Bear vs Markdown゜
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/
Markdown゜
Create and edit Markdown files with a simple yet powerful editor for iOS. Generate PDFs and HTML from your documents, with features like syntax highlighting, line numbers, and autosave. Seamlessly sync with cloud storage and export your work to other apps.
- Create and edit .md files
- Export to PDF and HTML
- File synchronization (cloud storage)
- Syntax highlighting and line numbers
- Autosave and instant preview
- Dark mode and custom fonts
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Markdown Pro is a fast, focused Markdown editor for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Write in plain Markdown, or turn on the prettified editor and watch headings, lists, tables, images and task lists render as you type. When you're done, export a polished PDF, an HTML file, or the raw Markdown. WRITE THE WAY YOU LIKE • Prettified editor renders headings, lists, quotes, code blocks and images inline while you type • Or stay in raw Markdown with syntax highlighting and line numbers • Switch between the two with a single tap • Live preview beside your text on iPad and Mac • Smart list continuation and a caret that stays where you put it • Task lists with tappable checkmarks TABLES WITHOUT THE PAIN • Tap the pencil on any rendered table to open the graphical table editor • Add and remove rows and columns without counting pipes • Multiline cells and column alignment • Tables render inline as you edit EXPORT ANYWHERE • Export to PDF, HTML or raw Markdown • Send to any other app, or save straight to Files • Your documents and exports stay on your device AT HOME ON EVERY DEVICE • One app for iPhone, iPad and Mac • Full keyboard support, with menu bar commands and keyboard shortcuts • Multiple windows, and documents as native tabs on Mac • Drag and drop, and open several files at once • Works with the Files app, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and other file providers • iCloud and Recents right on the Mac home screen MAKE IT YOURS • Full light and dark mode support • Pick your syntax highlighting theme • Choose a custom editor font and size • Built-in snippets for headings, links, lists and tables • Find and replace • Autosave, always on Whether you're keeping a journal, writing documentation, drafting a README, taking notes in a meeting or working through a code snippet, Markdown Pro stays out of the way and lets you write.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bear at 77% against Markdown゜'s 31%. Bear also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (6.9K vs 473). Markdown゜'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Markdown゜ asks for nothing beyond the download.
Bear holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bear has 6.9K ratings behind it against 473, 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 31% of Markdown゜'s.
Bear ships an update every 2 weeks, Markdown゜ every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bear | Markdown゜ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better | 4.5 (473 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.8% of reviews — better | 30.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | 473 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shiny Frog Ltd. | Teleprompter LLC |
Customer experience
Bear
Markdown゜
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
Markdown゜
From 473 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Simple and intuitive interface
- 📄 Good markdown preview functionality
- 🎨 Clean design and lightweight app
- 📤 Easy PDF and HTML export
- ☁️ Cloud storage integration (iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, NextCloud)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Cursor jumps to end of document when typing
- 💾 Files fail to save or save unreliably
- ⚠️ Data loss and content disappearing
- 🔄 Reverts to older file versions unexpectedly
- 📱 Mobile network interference with local file editing
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
Markdown゜
Reported bugs
15 issues- Cursor automatically jumps to end of document after typing any character
- Text content vanishes without explanation
- Files fail to save as .md format
- App gets stuck in error message loop
- Cannot create new files (plus button not working)
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- Cannot open .md files after closing them
- Files revert to older cached versions
- App crashes on iPadOS 16.1
- Modifications disappear when editing
- Chinese input method (bopomofo) not supported
- Cannot open files from Google Drive
- Files grayed out and unopenable
- Text encoding corrupted on save
- Split-screen keyboard interference
- View jumps back to cursor position instead of staying scrolled
Requested features
11 requests- Word count and character count
- Internal markdown reference
- Table support for markdown
- Code block syntax highlighting
- Auto-save functionality
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- File browser/vault view like Obsidian
- Image support
- Dedicated save button
- Disable cache option for synced folders
- Better toolbar design
- Split-screen support improvements
In-app purchases
Bear
- Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Markdown゜
No in-app purchases









