Back to all tools
Web Highlights - PDF & Web Highlighter

Web Highlights - PDF & Web Highlighter

Web Highlights makes it super easy to highlight text on websites and PDFs. It's free and easy to use without signing up, perfect for students, professionals, and anyone who reads online.

If you’re looking for a reliable tool to highlight text on websites and PDFs, this might be the best option out there. With over 100,000 users and an impressive 4.8-star rating on the Chrome Web Store, it's clear that Web Highlights is the best online highlighter available.

In our experience, the tool is easy to use and packed with features that make online reading and research a breeze. From multiple highlight colors to advanced note-taking, it covers all the bases.

Compared to other highlighters we’ve tested, Web Highlights stands out with its clean design and robust functionality.

Key Features

  • Website Highlighting: Easily highlight text on any website.
  • PDF Highlighting: Mark up both online and local PDFs directly in your browser.
  • Multiple Colors: Use various colors to organize your highlights.
  • Note-Taking: Add notes to your highlights for better context.
  • Bookmarking: Save pages as bookmarks for quick access.
  • Tagging: Organize your highlights and notes with tags.
  • Cross-Device Sync: Sync highlights across devices via cloud.
  • Export Options: Export your highlights to Notion, Obsidian, HTML, Markdown, or as PDFs and HTML files.
  • Reminders: "Snooze" your bookmarks and get reminded about them by email
  • Flashcard learning: Begin a daily review session of your highlights to help move your research into long-term memory using a spaced repetition system.

Pros

  • Excellent free version
  • No account required
  • Image highlighting supported
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Great tagging system
  • Cross-device sync & Beautiful web app

Cons

  • No folders, just tags

Pricing

Web Highlights offers a robust free version, but upgrading to the Premium or Ultimate plans unlocks advanced features like cloud sync and exporting. It's a worthwhile investment for anyone looking to enhance their productivity.

  • 7-day free trial
  • Premium: $3.99/month, $39.99/year (US prices)
  • Ultimate: $4.99/month, $44.99/year (US prices)

Review

9.9

Web Highlights - PDF & Web Highlighter earned a score of 9.9 out of 10 in our tests. A rating like this indicates an outstanding and rare tool, showcasing exceptional performance in every aspect.

In our review of Web Highlights, we considered the categories Features, Design, Ease of Use, Security & Privacy, Value for Money and Performance. Each category was given equal importance and we'll dive into the details of each in the following section.

Features
10

Web Highlights offers a range of features. In addition to its main function of highlighting text on websites and PDFs, it provides much more, making it the ideal tool for learning and self-improvement.

Top Features of Web Highlights

1. Highlighting websites & PDFs:

Highlight text using Web Highlights

Web Highlights excels at one thing better than any other tool we tested—highlighting websites and PDFs.

You don't even need an account. Just visit any site, highlight the text, and a marker icon will appear, letting you choose from different highlight colors.

Once highlighted, your highlights are visible on the website. And the best thing: Your highlights will also be visible on the website if you reload the page.

You not necessarily need the highlighter popup to mark up some text. In general, there are three ways to create a highlight:

  • clicking the highlighter popup
  • right-clicking the selected text
  • using a keyboard shortcut (Mac: ⌥ + S, Windows: ALT + S)

In our tests, we could easily highlight several websites, and those highlights were effortlessly restored when revisiting them. It works seamlessly with both online and local PDFs.

Highlighted website with Web Highlights

All of your highlights are not only visible on the page but also accessible through the sidebar, which gives you a good overview of your highlights made.

This is much like the highlighter sidebar which is common in PDF tools like Acrobat.

Here is how it looks:

Web Highlights Sidebar

The sidebar gives you an outline of your highlights on the current page.

2. Create Notes & Tags:

Taking notes made easy

You can either create tags & notes by using the sidebar or by clicking on a highlight on the page. This will open up a popup allowing you to add tags and notes to a specific highlight.

Any changes you make on the pages are also directly visible in the sidebar. Making it a perfect research tool to work with large articles.

Inside the sidebar you can then find all your highlights and bookmarks listed for the given tag.

