Bear Markdown Notes & Journal vs DayOS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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/
DayOS
This app offers a streamlined workspace for daily organization, combining tasks, calendar, notes, and a private vault. It focuses on simplicity and efficiency without the complexity of project management tools. Available on iPad, it supports markdown notes, photo attachments, and spending tracking.
- Daily Home dashboard
- Simple daily task management
- Day, week, month calendar views
- Markdown-supported notes with attachments
- Spending tracking and bill reminders
- Private, password-protected vault
- Light, dark, and system themes
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DayOS is a focused personal organization app designed to keep daily life simple, private, and efficient. It combines planning, notes, calendar, spending, and a private, password protected note vault in one clean workspace without the clutter of a traditional project-management app. Now available on iPad! All-in-one app of: - Tasks - Calendar - Notes - Private, password protected vault An extremely simple yet very functional and efficient app designed to manage your entire day all in one location Core features: • Daily Home dashboard with a clean overview of today’s calendar events • Today tab for simple daily task management without turning the app into a heavy weekly or monthly task system • Calendar with day, week, and month views, swipe navigation, event creation, editing, deletion, and color-coded entries • Notes with folder view or list view, custom folders, subfolders, quick notes, search, trash, and a minimalist modern layout • Hybrid markdown-supported notes with headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, and interactive checkboxes • Inline photo attachments in notes, plus file attachments • Spending section for quick transaction logging, monthly spending tracking, and recurring bill tracking with due dates • Floating quick actions for fast note capture and spending entry from the main screens • Vault for premium users: local-only private notes and passwords protected by a passcode, with recovery flow, export, folders, and vault trash • Light, dark, and system theme support • Sign in with Apple support • Premium lifetime license for only $14.99 • Low cost monthly subscription and free trial available • Local account separation between guest mode and signed-in Apple accounts • Data controls including sign out, delete app data, and vault-specific secure deletion flows Premium: • Founder's edition lifetime license: Promotional lifetime premium access at a lower price • Premium access gives unlimited access to the app • A one month free trial available • Available both as a very affordable monthly subscription or as a one-time purchase lifetime license • Specifically it gives you the ability to create more than 100 notes, more than 5 simultaneous tasks a day, custom folders, and access to the vault features Privacy and storage: • Vault data is stored locally on-device only, notes and files never leave your device. Password protection with added Face-ID functionality available • Guest and Apple account data are kept separate locally • The app includes options for erasing app data and managing sensitive vault content securely Privacy Policy: https://gist.github.com/murraydylan77-commits/3e26cb6da694fa7791ee9fc2a3076fe3 Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Bear Markdown Notes & Journal at 6.9K against DayOS's 1. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal also leads on device support (4 vs 2). DayOS's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 10 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 Markdown Notes & Journal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and DayOS sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
DayOS 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.
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, DayOS every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bear Markdown Notes & Journal | DayOS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shiny Frog Ltd. | Dylan Murray |
Customer experience
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal
DayOS
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
DayOS
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal
- Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
DayOS
- Monthly Premium1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- Lifetime Premium$14.99
Questions
Is Bear Markdown Notes & Journal free?
Is DayOS free?
Which has better reviews, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or DayOS?
Do Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or DayOS have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or DayOS?
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