Best Apps for Managing Reading Highlights (2025)

You've highlighted dozens of passages across dozens of books. Now what? Getting those highlights somewhere useful — somewhere you'll actually return to them — is where most readers get stuck.

This guide compares the best tools for managing reading highlights in 2025, from the well-known to the underrated. We've focused on readers who use e-readers like Kobo and Kindle, though most of these tools work across devices.

Readwise

Readwise is the best-known tool in this space and for good reason. It syncs highlights automatically from Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Instapaper and more, then resurfaces them to you daily via email or their app. It's been the go-to for serious readers for years.

In recent years Readwise has shifted much of its focus toward Readwise Reader — a full read-later app — which means the original highlight management tool has seen fewer updates. Some users feel the core product has been deprioritised.

Obsidian

Obsidian is a local-first note-taking app built around linked notes and markdown files. It's not a highlight manager by design, but many readers use it as one — either by importing highlights manually or via a Readwise integration.

The appeal is complete ownership. Your notes live as plain markdown files on your own device, never in someone else's cloud. The downside is that getting highlights into Obsidian requires more setup than most tools.

Notion

Notion is a flexible workspace that many readers use to store their highlights alongside book notes, reading lists and reviews. It works well as a personal reading database, and the Readwise integration means highlights can flow in automatically.

The main drawback is that Notion is a general-purpose tool. It doesn't do anything specifically for readers — there's no spaced repetition, no highlight-focused browsing, and no e-reader sync built in.

Kindle native highlights

If you read on a Kindle, Amazon provides basic highlight management built in. Your highlights sync automatically to your account and are viewable at read.amazon.com. You can browse by book and export them manually.

It's functional but limited — the interface is dated, search is basic, and there's no way to view highlights from other devices or e-readers alongside your Kindle ones.

Luminaria

Luminaria is built specifically for readers who use Kobo devices with KOReader. The focus is on browsing your highlights beautifully — by book, with full-text search, favourites, and share-as-image — rather than on spaced repetition or note-taking integrations.

Unlike most tools, Luminaria stores your highlights in your own browser. Nothing is sent to a server unless you choose to use the KOReader sync feature. It supports exports from KOReader, Kobo native, Kindle and Readwise.

Which one should you use?

There's no single right answer — it depends on what you want to do with your highlights.

If you read on a Kobo with KOReader and want something private, beautiful and focused entirely on your highlights, Luminaria is the obvious choice. If you want spaced repetition, daily email review and integrations with every note-taking tool imaginable, Readwise is still the benchmark.

Many readers use more than one — Luminaria for browsing and sharing, and a note-taking app for deeper processing. They complement each other rather than compete.