Bear vs Notes for Apple Watch
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/
Notes for Apple Watch
Effortlessly create, view, and manage all your notes directly on your Apple Watch. Syncs seamlessly with your iPhone and iPad, offering intuitive organization with color themes and efficient input methods.
- Compose notes on Apple Watch
- Browse, view, and edit notes
- Automatic syncing across devices
- Color themes for organization
- FlickType Keyboard support
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Compose and manage all your notes directly on Apple Watch. • Browse, view, edit, and compose notes with a highly intuitive interface optimized for your wrist. • Automatically sync all your notes between your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. • Organize your notes with a variety of color themes for easy categorization. • Supports FlickType Keyboard for even more efficient note-taking on the go. Take your notes, anywhere! --------------------- Terms of Service: https://bit.ly/NotesTerms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bear at 77% against Notes for Apple Watch's 40%. Bear also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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 Notes for Apple Watch sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bear holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.9K and 2.7K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Bear's written reviews are positive against 40% of Notes for Apple Watch's.
Bear ships an update every 9 days, Notes for Apple Watch weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bear | Notes for Apple Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better | 4.3 (2.7K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.8% of reviews — better | 39.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | 2.7K |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shiny Frog Ltd. | Kpaw, LLC |
Customer experience
Bear
Notes for Apple Watch
User reviews
Bear
From 6.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Elegant and minimalist design
- 🚀 Smooth and fast performance
- 💡 Flexible tagging system for organization
- 🔒 Secure and private notes
- 🎨 Customizable themes and fonts
Room to improve
- 🔒 Subscription required for syncing and advanced features
- 🔍 Limited search functionality within notes on iOS
- 🖼️ Issues with image handling and resizing
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes reported
- 💻 Lack of web/Windows app for cross-platform access
Notes for Apple Watch
From 2.7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Useful for quick notes
- 👍 Convenient for Apple Watch
- 👍 Accurate keyboard
- 👍 Syncs notes between devices
Room to improve
- 💰 Subscription required for syncing
- 💰 Expensive monthly fee
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes on Apple Watch
- 🐛 Keyboard issues (can't scroll, delete, etc.)
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
Notes for Apple Watch
Reported bugs
3 issues- Notes not syncing properly between devices
- App freezing and becoming unresponsive on Apple Watch
- Keyboard issues causing typing difficulties
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to edit notes from Apple Watch
- Implement a one-time purchase option instead of subscription
- Improve syncing reliability and speed
- Add more keyboard features (delete word, number pad, etc.)
In-app purchases
Bear
- Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Notes for Apple Watch
- Premium3 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Premium3 Days trial$5.991 Month
Questions
Is Bear free?
Is Notes for Apple Watch free?
Which has better reviews, Bear or Notes for Apple Watch?
Do Bear or Notes for Apple Watch have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bear or Notes for Apple Watch?
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