Connected Papers vs Semantic Scholar vs SciSpace vs Explainpaper

Which one fits you in 2026? Traffic, pricing, input → output, tasks and community side by side.

Your tool
Connected Papers
vs
Competitor 1
Semantic Scholar
Competitor 2
SciSpace
Competitor 3
Explainpaper
Compare
4 tools · best value per row highlighted
Your tool Connected Papers
connectedpapers.com
Visual tool for exploring related research
Remove
Competitor Semantic Scholar
semanticscholar.org
AI-powered research discovery
Make main Remove
Competitor SciSpace
scispace.com
Make sense of research papers
Make main Remove
Competitor Explainpaper
explainpaper.com
Explainpaper breaks down why that quantum mechanics paper uses "eigenvalues" in equation 12 when you highlight confusing text in research papers
Make main Remove
Traffic estimated monthly website traffic
Monthly visits
600.7Kvisits/mo
6.6Mvisits/mo
44.2Kvisits/mo
35.2Kvisits/mo
MoM change
▼ 18.7%
▲ 11.2%
▼ 98.8%
▼ 12.5%
6-month growth
-34.0%
-24.2%
-99.2%
-63.9%
Global rank web
#76,429
#10,569
#17,447
#806,701
Avg. last 3 months
709.4K
6.4M
2.7M
43.2K
Bounce rate lower is better
44%
48%
56%
42%
Pages / visit
2.7
2.7
2.5
2.0
Visit duration
2m 05s
1m 46s
2m 13s
23s
Traffic sources
● Direct 74% · ● Referral 24%
● Direct 81% · ● Referral 17%
● Direct 83% · ● Referral 15%
● Direct 88% · ● Referral 11%
Connected PapersSemantic ScholarSciSpaceExplainpaper
02.2M4.4M6.6M8.7MConnected Papers · 966KConnected Papers · 779.7KConnected Papers · 839.4KConnected Papers · 823.6KConnected Papers · 910.1KConnected Papers · 948.5KConnected Papers · 872.6KConnected Papers · 788.3KConnected Papers · 739KConnected Papers · 600.7KSemantic Scholar · 7.2MSemantic Scholar · 6.7MSemantic Scholar · 6.9MSemantic Scholar · 7.1MSemantic Scholar · 8.7MSemantic Scholar · 8.7MSemantic Scholar · 7.9MSemantic Scholar · 6.6MSemantic Scholar · 5.9MSemantic Scholar · 6.6MSciSpace · 5.9MSciSpace · 5MSciSpace · 4.8MSciSpace · 5.1MSciSpace · 5.8MSciSpace · 5.6MSciSpace · 5MSciSpace · 4.2MSciSpace · 3.8MSciSpace · 44.2KExplainpaper · 69.9KExplainpaper · 82.9KExplainpaper · 82.3KExplainpaper · 69.1KExplainpaper · 97.5KExplainpaper · 53.1KExplainpaper · 55.8KExplainpaper · 54.1KExplainpaper · 40.2KExplainpaper · 35.2K10K100K1M10MConnected Papers · 966KConnected Papers · 779.7KConnected Papers · 839.4KConnected Papers · 823.6KConnected Papers · 910.1KConnected Papers · 948.5KConnected Papers · 872.6KConnected Papers · 788.3KConnected Papers · 739KConnected Papers · 600.7KSemantic Scholar · 7.2MSemantic Scholar · 6.7MSemantic Scholar · 6.9MSemantic Scholar · 7.1MSemantic Scholar · 8.7MSemantic Scholar · 8.7MSemantic Scholar · 7.9MSemantic Scholar · 6.6MSemantic Scholar · 5.9MSemantic Scholar · 6.6MSciSpace · 5.9MSciSpace · 5MSciSpace · 4.8MSciSpace · 5.1MSciSpace · 5.8MSciSpace · 5.6MSciSpace · 5MSciSpace · 4.2MSciSpace · 3.8MSciSpace · 44.2KExplainpaper · 69.9KExplainpaper · 82.9KExplainpaper · 82.3KExplainpaper · 69.1KExplainpaper · 97.5KExplainpaper · 53.1KExplainpaper · 55.8KExplainpaper · 54.1KExplainpaper · 40.2KExplainpaper · 35.2KNov '25DecJan '26FebMarAprMayJunJulAug
Pricing
Model
Freemium
Free
Freemium
Freemium
Starting price
$6per month · free tier available
Free
$20per month · free tier available
$16per month · free tier available
Free tier
Free trial
–
–
API access
–
–
–
–
Plans
—
—
Free FreePremium $20/moAdvanced $90/moMax $200/mo+1 more
Free FreePro $16/moTeams Custom/mo
Capabilities input → output
Input
TextWeb pages
Text
DocumentsText
DocumentsText
Output
Data
Text
DataText
Text
Skill level
Beginner-friendly
Beginner-friendly
Beginner-friendly
Beginner-friendly
Categories
Research & AnalyticsAI Research PapersAI Research Tool
Research & AnalyticsAI Research PapersAI Research Tool
Productivity & OfficeResearch & AnalyticsAI PDFAI Research Papers+1 more
Education & LearningProductivity & OfficeResearch & AnalyticsAI PDF+2 more
Tasks what each tool can do · 4 shared · core   partial
Tasks covered
7
10
12
9
Research papers
Research
Academic research
Research papers analysis
Literature reviews
–
Scientific research navigation
–
–
Academic paper interpretations
–
–
PDFs
–
–
Research assistance
–
–
–
Scientific concept explanations
–
–
–
Scientific literature exploration
–
–
–
Academic papers decoding
–
–
–
Citations
–
–
–
Math explanations
–
–
–
Paraphrasing
–
–
–
Research papers drafting
–
–
–
Research papers summaries
–
–
–
Research recommendations
–
–
–
Scientific research
–
–
–
Scientific writing
–
–
–
PDF analysis
–
–
–
Community on aitoolstime
Rating
no ratings yet
no ratings yet
no ratings yet
no ratings yet
Upvotes
▲ 0
▲ 0
▲ 1
▲ 1
Saves
0
0
0
0
Reviews
0
0
0
0
Prompts
0
0
0
0
Verified listing
–
–
–
–

Traffic figures are third-party estimates for the tool's own domain; tools sharing a domain with a bigger product are not counted. Pricing is captured from each tool's site and may lag.