Comparison

Paperpile vs Imaginate AtomAR

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Paperpile

Organize and manage your research papers effortlessly. Collect, read, and annotate PDFs from millions of academic journals. Beat paper chaos with a tidy digital library.

Highlights
  • Search millions of academic papers
  • Collect PDFs with one tap
  • Organize with folders and labels
  • Read and annotate PDFs
  • Highlight and add notes
  • Browser integration for saving
Features
Read full description

Get a head start for you research and finally beat the paper chaos on your desk. With Paperpile you have all your research PDFs in one place — nice and tidy. Paperpile makes it easier than ever to collect, manage, read, and annotate your papers. FIND & COLLECT - Search millions of papers from 20,000+ academic journals right in the app. - Add new papers to your collection with one tap and the PDF will be downloaded automatically. - Save directly from your browser to your Paperpile library - User your university's off-campus proxy access to get restricted content behind paywalls. MANAGE & ORGANIZE - Bring structure to your library with folders and subfolders - Organize your library visually with colored labels - Mark important papers with stars. - Search your library to find the paper you need fast. READ & ANNOTATE - Read like on paper with a fast and slick PDF viewer experience - Highlight important sections in different colors - Add notes and never forget an important idea. - Add hand-drawn annotations - with your fingers or your Apple Pencil The Paperpile App requires a Paperpile account.

About

Imaginate AtomAR

Read full description

Atom is a multi-user platform (for VR and AR, both) where geographically dispersed teams can collaborate for training sessions, meetings, design reviews, assisted sales and a lot more, all done securely over contextual 2D/3D data. Equipped with the ability to visualize, interact and converse using this data like never before, teams can now quickly and confidently finalize designs, train, sell and generally interact better. So, get set and come on board for a new era of enterprise collaboration!

Screenshots

Paperpile3 screens
Imaginate AtomAR1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Paperpile at 3 against Imaginate AtomAR's —. Paperpile also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On price, update cadence and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, Imaginate AtomAR every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Paperpile versus Imaginate AtomAR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaperpileImaginate AtomAR
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (129 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews71.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings129 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNo—
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — better—
Requires iOS12.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size242 MB611 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPaperpile LLCIMAGINATE SOFTWARE LABS PRIVATE LIMITED

Bugs and requests

Paperpile

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • App crashes frequently on iPad and iOS devices
  • Highlighting disappears when revisiting papers
  • Overlapping annotations delete together when removing one
  • Sync failures requiring logout/login cycles
  • Annotations not syncing between iPad and web versions
Show 7 more
  • PDF metadata recognition failures when adding papers
  • Settings reset when returning to previously edited files
  • App incompatible with older iOS versions (iOS 12)
  • Login authentication errors with university accounts
  • App crashes without reliable internet connection
  • Search functionality broken after updates
  • Annotations not saving/loading on iOS 14.4.2

Requested features

17 requests
  • Dark mode implementation
  • Edit citation metadata on mobile app
  • Change PDF file functionality
  • Save to downloads feature
  • Dictionary/lookup function for reading
Show 12 more
  • Cite while you write feature
  • BibTeX export capability
  • Ability to upload PDFs directly from mobile app
  • Support for Safari and other browsers
  • Desktop application version
  • Shared library access in mobile app
  • Advanced sorting options (by title, author, date)
  • Custom color options for annotations
  • Paste images into PDFs
  • Shape snapping for drawing tools
  • University email authentication
  • Paper rating system beyond stars

Imaginate AtomAR

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Paperpile

No in-app purchases

None

Imaginate AtomAR

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Paperpile free?
Paperpile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Imaginate AtomAR free?
Imaginate AtomAR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which is updated more often, Paperpile or Imaginate AtomAR?
Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and Imaginate AtomAR every 3 months. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 15, 2026 and Imaginate AtomAR on September 29, 2026.

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