# Highlights vs ReadLre

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Highlights at 53% against ReadLre's 0%. Highlights also leads on rating (4.5 vs 1.5) and ads (none vs shown). ReadLre's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and ReadLre sells 3 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 1.5. 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 point the same way: 53% of Highlights's written reviews are positive against 0% of ReadLre's.

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, ReadLre weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Highlights | ReadLre |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** | [1.5 (2 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readlre-book-reader-and-notes/id6743728476/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **1.6K** | 2 |
| Positive reviews | **53.3% of reviews** | 0.0% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | **No** | Yes |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Weekly** |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 37 MB | 49 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | **14.0** |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) | [侠光 邢](https://appshunter.io/developer/1061504196) |

## 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


### ReadLre

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readlre-book-reader-and-notes/id6743728476)

This app offers a pure reading experience with support for numerous e-book and compressed file formats. Customize themes, backgrounds, and reading methods, with options for automatic reading and text-to-speech. Track your reading progress and sync data across devices via iCloud.

**Highlights:** Supports 10+ e-book formats, Supports 8+ compressed file formats, Customizable themes and backgrounds, Automatic reading and text-to-speech, iCloud synchronization, Global book content search, Note search functionality

**In-app purchases (3)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Monthly subscription | $0.99 | per month |
| Yearly subscription | $6.99 | per year |
| ReadLre Pro | $9.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Highlights free?

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

### Is ReadLre free?

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

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

Highlights is rated higher. Highlights averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while ReadLre averages 1.5 from 2 ratings.

### Do Highlights or ReadLre have ads?

ReadLre shows ads; Highlights does not.

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

Highlights ships an update fortnightly, and ReadLre weekly. Most recently, Highlights was updated on September 25, 2026 and ReadLre on September 24, 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.*