# Notehot vs Highlights

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.

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.

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.

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

## The numbers

| Metric | Notehot | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $0.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | [4.5 (175 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notehot-notes-and-voice-text/id1491473755/reviews) | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | 175 | **1.6K** |
| Positive reviews | **62.7% of reviews** | 53.3% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 11 days** | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Size | 134 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | **14.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Play Era](https://appshunter.io/developer/1491473754) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Notehot

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notehot-notes-and-voice-text/id1491473755)

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:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (6)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| VIP Subscription | $1.99 | per 7 days |
| VIP Subscription | $2.99 | per month |
| VIP Subscription | $5.99 | per 3 months |
| VIP Subscription | $9.99 | per year |
| VIP Subscription | $17.99 | per year |
| VIP Subscription | $14.99 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

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

**What reviewers complain about**

- 😞 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

**Reported bugs**

- 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

**Requested features**

- 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


### 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 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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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*