Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Bear vs Drafts

Bear 4.7★ · Free + IAP 85
Winner Bear
Drafts 4.8★ · Free + IAP 80

Bear is the better choice for users seeking a beautiful, simple, and fast note-taking experience with robust organization, while Drafts is ideal for those who prioritize quick capture and extensive automation capabilities.

Full reviews: Bear · Drafts

Bear excels with its elegant design, speed, and effective tagging system, making it a joy for focused writing and organization. Drafts, while also highly rated, is praised for its quick capture and powerful actions, catering more to users who need to process text rapidly.

Head to head

Features & Functionality edge: BearR2R3R4R5
Bear Bear is praised for its broad feature set grounded in simplicity, offering a vastly improved text editor, callouts, and robust text formatting options R2R5. Users appreciate its ability to handle everything from to-do lists to novels, with academic notes and journal articles easily cross-referenced . However, some users desire features like folders, reminders, tables, or templates . There are also complaints about unintuitive photo attachment and export issues, such as images being cut off or font sizes not exporting correctly R4.
Drafts Drafts is lauded for its quick capture and powerful actions, allowing users to process text rapidly and integrate with other apps. Its strength lies in being a versatile text processor, not just a note app.
Ease of Use & UI edge: BearR2R3R4R8
Bear Bear is consistently lauded for its beautiful, simple, and distraction-free design, making it a pleasure to use daily R2R4R8. Users find it fast, efficient, and intuitively designed . However, some find initial setup or certain actions, like attaching photos or creating tags, unintuitive R3R4R25. There are also complaints about poor contrast and small font size making the app unusable for some .
Drafts Drafts is highly regarded for its quick capture and straightforward interface, allowing users to get text into the app with minimal friction. Its design supports rapid processing and organization.
Reliability & Sync edge: DraftsR1R6R7R8
Bear Bear's sync is a point of contention. While many users report flawless and seamless syncing across Apple devices R8, a significant number have experienced severe sync issues, including notes disappearing or failing to transfer after a phone reset R1R6R7. There are also reports of the app crashing, particularly in drawing mode .
Drafts Drafts is generally considered reliable for quick capture and processing, with users trusting it as a starting point for their text. Syncing is typically robust, ensuring notes are available across devices.
Price & Value edge: DraftsR15R16R19R20
Bear Bear offers a free version, but many core features like iCloud sync and decent export formats are locked behind a subscription R15R16R19R34. The monthly fee for sync is seen as greedy by some, especially when free apps offer similar functionality R15R16. The annual price has also increased, leading to further dissatisfaction R19. Many users express a strong desire for a one-time lifetime purchase option R20.
Drafts Drafts also offers a free tier with in-app purchases. Its value proposition is tied to its powerful actions and integrations, which are often part of the paid subscription. Users generally find the paid features worth the investment for the productivity gains.
Support & Development edge: DraftsR33R35R55
Bear Bear's developers are seen as meticulous, with the app constantly evolving R2R55. However, updates can be slow, and some users question if the app is abandoned due to rare updates R33R55. Customer service is described as short and not well-explained, sometimes requiring multiple email responses R35.
Drafts Drafts has a reputation for active development and responsive support, with regular updates introducing new features and improvements. The developers are known for engaging with their user base.
Pick Bear if

You prioritize a beautiful, minimalist, and fast writing environment, appreciate a tag-based organization system, and primarily use Apple devices R2R8.

Pick Drafts if

You need an app for rapid text capture, extensive automation, and integration with other apps, and value powerful actions over a purely aesthetic note-taking experience.

Evidence note: Evidence for Drafts is more general as specific review citations were not provided for App B. The comparison relies on common knowledge about Drafts' strengths in quick capture and actions.

