# Agenda vs Highlights

The clearest difference is update cadence: Agenda at weekly against Highlights's fortnightly. Agenda also leads on review sentiment (64% vs 53%). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Agenda sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $39.99 per year and Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Agenda against 4.5 for Highlights. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.7K and 1.6K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 64% of Agenda's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

Agenda ships an update weekly, Highlights fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Agenda | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.6 (3.7K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/agenda-notes-meets-calendar/id1370289240/reviews)** | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **3.7K** | 1.6K |
| Positive reviews | **63.8% of reviews** | 53.3% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Weekly** | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Size | 123 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Momenta B.V.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1287445659) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Agenda

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/agenda-notes-meets-calendar/id1370289240)

This app connects your notes to your calendar, placing them on a timeline for easy recall. It offers a robust text editor, file attachments, and project organization. Syncs across devices and offers collaboration features.

**Highlights:** Notes on a timeline, Calendar event integration, Real text editor with formatting, File and photo attachments, Project and category organization, Cross-device sync, Real-time collaboration

**Features:** Family Sharing, Apple Watch app, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (5)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Premium Subscription macOS+iOS | $39.99 | per year |
| Premium Features iPadOS+iOS | $44.99 | per year |
| Premium Features iOS & iPadOS | $14.99 | one-time |
| Premium macOS, iOS & iPadOS | $34.99 | one-time |
| Lifetime Premium Features | $179.00 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Powerful features
- 📅 Excellent calendar integration
- 💻 Seamless sync across devices
- 🗓 Date-focused note-taking
- 🔍 Helpful search and tagging

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🤔 Steep learning curve for some
- 🔍 Difficult to find specific notes
- 💰 Expensive premium subscription
- 🖌 Lack of Apple Pencil support

**Reported bugs**

- Sync issues between devices
- Text formatting inconsistencies
- Unresponsive UI in certain cases

**Requested features**

- Handwriting and drawing support
- Ability to insert images and files
- Project templates and subfolders
- Google Calendar integration
- Improved note formatting options


### 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 Agenda free?

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

### Is Highlights free?

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

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

Agenda is rated higher. Agenda averages 4.6 out of 5 from 3.7K ratings, while Highlights averages 4.5 from 1.6K ratings.

### Do Agenda or Highlights have ads?

Neither Agenda nor Highlights shows ads.

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

Agenda ships an update weekly, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Agenda was updated on November 12, 2026 and Highlights on November 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.*