# Highlights vs Quick Draw

The clearest difference is price: Highlights at Free against Quick Draw's $1.99. Highlights also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 6). Quick Draw's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (daily vs fortnightly). On ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Highlights is free to download; Quick Draw costs $1.99 up front. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Quick Draw asks for nothing beyond the download.

Highlights holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 30% of Quick Draw's.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, Quick Draw daily. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | Quick Draw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | **Free** | $1.99 |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [3.0 (6 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/quick-draw-draw-on-web-pages/id1590790805/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 6 |
| Positive reviews | **53.3% of reviews** | 30.0% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | **No** |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Daily** |
| Monetization | **Freemium** | Paid |
| Size | 37 MB | 1 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Mai Tuan Viet](https://appshunter.io/developer/1537251886) |

## 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


### Quick Draw

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/quick-draw-draw-on-web-pages/id1590790805)

Easily draw and annotate directly on web pages within the Safari browser. This tool allows for immediate on-screen drawing, making it simple to highlight or mark up content as you browse.

**Highlights:** Draw on web pages, Safari browser extension, On-screen annotation, Immediate drawing capability

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Safari Extension, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is Quick Draw free?

Quick Draw costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, Highlights or Quick Draw?

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while Quick Draw averages 3.0 from 6 ratings.

### Do Highlights or Quick Draw have ads?

Neither Highlights nor Quick Draw shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Highlights or Quick Draw?

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and Quick Draw daily. Most recently, Highlights was updated on October 18, 2026 and Quick Draw on October 11, 2026.

---

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