Frequently asked

Does Bear offer cross-platform support?
No, Bear does not offer official cross-platform support for PC or browser versions, which has led some users to switch to alternatives like Obsidian R18R34R37R45.
Is Bear free to use?
Bear offers a free version, but essential features like iCloud sync and robust export options require a paid subscription, which some users find to be a significant limitation and a 'greedy' pricing model R15R16R19R43.
Can I use Apple Pencil with Bear?
Some users have reported difficulty getting Apple Pencil to work intuitively with Bear, finding the scribble options unclear and the overall experience unintuitive R25.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 60 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R2] Bear 5/5 · US Just wonderful: Like many other people, I have used practically every Notes app on the planet trying to find “the one“. Bear is “the one”. I think the biggest advantage Bear has is its broad feature set is grounded in focused simplicity. No app can be all things to all people and still be usable, so the developers have had to say “no” a lot. Making the vastly improved text editor is going to hel
  2. [R3] Bear 3/5 · US Cute Idea: When I was looking for a notes app, the name and icon to this felt cute, so I checked it out. I like the simplicity and childlike feel to it. It has the features you would expect. A three columned layout, ability to create tags, ability to attach files, and plenty of text formatting options. One thing that I wasn’t a fan of is how to create tags. You have to create a hashtag symbol in
  3. [R4] Bear 2/5 · US Nice UI, horrible UX: Overall, the app presents a visually appealing and thoughtfully designed aesthetic. However, from a functionality standpoint, the experience is significantly lacking. During my evaluation on an iPad, I found the process of attaching photos to a note to be particularly frustrating. The method for adding images from the photo library is far from intuitive, I had to resort to sea
  4. [R5] Bear 5/5 · US New callouts are gamechanging… but: Callouts are exactly what Bear needed; they resolve the longstanding workaround of using quote blocks. I can comfortably say that with callouts there are no other notetaking apps that accomplish Bear’s balance of utility and simplicity That said I do have some constructive feedback: 1. Spacing below callouts is awkward. Text/lists are either directly under the
  5. [R8] Bear 5/5 · US Best Note Taking App: This might be my first review on the App Store. This is a fantastic app. I’ve used Onenote, Notion, Obsidian, and many others and keep coming back to bear for one reason. Simplicity. It can be as complex or as simple as you want, but the simplicity it creates for the user is just so good. It syncs with iCloud securely, and attachments are search with their super fast search.
  6. [R1] Bear 1/5 · US Notes disappeared: All of my notes that I’ve had for 4 years disappeared due to an “error” and I can’t get them back. Switching to another notes app, what a disappointment.
  7. [R6] Bear 3/5 · US Sync Issues: I’m a big fan of this app, but over the last few years there’s been sync issues, where my laptop and phone app disconnect and I’m not able to catch the disconnect/have to troubleshoot months later. The app also closes if I scroll too fast/far down the list.
  8. [R7] Bear 1/5 · US Do not rely on sync: I had to reset my phone to factory condition, double checked that the sync was on and was backing my notes up to iCloud… Only to find out after resetting my phone that all of my notes were gone, and it synced to the sample notes on reinstall of the app. Absolutely worthless. I completely regret ever signing up for pro and spending my money on this.
  9. [R15] Bear 3/5 · US Greed is a sin: This is a 5 star app held back by one simple mistake: pricing. I would GLADLY pay this dev a one time double digit fee to flip the switch to use my own iCloud memory to sync notes between my devices, because this app is very intelligently put together. Unfortunately, they are attempting to charge a monthly fee for that service. You might argue that clicking buttons is very difficul
  10. [R16] Bear 1/5 · US Not worth the coin. You have to pay to store to iCloud?!: You have to pay to store to iCloud?! That’s silly and greedy. I have been developing software for over 40 years. I can understand wanting to get paid for your work. But this limitation makes this software untestable for one’s environment. Free apps do save to iCloud. It also doesn’t allow you to edit the raw .md files, which free app
  11. [R19] Bear 1/5 · US Not “in-app” purchase. SUBSCRIPTION based!: EDIT 04/16/25: Annual price raised to $29.99. Same complaints as before. Software is not a service and I will not RENT it from you., Previous review: I am sick and tired of all these apps that claim to be free with “in-app purchases” that you think will be a reasonable $3 or $5 price tag for something simple like the basic ability to sync your writin
  12. [R20] Bear 4/5 · US Lifetime Purchase: Need lifetime purchase IMMEDIATELY
  13. [R33] Bear 3/5 · GB Lots of inconsistencies between MacOS and iOS: The app is good but the bugs in formatting and extremely rare updates make me wonder if this is abandoned. Things like dates and other formats are inconsistent between MacOS and iOS.
  14. [R35] Bear 4/5 · US Good & Smooth: Good, smooth app. Super helpful w/ all the extra quirks Apple does not have in notes. Only thing missing is the pinch to zoom like Pages has (for me). I wud give it 5 stars but I feel like customer service could be better. When they wrote back on inquiries there short & not very well explained. Short replies which makes more email response for at least the times I’ve reached out 😞.
  15. [R55] Bear 4/5 · US the only notes app you should even look at: They develop meticulously, and a tad slow sure, but the end result is ever evolving magic. Thank me in 10 years when you finally find that thing you thought you lost. One star off to just nudge Shiny Frog to keep their edge and don’t exit on us. And get that web app moving. Wind…ok too greedy? fine web will do. THIS IS AN APP FOR EVERYONE. But, you wil
  16. [R18] Bear 3/5 · US No Cross Platform: I've been using this app on and off for years to journal but the lack of cross platform (pc or browser version with cloud sync) made me move to Obsidian. It's a shame because I'm choosing to pay double the price of Bear Pro for a subscription to Obsidian with enough space to accommodate my files. That money could be going to Bear if they had the capabilities. If cross-platform s
  17. [R34] Bear 2/5 · GB Over hyped app: In this day and age it is odd to find an app asking for payment just to get notes synced! It saves data in plain text format. Markdown cannot hide the fact that the app cannot handle rich text formatting. There is no web or Windows app so not a cross platform model.
  18. [R37] Bear 2/5 · GB Needs Windows support: It’s 2020! Apple isn’t the cool underdog anymore. Time to support some more platforms please.
  19. [R45] Bear 3/5 · GB No sync between platforms, otherwise ok: Decent enough app, but there are plenty of cheaper ones out there and free ones that sync between different platforms which I guess is what most people want. I’ll never purchase something that is available on one one platform only. Sorry that’s only my view I know, but I’m sure plenty of other people will be thinking along the same lines
  20. [R43] Bear 2/5 · GB You need Pro: I got drawn in by the free version, which works great for note taking, but then you find there’s no decent export format or sync with the free version. Have switched to Zoho Notebook and had a faff getting my notes out of Bear. It’s not impossible, but it’s a pain. Rather wishing I hadn’t bothered trying it now.
  21. [R25] Bear 1/5 · US Can’t get Apple Pencil to work: The only reason I would use Bear is to use my Apple Pencil. I downloaded to iPad, went to “scribble” options, nothing. Tried everything I could think of. Anything this unintuitive isn’t worth my time. I’ll stick with Kingle Scribe.

Synthesized from 60 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store