Card Buddy vs Bebop
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Card Buddy
This app helps writers and content creators organize their thoughts and ideas on a digital canvas using index cards. It supports spatial organization, image integration, and text formatting to facilitate narrative development and brainstorming.
- Digital index cards
- Spatial organization on canvas
- Image integration
- Markdown text formatting
- Auto-styling for text
- Storyboarding and planning
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Card Buddy turns your screen into an infinite corkboard for index cards. Drag cards anywhere on the canvas and watch neighboring cards glide out of the way — outlining your story should feel as natural as moving notecards on a desk. Perfect for screenwriters, novelists, and anyone who thinks in cards. Lay out your beat sheet, rearrange plot points, and build your story one card at a time. Features: - Drag-and-drop index cards on a free-form canvas, with neighbors that move out of the way automatically - Two-sided cards — type a summary on the front, details on the back - Add images to any card for storyboards and moodboards - Three text styles: Plain, Auto-style (instant headers and subtitles), and Markdown - Kanban layout to organize cards into columns - Built for Mac and iPhone — your boards go where you do Whether you're breaking a screenplay, plotting a novel, or organizing research, Card Buddy keeps your ideas movable. Terms of use: https://www.ussherpress.com/cardbuddy/terms/ Privacy policy: https://www.ussherpress.com/cardbuddy/privacy/
Bebop
This app prioritizes speed and simplicity for capturing ideas as plain text. It offers seamless cloud syncing and integration with other apps, allowing for a clutter-free, capture-first mobile editing experience. Advanced features and customization are available through a one-time upgrade.
- Lightning-fast plain text capture
- Clutter-free interface
- iCloud Drive/Dropbox sync
- Open plain-text formats (.txt, .md)
- Customizable headers, footers, filenames
- Flashback recent notes
- Share extension for saving content
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Bebop helps you get down your ideas, fast. It assumes that review and organization are better done on larger screens—that a mobile text editor should be lightning-fast, clutter-free, and capture-first. • No ads, no logins, no tracking: Files are synced natively to your chosen iCloud Drive or Dropbox folder • BYOMA (Bring Your Own MacOS App): Open plain-text formats like .txt and .md/markdown plug neatly into Obsidian • Custom headers, footers, and filename formats: To work with your workflow • Flashback notes: Cycle through recent notes with a single tap • Share extension: Quickly save links and text from other iOS apps • Widgets and shortcut: Launch Bebop in any number of ways • Unlimited notes (even for free users) For a one-time Pro upgrade (no subscriptions!) you’ll also get color themes, custom templating, power-user settings, and help support future development. --- Bebop is made by Jack Cheng, an author and solo developer in Detroit, Michigan. More info and privacy policy: https://www.jackcheng.com/bebop/ * Dropbox sync requires you to have the Dropbox iOS app installed.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bebop at 4.9 against Card Buddy's 4.4. Bebop also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (95% vs 85%). Card Buddy's advantage is device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, 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. Card Buddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Bebop sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bebop holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 38 and 43 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Card Buddy's written reviews are positive against 95% of Bebop's.
Card Buddy ships an update every 2 months, Bebop every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 5, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Card Buddy | Bebop |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (38 ratings) | 4.9 (43 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.9% of reviews | 95.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 38 | 43 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Allen Ussher | Jack Cheng LLC |
Customer experience
Card Buddy
Bebop
Bugs and requests
Card Buddy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Trial mode does not allow saving
- Images not displaying adequately
- Double-tap zoom out feature interrupts text selection
Requested features
19 requests- Tagging individual cards
- Apple Pencil support
- More keyboard shortcuts
- Support for multiple canvases within a single document
- More customized options for text formatting, fonts, and colors
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- Auto update to cloud option
- Form of auto version number on save
- Dropping small video clips
- Templates
- Fit to window view
- Grab function for moving the board
- Linking notes
- Basic formatting (Bold, Italics, underline, highlight, color)
- Share outline with others for editing
- iPhone version
- Duplicating boards
- Duplicating cards
- Disabling double-tap zoom out feature or making it customizable
- Adding back previous document type options (Storyboard, Kanban, etc.)
Bebop
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Card Buddy
- Non-expiring License$19.99
Bebop
- Pro Upgrade$4.99









