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Bear - Markdown Notes

Bear - Markdown Notes

Clean text editor for focus

6.9K ratings
1749 reviews
🔧 Utilities
📊 Productivity
Free
In-App Purchases

Details

  • Released
  • Updated

Features

Developer

Shiny Frog Ltd.
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Bear - Markdown Notes screenshot #1 for iPhone
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Bear - Markdown Notes screenshot #5 for iPhone
Bear - Markdown Notes screenshot #6 for iPhone
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Reviews summary↘︎
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🎪3 available
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❓5 answered
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📦~ in 1 week
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About

A beautiful and simple Markdown app for capturing, writing, and organizing your thoughts and ideas. It offers a distraction-free writing environment, flexible formatting, and powerful organizational tools like tags and tasks. Ideal for anyone looking to streamline their note-taking and creative processes.

✓Distraction-free writing environment
✓Flexible Markdown formatting
✓Tag-based organization
✓Task management
✓Note linking (WikiLinks)
✓Web clipping extension
✓Apple Pencil sketching
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What users say

Summarized from real user reviews of Bear. Based on 6.9K reviews and a 4.7/5 average, it highlights the 7 positives and 5 negatives reviewers mention most about this Productivity app.

Positive things

  • 👍Elegant and minimalist design
  • 🚀Smooth and fast performance
  • 💡Flexible tagging system for organization
  • 🔒Secure and private notes
  • 🎨Customizable themes and fonts
  • 📱Seamless sync across devices
  • ✨Charming and inspiring user experience

Negative things

  • 🔒Subscription required for syncing and advanced features
  • 🔍Limited search functionality within notes on iOS
  • 🖼️Issues with image handling and resizing
  • 🐛Occasional bugs and crashes reported
  • 💻Lack of web/Windows app for cross-platform access
See all reviews
+1

What's New in Bear

2.9.4

September 2, 2026

- New splash screen when the app is opened - New Shortcuts action and XCallaBackURLs for opening and closing Workspaces - Corrected capitalization inconsistencies in lists, headers, quotes, and callouts - Fixed Scribble not working correctly in lists - Fixed caret position bug when creating a new note via camera/scanner/to-do from the Home Screen - Fixed a memory leak affecting the editor - Better handling of dictation in lists - Performance improvements for large tables - Updated the Web Clipper's HTML-to-Markdown converter - Various iOS 18 UI fixes - Small update to the Solarized Dark theme

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Subscription plans

Monthly Pro subscription

Full access to all features for 30 days.

$2.991 Month
7 Days trial
How to cancel Bear subscription ⁉️

Events

Read more about Write Mermaid diagrams in Bear
Event EndedMajor Update

Write Mermaid diagrams in Bear

Draw diagrams and charts right inside your notes

Jul 28, 2026 — Aug 28, 2026

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Read more about 小小标签，变为大大「工作区」
Event EndedMajor Update

小小标签，变为大大「工作区」

清除干扰，专注当下。

Jul 16, 2026 — Aug 16, 2026

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Read more about Bear TagCons got a new look!
Event EndedMajor Update

Bear TagCons got a new look!

Make your tags standing out in the Sidebar, and...

Mar 20, 2026 — Apr 20, 2026

Read More

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User reviews

Most RecentHighest RatedLowest Rated

Beautiful interface and system

Tags are great for organisation
14lvn14lvn

Just keeps getting better

Love Bear, love everything about it. And the recent addition of mermaid and workspace as tags just keep making it better. It truly is a dream app.
avclubavclub

Please, shut down your web app

I'm an otherwise happy paying subscriber of beer for the last nearly two and a half years, but the web app on Windows and Chrome just simply broken which does not sync. It made me lose two hours of my intense research. Shame on the developers for shipping such a useless web app which does not even sync nor inform the user to save their work

Just please shut it down. It's okay, we will not mind that, but giving me a web app which does not indicate that it is not syncing, and then when you put the laptop to sleep and reopen the laptop, it syncs from the web, not this local cached version. Pathetic.

Shame on the developers.
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Gurgaon iPhone userGurgaon iPhone user

Response from developer

Hi there, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with us! Our team has been working hard on the Bear web version, and right now it is still in beta. That means it has not been officially released yet and there is a lot still in progress. We are doing our best to improve the experience and fix any bugs and issues, and feedback like yours plays a big part in that. As a gentle reminder, we always suggest treating beta software the way you would any app still in testing, so it is best not to keep important notes there for now. Your feedback truly means a lot to us, and we will look into this closely. Please write to our support team at bear-support@shinyfrog.net and we will investigate the issue asap. Thank you for helping us make Bear better! 🐻❤️

Very easy to use

I found this notes app very clean and easy to use, the tutorial at the start was very appreciated since I’m able to go back to it but overall I didn’t need it just because of how simplistic this app is. I’d definitely recommend this to any writers who need to write things down quickly or for a place to put things in general
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Mr BugeyedmuppetMr Bugeyedmuppet

Great, but broken?

I love this app and have been using it for a long time - perhaps almost a decade. Its clean, simple and effective. But for the last year or so it has become almost unusable for notes that are longer than a few paragraphs. When i go to add something in my iPad to a longer note, it ceaselessly flips up to the start of the note so I cant write into the end. It happens over and over. Often i have to start a new note to write what i wanted to record and label it as a continuation of another note, but this is messy and annoying. I keep thinking its a glitch that will get fixed with an update but this fix never happens - do i have to abandon Bear after all these years? Is it just not made for longer notes?
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onomatopoeia*onomatopoeiaonomatopoeia*onomatopoeia

Response from developer

Hello, and thanks for reporting this issue. Do you mind contacting our customer support about this issue? We'd like to ask more questions about this bug to find a solution. https://bear.app/contact/ Best Regards.

See 1744 more reviews

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User experience

🐞

Reported Bugs

3 issues

Sync issues causing note conflicts and data loss

Bug

Cursor jumping and input issues on iPad

Bug

Inconsistent behavior when importing/exporting content

Bug
✨

Requested Features

5 requests

Add password protection for individual notes

Feature

Improve search capabilities to find text within notes

Feature

Implement table support for more robust note-taking

Feature

Develop a web-based version for broader accessibility

Feature

Allow manual sorting and organization of notes

Feature

FAQ

What is Bear?

Bear is a beautifully designed and powerfully simple Markdown app for capturing, writing, and organizing your life. It allows you to take notes, journal, create lists, sketch ideas, and link notes together, all within a distraction-free environment.

What are the key features of Bear?

Key features include a clean writing interface, flexible Markdown support for formatting, robust organization with #tags and nested tags, task management, note linking via WikiLinks, web clipping, and sketching with Apple Pencil. Bear Pro unlocks additional features like themes, custom icons, and advanced search.

How much does Bear cost?

Bear offers a free version with core note-taking and organization features. For advanced capabilities such as syncing across devices, themes, custom icons, and enhanced search, a subscription to Bear Pro is required. Pricing details can be found within the app or on their website.

What devices is Bear compatible with?

Bear is available for Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Notes can be synced across these devices using iCloud, ensuring your writing is accessible wherever you are.

What are some common use cases for Bear?

Common use cases include journaling, writing articles or books, managing project notes, creating to-do lists, organizing research, and building a personal knowledge base through linked notes. Its flexibility makes it suitable for a wide range of personal and professional needs.