Comparison

PaperAgent vs Rectoly for Zotero

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

Head to head
About

PaperAgent

This app helps AI researchers, engineers, and students efficiently discover, understand, and track academic papers. It aggregates sources, provides smart summaries, and allows for in-depth reading and personalized paper management.

Highlights
  • Multi-source paper aggregation
  • AI-generated summaries and key points
  • Full-text analysis and structured information extraction
  • Personalized paper collection and tracking
  • Daily updates on new and trending papers
Features
Read full description

PaperAgent 是面向 AI 研究者、工程师和学生的论文助手。 你可以在一个应用里高效完成「发现论文 → 快速理解 → 深入阅读 → 持续跟进」。 核心功能: - 多源聚合:集中浏览 arXiv、OpenReview、HuggingFace 等最新论文 - 智能速读:自动生成摘要、亮点、方法与结论要点 - 深度阅读:支持全文解析、评论查看与结构化信息提取 - 个人工作流:收藏、追踪、按主题管理你的论文清单 - 每日更新:持续获取值得关注的新论文与热门方向 适合人群: - 机器学习/深度学习研究者 - 算法工程师与技术团队 - 需要高效读论文的学生与从业者 用更少时间,读懂更多高价值论

About

Rectoly for Zotero

This app enhances the research PDF reading experience for Zotero users. It offers a reflowable reading mode, in-line annotation tools, and on-device translation. Additional features include read-aloud functionality, split-view for side-by-side comparisons, and tools for extracting figures and tables.

Highlights
  • Reflowable Reading Mode
  • In-line Annotations
  • On-device Translation
  • Read Aloud
  • Split View
  • Figure & Table Extraction
  • Zotero Sync
Features
Read full description

Rectoly is the research-focused PDF reader built for Zotero users. Your library stays in Zotero — Rectoly makes reading and annotating on iPhone, iPad and Mac a genuine pleasure. READING MODE Academic papers are often formatted in two columns, making them hard to read on a phone. Reading Mode reflows the content into a single, clean column — without losing access to the original PDF. Jump back to the exact page anytime. ANNOTATE IN READING MODE Unlike other readers, Rectoly lets you highlight, underline, add sticky notes, and draw with Apple Pencil — all while staying in Reading Mode. No need to switch back to the raw PDF just to mark something up. ON-DEVICE TRANSLATION Read an English paper in your own language, in Reading Mode and on the PDF page. Translation runs on this device; the paper is never sent to a translation service. If you agree, translations are saved to your Zotero library for your other devices (using your Zotero storage). The app's translation model (about 2.5 GB) needs 8 GB of memory or more. Translates English papers into the app's 19 other display languages: Hindi by the system's translator (iOS 26 or later), all the rest by the app's own model. TOOLS FOR READING Read Aloud: hear the text in Reading Mode, in the system voice or the VoiceOver one. Choose the typeface and line spacing in Reading Mode. “Darken PDF pages” softens text and paper to gray tones while leaving figures and photos in their original colors when possible. SPLIT VIEW INSIDE THE READER Keep Reading Mode open while glancing at a figure, the original layout, or another section — side by side, all within a single window. No multi-window setup required. RESEARCH THEMES Send a passage to a theme, with its source. Keep the theme beside the paper, or open it as a sheet. Export as Markdown or Word (.docx). ACROSS PAPERS The library column has a new Across papers tab: search the annotations, the text and your handwriting in your whole library at once. FIGURES, TABLES AND A COMPARISON Save a figure as PNG and a table as CSV — one paper at a time, or your whole library in one go. Compare many papers' abstracts, methods, results and conclusions in one table, one row per paper. YOUR DRAFT BESIDE THE PAPER Open the document you are writing (.docx, .doc, .odt, .rtf, Markdown, plain text — password-protected ones too) in a column next to the paper. It re-reads the file every time you save. CITING AND NOTES Copy with page, copy BibTeX or citation keys (Zotero 7's keys and Better BibTeX's are used), and a Notes folder for Obsidian and others — with keyboard shortcuts you can change. ZOTERO SYNC Annotations you create are written back to Zotero automatically. Highlights from Zotero Desktop or other apps appear in Rectoly automatically. Your notes are always in one place. WEBDAV AND LINKED FILES If Zotero syncs your files over WebDAV, Rectoly can now open them — and PDFs you add in the app go to your WebDAV server too. Files that ZotFile or ZotMoov keep in Dropbox or Google Drive open once you choose the folder. WORKS OFFLINE Downloaded PDFs and annotations are stored locally. Read anywhere, anytime — even without an internet connection. SEARCH YOUR HANDWRITING Notes you write with Apple Pencil are now read as text on your device, so you can search them (iPadOS 27 and later). 14-DAY FREE TRIAL → ONE-TIME PURCHASE Try every Pro feature for free for 14 days. Unlock with a one-time payment — no subscription, no recurring charges.

Screenshots

PaperAgent4 screens
Rectoly for Zotero4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PaperAgent at none against Rectoly for Zotero's 2. Rectoly for Zotero's advantage is update cadence (daily vs weekly). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Rectoly for Zotero sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. PaperAgent asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for PaperAgent against 5.0 for Rectoly for Zotero. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PaperAgent ships an update weekly, Rectoly for Zotero daily. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
PaperAgent versus Rectoly for Zotero: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaperAgentRectoly for Zotero
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB53 MB
Age rating17+4+
Developer欣 罗Takaki Takemura

In-app purchases

None

PaperAgent

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Rectoly for Zotero

One-time2
  • 14-day TrialFree
  • Rectoly Pro (one-time)$19.99

Questions

Is PaperAgent free?
PaperAgent is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Rectoly for Zotero free?
Rectoly for Zotero is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PaperAgent or Rectoly for Zotero?
PaperAgent and Rectoly for Zotero are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do PaperAgent or Rectoly for Zotero have ads?
Neither PaperAgent nor Rectoly for Zotero shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PaperAgent or Rectoly for Zotero?
PaperAgent ships an update weekly, and Rectoly for Zotero daily. Most recently, PaperAgent was updated on October 31, 2026 and Rectoly for Zotero on November 5, 2026.

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