# Highlights vs Reader's Bench

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Reader's Bench at 100% against Highlights's 53%. Reader's Bench also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). Highlights's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.5) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 2). On price, ads, 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 Reader's Bench sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Highlights holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 2, 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 Reader's Bench's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, Reader's Bench weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | Reader's Bench |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [3.5 (2 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readers-bench-pdf-and-notes/id1671846175/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 2 |
| Positive reviews | 53.3% of reviews | **100.0% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Weekly** |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Size | 37 MB | 7 MB |
| Requires iOS | **15.0** | 17.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Rohmiapps Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/982578674) |

## 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


### Reader's Bench

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readers-bench-pdf-and-notes/id1671846175)

This app is a PDF reader and markup tool designed for serious study and research. It allows users to read, annotate, take notes, and review highlighted content from PDF documents with efficient performance and a distraction-free interface.

**Highlights:** PDF reading and markup, Handwriting and typed notes, Annotation extraction for review, Highlight, underline, strikethrough, Image capture and insertion, Export notes and annotated PDFs, Word definition and sentence translation

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

**In-app purchases (4)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reader's Bench Subscription | $0.99 | per month |
| Pro Monthly | $5.99 | per month |
| Pro Yearly | $39.99 | per year |
| Pro Lifetime | $69.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is Reader's Bench free?

Reader's Bench is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Which has better reviews, Highlights or Reader's Bench?

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while Reader's Bench averages 3.5 from 2 ratings.

### Do Highlights or Reader's Bench have ads?

Neither Highlights nor Reader's Bench shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Highlights or Reader's Bench?

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and Reader's Bench weekly. Most recently, Highlights was updated on September 25, 2026 and Reader's Bench on September 6, 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.*