Comparison

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal vs Forgor

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

Forgor

Never miss an important date again. This app helps you track bills, renewals, birthdays, and appointments with timely nudges. It automatically imports dates from your calendars, photos, texts, and emails, and allows household sharing.

Highlights
  • Automated date tracking
  • Customizable early nudges
  • Import from calendars, photos, texts, emails
  • Household sharing for joint reminders
  • Categorization of important dates
  • No overdue items, automatic rollovers
Read full description

Bills, renewals, birthdays, passports, registrations, trials, appointments: the dates that cost you something when they slip. Forgor keeps them all on one list and nudges you early, with nothing to check off and nothing ever overdue. You forgor. We didn't. WHAT'S DUE THIS MONTH Coming up shows the next 30 days, with a countdown on every date and a plain total for anything that costs money. Months shows the rest of the year. Search finds anything, however far out. A NUDGE, NOT A NAG One notification per date, early enough to do something about it. Two weeks by default; two months for a passport, three days for a prescription, or whatever you set. You pick the hour. Add an on-the-day nudge if you like, or snooze one. No badges, no daily digest. NOTHING IS EVER OVERDUE Birthdays, anniversaries and yearly renewals roll forward on their own. Weekly and monthly bills repeat until the end date you set. No checkboxes, no red, no guilt. EVERY KIND OF DATE, ONE PLACE Anniversaries, Home, Car, Documents, Health and Money are ready to go. Add Pets, Subscriptions, Kids, School, Travel, Rentals & leases, Garden, Work and more in one tap, or make your own. Car registration and inspection, oil changes, insurance renewals, driver's license and passport renewals, air filters, pest control, HOA and property tax, credit card due dates, gym and streaming subscriptions, trial end dates, vet shots, warranties, birthdays, anniversaries and remembrance days. BRING DATES IN WITHOUT TYPING - Your calendars: Forgor reads the calendars on your iPhone (iCloud, Google, Outlook), picks out the dates worth a nudge and leaves the meetings alone. It won't double up what you already have, and if an event moves, you'll know. - A photo: point the camera at a bill, a card or a flyer. The date, time, price and address come off it, read on your phone. - A text: share an appointment or an invite from Messages straight to Forgor. - An email: forward a renewal or a booking to your household's own Forgor address and it shows up ready to keep. - Contacts: bring in birthdays and anniversaries. - Holidays: US holidays, plus a nudge a week before Mother's Day, Father's Day and Valentine's Day. ONE HOUSEHOLD, ONE LIST Invite your partner, your parents or your roommates. Each date says who it's for, so the right person gets the nudge. Keep a date private when it's only yours. THE DETAILS Put an amount, a time and an address on any date; tap the address for directions. Subscriptions get a shortcut to manage them in the App Store. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No ads. No tracking. No bank logins, ever. Calendar access is read-only, and calendars, photos and contacts are only read once you turn them on. Nothing you keep is used to train a model. Delete your account and everything in it from Settings. Save it once. Forget it on purpose.

Screenshots

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal4 screens
Forgor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Forgor at none against Bear Markdown Notes & Journal's 2. Forgor also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Bear Markdown Notes & Journal's advantage is ratings volume (6.9K vs 2) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and iOS requirement 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. Forgor asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Forgor holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bear Markdown Notes & Journal has 6.9K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, Forgor every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 14, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal versus Forgor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBear Markdown Notes & JournalForgor
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.9K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.9K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size263 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShiny Frog Ltd.Shaileen Shah

Customer experience

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal

All ratings6,867 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews1,759 reviews
Positive76.9%
Neutral9.4%
Negative13.7%

Forgor

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Forgor

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
None

Forgor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bear Markdown Notes & Journal free?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Forgor free?
Forgor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or Forgor?
Forgor is rated higher. Bear Markdown Notes & Journal averages 4.7 out of 5 from 6.9K ratings, while Forgor averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or Forgor have ads?
Neither Bear Markdown Notes & Journal nor Forgor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal or Forgor?
Bear Markdown Notes & Journal ships an update every 10 days, and Forgor every 3 weeks. Most recently, Bear Markdown Notes & Journal was updated on November 14, 2026 and Forgor on November 13, 2026.

Other comparisons