Bamboo vs Raven
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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/
Raven
This app allows you to quickly open and write markdown notes as plain .md files. It offers fast launch times, native performance on iPhone and Mac, and seamless syncing between devices. Your notes are stored directly in your file system for easy access and integration with other tools.
- Plain .md file storage
- Under a second launch time
- Native iPhone and Mac app
- Full-text search
- Nested folders and pinned notes
- Syncs between Mac and iPhone
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Beautiful notes. Never locked in. Raven is a native Markdown notes app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Write, journal, capture articles, and turn checkboxes into reminders—without putting your work in a proprietary note format. WRITE WITH CONTEXT Create notes with tables, images, checklists, code blocks, wiki links, and backlinks. Organize them with folders and tags, pin what matters, and find anything with full-text search. TURN NOTES INTO ACTION A checkbox can become a task with a due date and time. Raven gathers open tasks from across your notes, keeps each one linked to its source, and can send a local reminder when it is due. Complete or snooze it from the notification. JOURNAL WITHOUT ANOTHER SILO Daily and weekly journals live beside the rest of your writing. Save articles to Read Later, or capture a thought from widgets, Shortcuts, and the share sheet. MARKDOWN YOU CAN KEEP Raven works offline without an account. Keep notes on this device, choose a folder on Mac, or use iCloud Drive to keep the same Markdown files available in Files and Finder across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. No proprietary note format. No forced account. One purchase, with no subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Bamboo at Free against Raven's $12.99. Raven's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). On rating, ads, device support 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
Bamboo is free to download; Raven costs $12.99 up front. Bamboo sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Raven asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bamboo against 5.0 for Raven. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.
Bamboo ships an update every 2 months, Raven every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bamboo | Raven |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $12.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 75.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 56 MB | 88 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 志贵 陈 | Thomas Sivilay |
Customer experience
Bamboo
Raven
In-app purchases
Bamboo
- Monthly Pro7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Annual Pro7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Raven
No in-app purchases









