# Excerpt vs Highlights

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Excerpt at 95% against Highlights's 53%. Excerpt also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Highlights's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 36). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Excerpt sells 3 one-off in-app purchases 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.

Excerpt holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 36, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Excerpt's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

Excerpt ships an update every 4 months, Highlights fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Excerpt | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.8 (36 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/excerpt-the-book-highlighter/id1447907126/reviews)** | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | 36 | **1.6K** |
| Positive reviews | **95.2% of reviews** | 53.3% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Size | 46 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | **13.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Ryan Maksymic](https://appshunter.io/developer/1416136388) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Excerpt

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/excerpt-the-book-highlighter/id1447907126)

Capture and organize quotes and images from physical books using your device's camera. Add notes, customize highlighter colors, and share your findings. Export your compiled excerpts into a PDF for easy reference.

**Highlights:** Scan book pages with camera, Capture quotes and images, Add notes to excerpts, Organize by page and chapter, Share excerpts, Export to PDF, Customizable highlighter colors

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases (3)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unlock Colors 1 | $0.99 | one-time |
| Unlock Colors 2 | $2.99 | one-time |
| Unlock Colors 3 | $9.99 | one-time |


### 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 Excerpt free?

Excerpt 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, Excerpt or Highlights?

Excerpt is rated higher. Excerpt averages 4.8 out of 5 from 36 ratings, while Highlights averages 4.5 from 1.6K ratings.

### Do Excerpt or Highlights have ads?

Neither Excerpt nor Highlights shows ads.

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

Excerpt ships an update every 4 months, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Excerpt was updated on October 24, 2026 and Highlights on October 27, 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.*