Highlights vs KDAN PDF
Highlights
highlightsapp.net
KDAN PDF
pdf-reader.kdandoc.comSide by side
| Figure | Highlights | KDAN PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $2.50/mo | $5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 4 |
| Spec score · PDF Readers | 8.3 (#6) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Annotation tools | Yes | Yes |
| OCR | Built-in multilingual OCR extracts text from PDFs without searchable text, with processing performed on device. | Yes |
Plans
KDAN PDF
- KDAN PDF FreeFree
- Document 365$59.99 a year
- Document 365 AI+$99.99 a year
- Lifetime License$119.99, paid once
In their own words
Highlights
Highlights is a PDF reader for research that turns PDF annotations into notes, available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Its free plan supports reading and annotating PDFs, merging annotations, editing PDF metadata, and Handoff. Notes can be exported as Markdown, TextBundle, HTML, WebArchive, or PDF, or sent directly to supported apps including Evernote, DEVONthink, Ulysses, Bear, and Keep It. For scientific articles, Highlights can find DOIs and retrieve metadata; it can link to a PDF on the device if the citation has already been read. Built-in multilingual OCR extracts text from PDFs without searchable text, with processing done on device. Smart Copy outputs copied images as PNG, tables as CSV, and citations as BibTeX. PDFs can be stored on device, in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or another sync service, while annotations use standard PDF annotations. On macOS it integrates with Bookends and Papers. The free plan is available alongside Pro at $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. The maker describes the app as intended for students and researchers.
KDAN PDF
KDAN PDF is a PDF app for Android, iOS, Mac and Windows, with tools for viewing, annotation, editing and conversion. The free plan includes viewing, notes and annotations, handwriting, signatures and form filling, but not text editing, form creation, OCR or PDF conversion. Document 365 costs USD 59.99 per year and adds text editing, merging and splitting, Office file conversion, OCR for scanned PDFs and password protection. Document 365 AI+ costs USD 99.99 per year and includes those features plus AI services such as auto-redaction, summarization, document review and paragraph translation. Both subscriptions offer a seven-day free trial. A lifetime license costs USD 119.99 per device and covers one desktop device, with offline work that does not require cloud uploads. Paid plans provide read-aloud text-to-speech. Refunds may be requested within 14 days after purchase, subject to store exclusions. KDAN PDF is powered by KDAN Mobile Software Ltd., founded in 2009 and based in Tainan City, Taiwan.