# Paperpile vs Segl

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paperpile at none against Segl's 2. Paperpile also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.0). Segl's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Segl sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $22.99 per year. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, Segl every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | Segl |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 2 days** |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Size | 242 MB | 18 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 26.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Thorbjørn BakJensen](https://appshunter.io/developer/6802022477) |

## 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


### Segl

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/segl/id6802022475)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Apple Watch app, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Solo | $22.99 | per year |
| Business | $49.99 | per year |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

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

### Is Segl free?

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

### Do Paperpile or Segl have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor Segl shows ads.

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

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and Segl every 2 days. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 6, 2026 and Segl on October 11, 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.*