Bear vs Semaphor
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bear
A beautiful and simple Markdown app for capturing, writing, and organizing your thoughts and ideas. It offers a distraction-free writing environment, flexible formatting, and powerful organizational tools like tags and tasks. Ideal for anyone looking to streamline their note-taking and creative processes.
- Distraction-free writing environment
- Flexible Markdown formatting
- Tag-based organization
- Task management
- Note linking (WikiLinks)
- Web clipping extension
- Apple Pencil sketching
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Bear is a beautiful, powerfully simple Markdown app to capture, write, and organize your life. Take notes, plan your day, journal thoughts, organize tables, create lists and tasks, sketch ideas, link notes together, write a book, and much more. Bear is used by writers, lawyers, chefs, CEOs, teachers, doctors, engineers, students, parents.. you get the picture. Getting started couldn’t be faster—no signup and no account. Just open a note and write naturally. "My journaling app of choice is Bear" - Kit Eaton, New York Times * 2017 Apple Design Award * 2016 App Store App of the Year * Editors' choice for 7 consecutive years * Most of our parents love it ## BEAUTIFUL. SIMPLE. POWERFUL. PRIVATE - Tools stay out of your way so you can just write - Sketch ideas on iPad with an extendable canvas and Apple Pencil (and other styli) - Clip web pages and other content with Bear’s app extension - The redesigned Info Panel now with Table of Contents and Backlinks - Use Apple Watch to dictate and append to recent notes - Support for all the scripts including RTL languages like Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian - Easily create notes with Siri and Shortcuts - Your notes, not ours - Bear is private at its core: We cannot see your notes, tags, or anything else ## FLEXIBLE MARKDOWN - Work in plain text - easy to move between apps - Still use formatting like bold, italics, strikethrough, links, tables, and more with Markdown - Combine text styles like bold and underline, even in headings - Markdown hides for a clean reading experience - Use WikiLinks to connect notes and build a personal wiki or knowledge management tool ## GET ORGANIZED with #tags, tasks, and more - Add #tags, #multi-word tags# and even #multiple/nested/tags anywhere in a note for quick organization - Pin important tags to the top of the Sidebar - Make important tags stand out in the Sidebar with TagCons - Add tasks to notes and easily view all notes that include tasks - Fold sections to get them out of the way ## SHARING MADE EASY - Export notes to plain text, Markdown, TextBundle, Bear note, and rich text - Export notes to HTML, DocX, PDF, JPG, and ePub (Bear Pro required) - Easily share your notes to any third-party app with the Share Sheet ## SEARCH FAR AND WIDE - Use Spotlight to search your notes from anywhere - Search for text inside photos and PDFs (Bear Pro required) - Focus on specific types of notes with powerful Special Searches like @todo, @images, and @yesterday ## CREATE YOUR COZY SPACE * Pick from nearly 30 themes for the perfect writing space in both Light and Dark Mode (Bear Pro required) * Choose an app icon that speaks to your personality (Bear Pro required) * Set your own fonts for plain text, headings, and code * Set line height and width, paragraph spacing, and more ## GET MORE WITH BEAR PRO One subscription enables a variety of features on all your devices and keeps the Bear hugs coming. - Sync notes between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud - Encrypt individual notes with a password that is entirely private to you - Lock Bear with Face/Touch ID - Export to more formats including HTML, DocX, PDF, JPG, and ePub - Search for text inside images and PDFs in Bear notes - Over 30 beautiful app themes & app icons $2.99 monthly $29.99 yearly 14-day free trial ----- Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your App Store account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. After purchase, manage your subscriptions in App Store Account Settings. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription. ----- bear@shinyfrog.net Twitter: BearNotesApp Reddit: reddit.com/r/BearApp Facebook: BearNotes Instagram: BearNotesApp Privacy Policy: http://www.bear.app/privacy/ Terms of Service: http://www.bear.app/terms/
Semaphor
This app offers secure team communication and collaboration with end-to-end encryption and private blockchain technology. It provides features like direct messaging, file sharing, and project-specific channels for real-time teamwork.
- End-to-end encryption
- Secure file sharing
- Private direct messaging
- Unlimited project channels
- Real-time collaboration
- Native offline mode
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Semaphor combines the best features of collaboration apps and encrypted messaging apps. Your team can work together through team messages, direct messages, and file sharing. Semaphor is secured by the power of private blockchain and end-to-end encryption. Semaphor brings you and your team: › End-to-end encryption to protect every file and conversation › Fast file uploads › Secure file sharing › Private direct messaging › Unlimited, project-specific channels › Real-time communication and collaboration › Password-less account creation › Native offline mode › Mobile and desktop friendly › Enterprise and LDAP ready › Supports bots and integrations › HIPAA/FINRA/FIRPA compliant › Reviewable source code To find out more about Semaphor, visit our website or send us an email. We always welcome your feedback and suggestions. ----- Subscriptions: - Basic: Free 30-day conversation history - Standard: Unlimited conversation history and access to Standard channels. $8.99/month - Pro: Unlimited conversation history and access to Pro channels. Team admin pays for all team members. $8.99/user/month - Payments will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. - Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal. - Subscriptions may be managed by you and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the your Account Settings after purchase. ----- By installing this app you agree to SpiderOak's: Privacy Policy, https://spideroak.com/policy/privacy-policy Term of Use, https://spideroak.com/policy/terms-of-use Service Agreement, https://spideroak.com/policy/service-agreement
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bear at 77% against Semaphor's 15%. Bear also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.5) and ratings volume (6.9K vs 15). Semaphor's advantage is iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Bear sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Semaphor sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $8.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bear holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bear has 6.9K ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Bear's written reviews are positive against 15% of Semaphor's.
Bear ships an update every 9 days, Semaphor every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bear | Semaphor |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better | 3.5 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.8% of reviews — better | 15.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 10.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shiny Frog Ltd. | SpiderOak, Inc. |
Customer experience
Bear
Semaphor
Bugs and requests
Bear
Reported bugs
3 issues- Sync issues causing note conflicts and data loss
- Cursor jumping and input issues on iPad
- Inconsistent behavior when importing/exporting content
Requested features
5 requests- Add password protection for individual notes
- Improve search capabilities to find text within notes
- Implement table support for more robust note-taking
- Develop a web-based version for broader accessibility
- Allow manual sorting and organization of notes
Semaphor
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bear
- Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Semaphor
- Personal Plan Monthly$8.991 Month









