# Paperpile vs Stardust Recorder

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paperpile at none against Stardust Recorder's 2. Paperpile also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price and ads there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Stardust Recorder sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | Stardust Recorder |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (131 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736/reviews)** | — |
| Number of ratings | **131** | — |
| Positive reviews | 71.6% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Size | 242 MB | 147 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 17.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** | iPhone |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Abrar Miah](https://appshunter.io/developer/1896184414) |

## 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


### Stardust Recorder

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/stardust-recorder/id6766495424)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Stardust Pro | $1.99 | per month |
| Stardust Pro | $12.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

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

### Is Stardust Recorder free?

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

### Do Paperpile or Stardust Recorder have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor Stardust Recorder shows ads.

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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.*