# Bear - Markdown Notes — Clean text editor for focus

> Beautiful, simple, and powerful Markdown note-taking and organization app. (iPhone/iPad app by Shiny Frog Ltd..)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bear-markdown-notes/id1016366447 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Shiny Frog Ltd.](https://appshunter.io/developer/527618974)
- Category: Productivity, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 6,855 App Store ratings · 1,749 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.6 · 185 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified, China), European Spanish and 1 more
- Released: 2016-11-02
- Data updated: 2026-09-04
- Monetization: freemium
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bear-markdown-notes/id1016366447/reviews.md

## What is Bear?

Bear is a beautiful, powerfully simple Markdown app to capture, write, and organize your life.
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Take notes, plan your day, journal thoughts, organize tables, create lists and tasks, sketch ideas, link notes together, write a book, and much more. Bear is used by writers, lawyers, chefs, CEOs, teachers, doctors, engineers, students, parents.. you get the picture. Getting started couldn’t be faster—no signup and no account. Just open a note and write naturally.
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"My journaling app of choice is Bear" - Kit Eaton, New York Times
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* 2017 Apple Design Award 
* 2016 App Store App of the Year
* Editors' choice for 7 consecutive years
* Most of our parents love it
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## BEAUTIFUL. SIMPLE. POWERFUL. PRIVATE

- Tools stay out of your way so you can just write
- Sketch ideas on iPad with an extendable canvas and Apple Pencil (and other styli)
- Clip web pages and other content with Bear’s app extension
- The redesigned Info Panel now with Table of Contents and Backlinks
- Use Apple Watch to dictate and append to recent notes
- Support for all the scripts including RTL languages like Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian
- Easily create notes with Siri and Shortcuts
- Your notes, not ours - Bear is private at its core: We cannot see your notes, tags, or anything else
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## FLEXIBLE MARKDOWN
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- Work in plain text - easy to move between apps
- Still use formatting like bold, italics, strikethrough, links, tables, and more with Markdown
- Combine text styles like bold and underline, even in headings
- Markdown hides for a clean reading experience
- Use WikiLinks to connect notes and build a personal wiki or knowledge management tool
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## GET ORGANIZED with #tags, tasks, and more
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- Add #tags, #multi-word tags# and even #multiple/nested/tags anywhere in a note for quick organization
- Pin important tags to the top of the Sidebar
- Make important tags stand out in the Sidebar with TagCons
- Add tasks to notes and easily view all notes that include tasks
- Fold sections to get them out of the way
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## SHARING MADE EASY
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- Export notes to plain text, Markdown, TextBundle, Bear note, and rich text
- Export notes to HTML, DocX, PDF, JPG, and ePub (Bear Pro required)
- Easily share your notes to any third-party app with the Share Sheet
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## SEARCH FAR AND WIDE
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- Use Spotlight to search your notes from anywhere
- Search for text inside photos and PDFs (Bear Pro required)
- Focus on specific types of notes with powerful Special Searches like @todo, @images, and @yesterday 
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## CREATE YOUR COZY SPACE
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* Pick from nearly 30 themes for the perfect writing space in both Light and Dark Mode (Bear Pro required)
* Choose an app icon that speaks to your personality (Bear Pro required)
* Set your own fonts for plain text, headings, and code
* Set line height and width, paragraph spacing, and more
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## GET MORE WITH BEAR PRO
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One subscription enables a variety of features on all your devices and keeps the Bear hugs coming.
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- Sync notes between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud
- Encrypt individual notes with a password that is entirely private to you
- Lock Bear with Face/Touch ID
- Export to more formats including HTML, DocX, PDF, JPG, and ePub
- Search for text inside images and PDFs in Bear notes
- Over 30 beautiful app themes & app icons
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$2.99 monthly
$29.99 yearly
14-day free trial
​
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Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your App Store account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. After purchase, manage your subscriptions in App Store Account Settings. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription.
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bear@shinyfrog.net
Twitter: BearNotesApp
Reddit: reddit.com/r/BearApp
Facebook: BearNotes
Instagram: BearNotesApp
Privacy Policy: http://www.bear.app/privacy/
Terms of Service: http://www.bear.app/terms/

