# Paperpile vs SqueakBase

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paperpile at none against SqueakBase's 2. Paperpile also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. SqueakBase sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, SqueakBase every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | SqueakBase |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (129 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736/reviews)** | — |
| Number of ratings | **129** | — |
| Positive reviews | 71.6% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Every 6 weeks** |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Size | 242 MB | 7 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** | iPhone, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [SqueakBase LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1882189786) |

## 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


### SqueakBase

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/squeakbase/id6759995203)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Standard Monthly | $12.99 | per month |
| Lab Monthly | $49.99 | per month |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

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

### Is SqueakBase free?

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

### Do Paperpile or SqueakBase have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor SqueakBase shows ads.

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

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and SqueakBase every 6 weeks. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 19, 2026 and SqueakBase on October 17, 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.*