# Highlights vs PDF Extractor & Converter

The clearest difference is review sentiment: PDF Extractor & Converter at 100% against Highlights's 53%. Highlights's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and PDF Extractor & Converter sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

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 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 PDF Extractor & Converter's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. Both last shipped on November 7, 2026.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | PDF Extractor & Converter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [3.0 (2 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-extractor-and-converter/id6444529292/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 | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 37 MB | 13 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [培强 郝](https://appshunter.io/developer/362540108) |

## 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


### PDF Extractor & Converter

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-extractor-and-converter/id6444529292)

Convert PDFs into editable Word documents, images, or plain text. Extract original images and use offline OCR for scanned documents. Process files locally on your device with clear previews before saving or sharing.

**Highlights:** Convert PDF to Word (.docx), Export PDF to JPG, PNG, Markdown, HTML, RTF, Extract original images from PDFs, Offline OCR for scanned documents, Local document processing, Preview conversion results before saving

**Features:** Vision Pro support, iPhone Duo support

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Get Full Access | $2.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is PDF Extractor & Converter free?

PDF Extractor & Converter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Which has better reviews, Highlights or PDF Extractor & Converter?

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while PDF Extractor & Converter averages 3.0 from 2 ratings.

### Do Highlights or PDF Extractor & Converter have ads?

Neither Highlights nor PDF Extractor & Converter shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Highlights or PDF Extractor & Converter?

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and PDF Extractor & Converter fortnightly. Most recently, Highlights was updated on November 7, 2026 and PDF Extractor & Converter on November 7, 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.*