Comparison

R Discovery vs Calpy

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

Calpy

Features
Read full description

Calpy is a live class schedule and friends app that makes university life easier. No more setting a screenshot of your schedule as your wallpaper. Calpy turns it into a living calendar you can tap and edit, in seconds. Share it with your friends and instantly see who is free and who is in class; planning to meet up has never been easier. YOUR SCHEDULE IN SECONDS • Pick a screenshot of your schedule from your school's system; your classes are added for you. • Check it before saving and fix anything you like. • You can also build your schedule by hand. LIVE CALENDAR • See your day at a glance: which class you're in right now and how much time is left. • Add personal events like sports, study groups or clubs. • Mark a class you'll skip as "I won't attend" for that day. • The academic calendar (holidays, make-up days) is reflected in your schedule automatically. WHO'S FREE? • See on the Home screen whether your friends are free or busy right now. • On a friend's profile, check their schedule for this week and the free time you share: whether you're both free right now and which hours you're both free today. • Use "See day" to compare both schedules side by side and find a time to meet. WHAT ARE YOU UP TO? • At the library, studying in your room, heading out to eat, or just free? Pick one of seven ready-made statuses. • Your status shows for 1 hour, 3 hours or the rest of the day, and clears itself when the time is up. • Your friends' statuses appear on the Home screen, next to their avatars. MEET NEW PEOPLE • Discover suggests people you share friends with or who take the same classes as you this term. • Tap someone to see all your mutual friends and shared classes, and send a friend request. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN • Your next class and the time left, on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island with Live Activities. • Between classes the card moves on to the next one by itself, and closes after your last class. YOUR PRIVACY FIRST • Only people whose friend request you accept can see your schedule and status. • You can turn off suggestions based on shared classes at any time. • Secure, password-free sign-in with your school email. • No ads, and your data is never sold. • Block or report anyone who bothers you with a single tap. • Delete your account inside the app at any time. You can view your own calendar even without an internet connection. Calpy is currently open to Sabancı University students; more universities are coming soon. Terms of Use: https://calpy.app/en/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://calpy.app/en/privacy/

Screenshots

R Discovery4 screens
Calpy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Calpy at none against R Discovery's 6. Calpy also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). R Discovery's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and iOS requirement 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. Calpy asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

R Discovery ships an update monthly, Calpy every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
R Discovery versus Calpy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterR DiscoveryCalpy
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (926 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews57.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings926 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB45 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperCACTUS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES PTE. LTDEREN BAYHAN

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

Calpy

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

Calpy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is R Discovery free?
R Discovery is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Calpy free?
Calpy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do R Discovery or Calpy have ads?
Neither R Discovery nor Calpy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, R Discovery or Calpy?
R Discovery ships an update monthly, and Calpy every 2 weeks. Most recently, R Discovery was updated on November 7, 2026 and Calpy on November 10, 2026.

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