Comparison

Stickyboard vs Highlights

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Stickyboard

This app offers a digital whiteboard with an unlimited stack of virtual sticky notes for organizing ideas. Easily rearrange, color-code, and visualize relationships between your thoughts on a zoomable canvas. Share your boards via email as PDFs for collaboration or archiving.

Highlights
  • Zoomable digital whiteboard
  • Unlimited sticky notes
  • Color-coding options
  • Free-form drawing tool
  • Email boards as PDF
  • Note expose grid view
Read full description

PLEASE DOWNLOAD STICKYBOARD 2 INSTEAD! This is the old version of Stickyboard. Please download Stickyboard 2 instead (it's a lot better!): Tap to the Developer page, or search for "Stickyboard 2". Imagine A Giant Whiteboard With A Never-Ending Stack Of Sticky Notes. LIKE REAL NOTES, ONLY BETTER Nothing beats a whiteboard and sticky-notes for capturing lots of loose information and visualizing their relationships. It's easy to rearrange ideas, see the big picture, and discover important patterns. Stickyboard takes that flexibility and adds the convenience and power of your iPad. Don't worry about losing notes after a meeting. Organizing notes are now a snap. It's much easier to carry around, and a lot friendlier for the environment. Put all your ideas on a single board and easily see everything at once by zooming in and out. Use any color coding system you like. Effortlessly drag and drop your notes - unlike paper sitcky notes, they don't fall off after too may moves. Think in the way that works best for you, and for the problem at hand. --- Features: --- + A clean and uncluttered interface with fast and fluid controls only possible on the iPad. + A large, zoomable board to capture all your ideas. Zoom by pinching, and pan by dragging the board. Tap to add a note. Drag notes around with your finger. + It's easy to rearrange ideas, capture their relationships, and discover important patterns. + Four standard colors (yellow, blue, pink, and green), plus 2 special ones (lavender and sunrise). + Free-form drawing with the marker tool. Write, outline, and sketch around your notes. + Email boards as PDF. Easily share with colleagues or archive changes. + Infinitely flexible. Use all your real-world sticky-note techniques (visit our website for tips and resources). + Note expose: Swipe down with 3 fingers to view all notes arranged in a grid. Swipe again to restore. Don't worry, your layout is always preserved. + Tap the qrayon logo to view help, plus get the latest tips & tricks. The Free Edition of Stickyboard comes with one large board, perfect for a single project. It includes most of the major features of the Pro Edition. Upgrade in-place to the Pro Edition at any time to get all the Pro features: + Multiple boards + Multi-colored markers + Project to an external VGA display (requires VGA connector) plus get future Pro upgrades free and support the continued effort of developing even more awesome features and apps. --- Stickyboard is great for: --- • TODOs and reminders • Scheduling and planning • Meeting notes • Brainstorming and organizing your ideas • Doodling and sketching --- We LOVE to hear from you! --- Productivity apps for the iPad are a new and vast frontier with plenty of possibilities. We are committed to building apps that you will find useful for your work and business. Stickyboard is continuously being improved and updated. Visit www.qrayon.com to let us know what you are looking to do, and what features you would like to see in a future release. We love feedback. Follow us on our blog or at twitter.com/qrayon to hear about the latest work we are doing to make the iPad a truly great productivity device. If you find Stickyboard useful, please help us by rating it. Apps live and die by their ratings, and your feedback is very important to us.

