# Stickyboard vs Highlights

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.

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.

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.

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

## The numbers

| Metric | Stickyboard | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.5 (2 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/stickyboard/id366620702/reviews) | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | 2 | **1.6K** |
| Positive reviews | 48.3% of reviews | **53.3% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Size | 2 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | **8.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPad | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Qrayon, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/354980265) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Stickyboard

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/stickyboard/id366620702)

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

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Upgrade to Stickyboard Pro | $4.99 | one-time |


### 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


## Frequently asked 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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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*