Ephorus compares documents in three different ways.  

Ephorus Internet compares with documents on the Internet.Ephorus Group compares with documents of parallel student groups.

Ephorus Database compares with documents handed in before, and to documents handed in at other educational institutes with an Ephorus account. 

Ephorus Integrated. The majority of schools choose a combination of the three services, integrated within their existing Intranet or virtual learning environment. Students use a special hand-in page to instantly and simultaneously hand in their work to both Ephorus and their teacher, and the teacher receives an automatic alert when Ephorus finds a similarity to another document. The sensitivity of this alert can be set by the teacher.