About

Highlights

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
Read full description

"... an app that students, academics, and anyone who does substantial amounts of PDF-based research should try" - Macstories.net "It’s the novel approach to PDF annotation that makes this app a cut above the rest"- TapSmart.com *** "App of the Day" - App Store, US *** USE HIGHLIGHTS FOR FREE Highlights is a fast and lightweight PDF reader (under 10MB) packed with features to help you do your best research. Free users have access to standard PDF reader features including document browsing, reading and annotating. There are NO ADS, time limits or tracking. READ PDF DOCUMENTS • Open PDF documents from anywhere • Browse files using the familiar document browser • Open PDFs in Single Page or Two Page scroll mode • Double tap to Smart Zoom in on a paragraph or figure • Scrub smoothly to the desired page • Search the entire document in an instant • Navigate using any connected keyboard or mouse STORE YOUR FILES WHERE YOU WANT • Full support for "Open In Place" lets you make edits to the file where it is • Access your files from iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box using the document browser • Or keep them privately on device only HIGHLIGHT AND ANNOTATE FASTER • Select text with your finger, Apple Pencil or mouse pointer • Highlight, underline, strikethrough text and make image selections • Add comments to annotations or as individual sticky notes • Annotate with fewer taps using context aware popovers • Default annotation colors prevents you from having to repeatedly setting the color for the same type of annotation every time TURN ANNOTATIONS INTO NOTES • As you markup text and images the contents are extracted and sorted into notes • Customize the formatting and contents of your notes • Sort the annotations chronologically or create your own color coding EXTRACT TABLE DATA AND RECOGNIZE TEXT • Convert images containing text or tables to actual text and tables using machine learning - letting you get to the underlying data with a single tap SMART COPY Copy annotations to the desired format with one tap: • Text markup as text • Image selections as images • Tables as CSV • Citations as BibTex LOOKUP CITATIONS • Highlights will fetch DOI-links and metadata • Markup any reference and tap the link icon to look it up • If you have read the work already or have it in your reference manager library, Highlights will link you to it EXPORT ANYWHERE • Save or share your notes as portable files: Markdown, TextBundle, HTML, WebArchive or PDF • Share them to your favorite notes app: Apple Notes, Bear, Craft, Evernote, DEVONThink, Keep It, MindNode, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research or Ulysses • Or send them to a colleague via mail. It's your notes, you decide where they go MUCH MORE • Dark mode • Multi-window support on iPadOS • Keyboard shortcuts and navigation • Support for system Copy and Undo gestures • Alternative app icons • Custom accent colors • Apple Pencil double-tap gestures • Power annotation tools For a full list of features see: highlightsapp.net/features HIGHLIGHTS PRO The Highlights Pro subscription unlocks advanced features on your iPhone, iPad and Mac: • Export options for other apps and easily editable formats • Extract information using table and text recognition • Customize accent colors and alternative app icons • Power annotation tools • Citation lookups • Smart Copy Highlights Pro includes a 14-day free trial. You can cancel your subscription at any time. The subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off within 24-hour prior to the end of of the current period. Payments will be charged to your iTunes account and your account will be charged within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription. For more information about Highlights Pro: highlightsapp.net/pro Privacy Policy: highlightsapp.net/privacy Terms of Use: highlightsapp.net/terms

Screenshots

Highlights4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Highlights at 1.6K against Stickyboard's 2. Highlights also leads on device support (4 vs 1). Stickyboard's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Stickyboard against 4.5 for Highlights. 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: 48% of Stickyboard's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on August 31, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Stickyboard versus Highlights: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStickyboardHighlights
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (2 ratings)4.5 (1.6K ratings)
Positive reviews48.3% of reviews53.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings21.6K — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperQrayon, LLCJonas Myren Ribe

Customer experience

Stickyboard

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive48.3%
Neutral13.8%
Negative37.9%

Highlights

All ratings1,610 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.7%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews465 reviews
Positive53.3%
Neutral15.3%
Negative31.4%

Bugs and requests

Stickyboard

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Highlights

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • 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

5 requests
  • 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

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Stickyboard

One-time1
  • Upgrade to Stickyboard Pro$4.99
3 purchases

Highlights

Subscriptions3
  • Highlights Pro: Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Highlights Pro14 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Highlights Pro: Legacy Upgrade1 Year trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Stickyboard free?
Stickyboard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Highlights free?
Highlights is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Stickyboard or Highlights?
Stickyboard and Highlights are both rated 4.5 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1.6K ratings respectively.
Do Stickyboard or Highlights have ads?
Neither Stickyboard nor Highlights shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Stickyboard or Highlights?
Stickyboard ships an update fortnightly, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Stickyboard was updated on August 31, 2026 and Highlights on September 25, 2026.

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