Comparison

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal vs Lumo

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

Capture, write, and organize your thoughts and ideas with a beautiful and powerful Markdown editor. Create lists, tasks, link notes, and export in various formats. Offers a private and distraction-free writing experience.

Highlights
  • Markdown editor with formatting
  • Note linking and organization with tags
  • Task creation and management
  • Web content clipping
  • Apple Pencil sketching support
  • Export to multiple formats
  • Dictate notes with Apple Watch
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

Lumo

Features
Read full description

Lumo is a small, invite-only room of people actually doing the work — a focus club for students and anyone with something to build. ONE THING A DAY Every morning, name your one thing. Close your three rings — Show up, Lock in, Lift up — and your circle sees you showed up today. No endless to-do list. Just the thing that matters. FOCUS, TOGETHER Start a session and your circle sees you're heads-down; when you're free, they know it's a good time to reach out. A beautiful focus timer for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Every finished block is a win — with a streak to protect and kudos from friends. INVITE-ONLY Lumo grows by who you bring. You get in with a code from a friend, and every member gets a few to hand out. A small room, not a feed. TIED TO YOUR REAL GOALS Your focus ladders up into the goals you actually care about — the class, the race, the project — not points in an app. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, no passwords — just your iCloud. No ads, no trackers, no data sold. Apple-only, on purpose. Lumo is free. Lumo Pro is an optional one-time purchase that lifts the limit on how big your circle can get.

Screenshots

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal4 screens
Lumo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Bear Markdown Notes & Journal at every 10 days against Lumo's every 2 months. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal also leads on iOS requirement (16 vs 18.0). 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 Lumo sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, Lumo every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal versus Lumo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBear Markdown Notes & JournalLumo
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.9K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS16 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size263 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.Amol Srivastava

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

Lumo

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
1 purchases

Lumo

One-time1
  • Lumo Pro$0.99

Questions

Is Bear Markdown Notes & Journal free?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lumo free?
Lumo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or Lumo have ads?
Neither Bear Markdown Notes & Journal nor Lumo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or Lumo?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, and Lumo every 2 months. Most recently, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal was updated on November 4, 2026 and Lumo on October 28, 2026.

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