# Highlights vs GPSnaps

The clearest difference is price: Highlights at Free against GPSnaps's $4.99. Highlights also leads on rating (4.5 vs 1.0) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 8 months). GPSnaps's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and review sentiment (67% vs 53%). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Highlights is free to download; GPSnaps costs $4.99 up front. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. GPSnaps asks for nothing beyond the download.

Highlights holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 67% of GPSnaps's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, GPSnaps every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | GPSnaps |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | **Free** | $4.99 |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [1.0 (1 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gpsnaps-pocket-survey-mapping/id1533816704/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 1 |
| Positive reviews | 53.3% of reviews | **66.7% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | **No** |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Fortnightly** | Every 8 months |
| Monetization | **Freemium** | Paid |
| Size | 37 MB | 1 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | **13.0** |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Robert Smith](https://appshunter.io/developer/604025880) |

## 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


### GPSnaps

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gpsnaps-pocket-survey-mapping/id1533816704)

This application allows users to create and manage survey projects, recording GPS points, altitudes, and headings. It integrates with photos and exports data in CSV format for easy import into GIS systems.

**Highlights:** Create and manage survey projects, Record GPS points with latitude, longitude, altitude, and heading, Log points automatically or when taking photos, Save projects to iCloud Drive or photo library, Export data in CSV format for GIS import, Manage individual points within projects

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is GPSnaps free?

GPSnaps costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.

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

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while GPSnaps averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.

### Do Highlights or GPSnaps have ads?

Neither Highlights nor GPSnaps shows ads.

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

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and GPSnaps every 8 months. Most recently, Highlights was updated on October 21, 2026 and GPSnaps on October 12, 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.*