# LiquidText vs Highlights

The clearest difference is ratings volume: LiquidText at 6.4K against Highlights's 1.6K. Highlights's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. LiquidText sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $5.49 per month 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 — 4.6 for LiquidText against 4.5 for Highlights. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.4K and 1.6K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 50% of LiquidText's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

LiquidText ships an update every 2 weeks, Highlights fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | LiquidText | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.6 (6.4K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/liquidtext/id922765270/reviews)** | [4.5 (1.6K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/highlights-pdf-reader-and-notes/id1498912833/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **6.4K** | 1.6K |
| Positive reviews | 49.6% of reviews | **53.3% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 2 weeks** | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Size | 312 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | **15.0** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [LiquidText, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/922765269) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### LiquidText

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/liquidtext/id922765270)

This app provides a dynamic workspace for reviewing and organizing information from documents and webpages. It allows users to extract key facts, connect ideas across different sources, and annotate content for research, writing, or study.

**Highlights:** Import documents and webpages, Extract and organize excerpts, Connect ideas with ink links, Compare document sections, Annotate PDFs, Word, and PowerPoint, Search across all documents

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (13)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| LiquidText Live, Monthly, Stu | $5.49 | per month |
| LiquidText Live, Monthly, StPr | $5.49 | per month |
| LiquidText Unlimited, Mo, Stu | $10.90 | per month |
| LiquidText Live, Monthly | $10.90 | per month |
| LiquidText Live, Monthly, Upg | $10.90 | per month |
| LiquidText Unlimited, Yr, Stu | $19.00 | per month |
| LiquidText Live, Yearly, Stu | $54.90 | per year |
| LiquidText Live, Yearly | $99.99 | per year |
| LiquidText Live, Yearly, Upg | $99.99 | per year |
| LiquidText Unlimited, Yr | $189.99 | per year |
| LT Pro - For Students | $19.99 | one-time |
| LiquidText Pro | $29.99 | one-time |
| LiquidText Pro II | $89.99 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Powerful annotation and organization features
- 📚 Excellent for academic and research work
- 💡 Innovative concept and workflow
- 🤖 Responsive and helpful customer support
- 🖼️ Smooth integration with Apple Pencil

**What reviewers complain about**

- 💰 Expensive, especially for the subscription model
- 🐛 Buggy and unstable at times
- 🤯 Steep learning curve and unintuitive interface
- 🔗 Lack of seamless cross-device sync and integration
- 🔍 Navigation and file management issues

**Reported bugs**

- Frequent crashes and data loss issues
- Inconsistent behavior with Apple Pencil
- Text selection and highlighting problems
- Sync issues between iPad and Mac versions
- Unexpected changes to existing annotations

**Requested features**

- Dark mode option
- Improved palm rejection and writing experience
- Better export and sharing options
- Thumbnail/outline view for easier navigation
- Ability to rotate and resize text/image annotations


### 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 LiquidText free?

LiquidText 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, LiquidText or Highlights?

LiquidText is rated higher. LiquidText averages 4.6 out of 5 from 6.4K ratings, while Highlights averages 4.5 from 1.6K ratings.

### Do LiquidText or Highlights have ads?

Neither LiquidText nor Highlights shows ads.

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

LiquidText ships an update every 2 weeks, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, LiquidText was updated on September 23, 2026 and Highlights on September 22, 2026.

---

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