Installing TeX on your own machine is the usual route — but not the only one. You can treat a browser-based service as your TeX environment and let it stand in for a local install. This page looks at the web as an installation choice: when the web is the right answer and when a local setup is, where the main services fit, and — the part the beginner survey skips — running your own Overleaf server, i.e. self-hosting.
The “just try it in a browser” story — how an online editor works, and how a beginner gets started — lives on its own page, “Try it online.” To avoid repeating it, this page is organized around a single decision: install locally, or hand the job to the web?
Treating the web as your install
A local TeX Live or MiKTeX install puts the whole stack on your own disk: the TeX engine, thousands of packages, fonts, and build tools. An online service like Overleaf or Cloud LaTeX keeps that same stack on a server — your browser just uploads the source and shows the PDF that comes back. Functionally, then, a web service is “a TeX Live that someone else operates for you.”
The reason this framing matters is that you can pick the web as a permanent environment, not just a stopgap. A shared lab PC, a tablet, home and office — any browser drops you into the same setup, and an OS update can never break your build. The trade-off is that the service decides what is inside that environment (the versions of the engine, packages, and fonts), and your manuscript lives on their server. The next section condenses the decision into a table.
When the web fits, when local fits
Neither is simply better; the question is what you are willing to give up, and what you want to keep in your own hands. Broadly: take the web for freedom from maintenance and access anywhere, take a local install for control, confidentiality, and an unbounded ceiling on speed.
| Concern | Web service | Local install |
|---|---|---|
Maintenance | None — updates happen server-side | You update and manage packages |
Devices | Any device with a browser | Only the machine you installed on |
Collaboration | Easy real-time co-editing | Roll your own, e.g. with Git |
Compile time | Free tiers cap it | No cap (limited by your machine) |
Network | Generally required | Works offline |
Your source | Lives on a third party’s server | Stays on your own disk |
Pinning versions | Within what the service offers | Any package or font, freely |
For a first document, a class assignment, or a co-authored paper, the web is usually plenty. Reach for a local install when the other demands appear: a long thesis or a heavy TikZ build that blows past the compile timeout, unpublished or confidential research you would rather not place on an outside server, or a need to pin an exact TeX Live and package set for reproducibility. Having it both ways is practical too — sync Overleaf with Git or GitHub, or connect Cloud LaTeX to a local folder through Dropbox, and you can move freely between cloud and disk. The local-install page covers that route.
The main services, briefly
Here is just where the three main services sit. The how-it-works walkthrough is on “Try it online,” and each service has its own in-depth page.
- Overleaf — the de facto standard; its strengths are a large template library and real-time co-editing. Its default engine is
pdfLaTeX, so Japanese needs a setting (LuaLaTeXwithltjsarticleis the quick path). As below, it is the only one that is open source and can run on your own server. - Cloud LaTeX — run by Japan’s Acaric. Its headline advantage is that Japanese typesets with no configuration, which suits domestic papers and journals; it also offers Dropbox sync and a VS Code integration.
- Papeeria — has a permanent free tier with unlimited public projects, Git integration, and mixed Markdown; the free tier limits you to one private project.
A rough pick: Cloud LaTeX for mostly-Japanese writing, Overleaf for many authors at once or a template-driven workflow, and Papeeria for public-by-default or cheap team starts. The full comparison is on the try-it page.
Running your own Overleaf (self-hosting)
This is where it goes beyond merely using a service. Overleaf is open source (AGPL v3), and its core is published as Overleaf Community Edition (CE). So a lab or a company can run its own Overleaf on its own server, independent of the commercial overleaf.com. Cloud LaTeX and Papeeria offer no such option (they are hosted-only); among the major services, Overleaf is effectively the only one you can self-host.
For deployment, the recommended path is the official Overleaf Toolkit. It is a Docker Compose stack that brings up the Overleaf application together with MongoDB (its database) and Redis (its cache) on Docker. Clone overleaf/toolkit from GitHub, initialize it, start it, and you have your own browser-accessible Overleaf. Once set up, it can even run air-gapped, with no internet connection.
# Overleaf Toolkit で自前サーバを建てる（概略）
git clone https://github.com/overleaf/toolkit.git
cd toolkit
bin/init # 設定ファイル (config/) を生成
bin/up # Docker Compose で Overleaf + MongoDB + Redis を起動What self-hosting buys you is control of your data and independence from an outside party: every manuscript stays on your servers, you are not at the mercy of an outage or a pricing change, and everything can live inside your organization’s network. The cost is that you own the upkeep — provisioning the server, backups, upgrading TeX Live, and security all fall to you.
There is one important caveat. The free Community Edition has no “Sandboxed Compiles” to isolate compilation: a user’s LaTeX compile runs with the container’s privileges and can reach its filesystem and network, so CE is meant for environments where all users are trusted. If you need to open it to the public, or you need isolation, SSO (LDAP/SAML), or tracked changes and other enterprise features, the paid Server Pro edition exists. Rule of thumb: CE for a small, trusted lab; Server Pro to open it up to a whole university.