Comparison

TheBrain vs Clear Bearing

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

Head to head
About

TheBrain

This app helps you capture, connect, and visualize all your ideas, notes, and files across devices. It acts as a digital memory, showing related items and allowing for dynamic mind mapping and powerful search to help you recall information instantly.

Highlights
  • Award-winning visualization
  • Networked notes with backlinks
  • Dynamic mind mapping
  • Easy idea capture
  • Cross-device sync
  • Powerful search
  • Visual file management
Features
Read full description

YOUR DIGITAL MEMORY. VISUALIZED. TheBrain is the unique knowledge app that helps you capture everything — ideas, notes, web pages, files, photos — and connect it all the way you naturally think. Stop hunting through folders, tabs, and search bars. Start seeing your knowledge as a living network you can navigate with a tap. Described by the Wall Street Journal as "Software that thinks like you do" and MacLife as "the most compelling mind mapping adaptation we've encountered." Winner of KMWorld's Trendsetting Products award. WHY THEBRAIN? Traditional notes apps trap your ideas in folders, tags, or endless lists. TheBrain lets every piece of information connect to anything else — so the right idea finds you the moment you need it. It's note-taking, mind mapping, file management, and AI rolled into one beautiful experience that works the same on every device. KEY FEATURES CEREBRO — TALK TO YOUR BRAIN WITH AI Our built-in agentic AI assistant. Ask Cerebro anything — and let it create new thoughts and notes, surface exactly what you need, summarize long documents, suggest meaningful links, or just have a conversation about what you know. It can do anything you can do — only faster. DYNAMIC THOUGHT NETWORK Move beyond conventional mind maps and folders. TheBrain's animated visualization shows your ideas, their context, and the relationships between them — at any scale. Tap a thought, and the entire network reorganizes around it. NETWORKED NOTES Rich notes shown in context with automatic backlinks and concept discovery. Hybrid WYSIWYG + Markdown writing, powerful tables, resizable images, math, and folding — all the modern editor essentials. EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE Attach web pages, PDFs, photos, and documents to any thought. Link people, projects, files, and ideas in a single living workspace. POWERFUL SEARCH Find any note, file, web page, or idea in seconds. Every match appears in the context of your thought network, so you instantly see how it relates to everything else you know. SEAMLESS SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Your brain is always with you. Mobile, Mac, Windows, Linux, and web stay in sync — even with large brains. Smart Sync downloads attachments on demand, keeping your brain fast and lightweight on every device. INFINITE SCALE Effortlessly handles hundreds of thousands of items and many gigabytes of data — without slowing down. COLLABORATE AND SHARE Publish your brain online for the world, or sync thoughts privately with your team. Great for shared knowledge bases, project planning, and team research. ==================================== WAYS TO USE THEBRAIN • Build your second brain — a living reflection of how you think, ready when you need it. • Manage everything in your life: projects, people, goals, files, and ideas in one place. • Capture interesting articles, videos, and references so they're activated when you need them. • Organize trips, travel, and major life events with all the right context at hand. • Power your research — go deeper on any concept and see how it connects to everything else. • Turn goals into action by linking them with the resources needed to achieve them. • Build a knowledge base that sparks new ideas and breakthroughs. • Link people, projects, and information for a smarter view of your business. • Create topic brains around your passions, hobbies, and special interests. • Plan personal projects like home renovations, weddings, or major purchases. GET STARTED IN MINUTES Start with a single thought — your name, a project, an idea you want to explore. Add a few connections. Within minutes you'll understand why people have trusted TheBrain for over two decades. For the best experience, install TheBrain on your phone, tablet, and computer. Our iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, and other mobile clients all sync seamlessly — your best thinking is always with you.

About

Clear Bearing

Features
Read full description

Clear Bearing takes the guesswork out of prioritization. Add your tasks, set importance and deadlines, and the app's personalized priority engine scores and ranks everything automatically — so you always know exactly what to focus on next. HOW IT WORKS Every task gets a priority score based on what matters: importance, deadline urgency, estimated effort, and custom tags you define. As deadlines approach and priorities shift, your list reorders itself in real time. SMART TAGS Create tags like "Work," "Health," or "Finance" and assign each one a priority weight. Schedule tag weights by day of the week — boost Work tasks on weekdays and Personal tasks on weekends. Set temporary overrides when priorities change unexpectedly. WIDGETS Home Screen widgets show your next task at a glance. Never open the app wondering what's next — it's already there. NOTIFICATIONS Set reminders with flexible timing. Multiple reminder offsets, daily repeats, and recurring tasks keep you on track without constant manual scheduling. CLEAR BEARING PRO Upgrade to Pro for unlimited tasks and cloud sync. Sign in with Apple and keep your tasks in sync across all your devices. Free users get up to 10 active tasks with full prioritization features. Clear Bearing is the app for people with multiple priorities — too much to do and not enough time. Let the priority engine decide what comes first. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

TheBrain4 screens
Clear Bearing4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: TheBrain at 3 against Clear Bearing's 1. TheBrain also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. TheBrain sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $17.99 per month and Clear Bearing sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $19.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
TheBrain versus Clear Bearing: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTheBrainClear Bearing
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (174 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews44.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings174 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size260 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTheBrain Technologies LPHyperMod LLC

Bugs and requests

TheBrain

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes on iOS 9
  • Inability to open brains
  • Freezing after each action
  • Login and account issues
  • Sync problems

Requested features

7 requests
  • Offline mode
  • Improved mobile UI and UX
  • Better integration with other apps
  • More affordable pricing options
  • Enhanced search and filtering
Show 2 more
  • Split-screen support on iPad
  • Handwriting and stylus support

Clear Bearing

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

TheBrain

Subscriptions2
  • TheBrain Pro Monthly$17.991 Month
  • TheBrain Pro Annual$189.991 Year
1 purchases

Clear Bearing

Subscriptions1
  • Clear Bearing Pro$19.991 Year

Questions

Is TheBrain free?
TheBrain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Clear Bearing free?
Clear Bearing is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do TheBrain or Clear Bearing have ads?
Neither TheBrain nor Clear Bearing shows ads.

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