# Paperpile vs Highlights

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paperpile at none against Highlights's 3. Paperpile also leads on review sentiment (72% vs 53%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Highlights's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 129). On price, rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Paperpile against 4.5 for Highlights. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 129, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 72% of Paperpile's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, Highlights fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.5 (129 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736/reviews) | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | 129 | **1.6K** |
| Positive reviews | **71.6% of reviews** | 53.2% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Freemium |
| Size | 242 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Paperpile

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736)

Organize and manage your research papers effortlessly. Collect, read, and annotate PDFs from millions of academic journals. Beat paper chaos with a tidy digital library.

**Highlights:** Search millions of academic papers, Collect PDFs with one tap, Organize with folders and labels, Read and annotate PDFs, Highlight and add notes, Browser integration for saving

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Excellent reference library management
- 🔄 Seamless cross-device synchronization
- ✍️ Intuitive PDF annotation and highlighting
- 🎨 Clean and minimalist user interface
- 📱 Strong iPad and mobile integration

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Frequent crashes and instability
- ⏱️ Lack of updates for extended periods
- 📱 Mobile app significantly behind web version features
- 🔋 High battery drain on iPad
- 🌙 No dark mode support

**Reported bugs**

- App crashes frequently on iPad and iOS devices
- Highlighting disappears when revisiting papers
- Overlapping annotations delete together when removing one
- Sync failures requiring logout/login cycles
- Annotations not syncing between iPad and web versions

**Requested features**

- Dark mode implementation
- Edit citation metadata on mobile app
- Change PDF file functionality
- Save to downloads feature
- Dictionary/lookup function for reading


### Highlights

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833)

This app is a fast and lightweight PDF reader designed for research. It allows users to read, highlight, and annotate documents, and then extract this information into organized notes. Advanced features include table data extraction, text recognition, and smart copying of annotations into various formats.

**Highlights:** Read and browse PDF documents, Highlight, underline, and strikethrough text, Add comments and sticky notes, Extract annotations into organized notes, Convert table data and recognize text, Smart copy annotations to various formats (CSV, BibTex), Lookup citation metadata and DOI links

**Features:** Family Sharing, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (3)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Highlights Pro: Monthly | $4.99 | per month |
| Highlights Pro | $29.99 | per year |
| Highlights Pro: Legacy Upgrade | $29.99 | per year |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Great for highlighting and annotating PDFs
- 🔍 Effective for research and note-taking
- 📚 Useful for academic and professional work
- 👍 Clean and intuitive user interface
- 🔗 Good integration with other apps and cloud storage

**What reviewers complain about**

- 💰 Subscription model is too expensive
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔍 Limited search functionality
- 🔒 Lack of customization options
- 🔧 Poor customer support and unresponsive developers

**Reported bugs**

- Highlights and annotations randomly disappearing
- Text selection issues, especially with footnotes
- Compatibility problems with certain PDF files
- Syncing issues across devices
- Export functionality not working as expected

**Requested features**

- Add handwriting and freeform annotation support
- Implement a table of contents or bookmarking feature
- Allow editing of notes directly in the app
- Provide a one-time purchase option instead of subscription
- Improve search capabilities with visual results and navigation


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

Paperpile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is Highlights free?

Highlights is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Which has better reviews, Paperpile or Highlights?

Paperpile and Highlights are both rated 4.5 out of 5 on the App Store, from 129 and 1.6K ratings respectively.

### Do Paperpile or Highlights have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor Highlights shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Paperpile or Highlights?

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 6, 2026 and Highlights on October 14, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*