TL;DR

Building a research platform that handles thousands of PDFs, citations, and collaborative editing requires architecture that doesn’t break at scale. We engineered Paperpile using MERN stack with performance-first principles, serving 200,000+ academics across web, mobile, and browser extensions while maintaining 95% performance scores.

Tips

  • Build your performance budget BEFORE writing code
  • Choose your database architecture based on query patterns, not trends
  • Mobile isn’t an afterthought - it’s your primary interface
  • Browser extensions are distribution channels, not features

Table of Contents

The Academic Research Problem Nobody Was Solving

Academics were using 5+ different tools for research: PDF readers, citation managers, note-taking apps, collaboration tools. The experience was fragmented and painful.

Paperpile had the vision to unify research workflow, but their technical architecture couldn’t handle the complexity at scale.

Architecture Decisions That Made Scale Possible

We made ruthless technical choices:

  • MERN Stack for development speed AND performance
  • Real-time synchronization that actually works offline
  • PDF processing that doesn’t crash browsers
  • Citation engine that handles 10,000+ citation styles

Most SaaS products choose between features and performance. We engineered both.

Performance as a Feature, Not a Metric

While competitors focused on adding features, we obsessed over:

  • 95% performance scores on Core Web Vitals
  • Sub-second search across millions of documents
  • Instant collaboration without refresh required
  • Cross-platform consistency that feels native everywhere

Multi-Platform Strategy That Actually Works

We built once, deployed everywhere:

  • Web application as the core experience
  • React Native mobile apps that feel native
  • Browser extension for seamless research
  • Desktop applications for power users

Results: From MVP to Industry Standard

  • 200,000+ active researchers worldwide
  • 95% performance scores consistently maintained
  • 4.8/5 star ratings across all platforms
  • Industry recognition as research workflow leader

Ready to Build Software That Scales?

If you’re building a SaaS product and worried about technical debt killing your growth, let’s talk architecture.

We only take on 2 SaaS development projects per quarter. If you’re ready to build software that scales without breaking…

Contact us for our technical architecture review. We’ll show you exactly where your scaling bottlenecks are hiding.