Headings, figures and tables are numbered for you. Citations fill themselves in from a DOI. When you are done, pick a template and export your PDF.
No credit card. The Free plan stays free.
Chapter 2: Related work14
Numbered for you.
Most students rewrite a chapter at least once before they hand it in. Figure 3 shows how many drafts the students in our sample submitted each term.
Students who get written comments on a draft revise more often than students who only get a grade (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).
Insert, Citation, paste the DOI. The author, title, year and journal are looked up for you.
You added an image. It became Figure 2, so the next figure and the reference to it moved to 3.
You write the argument. MonsterWriter keeps the numbers, references and layout in order while you move things around.
Add a source by its DOI, ISBN, arXiv ID, PubMed ID or URL. The authors, title, journal, year and pages are filled in for you, and you can edit any of them.
Your faculty wants a different style? Switch it at any time. Try it here.
Feedback works best when it tells students where they are, where they are going and what to do next (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). It only helps if the student can act on it (Sadler, 1989).
Headings, figures and tables are numbered as you write. Move a section or add a figure, and every number and every cross-reference to it changes with it.
The table of contents and the list of figures are built from the same numbers.
You don’t format while you write. Open Preview & Export, choose a template and download your thesis in the format your university asks for.
Sort your documents into categories. A chapter can sit in several at once, such as your thesis and the folder you share with your supervisor.
Add to-dos right where the work is, and tick them off as you go.
Thesis
For my supervisor
When you create a document, you choose how you like to work. Most people writing their first thesis pick Documents. If you already write LaTeX, the LaTeX Workspace keeps your source in front of you.
“I just want to write.”
3.1Participants
We surveyed 412 second-year students across four faculties.
Write in a clean editor. No markup, no setup. Numbering, citations and layout are handled for you, and you export to PDF, DOCX, LaTeX, HTML or Markdown.
“I know LaTeX.”
\subsection{Participants}
We surveyed $n = 412$
second-year students.3.1Participants
We surveyed n = 412 second-year students.
Write LaTeX source with a live preview beside it. Compiling has no time limit, on every plan.
Your thesis grows, and so does the time it takes to compile. In the LaTeX Workspace, a long compile finishes.
| Overleaf Free | Overleaf paid | MonsterWriter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per year | Free | €87 Student, €179 Standard | Free, or $16 Pro |
| Compile time | Basic timeout | 24× the basic timeout | No limit |
| Collaborators per project | 1 | 10 | No limit |
Overleaf figures from overleaf.com, October 2026. Overleaf no longer publishes its timeout in seconds. Read the full comparison
Start a LaTeX Workspace, free| Word | Google Docs, Notion | Plain LaTeX | MonsterWriter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Figure and table numbers | Break when you move things | Typed by hand | \label and \ref | Numbered for you |
| Citations | Needs a plugin | Needs a plugin | BibTeX file | From a DOI, ISBN or URL |
| Changing citation style | Re-run the plugin | By hand | Change the package | Pick it from a list |
| Learning curve | Low | Low | Steep | Low |
“This will save you time. I mean buckets of time writing. The formatting and references are a piece of cake.”
“You want to write something? Then this editor is for you. I literally don’t have to think about anything other than what I want to write.”
“The features are magnificent. I can’t easily find them elsewhere.”
Every plan has both document types, all citation styles and every export format. Paying gets you more storage.
$0forever
Everything you need to write and export a thesis.
Custom
For universities and research institutes.
Pick Documents if you want to write and let MonsterWriter handle numbering, citations and layout. Pick the LaTeX Workspace if you already write LaTeX and want the source in front of you. You choose when you create a document, and a document keeps its type, so a LaTeX Workspace cannot later become a Document or the other way round. You can have both kinds side by side.
No. Documents is made for people who have never written LaTeX. You write in the editor, pick a template when you export, and get a formatted PDF or Word file.
Paste a DOI, ISBN, arXiv ID, PubMed ID or URL. MonsterWriter looks it up and fills in the author, title, journal, year, volume and pages. You can edit any field afterwards.
Yes, at any time. The style is applied when the document is shown and exported, so switching from APA to IEEE reformats every citation and the reference list at once.
Documents export to PDF, DOCX, LaTeX, HTML and Markdown. The LaTeX Workspace exports to PDF. Every format is available on the Free plan.
Yes. You can invite collaborators on every plan, with no limit on how many.
Your documents stay. You move back to the Free plan and its storage limit. If your work fits, nothing changes, and you can export everything at any time.
Chapter 1
Every thesis starts on a blank page. Start yours where the numbering, the references and the layout are already taken care of.
Start writing your thesis, free