Bear vs Watchsmith
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
Read full descriptionHide 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/
Watchsmith
Personalize your Apple Watch with customizable complications that can dynamically change throughout the day. Access a variety of tools like weather, workouts, and a timezone converter directly from your watch.
- Customizable complications
- Dynamic complication scheduling
- Weather app
- Workout app
- Timezone converter
- Games
- Calendar
Read full descriptionHide full description
Watchsmith lets you personalize your Apple Watch like never before. It starts with a wide collection of highly customizable complications, which range in function from date, to weather, to astronomy. Each can be adjusted precisely to best fit your desired function and appearance. This set of complications can then be dynamically scheduled to appear on your watch face following rules you define. For example, a particular complication slot could show the weather first thing in the morning, then your calendar during your work day, then switch to your Activity ring progress as you wrap up your day. This lets you take full advantage of each slot on your watch face without the need to constantly switch back and forth between faces. The Apple Watch app itself also includes a wide collection of tools and functions, such as a weather app, a workout app, a timezone converter, games and a calendar. Watchsmith provides one tap access to what you need, right when you need it. Notes: • Watchsmith is intended for use with a paired Apple Watch, which is where your configured complications will be displayed. It requires watchOS 7. • Watchsmith optionally integrates with Apple Health. This data is used during workouts to display your workout metrics, to show a summary of your daily heart rate date, and your activity. Permission for Watchsmith to access this data is controlled through the Apple Health app. • Watchsmith includes an optional premium subscription. This is offered on a monthly or annual basis. If you choose to purchase a subscription your payment will be charged to your iTunes account. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can turn off auto-renewal at any time by going to your Account Settings on the App Store after purchase. • Access to Tide and Weather hosted data is only available to Watchsmith Premium subscribers. Privacy Policy & Terms: https://david-smith.org/watchsmith_privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bear at 4.7 against Watchsmith's 3.9. Bear also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 38%) and ratings volume (6.9K vs 563). Watchsmith's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 9 days). 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 Watchsmith sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bear holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bear has 6.9K ratings behind it against 563, 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 38% of Watchsmith's.
Bear ships an update every 9 days, Watchsmith every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bear | Watchsmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better | 3.9 (563 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.8% of reviews — better | 38.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | 563 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shiny Frog Ltd. | Cross Forward Consulting, LLC |
Customer experience
Bear
Watchsmith
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
Watchsmith
From 563 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Customizable complications
- 👍 Simplifies date complication
- 🌟 Indispensable app
- 🎨 Fun to customize
- 💡 Innovative features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Complications don't update frequently
- 🔌 Battery life issues
- 🤔 Confusing UI and instructions
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 🕰️ Time complications not accurate
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
Watchsmith
Reported bugs
4 issues- Complications not syncing properly
- App freezes on Apple Watch
- Weather location stuck on LA
- Shared calendar issues
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for Series 7 and Apple Watch Ultra
- Hourly weather complication
- Year complication
- Celsius temperature option
- Third-party app complications support
In-app purchases
Bear
- Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Watchsmith
- Watchsmith Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Watchsmith Premium (Annual)7 Days trial$19.991 Year









