# Paperpile vs Anara

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paperpile at none against Anara's 14. Paperpile also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (131 vs 1). Anara's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 2 months). On price and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Anara sells 14 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

Anara holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Paperpile has 131 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Paperpile's written reviews are positive against 80% of Anara's.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, Anara every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | Anara |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.5 (131 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736/reviews) | **[5.0 (1 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/anara/id6800030182/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **131** | 1 |
| Positive reviews | 71.6% of reviews | **80.0% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | **No** | Yes |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Every 6 days** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 242 MB | 53 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 26.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Anara Labs Inc](https://appshunter.io/developer/6800030184) |

## 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


### Anara

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/anara/id6800030182)

This AI-powered tool assists scientists with academic research. It enables searching, reading, and writing scientific content with verifiable citations. The mobile app provides on-the-go access to your library, allowing you to ask questions about papers and get cited answers.

**Highlights:** AI-powered academic search, Summarize and cite sources, Write with verifiable citations, On-demand research on mobile, Read and highlight PDFs offline, Save papers and links, Scan pages with camera

**In-app purchases (14)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Plus | $11.99 | per month |
| Plus | $14.99 | per month |
| Pro | $23.99 | per month |
| Pro | $28.99 | per month |
| Max 5x | $117.99 | per month |
| Max 5x | $141.99 | per month |
| Max 20x | $239.99 | per month |
| Max 20x | $289.99 | per month |
| 500 credits | $5.99 | one-time |
| 1,000 credits | $11.99 | one-time |
| 2,000 credits | $27.99 | one-time |
| 5,000 credits | $70.99 | one-time |
| 10,000 credits | $141.99 | one-time |
| 20,000 credits | $239.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

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

### Is Anara free?

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

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

Anara is rated higher. Paperpile averages 4.5 out of 5 from 131 ratings, while Anara averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.

### Do Paperpile or Anara have ads?

Anara shows ads; Paperpile does not.

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

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and Anara every 6 days. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 23, 2026 and Anara on October 29, 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.*