# Mach Note vs Highlights

The clearest difference is rating: Highlights at 4.5 against Mach Note's 3.0. Highlights also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 2). Mach Note's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Mach Note 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.

Highlights holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.0. 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: 50% of Mach Note's written reviews are positive against 53% of Highlights's.

Mach Note ships an update every 9 months, Highlights fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Mach Note | Highlights |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [3.0 (2 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mach-note-icloud-pdf-editor/id972400279/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 | 50.0% of reviews | **53.3% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Freemium |
| Size | 18 MB | 37 MB |
| Requires iOS | **14.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | **iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac** |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Mach Software Design](https://appshunter.io/developer/327826899) | [Jonas Myren Ribe](https://appshunter.io/developer/794854096) |

## What reviewers say

### Mach Note

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mach-note-icloud-pdf-editor/id972400279)

This app allows for versatile note-taking with freehand drawing on native PDFs, audio recording with a 3D visualizer, and RTF word processing. Notes sync across devices via iCloud, and documents can be annotated and exported for various platforms.

**Highlights:** Freehand drawing on native PDF notes, Audio recording with 3D visualizer, RTF word processing, iCloud sync across devices, iCloud HandOff for seamless device switching, DOC/DOCX read support on iOS, read/write on OS X, Speech-to-Text dictation

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remove Ads | $0.99 | 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 Mach Note free?

Mach Note 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, Mach Note or Highlights?

Highlights is rated higher. Mach Note averages 3.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Highlights averages 4.5 from 1.6K ratings.

### Do Mach Note or Highlights have ads?

Neither Mach Note nor Highlights shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Mach Note or Highlights?

Mach Note ships an update every 9 months, and Highlights fortnightly. Most recently, Mach Note was updated on October 5, 2026 and Highlights on October 18, 2026.

---

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