Comparison

Bear vs Today

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

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

Today

Features
Read full description

Today is a minimalist focus timer paired with a daily task list. No project boards, no Gantt charts, no complexity. Just what you're doing today. Three task states. That's it. - Not started - In progress - Done Tap a task to advance its status. When you're ready to focus, pick a duration and start the timer. The lavender ring counts down while you work. When it's done, mark what you finished. FOCUS TIMER Choose from preset durations (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or 45 minutes) or set a custom time. The timer runs with a smooth countdown ring and stays visible on your lock screen via Live Activities. Pause, resume, or stop anytime. SMART TIMER Connect your calendar and Today suggests focus durations based on your next meeting. If you have 47 minutes before your next call, it knows. CALENDAR INTEGRATION See your upcoming meetings right on the home screen. Calendar data is read-only and processed entirely on your device — never sent to any server. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Create an optional account to sync your tasks. Works fully offline without one. Your data, your choice. DESIGN Built with intention. Dot-grid paper texture. Inter typography. Phosphor icons. Every pixel considered.

Screenshots

Bear4 screens
Today4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Today at none against Bear's 2. Today also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 9 days). Bear's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Bear sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Today asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bear ships an update every 9 days, Today daily. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bear versus Today: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBearToday
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.9K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size230 MB345 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.Jared Moskowitz

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

Today

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bear

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
None

Today

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bear free?
Bear is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Today free?
Today is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Bear or Today have ads?
Neither Bear nor Today shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bear or Today?
Bear ships an update every 9 days, and Today daily. Most recently, Bear was updated on October 1, 2026 and Today on September 15, 2026.

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