# Highlights vs Allume

Highlights and Allume both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 64% of Allume's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's. Highlights's advantage is ratings volume (1.6K vs 332). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Allume sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 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 Highlights against 4.6 for Allume. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.6K and 332 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 64% of Allume's.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, Allume every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | Allume |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) | **[4.6 (332 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/allume-for-focused-thinking/id1501563902/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 332 |
| Positive reviews | 53.3% of reviews | **64.4% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Every 2 weeks** |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 37 MB | 100 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Milestone Made, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1476538400) |

## What reviewers say

### 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


### Allume

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/allume-for-focused-thinking/id1501563902)

This app provides a digital canvas for organizing thoughts and ideas. It allows users to create nested boards, link content, and combine various media types like text, images, and PDFs. Collaborate with others in real-time on shared workspaces.

**Highlights:** Nested boards for deep ideation, Linked cards for referencing, Remixing content from PDFs and images, Unified canvas for text, ink, and files, Real-time collaboration with shared workspaces, PDF annotation and export

**Features:** Family Sharing, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (4)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unlimited membership, monthly | $9.99 | per month |
| Pro membership, monthly | $9.99 | per month |
| Unlimited membership, yearly | $99.99 | per year |
| Pro membership, yearly | $99.99 | per year |

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Organize ideas and information
- 🚀 Unique and very cool features
- 👍 Indispensable app - incredibly well designed
- 👍 Great thinking and creative tool
- 👍 Exceptional app

**What reviewers complain about**

- 💰 Too expensive subscription price
- 🔒 Lack of privacy of user data
- 🔒 Requires email to try
- 🐛 Bugs are prevalent
- 🔒 Outrageous pricing

**Reported bugs**

- Eraser size issues
- Undo history reset when navigating between boards
- Crashes when erasing large areas
- Syncing issues between devices
- iPhone app not usable without iPad or Mac

**Requested features**

- More pen color and workspace options
- Zoom in/out within a board
- Search functionality
- Checklists
- Support for pen tablets on Mac


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is Allume free?

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

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

Allume is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while Allume averages 4.6 from 332 ratings.

### Do Highlights or Allume have ads?

Neither Highlights nor Allume shows ads.

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

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and Allume every 2 weeks. Most recently, Highlights was updated on September 22, 2026 and Allume on September 24, 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.*