# Texifier vs Highlights

The clearest difference is price: Highlights at Free against Texifier's $29.99. Highlights also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). Texifier's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Highlights is free to download; Texifier costs $29.99 up front. Highlights sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Texifier asks for nothing beyond the download.

Highlights holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 690 and 1.6K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 57% of Texifier's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

Texifier ships an update every 2 months, Highlights fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Texifier | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $29.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | [4.3 (690 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/texifier-latex-editor/id550419159/reviews) | **[4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | 690 | **1.6K** |
| Positive reviews | **56.8% of reviews** | 53.3% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | Paid | **Freemium** |
| Size | 61 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | **15.0** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Valletta Ventures (UK) Ltd](https://appshunter.io/developer/458866237) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Texifier

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/texifier-latex-editor/id550419159)

Write and typeset LaTeX, Plain TeX, and Markdown documents offline on your iPad or iPhone. Features include project navigation, syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and integrated cloud typesetting for rare compatibility issues.

**Highlights:** Offline LaTeX, Plain TeX, and Markdown editing, Project outline view for navigation, Syntax highlighting and command autocomplete, Integrated typesetter with live mode, Cloud typesetting for compatibility, Error reporting and navigation, File App integration

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Lightning-fast compilation
- 👍 Convenient for writing LaTeX on the go
- 🚀 Excellent integration with Dropbox
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- 🚀 Powerful local typesetting capabilities

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 🔒 Unreliable Dropbox/cloud integration
- 👎 Lacks support for advanced LaTeX features
- 👎 Difficult to manage files and projects
- 👎 Subpar performance on older devices

**Reported bugs**

- Crashes when compiling certain documents
- Inconsistent behavior when syncing with Dropbox
- Issues with inserting and displaying images
- Problems with bibliography and citation handling
- Unexpected text formatting and layout issues

**Requested features**

- Dark mode option
- Improved file management and organization
- Support for more LaTeX packages and features
- Better integration with other cloud storage services
- Keyboard shortcuts and advanced editing tools


### 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 Texifier free?

Texifier costs $29.99, with no in-app purchases.

### Is Highlights free?

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

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

Highlights is rated higher. Texifier averages 4.3 out of 5 from 690 ratings, while Highlights averages 4.5 from 1.6K ratings.

### Do Texifier or Highlights have ads?

Neither Texifier nor Highlights shows ads.

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

Texifier ships an update every 2 months, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Texifier was updated on September 30, 2026 and Highlights on September 28, 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.*