Comparison

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal vs TimeHorse

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

TimeHorse

Features
Read full description

TimeHorse — Traditional Chinese Calendar & Time Computation Tool TimeHorse is a professional computation tool for practitioners, researchers and students of the traditional Chinese calendar. It contains no interpretive or predictive content. It does one thing: convert a Gregorian moment into the time structures of the traditional Chinese calendar system, precisely and verifiably. 【Calendar & Time Computation】 • Sexagenary (Ganzhi) calendar: year, month, day and hour pillars, with months bounded by the 24 solar terms and correct handling of boundaries such as Lichun • True solar time: longitude offset and equation of time (Spencer formula) computed automatically from the birthplace coordinates; the hour pillar follows local true solar time • 24 solar terms: current term, next term and progress within the term, for any location worldwide • Twelve double-hours (Shichen): live double-hour and progress ring, calibrated to true solar time • Timeset chart: Ten Gods, Twelve Growth Phases, major cycles, annual and monthly cycles — all presented as computed, structured tables 【Qi Men Dun Jia Board】 • Board by double-hour: Yang/Yin cycle, board number, Earth and Heaven plates, Nine Stars, Eight Gates and Eight Deities • Pure computation and display, with no readings or interpretation attached 【Built for Real Work】 • Multiple profiles with groups: keep separate records and filter by group • Account cloud sync: sync records across devices; account deletion and data export supported • Home Screen widget: the current hour pillars at a glance • Apple Watch: the current Qi Men board on your wrist • Fully offline: every calculation runs on device, no network required 【Technical Highlights】 • Powered by the open-source tyme calendar library — results can be independently verified • True solar time for any latitude and longitude worldwide • Dark Mode and Dynamic Type 【Subscription】 TimeHorse Pro offers monthly and yearly auto-renewable subscriptions, with a 3-day free trial for new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://www.bestheme.ac.cn/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal4 screens
TimeHorse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Bear Markdown Notes & Journal at 4 against TimeHorse's 2. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal also leads on iOS requirement (16 vs 26.2). 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 TimeHorse sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, TimeHorse weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal versus TimeHorse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBear Markdown Notes & JournalTimeHorse
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.9K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size230 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.Hangzhou Yunqi Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd.

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

TimeHorse

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
2 purchases

TimeHorse

Subscriptions2
  • 時間馬 PRO 月付3 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • 時間馬 PRO 年付3 Days trial$12.991 Year

Questions

Is Bear Markdown Notes & Journal free?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is TimeHorse free?
TimeHorse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or TimeHorse have ads?
Neither Bear Markdown Notes & Journal nor TimeHorse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or TimeHorse?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, and TimeHorse weekly. Most recently, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal was updated on October 26, 2026 and TimeHorse on October 11, 2026.

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