Built by someone who's been through the academic grind.
PhD Tracker by AnoBrain began as a personal side project by Raphael Kirchgaessner , a published PhD student who, like many others, found himself lost in a maze of deadlines, disorganized documents, and scattered goals. None of the existing tools met the needs of a researcher managing complex academic progress across multiple fronts.
Driven by this frustration, Raphael built the first version of the tracker to bring structure, clarity, and focus to his own workflow. Over time, the tool evolved—refined, expanded, and battle-tested through the real-world rigors of a PhD journey.
What started as a solution to a personal pain point soon attracted the interest of colleagues, labmates, and fellow academics. Their enthusiastic feedback and ongoing feature requests sparked a bigger idea: why not make this available to the entire academic community?
And so, PhD Tracker by AnoBrain was born—not just as a tool, but as a mission: to empower researchers at every stage of their journey with smart, intuitive software built by someone who’s walked the path.
— Raphael Kirchgaessner