Comparison

Notehot vs Highlights

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Notehot

This app offers a versatile note-taking experience, combining text, handwriting, audio, and photos. It features speech-to-text conversion, OCR for image text extraction, and iCloud synchronization across devices. Organize notes with hierarchical folders and set timed reminders for important tasks.

Highlights
  • Multi-form recording (text, hand-drawn, audio, photo)
  • Speech to text conversion
  • OCR text extraction from images
  • Hierarchical folder management
  • Timed reminders
  • iCloud synchronization
  • Export to PDF, PNG, JPEG
Features
Read full description

Notehot is a simple and practical paperless note-taking application, which integrates text, hand-painting, audio, and photography. .   Product main function: Multi-form recording - supports text, hand-drawn, audio, and photo recording methods to meet your needs for scene creation Custom style - custom adjustment of detailed parameters such as text, pictures, hand-painted, etc. to make your notes colorful Free typography - support text wrapping, free movement, page style as you want Conference recording - recording of long-term conferences, with voice key mark, listen wherever you want Speech Recognition - Real-time conversion of speech to text, organize meeting minutes with less effort Hierarchical management - supports multi-layer folder classification and organization to meet daily induction requirements Timed reminders - set reminders for important notes, just for you ocr text extraction - picture to text, only between the fingers Export and share - support to export notes to pdf, png, jpeg and other formats, share your ideas with others Recover Notes - Supports recovery of note content deleted within 30 days Private Notes - Private note space, add a lock to your important documents iCloud synchronization - multi-device iCloud synchronization, allowing you to access notes anytime, anywhere If you like Notehot or have any other comments, please take a moment to write your review, or send an email to our email playeratech@gmail.com, this will help us to continuously improve the product and provide you with a better experience!  About subscription: Prices may vary in different regions. Fees will be charged to the credit card associated with your iTunes account, and the paid account will automatically renew when it expires. To cancel a renewal, you can do so 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. Once a paid account is activated, it cannot be cancelled. Renewals may be managed in Account Settings after purchase. About Terms: Privacy Policy: https://notehot.com/privacypolicy.html Terms of Service: https://notehot.com/termsofservice.html

About

Highlights

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
Read full description

"... an app that students, academics, and anyone who does substantial amounts of PDF-based research should try" - Macstories.net "It’s the novel approach to PDF annotation that makes this app a cut above the rest"- TapSmart.com *** "App of the Day" - App Store, US *** USE HIGHLIGHTS FOR FREE Highlights is a fast and lightweight PDF reader (under 10MB) packed with features to help you do your best research. Free users have access to standard PDF reader features including document browsing, reading and annotating. There are NO ADS, time limits or tracking. READ PDF DOCUMENTS • Open PDF documents from anywhere • Browse files using the familiar document browser • Open PDFs in Single Page or Two Page scroll mode • Double tap to Smart Zoom in on a paragraph or figure • Scrub smoothly to the desired page • Search the entire document in an instant • Navigate using any connected keyboard or mouse STORE YOUR FILES WHERE YOU WANT • Full support for "Open In Place" lets you make edits to the file where it is • Access your files from iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box using the document browser • Or keep them privately on device only HIGHLIGHT AND ANNOTATE FASTER • Select text with your finger, Apple Pencil or mouse pointer • Highlight, underline, strikethrough text and make image selections • Add comments to annotations or as individual sticky notes • Annotate with fewer taps using context aware popovers • Default annotation colors prevents you from having to repeatedly setting the color for the same type of annotation every time TURN ANNOTATIONS INTO NOTES • As you markup text and images the contents are extracted and sorted into notes • Customize the formatting and contents of your notes • Sort the annotations chronologically or create your own color coding EXTRACT TABLE DATA AND RECOGNIZE TEXT • Convert images containing text or tables to actual text and tables using machine learning - letting you get to the underlying data with a single tap SMART COPY Copy annotations to the desired format with one tap: • Text markup as text • Image selections as images • Tables as CSV • Citations as BibTex LOOKUP CITATIONS • Highlights will fetch DOI-links and metadata • Markup any reference and tap the link icon to look it up • If you have read the work already or have it in your reference manager library, Highlights will link you to it EXPORT ANYWHERE • Save or share your notes as portable files: Markdown, TextBundle, HTML, WebArchive or PDF • Share them to your favorite notes app: Apple Notes, Bear, Craft, Evernote, DEVONThink, Keep It, MindNode, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research or Ulysses • Or send them to a colleague via mail. It's your notes, you decide where they go MUCH MORE • Dark mode • Multi-window support on iPadOS • Keyboard shortcuts and navigation • Support for system Copy and Undo gestures • Alternative app icons • Custom accent colors • Apple Pencil double-tap gestures • Power annotation tools For a full list of features see: highlightsapp.net/features HIGHLIGHTS PRO The Highlights Pro subscription unlocks advanced features on your iPhone, iPad and Mac: • Export options for other apps and easily editable formats • Extract information using table and text recognition • Customize accent colors and alternative app icons • Power annotation tools • Citation lookups • Smart Copy Highlights Pro includes a 14-day free trial. You can cancel your subscription at any time. The subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off within 24-hour prior to the end of of the current period. Payments will be charged to your iTunes account and your account will be charged within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription. For more information about Highlights Pro: highlightsapp.net/pro Privacy Policy: highlightsapp.net/privacy Terms of Use: highlightsapp.net/terms