3. Web App:

Web Highlights Dashboard

The best thing about Web Highlights is, that it can synchronize all your research to the corresponding web app at app.web-highlights.com.

The web app can be opened in your browser but works perfetly on your phone. If you have opened the website before, you can even access your research when you are offline.

The dashboard of the app shows all of your research in one place in a beautiful overview. You can also filter for specific tags or websites.

4. Save Bookmarks:

How to save bookmarks using Web Highlights

Web Highlights isn't just for highlighting text—it’s also great for saving pages as bookmarks. This way, you can either come back later to continue highlighting or easily find the page again.

5. Email reminders

Setting email reminders with Web Highlights

A standout feature of Web Highlights is its email reminder, which works a lot like "snoozing" emails.

You can set a reminder for a specific date and time by clicking the clock icon on a highlighted page. Web Highlights will then email you the article so you don’t forget to revisit it.

This feature is unique among competitors, and we use it daily to get reminders for websites we need to return to later.

6. Export to Notion, Markdown, and more

Export to Notion

Web Highlights gives you plenty of export options. With the Markdown export, you can easily send your research to any Second Brain or PKM tool you prefer.

On top of that, it directly integrates with Notion and Capacities through full API connections.

For instance, if you're on a highlighted page, just click the three dots in the sidebar and choose "Export to Notion." In seconds, a Notion page will be created. The same process works for Capacities.

Design
10

The design is clean and intuitive, making it easy to get started right away. We loved the customizable highlight colors and the overall look and feel of the sidebar.

What users love most is the intuitive sidebar and the well-organized web app. It’s super easy to navigate and quickly find what you need.

The web app also looks great on mobile devices, making it simple to access the articles you've read on your phone.

Ease of Use
9.5

We can’t think of a simpler Chrome Extension to start with than this one. The best part? It works seamlessly right out of the box, no account needed.

Installing it is a breeze, and you can easily add the extension to both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Once installed, a highlighter pop-up appears whenever you highlight text on any website. The process is intuitive and easy to grasp.

If you need help, Web Highlights offers plenty of blog posts that guide you through its features.

With so many powerful features, Web Highlights might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but everything falls into place quickly. The tagging system, in particular, is easy to use and much simpler than traditional folders.

That’s why we rate it 9.5 out of 10. It’s extremely user-friendly, though some features might take a little time to fully appreciate.

Security & Privacy
10

In the Security & Privacy category, we give Web Highlights a solid 10/10. The fact that you can use this tool offline without needing an account sets it apart from its competitors.

Even if you opt for cloud sync by creating an account, Web Highlights puts data privacy first. Your highlights, notes, and tags are visible only to you by default unless you decide to share them.

Your data isn’t sold to third parties, nor is it used or transferred for anything beyond the extension's core functionality. This dedication to data privacy ensures your information stays secure and confidential.

Value for Money
10

Web Highlights can be used for free without signing up, providing access to a wide range of offline features.

To fully enjoy the benefits of Web Highlights, including accessing your highlights and bookmarks from anywhere with automatic cloud-sync, you can upgrade to the PREMIUM or ULTIMATE version of the extension.

The pricing plans are affordable, making it a cost-effective solution for students, researchers, and avid online readers. No other tool gives you this much value for so little cost.

Performance
10

The extension performs seamlessly, allowing you to highlight websites and PDFs without any lag or interruptions.

The full-text search functionality is quick and accurate, enabling you to find your highlights effortlessly. Additionally, the ability to sync your highlights across devices ensures that you can access your research from anywhere, enhancing your productivity.

The best part is that the web app works entirely offline. So, you can access your research from any device, even without an internet connection.

Conclusion

We have been using Web Highlights - PDF & Web Highlighter for years and can confidently say it’s a top-notch tool for anyone who spends a lot of time reading online.

Its user-friendly design and powerful features make it a must-have for students, researchers, and professionals alike. The free version is fantastic, but if you need more advanced features, the premium options are well worth the price.

If you’re serious about staying organized while reading online, we highly recommend giving Web Highlights a try.