis committee or a five-author paper. Then the AI-native editors arrived with a worse trade: faster tooling in exchange for sending unpublished work to model vendors.
LetX was built to refuse both unlimited collaborators on every plan, and an explicit ai-train=no declaration. Launched 27 January 2026, it has grown to 1,200+ users across 90+ universities and research labs in 30+ countries, largely by publishing the regional university thesis templates nobody else maintained.
LetX.app's answer:
Two things that nothing else in the category combines. Collaboration is genuinely unmetered. Every plan, including the free one, allows unlimited simultaneous collaborators, so cost never scales with the number of co-authors. And LetX declares ai-train=no and is not tied to any LLM vendor, so unpublished research is never used as training data. The template library is also unusually deep for regional needs: 442 templates, including university-specific thesis formats that most editors don't carry.
LetX.app's answer:
Researchers, postgraduate students and academic staff writing papers, theses and grant proposals, along with the labs and university departments they work in. Usage concentrates around thesis submission and journal deadlines. A secondary audience is job-seekers and engineers using the CV and résumé templates.
LetX.app's answer:
Go with Gin for the API; React, TypeScript and CodeMirror 6 on the front end; Yjs CRDTs over WebSocket for real-time collaboration; PostgreSQL, Redis and S3 for storage and coordination; and SQS-queued compile workers running a full TeX Live distribution on AWS ECS Fargate.
LetX.app's answer:
LetX is used by individual researchers and students at 90+ universities and research labs in 30+ countries, including INGV Italy, INPE Brazil, CAB CSIC-INTA Spain, UCSD, TUM and Korea University. These are institutions where our users are based rather than institutional accounts.
Based on our record, bpython seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 7 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.
Yeah, also it's worth to mention bpython. Source: about 4 years ago
Yeah, mostly I lack time to catch up with Jonathan Slenders works, and have stronger backward compatibility requirements. b=But ptpython and pyipython are both great. I should also look into Rich and Textual https://bpython-interpreter.org/ is also another alternative python shell, and of course https://xon.sh. - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago
Python comes with IDLE as /usr/bin/idle but it doesn't have a corresponding .desktop file that would let it appear in the application menu. Otherwise, /usr/bin/python has an interactive mode and bpython is a wrapper around that interactive mode that has like syntax highlighting, indenting, undo, etc. Source: almost 5 years ago
Someone posted bpython which I'm pretty ecstatic about but always good to know options. Source: about 5 years ago
Someone else posted this - bpython - which is what I was looking for. Source: about 5 years ago
iPython - iPython provides a rich toolkit to help you make the most out of using Python interactively.
Overleaf - The online platform for scientific writing. Overleaf is free: start writing now with one click. No sign-up required. Great on your iPad.
Jupyter - Project Jupyter exists to develop open-source software, open-standards, and services for interactive computing across dozens of programming languages. Ready to get started? Try it in your browser Install the Notebook.
ShareLaTeX - An online LaTeX editor that's easy to use. No installation, real-time collaboration, version control, hundreds of LaTeX templates, and more. Log InRegister - Reset Password - Documentation - .
IDLE - Default IDE which come installed with the Python programming language.
Authorea - Collaborative platform for research. To write and manage technical documents in one place.
