Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CKEditor VS Underleaf

Compare CKEditor VS Underleaf and see what are their differences

CKEditor logo CKEditor

Real-time collaborative future-ready rich text editor

Underleaf logo Underleaf

Enhance your academic writing and save hours with Underleaf's AI-powered LaTeX tools.
  • CKEditor Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-08

CKEditor 5 is a modern WYSIWYG rich text editor that can easily accommodate the requirements of businesses and users in the age of digital transformation. It allows software creators and developers to build powerful writing solutions for applications of all sorts, within hours. Thanks to a fully customizable framework, ready-to-use builds, native integrations, extensive documentation, and reliable customer support, the editor can be fully tailored to your needs.

To provide users with all-around streamlined and collaborative writing experience, you can additionally include advanced features such as Track Changes and Comments, Revision History, and (if preferred) Real-time Collaboration! Easy Export to PDF and Word, responsive images, pagination, Markdown input and output support, and robust paste from Word and Google Docs are also popular choices.

  • Underleaf Convert equations to LaTeX in seconds
    Convert equations to LaTeX in seconds //
    2026-07-23
  • Underleaf Find citations for papers easily
    Find citations for papers easily //
    2026-07-23
  • Underleaf Generate and edit LaTeX on any page
    Generate and edit LaTeX on any page //
    2026-07-23
  • Underleaf Polish your writing in seconds
    Polish your writing in seconds //
    2026-07-23

Underleaf is an AI-powered workspace built for researchers, students, and technical writers who work in LaTeX. It helps you move faster from idea to polished document by turning messy inputs into clean, structured LaTeX - without breaking your workflow.

With Underleaf, you can:

  • Convert PDFs to LaTeX (papers, notes, scans)
  • Convert handwritten notes to LaTeX
  • Generate and refine math equations, tables, and LaTeX formatting
  • Create TikZ diagrams from images or natural language descriptions
  • Edit, rewrite, and improve clarity while preserving LaTeX structure
  • Use the Chrome extension to bring AI assistance directly into your LaTeX editor

CKEditor features and specs

  • Real-time collaboration editing
    Premium
  • Comments
    Premium
  • Track changes
    Premium
  • Revision History
    Premium
  • CKBox File Manager
    Premium
  • Autoformatting
  • Autolink
  • Autosave
  • Basic text styles (Bold, Italic, Highlight, Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript)
  • Code & Quote Blocks
  • Drag and drop
  • Export to PDF and Word
    Premium
  • Find and replace
  • Font styles
  • Image resize, style & alignment
  • Image responsiveness
  • Inserting images by pasting URL
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Lists (bulleted, numbered, checklists)
  • Markdown support
  • Math and Chemical formulas
    Premium
  • Media embed
  • @Mentions
  • Pagination
    Premium
  • Paste from Word & G-Docs
  • Read-only support
  • Restricted editing
  • Spell and grammar checking
    Premium
  • Tables support with columns resizing, selecting rows and columns
  • Text layout
  • Word count
  • React integration
  • Vue JS integration
  • Angular integration

Underleaf features and specs

  • PDF to LaTeX
    Convert PDFs (papers, notes, scanned documents) into clean, editable LaTeX with high accuracy.
  • Handwritten Notes to LaTeX
    Transform handwritten math and notes into fully formatted LaTeX code.
  • Math & Equation Generation
    Generate, edit, and refine mathematical equations with proper LaTeX syntax.
  • LaTeX Editing & Refinement
    Rewrite, clean up, and improve LaTeX while preserving structure and formatting.
  • TikZ Diagram Generation
    Create TikZ diagrams from text descriptions or images.
  • Overleaf Integration
    Use Underleaf directly inside Overleaf with a browser extension for seamless AI-assisted editing.

Analysis of Underleaf

Overall verdict

  • Underleaf.ai appears to be a niche AI-powered writing/document tool, likely aimed at streamlining LaTeX or academic/technical writing workflows, though independent reviews and widespread user feedback are limited, making it hard to fully verify its effectiveness and reliability.

