The CTO’s Guide to Procuring Academic Software (Without the Headache)
University IT departments exist in a state of tension. The Math department wants one tool, Physics wants another, and the Legal/Compliance team says "No" to everything that stores data on a public cloud.
1. The "Data Sovereignty" Question
Unpublished research is intellectual property. When a professor uploads a paper to a generic cloud editor, where does that data live?
Where LetX stands: documents are private by default, and our privacy policy says where data is stored and names every sub-processor. When you use an AI feature, the relevant text goes to Google Cloud Vertex AI, whose terms bar it from training on what we send. LetX does not offer self-hosted or on-premises deployment.
2. Single Sign-On (SSO) as a Non-Negotiable
If you are managing 5,000 students, you cannot manually provision accounts. The "Invite Link" model is a security risk.
Ask for SAML or OIDC (Shibboleth) single sign-on, and for automatic enrolment by email domain. LetX does not offer SAML or OIDC yet. What it does today: on an Institution plan we set your university's email domain, and anyone who signs up with a verified university address joins your organisation automatically.
3. Predictable billing
Most SaaS contracts punish you for success. If enrollment boosts by 20%, your bill shouldn't explode. On LetX, collaborators are free on every plan, so most of a class never needs a paid seat. The Team plan bills per seat for the people who need Pro, for 2 to 50 people, and you can move a seat to someone else at any time. For a whole department, the Institution plan is set up with you.
Frequently asked questions
What should a university look for in a LaTeX editor?
Real-time collaboration, browser access with no per-machine installs, site or seat licensing, SSO or domain onboarding for hundreds of students, reliable cloud compiles, and version history.
Is Overleaf the only option for universities?
No. Alternatives like LetX offer in-browser LaTeX editing with unlimited collaborators on every plan, and a Team plan where only the people who need Pro take a seat. For more than 50 people, LetX sets up an Institution plan with you.
How do students get access under a site license?
On a LetX Institution plan, we set your university's email domain, so anyone who signs up with a verified university address joins automatically, with no manual invites. Single sign-on through SAML or OIDC is not available yet.
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Written by Shihab Shahriar Antor , AI Engineer & Founder of Shahriar Labs. Builder of LetX (collaborative LaTeX) and offSchool (SSC science and maths, learned through simulations).