# R Discovery vs SciSpace

The clearest difference is review sentiment: R Discovery at 57% against SciSpace's 13%. R Discovery also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.2) and ratings volume (910 vs 6). SciSpace's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. R Discovery sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. SciSpace asks for nothing beyond the download.

R Discovery holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: R Discovery has 910 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of R Discovery's written reviews are positive against 13% of SciSpace's.

R Discovery ships an update monthly, SciSpace fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | R Discovery | SciSpace |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.8 (910 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/r-discovery-academic-research/id1508182175/reviews)** | [3.2 (6 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/scispace/id6742434138/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **910** | 6 |
| Positive reviews | **56.8% of reviews** | 12.5% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | **No** |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Monthly | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | **Free** |
| Size | 56 MB | 78 MB |
| Requires iOS | **15** | 15.1 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES PTE. LTD](https://appshunter.io/developer/1817173784) | [PubGenius Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1798128342) |

## What reviewers say

### R Discovery

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/r-discovery-academic-research/id1508182175)

Access over 250 million research papers, including open access and preprints, with personalized feeds and curated reading lists. This app simplifies literature searches and helps you stay updated on academic research.

**Highlights:** Access 250M+ research articles, Personalized AI-curated feeds, Open access article library, Institutional access for paywalled papers, Collaborative reading lists, Audio streaming for papers, Research paper translation

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

**In-app purchases (6)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Monthly | $11.99 | per month |
| Monthly | $24.99 | per month |
| Monthly | $25.00 | per month |
| Yearly | $69.00 | per year |
| Yearly | $139.99 | per year |
| Yearly | $143.99 | per year |

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Wonderful site for research professionals
- 🚀 Fantastic app for researchers
- 💡 Provides relevant paper recommendations

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Slow and choppy performance
- 🐛 Buggy and unreliable features
- 🐛 Difficult to use certain core functions
- 🐛 Downloading PDFs doesn't work

**Reported bugs**

- Home screen takes a long time to load
- Audio translation feature doesn't work
- Buttons are extremely slow
- Switching between dark and light mode is glitchy

**Requested features**

- Add option to view author information in preview
- Enable screen rotation for iPad users
- Add more advanced search functionality
- Allow canceling of export in progress
- Improve integration with Zotero


### SciSpace

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/scispace/id6742434138)

This AI-powered research companion helps academics, researchers, and students accelerate literature reviews. It allows users to search millions of papers using natural language, extract key insights from documents, and receive citation-backed answers to their queries.

**Highlights:** AI-powered semantic search, Instant paper insights extraction, Citation-backed answers, Access to 270+ million papers, Multilingual support

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is R Discovery free?

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

### Is SciSpace free?

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

### Which has better reviews, R Discovery or SciSpace?

R Discovery is rated higher. R Discovery averages 4.8 out of 5 from 910 ratings, while SciSpace averages 3.2 from 6 ratings.

### Do R Discovery or SciSpace have ads?

Neither R Discovery nor SciSpace shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, R Discovery or SciSpace?

R Discovery ships an update monthly, and SciSpace fortnightly. Most recently, R Discovery was updated on September 22, 2026 and SciSpace on September 9, 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.*