# Highlights vs Scanner App

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Scanner App at 100% against Highlights's 53%. Highlights's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 7). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Scanner App sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Highlights holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 100% of Scanner App's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, Scanner App every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 4, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | Scanner App |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [4.3 (7 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/scanner-app-pdf-reader-pro/id1561322720/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 7 |
| Positive reviews | 53.3% of reviews | **100.0% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | **No** | Yes |
| Update frequency | **Fortnightly** | Every 2 weeks |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 37 MB | 31 MB |
| Requires iOS | **15.0** | 18.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Tam Nguyen](https://appshunter.io/developer/898637894) |

## 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


### Scanner App

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/scanner-app-pdf-reader-pro/id1561322720)

Transform your smartphone into a powerful document scanner. Easily convert paper documents to PDF with high-resolution scans and advanced OCR technology. Enhance document quality with image filters and share your files effortlessly.

**Highlights:** High-resolution document scanning, OCR technology for text recognition, Multi-page PDF creation, Page modification and deletion, Image enhancement filters, Easy file sharing

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases (4)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Weekly Scan Pro | $4.99 | per 7 days |
| Half Year Scan Pro | $9.99 | per 6 months |
| Yearly Scan Pro | $19.99 | per year |
| Remove Ads | $3.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is Scanner App free?

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

### Which has better reviews, Highlights or Scanner App?

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while Scanner App averages 4.3 from 7 ratings.

### Do Highlights or Scanner App have ads?

Scanner App shows ads; Highlights does not.

### Which is updated more often, Highlights or Scanner App?

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and Scanner App every 2 weeks. Most recently, Highlights was updated on September 25, 2026 and Scanner App on June 4, 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.*