Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Underleaf VS TeXworks

Compare Underleaf VS TeXworks and see what are their differences

Underleaf logo Underleaf

Enhance your academic writing and save hours with Underleaf's AI-powered LaTeX tools.

TeXworks logo TeXworks

The TeXworks project is an effort to build a simple TeX front-end program (working environment)...
  • Underleaf PDF to LaTeX conversions in seconds
    PDF to LaTeX conversions in seconds //
    2025-12-29
  • Underleaf Convert diagrams to TikZ code in a click
    Convert diagrams to TikZ code in a click //
    2025-12-29

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 Overleaf AI Chrome extension to bring AI assistance directly into your LaTeX editor
  • TeXworks Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-25

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.

TeXworks features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    TeXworks offers a simple and intuitive user interface that is inspired by popular text editors. This makes it accessible for both beginners and advanced users who are familiar with LaTeX.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    It is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, allowing users to maintain a consistent workflow across different operating systems.
  • Built-in PDF Viewer
    The software includes an integrated PDF viewer that supports synchronization between source and output, making it easier to preview documents and track changes in real-time.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project, TeXworks allows users to contribute to its development and customize the software to meet their specific needs.
  • UTF-8 Encoding
    TeXworks uses UTF-8 encoding by default, which supports a wide range of characters and symbols, improving compatibility and text rendering.

Possible disadvantages of TeXworks

  • Limited Features
    Compared to more advanced LaTeX editors, TeXworks might lack some features such as extensive GUI customization or complex template management.
  • Basic Editing Tools
    While TeXworks provides essential editing tools, it may not include certain advanced features like code folding or comprehensive error checking, which can be found in other editors.
  • Dependency on LaTeX Distribution
    Users need to have a LaTeX distribution installed on their system for TeXworks to function, which can be a barrier for newcomers who are not familiar with the installation process.
  • Performance on Large Documents
    TeXworks can suffer from performance issues when working with very large LaTeX documents, potentially slowing down editing and rendering processes.

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

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

TeXworks videos

How to Install TeX Live and TeXstudio in Windows (LaTeX Advanced Tutorial-10)

More videos:

  • Review - MacTeX Design Philosophy vs TeXShop Design Philosophy
  • Review - TeX Live Utility: A slightly-shiny Mac interface for TeX Live Manager

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Underleaf and TeXworks)
Academic Writing
100 100%
0% 0
Writing
0 0%
100% 100
Education
100 100%
0% 0
Writing Tools
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Underleaf and TeXworks.

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 Underleaf and TeXworks

Underleaf Reviews

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

TeXworks Reviews

14 BEST LaTeX Editor for Mac & Windows in 2022
TeXworks is a simple LaTeX tool. This easy to use application provides syntax highlighting. It offers numerous open-source libraries. This tool enables you to generate PDF with ease.
Source: www.guru99.com
12 Best LaTeX Editors You Should Use
TeXworks is a multi-platform, open-source LaTeX editor. It is a LaTeX editing tool that is based off another open-source LaTeX editor โ€“ TeXshop. It provides a GUI-based approach to LaTeX editing and features many of the key advantages found in the previous mentioned tools. The app features a built-in PDF viewer just like in the above mentioned tools, but this tool also...
Source: beebom.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, TeXworks seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 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.

Underleaf mentions (0)

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

TeXworks mentions (4)

  • Edge Cases to Keep in Mind. Part 1 โ€” Text
    Aforementioned typographic ligatures are used to improve the visual appearance of certain characters which donโ€™t look well separately adjacent to each other. Most users donโ€™t need to worry about ligatures, since they are generated automatically from individual letters by software e.g. TeX produces ligatures by default. However, developers of such tools have to take into account that, in some cases, ligatures may... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • TexLive installer error on installation. I get a: "Use of uninitialized value $avl in patter match..." when I change anything in the GUI version of TeXLive installer
    I'm not sure if I should post here, but here was one of the forums pointed by tug.org. Source: over 3 years ago
  • texlive 2018 in the year of 2021?
    The reason which made me curious in the first place was that I could not compile a document successfully which, however, was possible on my Windows machine where I have installed texlive using the online installer of tug.org. After a painful and long and painful investigation I finally installed texlive using the installer from tug.org and et-voila: it worked. Source: over 4 years ago
  • LaTeX: Where else can I find or use LaTeX?
    You can find many resources here, like documentation, help, community, you need to explore it by yourself here. - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
  • Coming soon: Publishing Beautiful Books with Markdown
    For a conversion to an e-book, it is possible to take a trip through (La)TeX and TeX4ht, or use Pandoc, which is pretty good at converting from Markdown to HTML (better than between, say, HTML and LaTeX). We will cover all these aspects and more in our book, which itself will be written and typeset using the Markdown package. Source: almost 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

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

OpenAI Prism - Education & Reference, AI Tools & Services, Office & Productivity, and Remote Work & Education

TeXstudio - TeXstudio is an integrated environment for writing LaTeX documents.

Octree - The open-source LaTeX editor that makes academic writing feel natural and effortless.

TeXnicCenter - TeXnicCenter is a feature rich and easy-to-use integrated environment for creating LaTeX documents...

Murfy - Murfy.ai is an AI based web-based collaborative LaTeX editor designed for researchers, students, developers, and academics, offering a smarter, faster, and more efficient alternative to Overleaf.