AI · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to We built a modern research paper reader
Over the past year, we’ve been frustrated with how clunky it is to manage research papers. So we built Ontosyn, a modern research paper reader, with clean ui, better in paper navigation (bookmarks, jumping back up after clicking on a reference), an integrated ai chat with useful tools such as recommending relevant papers that you can directly add to your library, and, of course, library functionality to keep everything organized. We launched a closed alpha last week, and our first users are quite pleased with it. One user asked for author-based search for paper recommendations yesterday, and…
Ontosyn is a research paper reader designed to simplify how researchers manage and engage with academic papers. It features a clean interface with improved navigation tools including bookmarks and reference jumping, an… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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Paperguide▲645Discover, read, write and manage research with ease using AI
2024 · paperguide.ai · its alternatives →
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Open Paper▲289Hi HN! Open Paper allows you to annotate and understand your research papers with an AI copilot. I wanted a paper-reading assistant that let met actually dig into papers in-place while benefiting from AI tooling. When it comes to studying, I'm not a fan of the typical chat interfaces that obfuscate uploaded files and turn them into black box 'content'. Hence, I've implemented a split-pane view. To mitigate the risk of hallucinations, all AI responses come with grounded citations that refer back to the source material in-flow. Some feature highlights: - Actually read your papers in one place…
2025 · openpaper.ai · its alternatives →
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Understanding scientific articles can be tough, even in your own field. Trying to comprehend articles from others? Good luck. Enter, Now I Get It! I made this app for curious people. Simply upload an article and after a few minutes you'll have an interactive web page showcasing the highlights. Generated pages are stored in the cloud and can be viewed from a gallery. Now I Get It! uses the best LLMs out there, which means the app will improve as AI improves. Free for now - it's capped at 20 articles per day so I don't burn cash. A few things I (and maybe you will) find interesting: * This is…
Feb 2026 · nowigetit.us · its alternatives →
- 4HB
Hey guys, I love HN! I wanted to extend the same aesthetic and community towards things beyond tech-related news. I thought it would be cool to get the same quality of community gathered around the latest and greatest research coming out. Let me know what you guys think of what I have so far. It's still early so there are probably bugs and other quality issues. If there's any features missing that you'd want let me know. ALSO, if any of you are familiar with the map of the territory of any particular field, please let me know! Would love to pick your brain and to come up with a 'most…
2024 · papertalk.xyz · its alternatives →
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Hey HN, cofounder of Readwise here. We've been working on this cross-platform reader app for about 2 years, excited to finally share it in public beta. Probably the most notable thing that makes Reader unique is that it supports almost any content type you could want to save/read/highlight: * web pages * emails/newsletters * PDFs * ePubs * twitter threads * youtube videos (with transcripts) * RSS feeds With all of your knowledge content in one place, we built powerful reading and highlighting, as well as a bunch of novel triage/organization features, so you can actually…
2022 · readwise.io · its alternatives →
- 6LY
Almost one year ago I asked HN if anybody is interested to make a Web app to make reading and finding scientific papers smarter [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1664648]. No one did, at least no one did what "I" think is the best way to approach this problem. A a few month ago I decided to do it myself.<p>Meet JournalClub iPad app (absolutely free), http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/journalclub/id443819334? I have a recommendation engine in the pipeline that I would introduce in the next update (hopefully in a month or so). I really appreciate any comments, feedbacks.
2011 · its alternatives →
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- 8IM
As a grad student (and an ADHDer), I had trouble doing literature review systematically. To combat this, I made a website that finds similar papers using the meaning of the thing I am looking for. I used MixedBread's [^1] embedding model to generate vectors from the abstracts. I store and search similar vectors using Milvus [^2] and finally use Gradio [^3] to serve the frontend. I update the vector database weekly by pulling the metadata dataset from Kaggle [^4]. To speed up the search process on my free oracle instance, I binarise the embeddings and use Hamming distance as a metric. I would…
2024 · papermatch.mitanshu.tech · its alternatives →
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data-to-paper: Backward-traceable AI-driven scientific research - Technion-Kishony-lab/data-to-paper
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10IM
Hi, I'm a high school teacher from Australia and I've built what I'd like to think is a pretty nifty ChatGPT powered presentation tool for teachers. I'd love it if you could have a look at it and give me some of your feedback. I don't think there's much overlap with the HN crowd and school teachers, but I've been coming here for many years and thought I'd post here and see what you all think. Check it out if you have a minute and I'd be super happy to hear your feedback too. https://www.slidehero.ai/ You can jump in and have a play with the tool all you like ;) Cheers, Eli
2025 · its alternatives →
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PaperClip▲98Memorize details from papers in machine learning and AI
2023 · paperclipapp.xyz · its alternatives →
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OpenRead▲76Employs AI to revolutionize your research experience.
