Papers by ReadCube vs PaperCut Hive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Papers by ReadCube
Manage, read, and discover research literature on your mobile devices. Annotate PDFs, organize your library with custom lists and tags, and receive personalized recommendations for new papers. Syncs seamlessly with desktop and web applications.
- Read and manage research papers
- Annotate PDFs with notes and highlights
- Organize library with custom lists and tags
- Discover new research with personalized recommendations
- Search and download articles
- Sync across devices
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Papers by ReadCube is the simplest way to read, manage and discover research literature. Papers on your iPhone and iPad are the perfect companions to the Papers desktop software, enabling you to access your papers anywhere – read on the go, organize your library, and annotate PDFs with notes and highlights. Enhanced PDF: • Tap-able inline citations, reference lists, and author names so you can quickly find cited articles and related information • Supplements are automatically attached where available • Fullscreen or double-page PDF viewing plus multi-touch zoom/navigation for an optimal reading experience • Multi-color highlighting and note taking tools Easily find new papers: • Search the Papers databases within the app • Quickly download new articles with a single tap when you’re on campus or with your institutional proxy • Import directly from Safari, email attachments, and other apps • In your preferred browser, use any search engine to find article PDFs • Use the “Open In…” option from the browser or any app to add PDFs to your Papers library • Metadata is automatically resolved - no more guessing with cryptic file names Personalized Recommendations: • Discover relevant new papers based on your library or lists – you’ll never miss another important paper again! Stay organized: • Create custom lists and sort articles into one or multiple lists • Quickly search your entire library (and all annotations) • Add any number of #tags to further customize your library organization • Sync everything – papers, notes, highlights – between the Papers desktop and web apps or your other mobile devices Simplify your research life – try Papers for free on your iPhone, iPad, and computer. We love feedback from our users - please email support@papersapp.com with any suggestions or issues. Thanks for using Papers!
PaperCut Hive
Securely release print jobs from your mobile device at your organization's printers. This app offers a convenient, touch-free way to manage your printing needs, with options to review and adjust print settings before collection.
- Secure print job release via mobile
- Touch-free printing options (NFC, QR code)
- Print job review and modification
- Cross-device printing support
- Contactless document collection
- Find-me/pull-printing functionality
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PaperCut Hive makes printing convenient, responsible, and secure in your organization. We're all for flexibility. This app gives you the option to securely release your print jobs using your mobile phone. Of course, you can also release your job at the MFD/Printer touch screen as well. This mobile app just gives you one more option, and a touch-free one at that! To get the most out of this app, make sure you have an approved email invitation to use your organization's printers & MFPs. To release prints using your phone, simply tap your phone on an NFC sticker on the printer, scanning a QR code, or selecting the printer's name from a list. Did you forget to double-side the document? No problem, the PaperCut Hive app will remind you and allow you to make those changes on your way to the printer. PaperCut Hive makes it easy to print from all your devices including desktops, laptops, Chromebooks, and of course your iOS phone. See! You can use your phone for work too! Here’s how it works: - You’ll receive an invitation from your organization - It will guide you through the installation of this app as well as apps on your computers and other devices - You will then be able to select ‘PaperCut Printer’ when printing from any of your devices - This app also allows you to view your print jobs and securely collect your documents at any printer/MFD in your organization - Simply walk up to the printer and tap the NFC stickers, scan a QR code, or use the MFD touch screen. This app gives you a contactless/touch-free release method. Benefits: - Have you ever printed your payslip and had to run (sprint!) to the printer to collect it before anyone else does? Fixed! - Have you walked to the printer only to realise your document has gone somewhere else? Fixed! We call this find-me or pull-printing printing. - Do you forget to select duplex at the time of printing, but then feel guilty as you watch an endless stream of pages roll out? Fixed! - Confused by different print dialogues on different devices? BYOD? Fixed! - Need to set up printing on a new device and wish it could be as easy as installing a new app? Fixed! Have a question? Please email support@papercut.com or get in touch with the PaperCut Partner supporting you. Note: This app requires that your organization has an active and configured PaperCut Hive account and the PaperCut Hive embedded software installed on your MFDs. You should receive an invitation or instruction on how to set up this app from your organization. Your confidentiality is our priority. Your data is treated like we'd want our data to be treated. Check out our Privacy Policy for the full story. In fact your confidentiality is super important to us and that's exactly the reason we invented PaperCut Hive (and of course to reduce print waste and make printing easy).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PaperCut Hive at 5.0 against Papers by ReadCube's 3.7. Papers by ReadCube's advantage is review sentiment (41% vs 12%) and ratings volume (551 vs 3). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
PaperCut Hive holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Papers by ReadCube has 551 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 41% of Papers by ReadCube's written reviews are positive against 12% of PaperCut Hive's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Papers by ReadCube ships an update every 2 months, PaperCut Hive every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on September 20, 2026.
| Parameter | Papers by ReadCube | PaperCut Hive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (551 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.2% of reviews — better | 11.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 551 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 77 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Digital Science & Research Solutions Inc. | PaperCut Software |
Customer experience
Papers by ReadCube
PaperCut Hive
User reviews
Papers by ReadCube
From 551 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Seamless syncing across devices
- 📚 Excellent for organizing and managing research papers
- 🔍 Helpful search and discovery features
- 💻 Good integration with desktop and web versions
- 📝 Useful annotation and highlighting tools
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy annotation and handwriting tools
- 🔍 Inconsistent search and metadata retrieval
- 💾 Unreliable cloud sync and data loss issues
- 🖍️ Limited annotation features compared to competitors
- 🕰️ Slow development and lack of updates
PaperCut Hive
From 3 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 New app is much better
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Works on iPhone and iPad
- 👍 Convenient release from phone
- 👍 Preview before releasing
Room to improve
- 🐛 App regularly crashes
- 🐛 App closes on opening
- 🐛 Inefficient and irritating
- 🐛 Causes headaches and stress
- 🐛 Unnecessarily complicated
Bugs and requests
Papers by ReadCube
Reported bugs
5 issues- Frequent app crashes and freezes
- Sync issues causing data loss and duplication
- Unreliable PDF downloads and access
- Inconsistent behavior of annotation tools
- Compatibility problems with newer devices and OS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add eraser tool for handwritten annotations
- Improve PDF viewing and navigation experience
- Implement better organization and folder management
- Integrate citation and bibliography tools
- Provide more customization options
PaperCut Hive
Reported bugs
22 issues- App regularly crashes
- App closes as soon as it's opened
- Print jobs disappear
- App crashes preventing phone release
- Printers becoming inoperable
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- Printer resetting itself
- Desktop download doesn't work on Mac
- Crashes and doesn't load prints
- Randomly crashes
- Computer won't cooperate (Macs)
- App crashes after a few uses
- Crashes upon load
- App is too unstable
- App won't open or crashes on click
- Error messages not always appearing
- Crashing since update
- Constantly needed to delete and redownload
- Need to frequently re-request access
- Keeps crashing, can't open app
- Have to delete and reinstall bi-weekly
- System doesn't refresh
- Does not work well with Macs
Requested features
5 requests- Enable search in printer list
- Enable ascii copy paste of QR code value
- App works natively with iPad screen resolution
- Support QR code loading from images
- Mark specific printers as favorites
In-app purchases
Papers by ReadCube
No in-app purchases
PaperCut Hive
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Papers by ReadCube free?
Is PaperCut Hive free?
Which has better reviews, Papers by ReadCube or PaperCut Hive?
Do Papers by ReadCube or PaperCut Hive have ads?
Which is updated more often, Papers by ReadCube or PaperCut Hive?
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