# Highlights vs Readwise Reader

Highlights and Readwise Reader both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 72% of Readwise Reader's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's. Readwise Reader also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). Highlights's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, rating, ratings volume 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 Readwise Reader sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 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 Readwise Reader. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.6K and 584 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 72% of Readwise Reader's.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, Readwise Reader weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | Readwise Reader |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) | **[4.6 (584 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readwise-reader/id1567599761/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 584 |
| Positive reviews | 53.3% of reviews | **72.2% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Weekly** |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 37 MB | 194 MB |
| Requires iOS | **15.0** | 16.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Readwise, Inc](https://appshunter.io/developer/1476885527) |

## 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


### Readwise Reader

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readwise-reader/id1567599761)

This app consolidates all your reading content, including web articles, newsletters, and PDFs, into a single, organized platform. It offers advanced highlighting, text-to-speech, and AI-powered assistance to enhance your reading workflow and knowledge retention.

**Highlights:** Consolidate web articles, newsletters, RSS, Twitter threads, PDFs, EPUBs, Import from Pocket, Instapaper, and Feedly, Advanced highlighting and annotation tools, Text-to-speech narration, AI-powered reading assistant (Ghostreader), Full-text search, Syncs across all devices, offline access

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (4)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reader Monthly Plan | $8.99 | per month |
| Reader Monthly | $12.99 | per month |
| Reader Annual Plan | $95.90 | per year |
| Reader Yearly | $119.99 | per year |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Fantastic reading experience
- 👍 Seamless integration with Readwise
- 🎨 Beautiful and intuitive UI
- 📚 All-in-one reading solution
- 🔍 Powerful search and organization

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional crashes and performance issues
- 🔍 Cluttered interface for some users
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 🖥️ Lack of iPad-specific features
- 📚 Missing basic reader features (e.g., bookmarks)

**Reported bugs**

- Inconsistent sync between devices
- Unreliable RSS feed updates
- Frequent crashes on iPad
- Issues with resuming reading position

**Requested features**

- Improved PDF and ebook support
- Customizable reading themes and layouts
- Better integration with note-taking apps
- Reading progress and statistics tracking
- Bulk management of saved items


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is Readwise Reader free?

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

### Which has better reviews, Highlights or Readwise Reader?

Readwise Reader is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while Readwise Reader averages 4.6 from 584 ratings.

### Do Highlights or Readwise Reader have ads?

Neither Highlights nor Readwise Reader shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Highlights or Readwise Reader?

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and Readwise Reader weekly. Most recently, Highlights was updated on October 1, 2026 and Readwise Reader on October 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.*