Comparison

R Discovery vs ReFindr

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

Head to head
About

R Discovery

Access and discover over 300 million research papers with AI-powered tools. Understand findings, chat with PDFs, and organize your academic library. Stay current in your field with personalized feeds and alerts.

Highlights
  • Discover 300M+ research papers
  • AI-powered research workflows
  • Chat with PDFs
  • Listen to research papers
  • Personalized research feeds
  • Organize academic library
  • Translate research papers
Features
Read full description

R Discovery is your #1 place to discover research literature, stay current, and read what matters faster. Built for students, researchers, clinicians, educators, and academics, R Discovery helps you find relevant papers without spending hours searching across scattered sources. With research-grade AI workflows, R Discovery accelerates every step of your literature journey: discover papers, understand key findings, chat with PDFs, listen to research, translate papers, and build a personalized academic library around your interests. We search, curate, summarize, and organize the literature so you can spend more time on meaningful research and more time with the people you love. R Discovery gives you access to: • 150M+ journal articles • 78M+ open access papers • 10M+ conference documents • 5M+ preprints • 7.5M+ patents • 8M+ summaries and highlights • 9.5M+ research topics • 14M+ authors • 64K+ journals • 120K+ universities and institutions Why researchers use R Discovery: • Personalized research feeds based on your interests • Fast literature search for papers, journals, authors, topics, and institutions • Reliable, clean research database built to reduce duplication and low-quality content • Open access discovery so you can quickly find papers you can read • Full-text access with institutional login through GetFTR and LibKey integrations • Alerts for newly published papers in your field • Summaries and highlights to assess relevance faster • Bookmarks and reading lists to organize your library Upgrade to R Discovery Prime to accelerate your research further with unlimited access for research-grade AI workflows • Ask R Discovery for reference-backed answers from research papers • Chat with PDFs and get instant answers from full papers • Listen to papers with audio streaming for research on the go • Translate research papers into your preferred language • Sync your saved papers with Zotero and Mendeley R Discovery partners with leading global publishers, societies, and research platforms including Wiley, IOP Publishing, Springer Nature, Sage, Taylor & Francis, Hindawi, NEJM, Emerald Publishing, Duke University Press, IntechOpen, AIAA, Karger, Underline.io, J-STAGE, and more. Join 3M+ academics on R Discovery, the highest rated app in this space with a 4.6+ App Store rating. Free to use, or upgrade to R Discovery Prime for unlimited premium access. Get it now! Privacy Policy: https://cactusglobal.com/privacy-policy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

ReFindr

Features
Read full description

ReFindr is your smart companion for academic and professional research. Powered by intelligent algorithms, ReFindr curates and recommends research papers, journals, and publications based on your selected topics and reading habits. With features like personalised feeds, keyword tracking, bookmarking, and cloud-based access, ReFindr simplifies how you explore and manage knowledge. Whether you’re a university student, a graduate researcher, or a lifelong learner, ReFindr ensures that the most relevant and credible information finds you — not the other way around.

Screenshots

R Discovery4 screens
ReFindr4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ReFindr at none against R Discovery's 6. On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. R Discovery sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. ReFindr asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

R Discovery ships an update monthly, ReFindr fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
R Discovery versus ReFindr: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterR DiscoveryReFindr
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (928 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews57.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings928 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB45 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperCACTUS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES PTE. LTDJuna Innovations

Bugs and requests

R Discovery

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • 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

5 requests
  • 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

ReFindr

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

6 purchases

R Discovery

Subscriptions6
  • Monthly$11.991 Month
  • Monthly$24.991 Month
  • Monthly$25.001 Month
Show 3 more
  • Yearly$69.001 Year
  • Yearly$139.991 Year
  • Yearly$143.991 Year
None

ReFindr

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is R Discovery free?
R Discovery is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ReFindr free?
ReFindr is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do R Discovery or ReFindr have ads?
Neither R Discovery nor ReFindr shows ads.
Which is updated more often, R Discovery or ReFindr?
R Discovery ships an update monthly, and ReFindr fortnightly. Most recently, R Discovery was updated on November 11, 2026 and ReFindr on November 9, 2026.

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