Why this product is good

  • Offers AI-assisted features that can speed up document creation and editing
  • Targets a specific niche (likely LaTeX or academic writing) that many general tools don't address well
  • May provide templates or automation for technical formatting, saving users time
  • Likely has a modern, user-friendly interface designed for efficiency

Recommended for

  • Students and researchers who frequently write academic papers
  • Professionals working with LaTeX or technical documentation
  • Users seeking AI assistance for structured or formal writing tasks
  • Early adopters willing to try newer, less-established AI writing tools

CKEditor videos

CKEditor 5 - Collaboration features

More videos:

  • Demo - CKEditor 5 โ€“ย Revision History feature

Underleaf videos

A review of Underleaf.ai, an image-to-math converter #math #latex #mathequations #ai

More videos:

  • Review - Underleaf Review-Was This REALLY Of VALUE At ALL Or NOT ??See(Check Before use)
  • Review - Underleaf | Review | Frog Tree Games | Initial Impressions

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CKEditor and Underleaf)
Text Editors
92 92%
8% 8
LaTeX
0 0%
100% 100
Rich Text Editor
100 100%
0% 0
WYSIWYG Editor
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing CKEditor and Underleaf.

What makes your product unique?

Underleaf's answer:

Underleaf is built specifically for people who write in LaTeX. Unlike generic AI writing tools, it understands mathematical structure, equations, and academic formatting. It can convert PDFs and handwritten notes directly into clean LaTeX, generate TikZ diagrams, and help refine technical writing - all while preserving document structure. Itโ€™s designed to feel like a natural extension of your LaTeX workflow, not a replacement for it.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Underleaf's answer:

Most tools treat LaTeX as plain text. Underleaf treats it as a first-class language. Itโ€™s purpose-built for researchers, students, and technical professionals who care about correctness, structure, and reproducibility. With deep support for equations, diagrams, and academic formatting - plus seamless Overleaf integration - Underleaf saves hours without compromising precision or control.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Underleaf's answer:

Underleaf is built for professors, researchers, graduate students, and technical professionals who regularly write in LaTeX. This includes people in mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science, and related fields who want to move faster without sacrificing rigor or formatting quality.

What's the story behind your product?

Underleaf's answer:

Underleaf was created out of firsthand frustration with how slow and manual academic writing can be. After years of writing papers, notes, and technical documents in LaTeX, the goal became clear: remove the friction without breaking the workflow researchers rely on. Underleaf started as a personal productivity tool and grew into a platform that helps thousands of academics write faster, cleaner, and with more focus on ideas instead of syntax.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare CKEditor and Underleaf

CKEditor Reviews

14 Best Open Source WYSIWYG HTML Editors
CKEditor 5 is a feature-rich and open-source WYSIWYG editing solution with great flexibility. The user interface looks modern. Hence, you may expect a modern user experience.
Source: itsfoss.com
Looking for a CKEditor? Try these 10 Alternatives
CKEditor is a popular, versatile WYSIWYG text editor which allows you to write content directly on web pages or online applications. It can be used to create Word-like documents or provide a simple toolbar for email and instant message content. CKEditor provides rich text formatting options as well as spell check.

Underleaf Reviews

We have no reviews of Underleaf yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CKEditor seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 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.

CKEditor mentions (11)

  • Show HN: I'm building an app to replace Overleaf and Notion
    The actual "word processor" or editor of notion is hot garbage, especially for software/keyboard people. Try out something like https://ckeditor.com/ and it is infinitely better. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Storybook Starter Guide: Learn Design System Principles
    For example, at CKEditor, we use a hybrid approach โ€” Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets (Sass) preprocessor and CSS variables:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Your rich text could be a cross-site scripting vulnerability
    Another sign that your application might vulnerable to SXSS is simply whether or not you are using a rich text editor, such as TinyMCE or CKEditor. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Rails Frontend Bundling - Which one should I choose?
    Problematic dependencies. Some dependencies like CKEditor are designed specifically to work with Webpacker and won't work with other tools. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Best Text Editor to integrate with React?
    At my work, we recently released a beta of our switch CKEditor, coming from Draftjs. Works pretty well. They have a free license available, not sure if that would cover your use-case tho. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Underleaf mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Underleaf yet. Tracking of Underleaf recommendations started around Dec 2025.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CKEditor and Underleaf, you can also consider the following products

TinyMCE - TinyMCE is a content editor that functions as a plug-in for Wordpress websites.

Overleaf - The online platform for scientific writing. Overleaf is free: start writing now with one click. No sign-up required. Great on your iPad.

Summernote - Summernote is a JavaScript library that helps users create WYSIWYG editors online.

Authorea - Collaborative platform for research. To write and manage technical documents in one place.

Froala Editor - Froala Editor is a WYSIWYG HTML editorย that enables rich text editing capabilities for the applications.

Bibby AI - The AI LaTeX editor for researchers. Smart citations, AI writing assistant, table generation, paper review, and real-time collaboration.