Comparison

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal vs ROKE

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

ROKE

Features
Read full description

ROKE is not a motivational app. It doesn't clap for you. It reads your day, cuts through the noise, and tells you what to do next. Set your pace. Tell it what's on your mind. ROKE figures out the rest. WHAT ROKE DOES: Every morning you pick your pace — Low, Normal, or High. ROKE adjusts everything around that. Your tasks, your assistant's tone, your daily summary. The whole app shifts. You type what's on your mind — a deadline, a distraction, a mess in your head. ROKE reads it and turns it into action. No fluff. No encouragement. Just next steps. BUILT DIFFERENT: No account. No cloud. No one sees your data — it lives on your device and nowhere else. The assistant isn't fake-cheerful. Set it to Savage and it will tell you exactly what you don't want to hear. Set it to Soft if you need it gentler. You decide. PRO: Discipline Score. Weekly rhythm analysis. 30-day trend. Projection. The full picture of how you actually work — not how you think you work. WHO IT'S FOR: People who are tired of productivity apps that feel like homework. People who want to be told the truth about their day. Terms of Use (Standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Custom Terms of Use: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yusfaydin/roke-legal/refs/heads/main/terms-of-use.md Privacy Policy: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yusfaydin/roke-legal/refs/heads/main/privacy-policy.md

Screenshots

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal4 screens
ROKE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: ROKE at 13.0 against Bear Markdown Notes & Journal's 16. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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 ROKE sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal versus ROKE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBear Markdown Notes & JournalROKE
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.9K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS1613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size230 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.YUSUF AYDIN

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

ROKE

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

ROKE

Subscriptions2
  • Roke Premium (Monthly)$4.991 Month
  • Roke Premium (Annual)$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Bear Markdown Notes & Journal free?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ROKE free?
ROKE is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or ROKE have ads?
Neither Bear Markdown Notes & Journal nor ROKE shows ads.

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