Comparison

Bear vs Don Forgetto

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

Don Forgetto

Features
Read full description

Don Forgetto is a voice-first task app for people who think faster than they type. Open the app, say what you need to remember, and Don Forgetto turns it into a task with live on-device transcription. You can keep typing while you speak, edit the text freely, set a reminder, and place the task on a visual urgency × importance heatmap instead of digging through priority menus. Your task list becomes a front page. Search your notes, sort them by reminder, priority, age or name, filter by area or status, and choose your layout: the list, the full task map, or both at once. Open any task to edit its text, replay the original audio, adjust its reminder, mark it done, or move it on the heatmap. Reminders come to you. A reminder can repeat on a cadence you choose, and when one fires it appears as a Live Activity on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island — with a countdown, the tasks queued behind it, and buttons to snooze or mark it done without opening the app. Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets put your priority heatmap, your next reminders, and a one-tap voice capture a glance away. The whole app speaks your language. Interface and transcription are fully localized in English and Polish. On supported devices, FORGETTO, the private on-device assistant, can help you search, summarize, create, and reprioritize tasks conversationally. Features: • Voice-first task capture with live transcription • Hybrid typing and speech in one editable note • Urgency × importance heatmap for visual prioritization • Repeating reminders with a clock-style picker • Live Activity reminders on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, with snooze and mark-done • Widgets: priority heatmap, upcoming reminders, activity, and quick voice capture • Full task map with zoom, clusters, unfiled tasks, and quick previews • List, map, or side-by-side layouts • Sorting, keyword search, and filters by area, priority, and status • Completed tasks kept out of the way until you want them • Audio playback with waveform view • iCloud sync across devices • On-device assistant on supported Apple Intelligence devices • Fully localized in English and Polish • Newspaper-inspired design with light and dark appearance Don Forgetto helps you catch the thought before it disappears, then gives it a place, a priority, and a reminder.

Screenshots

Bear4 screens
Don Forgetto4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Bear at Free against Don Forgetto's $0.99. Bear also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (16 vs 26.2). Don Forgetto's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On update cadence 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

Bear is free to download; Don Forgetto costs $0.99 up front. Bear sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Don Forgetto asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bear ships an update every 2 weeks, Don Forgetto weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bear versus Don Forgetto: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBearDon Forgetto
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.9K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size230 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.PAKUMI SP. Z O.O.

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

Don Forgetto

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

Don Forgetto

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bear free?
Bear is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Don Forgetto free?
Don Forgetto costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Bear or Don Forgetto have ads?
Neither Bear nor Don Forgetto shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bear or Don Forgetto?
Bear ships an update every 2 weeks, and Don Forgetto weekly. Most recently, Bear was updated on October 18, 2026 and Don Forgetto on September 27, 2026.

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