LiquidText Alternatives for Active Reading and PDF Notes

LiquidText is still sold and developed. Its pricing and features page lists a free Basic tier on Windows, iPad and Mac, a one-time Pro 2023 licence, and two cloud subscriptions, LIVE and LIVE Unlimited. Basic covers reading, highlighting, excerpts linked back to the page, mind mapping and cloud links to Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and iCloud.

Two things send readers looking elsewhere. Pen inking, multi-document projects and OCR are paid, and none of the prices is published: Pro's appears after you click Buy Now, and LIVE's 1 GB storage tier and LIVE Unlimited carry no figures at all. The apps below cover the same jobs, from pulling quotes out of PDFs into a map to handwriting on contracts and building a reference library.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

MarginNote

MarginNote does what LiquidText does with excerpts, then goes further. You clip text and images from PDFs, EPUBs, web pages and video into cards that stay linked to their source, arrange cards from several documents into one mind map, and send them to spaced review. The MarginNote site names MarginNote 5 as the current release and says the upgrade from MN4 is free.

The iPad, iPhone and Mac apps need iOS or iPadOS 17 and macOS 14. Duo mode puts the source and your notes side by side, and a command-line tool connects your own AI assistant. Pro Lifetime is $12.99, and Max costs $16.99 a year after a one-month trial or $51.99 for life.

Best for: Students and researchers who want excerpts, mind maps and flashcards in one app.

Pricing:

• Pro Lifetime: $12.99, iPhone and iPad only
• Max Annual: $16.99 a year, 1-month trial
• Max Lifetime: $51.99
• Mac version, sold separately: Standard $35, plus a $10 Premium pack

Watch out for:

• There is no Windows or Android app, so it does not replace LiquidText's Windows version.
• Pro Lifetime covers iPhone and iPad only. The Mac version is a separate purchase, so a Mac and iPad setup costs more than the $12.99 headline.

Official site: MarginNote.

Highlights

Highlights is for people who used LiquidText mainly to get quotes out of PDFs. You highlight and comment, and the app exports everything as Markdown, TextBundle, HTML or PDF, or straight into Bear, Ulysses, DEVONthink and Evernote. Smart Copy turns a table into CSV and a citation into BibTeX.

It runs on Mac, iPad and iPhone, with on-device OCR and DOI citation lookup. On the App Store, Highlights got version 2026.3.1 in October 2026 and has a 4.5 rating from 1,600 ratings and Pro at $29.99 a year or $4.99 a month, with a 14-day trial.

Best for: Writers who read PDFs on a Mac and want their highlights in a notes app.

Pricing:

• Free download
• Highlights Pro: $29.99 a year or $4.99 a month
• 14-day trial

Watch out for:

• There is no workspace to drag excerpts into, the core of LiquidText. Notes live as a list, not on a canvas.
• Older App Store reviews from 2021 and 2022 complain that the app forgets the reading position and that multi-page highlights fail.

Official site: Highlights.

Zotero

Zotero is a free, open source reference manager from a nonprofit, and it has its own PDF reader with highlights and notes. For academic reading it replaces LiquidText's Pro-only Zotero integration with the real thing: annotations stay attached to the paper and its citation, and notes can quote them with page references.

It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The app is free; you pay only for sync storage. The Zotero storage page gives 300 MB free, then 2 GB for $20 a year, 6 GB for $60 and unlimited for $120.

Best for: Graduate students and academics who read papers and need citations.

Pricing:

• Zotero: free and open source
• Storage: 300 MB free
• 2 GB: $20 a year
• 6 GB: $60 a year
• Unlimited: $120 a year

Watch out for:

• Free sync storage is 300 MB, which a few hundred PDFs will fill. Many users store files in their own cloud folder instead.
• There is no free-form canvas or mind map. It is a library and reader, not a thinking space.

Official site: Zotero.

