Comparison

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal vs OutSmart | Field Service

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal

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.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing environment
  • Flexible Markdown formatting
  • Tag-based organization
  • Task management
  • Note linking (WikiLinks)
  • Web clipping extension
  • Apple Pencil sketching
Features
Read full description

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/

About

OutSmart | Field Service

Streamline field service operations with digital work orders, customer signatures, and photo documentation. This app helps manage agents, track materials, and send PDF receipts, improving efficiency and reducing costs for service businesses.

Highlights
  • Digital work orders
  • Customer digital signatures
  • Photo documentation
  • Agent tracking
  • Material tracking
  • PDF receipt generation
  • Cloud-based integration
Features
Read full description

Is your business Installation services? Maybe Construction? Transportation perhaps? If you have agents on the field, you need to know where they are, where are they going next, what materials are being used, agendas, reporting and more important, customer signoff that the service was done. OutSmart will help you get grip on your organization and your field service. OutSmart is the digital generic solution for replacing the paper work order, for companies who wants to start with setting up a more efficient field service. On the work order you register your hours and articles. You can add photos of your work (for example before and after) and your customer will sign a digital signature below. Directly on the smartphone or tablet. We will ensure that the receipt is sent to your client as a PDF. Simple and effective. OutSmart is field agent management software that will help you to monitor your agents, plan orders, check for daily reports, open order and see if the service has been completed, track your agents in the map or create checklist before the service is done. OutSmart is fully cloud-based and can be easily integrated with any accounting or ERP software. No matter what type of business, OutSmart will make your company more efficient by reducing operational costs and increase productivity. OutSmart, makes field service easy! How does it work? The app is divided into 2 menu items: Work order overview and App Settings. Via the Work order overview tab you can start immediately to create a work order manually. You fill in the details and complete the order for the hours and materials. You can also optionally add photos of the work done at the customer. You can have the customer sign off the order directly and the work order is sent digitally to, for example, the office staff and the customer. On the dashboard, the field employee immediately sees his day and week planning which are scheduled from the web account in the office. So you never miss an appointment again. Through Relationships tab you can view all your relations and the history of the previous visits. At the Overview tab, we save all work orders that have been created locally. This way you can easily look back on what was done at the customer last time. Under the Settings tab you can manage your own company data and the data of the employees. Do you want to get the most out of the application? Go to our website for a company account and immediately link one or more apps. Enter your company details here and add the company logo. You can also add all contacts and materials. When the device makes contact with our servers, the data is immediately synchronized. Of course it is also possible to completely prepare work orders for the web account and send day or week plans to the tablet or smartphone. All work orders are collected on your company account. A pdf can be made of each work order with your logo on it. The Track & Trace functionality runs in the background. Please note: continuous use of GPS running in the background can have a dramatic effect on the battery life. For more information, please visit our Terms of Use (https://out-smart.com/terms-of-use), Privacy Policy (https://out-smart.com/en/privacypolicy/).

Screenshots

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal4 screens
OutSmart | Field Service4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bear Markdown Notes & Journal at 77% against OutSmart | Field Service's 43%. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal also leads on ratings volume (6.9K vs 1) and iOS requirement (16 vs 18.6). OutSmart | Field Service's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and OutSmart | Field Service sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $8.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

OutSmart | Field Service holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bear Markdown Notes & Journal has 6.9K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of Bear Markdown Notes & Journal's written reviews are positive against 43% of OutSmart | Field Service's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, OutSmart | Field Service weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal versus OutSmart | Field Service: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBear Markdown Notes & JournalOutSmart | Field Service
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews — better42.9% of reviews
Number of ratings6.9K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size230 MB78 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.OutSmart International B.V.

Customer experience

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal

All ratings6,870 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews1,754 reviews
Positive76.9%
Neutral9.5%
Negative13.7%

OutSmart | Field Service

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive42.9%
Neutral7.1%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal

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

OutSmart | Field Service

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
1 purchases

OutSmart | Field Service

Subscriptions1
  • Essential Version$8.491 Month

Questions

Is Bear Markdown Notes & Journal free?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is OutSmart | Field Service free?
OutSmart | Field Service is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or OutSmart | Field Service?
OutSmart | Field Service is rated higher. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal averages 4.7 out of 5 from 6.9K ratings, while OutSmart | Field Service averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or OutSmart | Field Service have ads?
Neither Bear Markdown Notes & Journal nor OutSmart | Field Service shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or OutSmart | Field Service?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, and OutSmart | Field Service weekly. Most recently, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal was updated on October 29, 2026 and OutSmart | Field Service on October 23, 2026.

Other comparisons