# Paperpile vs Rayyan

The clearest difference is rating: Paperpile at 4.5 against Rayyan's 3.8. Paperpile also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 14) and review sentiment (72% vs 37%). Rayyan's advantage is update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Rayyan sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

Paperpile holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Paperpile has 129 ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Paperpile's written reviews are positive against 37% of Rayyan's.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, Rayyan every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | Rayyan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (129 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736/reviews)** | [3.8 (23 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/rayyan/id1581620841/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **129** | 23 |
| Positive reviews | **71.6% of reviews** | 37.1% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Every 5 weeks** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 242 MB | 36 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 15.1 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Rayyan Systems, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1581620843) |

## What reviewers say

### Paperpile

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736)

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:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Excellent reference library management
- 🔄 Seamless cross-device synchronization
- ✍️ Intuitive PDF annotation and highlighting
- 🎨 Clean and minimalist user interface
- 📱 Strong iPad and mobile integration

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Frequent crashes and instability
- ⏱️ Lack of updates for extended periods
- 📱 Mobile app significantly behind web version features
- 🔋 High battery drain on iPad
- 🌙 No dark mode support

**Reported bugs**

- 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

**Requested features**

- Dark mode implementation
- Edit citation metadata on mobile app
- Change PDF file functionality
- Save to downloads feature
- Dictionary/lookup function for reading


### Rayyan

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/rayyan/id1581620841)

This app streamlines systematic literature reviews for researchers, enabling quick article screening and decision-making on mobile devices. It supports offline work and real-time collaboration, significantly reducing review time.

**Highlights:** Offline article screening, Real-time collaboration, Quick inclusion decisions, Reference labeling, Article filtering, Configurable settings

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (13)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Student Monthly | $9.99 | per month |
| Professional Monthly | $14.99 | per month |
| Student Quarterly | $24.99 | per 3 months |
| Essential Quarterly | $24.99 | per 3 months |
| Professional Quarterly | $39.99 | per 3 months |
| Advanced Quarterly | $39.99 | per 3 months |
| Student Annual | $59.99 | per year |
| Essential Annual | $59.99 | per year |
| Advanced Quarterly 2 Seats | $79.99 | per 3 months |
| Professional Annual | $99.99 | per year |
| Advanced Annual | $99.99 | per year |
| Advanced Quarterly 4 Seats | $159.99 | per 3 months |
| Advanced Annual 5 Seats | $499.99 | per year |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

Paperpile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is Rayyan free?

Rayyan is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Which has better reviews, Paperpile or Rayyan?

Paperpile is rated higher. Paperpile averages 4.5 out of 5 from 129 ratings, while Rayyan averages 3.8 from 23 ratings.

### Do Paperpile or Rayyan have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor Rayyan shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Paperpile or Rayyan?

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and Rayyan every 5 weeks. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 15, 2026 and Rayyan on October 17, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*