Comparison

Bamboo vs Memex

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

Head to head
About

Bamboo

This app is a Markdown note-taking tool for organizing knowledge and utilizing AI features. It allows users to capture ideas, write long-form content, and connect notes with wiki links. AI assistance is available for drafting, summarizing, and brainstorming, with users controlling their AI provider.

Highlights
  • Markdown editor with syntax highlighting
  • Wiki link creation for connecting notes
  • AI assistance for drafting and summarizing
  • Organize notes into collections
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Import and export content
Features
Read full description

Bamboo is a Markdown notes app for writing, organizing knowledge, and using AI on your own terms. Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with Web Clipper support, Bamboo helps you capture ideas anywhere and continue working across devices. Capture quick notes, long-form documents, tasks, reminders, research, meeting notes, reading highlights, and personal knowledge. Bamboo keeps your notes in Markdown so they stay portable, readable, and easy to manage. WRITE AND CAPTURE Use a focused Markdown editor with syntax highlighting, task lists, tables, wiki links, footnotes, highlights, math, images, and attachments. Keep ideas, notes, reminders, and tasks together so writing, thinking, and planning stay in one place. ORGANIZE AND CONNECT Organize notes into collections for projects, areas, archives, or research spaces. Connect ideas with wiki links, pin important notes, star favorites, and build a knowledge base that stays easy to navigate as it grows. AI ASSISTANCE, UNDER YOUR CONTROL Bamboo Pro lets you connect supported AI providers and use assistant features directly in your notes. Draft, rewrite, summarize, brainstorm ideas, and work with selected content without leaving your workspace. You stay in control of the provider and model you use. KEEP YOUR NOTES YOURS Your notes stay in Markdown, making them easy to move, back up, and keep for the long term. Search across notes, revisit recent work, import and export your content, create backups, and keep your work available across devices with optional Bamboo Pro features such as iCloud Sync, HTML export, and PDF export. Bamboo includes optional auto-renewable monthly and yearly Pro subscriptions. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. You can manage subscriptions in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://zhigui.github.io/app-docs/bamboo/privacy_policy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Memex

Organize your Markdown notes and PDFs on an infinite canvas. Connect documents, sketch with Apple Pencil, and use an AI chat to ask questions about your gathered information. Your files remain private and accessible via iCloud Drive.

Highlights
  • Infinite canvas for notes and PDFs
  • AI chat to query your documents
  • Apple Pencil handwriting and sketching
  • Markdown rendering as live cards
  • Organize and connect content with arrows
  • Export content as images
Features
Read full description

Memex puts your Markdown notes and PDFs on an infinite canvas, with an AI chat that reads them. Any document can sit on the canvas as a live, readable card. Arrange and connect your cards, write around them with Apple Pencil, and ask the chat about what you have gathered. ON THE CANVAS - Markdown documents render as live cards, not links - PDFs sit on the canvas as cards showing their first page - Draw arrows between cards and gather them into groups - Handwrite and sketch next to your typed notes with Apple Pencil - On iOS 27, search finds your handwriting as well as your typed notes - Push cards to another canvas as your thinking changes - Type @ to link to anything in your library, or @here to link the spot you are on - Add text, code blocks, tables, images and embeds CHAT WITH YOUR NOTES - Add a card, a whole document or a PDF to the chat, or type straight in - Ask about your notes in plain words - Put any reply back on your canvas as a card - The chat is there on canvases, documents and PDFs MAKE IMAGES - Select typed text, or handwriting on iOS 27, and tap Make image - The picture lands on your canvas and in your library YOUR FILES STAY YOURS - Documents and canvases are plain files in your iCloud Drive, visible in the Files app - No Memex account, no lock-in - The AI sees only what you add to the chat. Your messages and that context go through our server, which stores none of it, to OpenAI via OpenRouter BUILT FOR IPAD AND APPLE PENCIL Memex is designed for iPad first, with Pencil writing directly on the canvas. It also runs on iPhone and Mac. ONE SUBSCRIPTION One Memex subscription unlocks the complete app, including 500 AI credits a month: a chat message uses 1 credit and an image uses 10. Credits reset on the 1st of each month (UTC) and don't roll over. Take the hands-on welcome tour, then try the chat with 5 free messages before you subscribe. Eligible new subscribers get a 7-day free trial. Choose $9.95 monthly or $79.99 yearly. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Bamboo4 screens
Memex4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Memex at none against Bamboo's 2. Memex also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Bamboo sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Memex asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bamboo against 5.0 for Memex. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bamboo ships an update every 2 months, Memex fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Bamboo versus Memex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBambooMemex
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer志贵 陈Alex Morris

Customer experience

Bamboo

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

Memex

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

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bamboo

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Annual Pro7 Days trial$29.991 Year
None

Memex

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bamboo free?
Bamboo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Memex free?
Memex is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bamboo or Memex?
Bamboo and Memex are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Bamboo or Memex have ads?
Neither Bamboo nor Memex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bamboo or Memex?
Bamboo ships an update every 2 months, and Memex fortnightly. Most recently, Bamboo was updated on October 16, 2026 and Memex on October 16, 2026.

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