How does this compare feature-wise to Overleaf, which, while it does not have realtime collaboration, does allow for collaborators (for free) and offers Dropbox integration for cheaper.
I imported a report I wrote in Overleaf, and I must say I'm impressed.
Rendering is not automatic, but much quicker and of higher quality. (selectable text vs blury images in Overleaf) In Overleaf you sometimes spend quite a bit of time waiting if your long equation in a long report turned out correct, only to find out someone else made a syntax error.
Error reporting is also much better. In Overleaf an error in your bib file would usually generate an opaque error that leaves you hunting for the missing bracket. It remains to be seen how this works out in a collaborative setting.
While Overleaf also let you jump to the code corresponding to the rendering, ShareLatex goes both ways. Neither of them are very reliable, but it's a useful feature when it works.
I've not tested it, but it seems ShareLatex allows you to choose the LaTeX engine and keybindings. So Vim/Emacs users will probably like this.
1) You can choose a pdf preview, which is much sharper -- it's currently in beta which is why it's not the default, but you can choose it via the settings menu (click the gear icon in the top right in the editor)
2) You can jump both ways in Overleaf too -- right click on some text in the editor and choose "position in preview"
3) You can choose from a number of different LaTeX engines and keybindings on Overleaf too -- again, via the settings menu in the editor.
Hope this helps, and thanks again for the feedback.
We did most of our university project reports in Overleaf. Many of us first time LaTeX users coming from Google Drive. For me it's been great, but many struggled without the instant feedback that Google drive gives you. (both compile times, errors and edits of other users)
Also made me rewatch Inventing on Principle https://vimeo.com/36579366