Screenshots

Notehot4 screens
Highlights4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Highlights at Free against Notehot's $0.99. Highlights also leads on ratings volume (1.6K vs 175). Notehot's advantage is review sentiment (63% vs 53%). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Highlights is free to download; Notehot costs $0.99 up front. Notehot sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Notehot against 4.5 for Highlights. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 175, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 63% of Notehot's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notehot ships an update every 11 days, Highlights fortnightly. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Notehot versus Highlights: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotehotHighlights
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (175 ratings)4.5 (1.6K ratings) — better
Positive reviews62.7% of reviews — better53.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1751.6K — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size134 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPlay EraJonas Myren Ribe

Customer experience

Notehot

All ratings175 ratings
Positive86.3%
Neutral5.7%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive62.7%
Neutral13.7%
Negative23.5%

Highlights

All ratings1,623 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.7%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews467 reviews
Positive53.3%
Neutral15.2%
Negative31.5%

User reviews

Notehot

From 175 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Very convenient for note-taking
  • 👍 Smooth and clean interface
  • 👍 User-friendly and convenient
  • 👍 Good for recording things
  • 👍 AI text generation is great

Room to improve

  • 😞 Misleading pricing, asks for subscription after download
  • 😞 In-app purchases required for voice-to-text
  • 😞 Limited language choices
  • 😞 Requires money immediately after installation
  • 😞 App is not free

Highlights

From 1.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 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

Room to improve

  • 💰 Subscription model is too expensive
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality
  • 🔒 Lack of customization options
  • 🔧 Poor customer support and unresponsive developers

Bugs and requests

Notehot

Reported bugs

19 issues
  • App freezes and crashes
  • Lost entire notes after app freezes
  • Files are stretched or narrowed after import
  • Imported files take up the entire screen
  • Search function rarely finds existing text
Show 14 more
  • Cannot split screen
  • Note background is not pure black
  • Font size cannot be adjusted
  • Imported files only show filenames and cannot be edited
  • App downloads itself without authorization
  • Photos imported from gallery become blurry in the app
  • Extracted text from images is inaccurate
  • Text within the app cannot be copied to other locations
  • All typed text disappeared overnight
  • App is slow and laggy with large files
  • Writing is laggy
  • Sometimes a few pen strokes disappear after a long time
  • Occasional inexplicable jumps from handwriting to text input
  • Work disappeared after moving it to a folder

Requested features

20 requests
  • Add Dark Mode
  • Add smart shapes for diagraming
  • Add a paper guide (college or wide)
  • Add a 'pen' tool similar to pencil and marker
  • Ability to add images
Show 15 more
  • Add dual-window function for organizing notes
  • Improve search functionality
  • Allow two-finger adjustment of paper size
  • Add pure black background option
  • Adjustable font size
  • Improve import functionality to display content directly
  • Add ability to zoom and move imported files
  • Add ability to delete pages
  • Add ability to draw straight lines
  • Improve user-friendliness and ease of use
  • Add more writing features
  • Allow copying text to other applications
  • Improve file import clarity
  • Add more language options
  • Offer a one-time purchase option instead of subscriptions

Highlights

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • 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

5 requests
  • 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

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Notehot

Subscriptions5
  • VIP Subscription$1.997 Days
  • VIP Subscription2 variants$2.991 Month
  • VIP Subscription2 variants$5.993 Months
Show 2 more
  • VIP Subscription$9.991 Year
  • VIP Subscription3 Days trial2 variants$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • VIP Subscription$14.99
3 purchases

Highlights

Subscriptions3
  • Highlights Pro: Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Highlights Pro14 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Highlights Pro: Legacy Upgrade1 Year trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Notehot free?
Notehot costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Highlights free?
Highlights is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notehot or Highlights?
Highlights is rated higher. Notehot averages 4.5 out of 5 from 175 ratings, while Highlights averages 4.5 from 1.6K ratings.
Do Notehot or Highlights have ads?
Neither Notehot nor Highlights shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notehot or Highlights?
Notehot ships an update every 11 days, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Notehot was updated on November 3, 2026 and Highlights on November 3, 2026.

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