2023 · openread.academy · its alternatives →
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PaperLens▲11Hey HN, I built PaperLens ([thepaperlens.com](https://thepaperlens.com/)) after one too many frustrating sessions trying to find what I actually needed in academic research. Whether I was doing a literature review, trying to quickly find a solid source to back up a point in a discussion, or just attempting to understand a complex subject, traditional keyword searches often felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. PaperLens uses RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and the latest AI models to provide more precise, semantic search results. It also has an AI chatbot that…
2025 · thepaperlens.com · its alternatives →
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Rocket Journal▲218Hi HN! I just launched Rocket Journal, a voice-first journaling app designed to make reflection as easy as talking. Key ideas: Rant mode — vent freely, no judgment Reflect mode — guided prompts to help dig deeper AI insights — mood tracking, patterns, helpful takeaways Stickers & scrapbook — journaling feels lighter and fun Privacy-first — your data isn’t used to train models I built this because journaling apps often feel like “work.” I wanted something that felt like having a safe, responsive companion for those late-night thoughts or walks outside. I’d love feedback from the HN community:…
2025 · rocketjournal.app · its alternatives →
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OpenScholarXIV is an open-source, aesthetic, minimal and AI powered app that allows users to search, read, bookmark, share, download and view summaries of academic papers from the arXiv repository. - ScholarXIV/OpenScholarXIV
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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When I do real research — reading papers, books, or trying to understand a complex topic — it never happens in one sitting. I explore a bit, get interrupted, come back days later, ask new questions, find new sources, and gradually build understanding. Existing AI tools are great at answering questions once, but they reset context every time. Notes tools preserve text, but not understanding — they don’t help me reconnect ideas, revisit sources, or see how my thinking has evolved. I built Kerns to sit in between. Kerns is an AI research workspace designed for research that unfolds over time.…
2025 · kerns.ai · its alternatives →
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Discover and discuss great writing on Substack
2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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- 20RA
2018 · semanticscholar.org · its alternatives →
- 21IM
Hi HN, Since 2019, I’ve been working on a writing platform designed for creating complex documents (e.g., theses). I personally use it for everything as it also allows to classify documents in categories so you can organize them efficiently. As of a few months ago, the app is also available in the browser, and you can now invite coworkers to collaborate on a document in real time. The app is somewhat inspired by LyX. It offers an intuitive, modern editor, but users don’t need to know any LaTeX. When it’s time to export, they can choose from a range of templates (IEEE paper, thesis, etc.). A…
2025 · its alternatives →
- 22HA
Hi all, I find literature searches to be slow and despite all the tools nowadays, it is difficult to map out vast areas of research and then connect my ideas to what I’m trying to do (e.g. writing a review, learning something new, planning a new project, assignments, etc). Some of my peers and teachers also found this to be a problem so I built this MVP app to help people not only leverage AI search capabilities but also go on to connect their ideas, map out research projects, cite various results and organise their “stream of consciousness” as they work. I’d love to get some feedback on it…
2025 · hexle.ai · its alternatives →
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Scholaread▲66Mobile academics: diagrams, formulas and readability
2023 · scholaread.com · its alternatives →
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📄 🤖 AI for medical and scientific papers. Contribute to neuml/paperai development by creating an account on GitHub.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Paperguide alternatives
- Open Paper alternatives
- Now I Get It – Translate scientific papers into interactive webpages alternatives
- HackerNews but for research papers alternatives
- Readwise Reader, an all-in-one reading app alternatives
- Last year I asked HN to do it, now I am doing it myself-JournalClub iPad alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →