# Highlights vs Folia

Highlights and Folia both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 0% of Folia's. Highlights also leads on ratings volume (1.6K vs 2). Folia's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Folia asks for nothing beyond the download.

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Highlights against 4.5 for Folia. 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 are what separate them: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 0% of Folia's.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, Folia monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | Folia |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) | [4.5 (2 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/folia/id6737592384/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 2 |
| Positive reviews | **53.2% of reviews** | 0.0% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | **No** |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Fortnightly** | Monthly |
| Monetization | Freemium | **Free** |
| Size | 37 MB | 63 MB |
| Requires iOS | **15.0** | 15.1 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [Branchfire, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/284975584) |

## 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


### Folia

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/folia/id6737592384)

This app allows users to annotate any document type from any device, organize work into projects, and capture ideas with intuitive tools. It facilitates real-time sharing with collaborators and recording ideas on the go.

**Highlights:** Annotate any document type, Organize work into projects, Capture ideas with intuitive tools, Real-time collaboration, Integrates with cloud storage, Cross-device support

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

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is Folia free?

Folia is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, Highlights or Folia?

Highlights and Folia are both rated 4.5 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1.6K and 2 ratings respectively.

### Do Highlights or Folia have ads?

Neither Highlights nor Folia shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Highlights or Folia?

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and Folia monthly. Most recently, Highlights was updated on October 14, 2026 and Folia on October 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.*