Comparison

Perfect OCR vs Bear

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Perfect OCR

Scan and convert documents into editable text with high accuracy. This app offers advanced image processing for clear scans, supports multiple languages for OCR, and allows easy sharing of documents as PDFs or text files. All processing is done offline for enhanced privacy.

Highlights
  • High-accuracy OCR for documents
  • Advanced image processing for clear scans
  • Email documents as PDF with text or image
  • Offline processing for data privacy
  • Multi-language OCR support
  • Automatic document edge detection
  • SureScan mode for jitter-free images
Features
Read full description

Perfect OCR gives you both a general purpose OCR app and a document scanner. Now you can scan and OCR your letter-size or A4 documents with an accuracy of 90% or more, edit, copy and store the recognized text, and e-mail your documents as PDF files with text, SINGLE page image, or both together! NOTE: To ensure the advertised results it is important that you follow the OCR TIPS below (or in the app's help). Perfect OCR scans your documents using advanced image-processing algorithms to eliminate uneven lighting and shadows and improve contrast. The result is the clearest and most readable scans possible from the iPhone's camera. Perfect OCR also offers SureScan, our proprietary scanning mode that delivers sharper images with less jitter or smear. Our unique "Email to myself" feature lets you send documents to a predefined address, or even upload them to an online storage service like Evernote or Box.net, with a single tap. Uploading documents to online services via email is fast, secure, and can be done even if you're temporarily off line. Refer to app help for details. All processing happens on your iPhone, and the confidentiality of your data is never compromised. There is also no subscription fee, and no Internet access is needed to scan documents or run OCR. PERFECT OCR FEATURES: • Letter-size or A4 page OCR with accuracy of 95% for model 3GS, 98% for iPhone 4, and up to 90% for 3G • OCR languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Ukrainian. • Email multipage PDFs with text, SINGLE page image, or both • Automatic document edge detection and perspective correction • Multipage text recognition with accuracy indicator • Text editing and copy-to-clipboard operations • Built-in OCR text archive with file sharing via iTunes • "Email to myself" feature • Email text and image files (.TXT + .JPG), or save image to library • Searchable PDFs with document images (single page) • Preserves simple text formatting • Option to auto-remove line breaks • SureScan mode for jitter-free scans • Simple yet powerful user interface • Instant brightness, rotation, and color controls • Compact attachments with adjustable size IMPORTANT TIPS FOR OCR: • Make sure your document is flat and well lit. Hold your iPhone still while shooting. • Always scan documents using "SureScan 3x" mode. • Glossy paper may not work well (avoid glare). • When scanning books keep the pages as flat as possible and your iPhone parallel to the surface. • Perfect OCR cannot recognize handwritten, very large text or spreadsheets correctly. • Make sure to select the right language for OCR in app settings. We're constantly improving Perfect OCR, and we value our customers' opinions and feedback. Please contact us at support@turboscanapp.com. If you have a problem with our software, please contact us before submitting a comment to the app store. We can solve most of the problems, but we cannot respond to comments.

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/

Screenshots

Perfect OCR4 screens
Bear4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Bear at Free against Perfect OCR's $0.99. Bear also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (6.9K vs 118). Perfect OCR's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On rating, 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

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Perfect OCR against 4.7 for Bear. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bear has 6.9K ratings behind it against 118, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Perfect OCR's written reviews are positive against 77% of Bear's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Perfect OCR ships an update every 2 months, Bear every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Perfect OCR versus Bear: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPerfect OCRBear
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (118 ratings) — better4.7 (6.9K ratings)
Positive reviews64.5% of reviews76.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1186.9K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFreemium — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS1616
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB230 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPiksoft Inc.Shiny Frog Ltd.

Customer experience

Perfect OCR

All ratings118 ratings
Positive94.9%
Neutral2.5%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews409 reviews
Positive64.5%
Neutral8.1%
Negative27.4%

Bear

All ratings6,871 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews1,754 reviews
Positive76.9%
Neutral9.5%
Negative13.7%

User reviews

Perfect OCR

From 118 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Accurate OCR
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 📤 Useful for scanning and emailing documents
  • 🔍 Good for capturing text from books and documents
  • 💡 Helpful for students and professionals

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and low memory issues on older devices
  • 🔍 Struggles with handwriting, low quality images, and complex layouts
  • 🔍 Limited language support
  • 🔍 Occasional errors in OCR output

Bear

From 6.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Elegant and minimalist design
  • 🚀 Smooth and fast performance
  • 💡 Flexible tagging system for organization
  • 🔒 Secure and private notes
  • 🎨 Customizable themes and fonts

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Subscription required for syncing and advanced features
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality within notes on iOS
  • 🖼️ Issues with image handling and resizing
  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes reported
  • 💻 Lack of web/Windows app for cross-platform access

Bugs and requests

Perfect OCR

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on iOS 4 devices
  • Issues with image capture and orientation
  • Inconsistent OCR performance

Requested features

5 requests
  • Support for more languages
  • Improved OCR accuracy
  • Ability to process multiple pages at once
  • Integration with cloud storage and productivity apps
  • Spell check and editing tools

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

In-app purchases

None

Perfect OCR

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Bear

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Perfect OCR free?
Perfect OCR costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bear free?
Bear is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Perfect OCR or Bear?
Perfect OCR is rated higher. Perfect OCR averages 4.7 out of 5 from 118 ratings, while Bear averages 4.7 from 6.9K ratings.
Do Perfect OCR or Bear have ads?
Neither Perfect OCR nor Bear shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Perfect OCR or Bear?
Perfect OCR ships an update every 2 months, and Bear every 2 weeks. Most recently, Perfect OCR was updated on October 21, 2026 and Bear on October 20, 2026.

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