Bear vs Rounds
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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/
Rounds
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Know what needs care. Record what you did. Rounds helps you look after a home, property, workshop, garden, boat, or the equipment that matters to you. See what needs attention today, move through a round without losing your place, and leave a useful history at every checkpoint. CARE FOR THE REAL THINGS • Start with a named checkpoint. Add a place or round only when it helps. • Group checkpoints into an ordered round for a regular walk. • Give each round its own schedule and optional personal reminder. • Scan a QR label when you are there, or choose the checkpoint manually. RECORD WHAT HAPPENED • Mark a checkpoint OK or report an issue in seconds. • Add optional notes and photos to checks, issues, repairs, and other work. • Keep an issue open until it is repaired. • Return to one clear history for every checkpoint. STAY ON TOP OF TODAY • See active, due, overdue, and unresolved care in one calm list. • Resume a round after an interruption. • Add Rounds Today or Rounds Schedule to your Home Screen. Rounds Pro widgets show what needs attention and the next scheduled rounds. • Work offline; when iCloud is enabled, your care records can sync privately across your own Apple devices. FREE AND PRO Free includes up to five active checkpoints, one round with its schedule and reminder, checks, issues, repairs, work, notes, photos, history, iCloud sync, and standard QR labels. Rounds Pro adds unlimited checkpoints and rounds, two Home Screen widgets, PDF care reports, and premium print formats. Pro is available as a monthly auto-renewing subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Prices, eligibility, and terms are shown before purchase and vary by region. The monthly subscription renews automatically until cancelled in your Apple Account settings. Existing history stays readable after Pro ends. Rounds does not use GPS, employee tracking, advertising SDKs, or a separate Rounds account. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Rounds at every 2 days against Bear's every 2 weeks. Bear's advantage is device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (16 vs 18.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Rounds sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bear ships an update every 2 weeks, Rounds every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bear | Rounds |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 230 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shiny Frog Ltd. | MIŁOSZ CHODKOWSKI |
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
Rounds
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bear
- Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Rounds
- Rounds Pro1 Month trial$1.991 Month
- Rounds Pro Lifetime$19.99









