Compare
How Sidenote compares.Honest, side-by-side comparisons with NotebookLM, ChatPDF, Notion AI, Perplexity and more.
Feature by feature, against the tools people actually weigh Sidenote against. Where a competitor genuinely wins, the page says so.
At a glance
Every comparison in one table.
All 25 tools, side by side. Filter by category, sort any column, and open a row for the full comparison. Every cell repeats what its comparison page already says.
| Sidenoteus | In your browser, on the page you already have open | YesScrolls & highlights the exact passage on the live page | Web pages, PDFs, Google Docs, Confluence, Notion & SharePoint | £10/mo | Yes - plus a 7-day Pro trial, no card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NotebookLM | Workspace you upload sources into | NoInline citations, but no jump to the live source tab | Uploaded documents & public URLs | - | Yes - generous free plan |
| ChatPDF | Upload PDFs to its site | PartialCites sources | Uploaded PDFs | - | Yes - no login needed |
| Humata | Document workspace you upload into | PartialInline citations on every answer | Uploaded documents | - | Yes |
| Sider | Multi-model browser sidebar | PartialNot built around verifiable document citations | Pages you open + uploaded PDFs | - | Yes |
| Notion AI | Inside your Notion workspace | PartialLinks to the pages it used; verifying is a manual hunt | Your Notion workspace | Bundled into Notion's paid plans | - |
| Elicit | Literature-review web app | NoSentence-level citations to papers, not the live page | Its database of academic papers | - | Yes - free Basic plan |
| SciSpace | Research platform you upload papers into | PartialCites sources | 280M+ paper database + uploaded PDFs | - | Yes - free Basic tier |
| Adobe Acrobat AI | Inside Acrobat & Reader | PartialSurfaces sources | PDFs in Acrobat | Paid add-on to Acrobat/Reader | No - paid add-on |
| Perplexity | Web answer engine + its free Comet browser | NoLinks public web sources; no passage highlight | The public web; pages open in Comet | - | - |
| ChatGPT | Separate chat app; its agent browses in the cloud | No | Files you attach + live web browsing | - | Yes |
| ChatDOC | Upload-and-index workspace | PartialTapSource highlights inside its viewer | Uploaded PDFs & EPUB e-books | ~$8.99/mo | Yes - a couple of uploads a day |
| MaxAI | AI sidebar on Chrome & Edge | NoCited answers, without a jump to the passage | Webpages & PDFs you open | ~$12/mo billed yearly | Yes |
| Monica | Copilot sidebar + mobile & desktop apps | NoNot built around document-grounded citations | Pages & PDFs, on every device | - | Yes - daily free allowance |
| HARPA AI | Web-automation browser extension | No | Web pages + web search & scraping | ~$12/mo billed annually | Yes - free Demo tier, no card |
| Glarity | Summary sidebar in the browser | No | Web pages, PDFs & YouTube videos | - | Yes - core mode free, no signup |
| PDF.ai | PDF workspace you upload files into | PartialSource links jump inside its PDF viewer | Uploaded PDFs (incl. scans, via OCR) | ~$17/mo | Yes - no login needed |
| Docalysis | Upload files to its site | No | Uploaded PDFs & files | $14/mo (Plus) | Yes - multi-file chat included |
| AskYourPDF | Upload-first: web, mobile, extension & API | No | Uploaded PDFs (incl. scans, via OCR) | ~$11.99/mo billed yearly | Yes - daily limits |
| Sharly AI | Upload-and-chat workspace | PartialLinks answers back to their sources | Uploaded PDFs & documents | ~$12.50/mo billed yearly | Yes - daily upload limits |
| Scholarcy | Web app + browser extension for papers | NoExtractive summaries you can trace to the source text | Papers: PDF, DOCX & journal URLs | ~£10/$10 per month | Yes - 10 summaries a month |
| Paperguide | All-in-one research suite | No | Papers, uploads & web articles | ~$12/mo billed annually | Yes - monthly AI credits |
| Consensus | Evidence search engine | PartialLinks out to each cited paper | 200M+ peer-reviewed papers | - | Yes - no signup needed |
| Glean | Company-wide work search | NoCited answers; no passage-level highlight | Your company's connected apps | Quote-based enterprise | No public free tier |
| Dust | Custom assistants/agents over your company data | NoLinks back to the source doc; no passage-level highlight | Your connected company apps (Notion, Slack, GitHub & more) | - | No public free tier |
| Hebbia | Enterprise platform for institutional document work | PartialCited answers; trace-back inside its own platform | Private documents, public filings & financial data providers | Quote-based enterprise | No - sales-led, no self-serve |
Cells marked - are not stated on the linked comparison page. Last reviewed: 3 July 2026.
vs NotebookLMA research workspace you upload into, versus in-browser cited reading.Explorevs ChatPDFUpload-first PDF chat, versus reading the page you already have open.Explorevs HumataAn enterprise document-AI base, versus everyday cited reading.Explorevs SiderA broad multi-model sidebar, versus focused cited reading.Explorevs Notion AIAI inside Notion only, versus cited reading across all your sources.Explorevs ElicitLarge-scale literature discovery, versus deeply reading one paper.Explorevs SciSpaceA research utility platform, versus in-browser cited reading.Explorevs Adobe Acrobat AIPDF chat inside Acrobat, versus cited reading across docs and the web.Explorevs PerplexityAnswers from the public web, versus answers from your own documents.Explorevs ChatGPTA general assistant, versus purpose-built cited document reading.Explorevs ChatDOCUpload-and-index document chat, versus reading the page you already have open.Explorevs MaxAIA do-everything AI sidebar, versus focused cited reading.Explorevs MonicaAn all-in-one AI copilot, versus purpose-built cited reading.Explorevs HARPA AIA web-automation AI agent, versus in-browser cited reading.Explorevs GlarityA quick summary sidebar, versus cited reading you can verify.Explorevs PDF.aiUpload-first PDF chat, versus reading any source in place with citations.Explorevs DocalysisUpload-based PDF Q&A, versus in-browser cited reading across sources.Explorevs AskYourPDFPDF chat and an API, versus cited reading across docs and the web.Explorevs Sharly AIUpload-and-chat document AI, versus reading what you already have open.Explorevs ScholarcyA paper summary-card generator, versus deeply reading one paper, cited.Explorevs PaperguideAn all-in-one research suite, versus in-browser cited reading.Explorevs ConsensusEvidence search across millions of papers, versus reading the one in front of you.Explorevs GleanEnterprise work search, versus everyday in-browser cited reading.Explorevs DustCustom AI assistants on connected company data, versus a focused per-person reader.Explorevs HebbiaEnterprise citation-first document AI, versus the same thesis self-serve in your browser.Explore
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