# Highlights vs PDF Extractor

The clearest difference is rating: Highlights at 4.5 against PDF Extractor's 1.0. Highlights also leads on ratings volume (1.6K vs 1). PDF Extractor's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). 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 PDF Extractor 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 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights has 1.6K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, PDF Extractor every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | PDF Extractor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [1.0 (1 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-extractor/id6444529292/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 1 |
| Positive reviews | 53.3% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Every 3 days** |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 37 MB | 24 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) | [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

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

Easily extract text and high-resolution images from PDF files. Compress extracted content into zip files for convenient sharing. Supports copying text to the clipboard and extracting unlimited rich text.

**Highlights:** Extract high-resolution images, Extract unlimited images, Compress content to zip files, Copy text to clipboard, Extract unlimited rich text, Select specific text ranges

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**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 free?

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

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

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while PDF Extractor averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.

### Do Highlights or PDF Extractor have ads?

Neither Highlights nor PDF Extractor shows ads.

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

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and PDF Extractor every 3 days. Most recently, Highlights was updated on September 25, 2026 and PDF Extractor on June 1, 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.*