Goodnotes

Goodnotes covers the inking half of LiquidText that Basic leaves out. You import a PDF, write on it with a stylus, and keep it in notebooks and folders. Unlike most iPad note apps it also runs on Android, Windows and the web.

The Goodnotes pricing page lists Essential at $11.99 a year, Pro at $35.99 and Teams at $120 per seat per year. The free plan holds 3 files and 3 folders.

Best for: Lawyers and students who handwrite on PDFs and use both iPad and Windows.

Pricing:

• Free: 3 files, 3 folders
• Essential: $11.99 a year
• Pro: $35.99 a year
• Teams: $120 per seat per year
• AI Pass: $9.99 a month

Watch out for:

• Syncing one library between Apple and non-Apple devices needs Pro, not Essential.
• There is no way to pull an excerpt out into a separate workspace and keep a live link to the page.

Official site: Goodnotes.

Notability

Notability pairs PDF markup with audio. You annotate a document while recording a lecture or meeting, and playback shows what you wrote at each moment. Paid tiers add transcription, AI summaries, quizzes and flashcards built from your notes.

The Notability pricing page links apps for Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone and Android. Starter is free with 5 notes, Lite is $11.99 a year for unlimited notes, Plus is $15.99 a year and Pro is $79.99 a year. Business costs $60 per user per year.

Best for: Students who annotate slides and readings during lectures.

Pricing:

• Starter: free, 5 notes, 7-day version history
• Lite: $11.99 a year
• Plus: $15.99 a year
• Pro: $79.99 a year
• Business: $60 per user per year; Business Pro: $180

Watch out for:

• The free Starter plan stops at 5 notes, so a semester of readings needs a paid plan.
• The page lists monthly, yearly and one-time options but does not label which price goes with each for Lite, Plus and Pro.

Official site: Notability.

PDF Expert

PDF Expert is the choice when your LiquidText work ends in a finished document. It edits PDF text, images and links, fills and signs forms, runs OCR and converts to Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Annotation tools are there too, though without a workspace.

The PDF Expert pricing page offers a yearly plan at $79.99 for iPhone, iPad and Mac, or a lifetime licence at $139.99 for Mac only. Both include the PDF Copilot AI assistant and translation, and both carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Best for: Mac users who annotate, edit and sign contracts and reports.

Pricing:

• Yearly: $79.99, iPhone, iPad and Mac
• Lifetime: $139.99, Mac only
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Watch out for:

• The lifetime licence covers bug fixes, but new features may cost extra, per the pricing page.
• No Windows version is listed, so it cannot replace LiquidText on a PC.

Official site: PDF Expert.

Xodo

Xodo is the cheapest route for Windows and Android readers. On mobile, viewing and annotating stay free for personal use, according to Xodo's subscription notes, and apps also run on the web, Mac, Linux and iOS. That covers highlighting, comments and freehand ink, which LiquidText puts behind Pro.

Paid plans are for heavier PDF work. Xodo Web costs $7.99 a month or $95.88 a year, Xodo Desktop $9.99 a month or $119.88 a year, and the full Document Suite lists at $14.99 a month.

Best for: Windows and Android users who need free highlighting and pen notes on PDFs.

Pricing:

• Mobile viewing and annotation: free for personal use
• Xodo Web: $7.99 a month, $95.88 a year
• Xodo Desktop: $9.99 a month, $119.88 a year
• Document Suite: $14.99 a month

Watch out for:

• Files processed on the free plan get watermarks, per Xodo's June 2026 plans explainer.
• There is no excerpt workspace or mind map. It is a PDF tool, not a thinking tool.

Official site: Xodo.

How to choose

When to stay with LiquidText

Stay with LiquidText if you compare several long documents at once. Pro shows up to three documents side by side, or five on a PC, with ink links between them, and LIVE Unlimited's Document Replace swaps in a new version while keeping your markup. No app in this list matches that for depositions, contracts or literature reviews. If you mark up scripts, our Scriptation alternatives cover apps built for that.

Frequently asked questions