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Elicit vs Science42: DORA

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Elicit starts at $49, Science42: DORA at $17. Both have a free tier. Only Elicit ships a public API.

ElicitLiterature review workflow that extracts data into tablesScience42: DORADesktop app that drafts cited academic and biomedical research papers, from Insilico Medicine.

Side by side

FactElicitScience42: DORA
CategoryAcademic Search & Literature ReviewResearch & Citation Tools
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$49 month$17 month
Public APIYesNo
PlatformsWeb, APIWindows, macOS
CompanyElicitInsilico Medicine
Launched2021—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

Elicit

Elicit is the only one of these tools that treats a literature review as a structured extraction job rather than a chat, which is exactly right for the work. The price assumes you are billing someone else for the hours it saves.

Pros

  • Column-per-field extraction into a table is the correct shape for review work and rare elsewhere
  • Free tier is unusually generous: unlimited search, summaries and full-text chat
  • Every claim links back to the paper it came from
  • API access is included from the first paid tier rather than sold separately

Cons

  • The $49 to $169 jump is steep and Scale is priced for institutions, not labs
  • Free tier's limits on the Research Agent and Reports are not quantified anywhere on the pricing page
  • Extraction accuracy still needs spot-checking against the source PDF
  • Coverage is paper-centric, so grey literature and preprint-heavy fields are thinner

Science42: DORA

DORA is aimed at researchers who want database-connected citation and drafting help for scientific papers specifically, backed by Insilico Medicine's biomedical focus. It is a desktop-only download rather than a web app, and the current low price reflects an active discount rather than the standard rate.

Pros

  • Direct integration with scientific and biomedical databases for citations
  • Includes AI editing/review passes and visualization generation, not just drafting
  • Open-source self-hosted option avoids the subscription entirely

Cons

  • Desktop-only, no browser version currently offered
  • Listed price reflects a temporary 50% discount, not the standard rate
  • No API for the hosted version

Which one fits

Choose Elicit if you need

  • Systematic reviews and evidence synthesis where every included paper needs the same fields pulled
  • Researchers screening hundreds of abstracts against defined inclusion criteria
  • Pharma, policy and academic teams that need an auditable trail back to sources

Choose Science42: DORA if you need

  • Biomedical and scientific researchers drafting papers with heavy citation needs
  • Teams wanting an open-source, self-hosted alternative to hosted AI writing tools
  • Users comfortable installing a desktop application

More comparisons

All Elicit alternatives →All Science42: DORA alternatives →Browse all Academic Search & Literature Review →