## Key features

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

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Monthly Pro subscription | $2.99 | per month |
| Yearly Pro subscription | $29.99 | per year |


## What do users think of Bear?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 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

**Cons**

- 🔒 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

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Sync issues causing note conflicts and data loss
- Cursor jumping and input issues on iPad
- Inconsistent behavior when importing/exporting content

**Most requested features**

- Add password protection for individual notes
- Improve search capabilities to find text within notes
- Implement table support for more robust note-taking
- Develop a web-based version for broader accessibility
- Allow manual sorting and organization of notes

## Recent user reviews (10 of 1,749)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bear-markdown-notes/id1016366447/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Beautiful interface and system

*2026-08-16, version 2.9.3*

Tags are great for organisation

### 5/5 — Just keeps getting better

*2026-07-29, version 2.9.2*

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.

### 1/5 — Please, shut down your web app

*2026-07-29*

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.

**Developer response:** 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! 🐻❤️

### 5/5 — Very easy to use

*2026-07-28*

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

### 3/5 — Great, but broken?

*2026-07-24*

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?

**Developer response:** 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.

### 2/5 — Windows bug

*2026-07-20, version 2.9*

I’ve been using this app for over 3 years, I love it. It works just fine on Mac. Recently, I got a PC and I moved my workspace there. There is a webpage version of this app but it doesn’t sync right. I was writing on my PC yesterday for all night and I woke up today check the same file on my phone. BOOM, nothing is there, nothing got saved. And the worst part is, the website will auto sync to the phone no matter what. Which means it will erase whatever I wrote on the website and go back to the old version of the file on my phone. ISN’T THIS STUPID?

### 5/5 — I love this app!!

*2026-07-17, version 2.9*

I love this app!! I love the different themes available, I love the live updates for the time of an entry, & I love the pin to top feature. I use this app for notes, to save links & package tracking numbers. I would like to suggest each entry show the day of the week, & the time. I also would like to suggest entries be stored together by each different month. Thank you for this app!! I use this app every day.

### 5/5 — I’ve never written a review but this deserved one

*2026-07-17, version 2.9*

I’ve used every note app in the App Store and always end up back on my iPhone notes app…until now. It’s perfect. Visually refined. Clean. The typography is so refreshing. I believe it’s their font which is cool. Shows they care. One of the reasons the other apps frustrate me is they’re all too clunky. This one is as simple as Notes but has every possible features cleverly hidden. The way menus are built is so intuitive. Endless ways to easily organize without the clutter of endless folders. You can customize everything. I can’t believe I’m saying this but it makes me feel good using it. lol Incredible job by the developers. Please make other apps. This level of artistry in app design is desperately needed. The craziest part it’s $30 a YEAR! Immediately cancelled my Evernote subscription which was $12 a month and sucks compared to this app.

### 5/5 — Best Note-Taking Experience

*2026-07-17*

I’ve been using this app for years, and it’s still one of my favorites. I really like how simple and easy it is to use. The overall experience is smooth, and syncing between my devices works perfectly.

The themes look great, and typing in Markdown is such a nice experience. Thanks to the whole team for making such an awesome app and continuing to improve it!

### 5/5 — Workspaces are great!

*2026-07-16, version 2.9*

It’s great that Bear is adding workspaces, specially making them as an optional opt-in/opt-out unlike something like Ulysses. 

Keep going in the right direction Bear and I’ll keep being a happy paying customer

## Frequently asked questions about Bear

### 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.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.9.4 — 2026-09-02

- 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

### 2.9.3 — 2026-08-03

- Fixed issue with the stylebar not picking the correct colors
- Improved the internal error logging

### 2.9.2 — 2026-07-28

- Added support for Mermaid, enabling charts and diagrams within notes
- Resolved a visual glitch in the style bar
- Fixed an issue affecting new notes created while a workspace is active

### 2.9.1 — 2026-07-21

- Fixed issue with sidebar cells
- Fixed an information panel glitch
- Fixed workspace-related crash

### 2.9 — 2026-07-16

– Workspaces: Long-press a tag in the sidebar to use it as a workspace, or switch via the selector next to Notes
– Fixed a MathJax rendering issue
– Fixed a memory leak affecting widgets
– Minor Japanese localization fixes

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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-04.*