What is Bear used for?

Bear is a notes and writing app for Apple devices that uses Markdown, with tags and nested organization, designed for working in a clean interface. It is a good fit for personal notes and journaling, and writing drafts in Markdown.

Yes. Bear has a free plan, and paid plans start at $2.99 per month. A free trial is also available.

No. Bear is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Bear include FSNotes, Hubble.md and WitNote.

What are some alternatives to Bear?

Bear competes with Obsidian, Evernote and Ulysses. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Bear alternatives.

Bear: features, pricing and alternatives

About Bear

Bear is a proprietary notes and writing app for Apple devices. It uses Markdown for formatting and organizes notes with tags, including nested tags, rather than a rigid folder structure, which makes it popular with people who write often and want a calm interface.

As a native app for the Apple ecosystem it runs on the user's own devices and is not a self-hosted server product. It is relevant to Mac and iPhone users comparing notes and Markdown editors; check the vendor's site for the current feature list, platforms and pricing.

Key features

Markdown note editing
Tags with nested organization
Native app for Apple devices
Clean writing interface

Good fit for

→Personal notes and journaling
→Writing drafts in Markdown

Tags: notes; markdown; apple; tags; note-taking; writing

Bear: questions and answers

What is Bear used for?: Bear is a notes and writing app for Apple devices that uses Markdown, with tags and nested organization, designed for working in a clean interface. It is a good fit for personal notes and journaling, and writing drafts in Markdown.
Is Bear free?: Yes. Bear has a free plan, and paid plans start at $2.99 per month. A free trial is also available.
Is Bear open source?: No. Bear is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Bear include FSNotes, Hubble.md and WitNote.
What are some alternatives to Bear?: Bear competes with Obsidian, Evernote and Ulysses. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Bear alternatives.