Bear
Free
In-app purchases
Bear overview
Bear is a flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose. Link notes to each other to build a body of work. Use hashtags to organize for the way you think. And yet, all notes are stored in plain, portable text. Bear is perfect for everything from quick notes, to code snippets, to in-depth essays.
A focus mode helps you concentrate, and advanced Markdown and other markup options are an online writer's best friend. Full in-line image support brings your writing to life, and keep yourself on task by adding todos to individual notes. Bear can instantly search all your notes, but it can also focus on specific things with Search Triggers. Use @task to find all your todos, @tagged "ideas" to find your notes that are waiting to blossom, or @files to find all notes with attachments.
Features:
- Rich previews while writing so you see prose, not code
- In-line support for images and photos
- Advanced Markup Editor that supports and highlights over 20 programming languages
- Use Cross-Note Links to build a body of work, quickly reference other notes, and more
- Quickly add todos to individual notes to keep yourself on task
- Multiple export options including HTML, PDF, DOCX, MD, JPG, and more
- Smart Data Recognition of elements like links, emails, addresses, colors, and more to come
- Hashtags to quickly find and organize notes however you like
- One-tap formatting on iPhone and iPad with a custom shortcut bar
- Focus Mode hides notes and other options when it matters
- All your notes are stored in plain text for the ultimate in portability
- Effortless, secure, and private multi-device sync via iCloud
- Regular updates to keep you and your writing current
What’s new in version 2.0
Updated on Jul 12 2023
Bear 2.0 is our biggest release to date, with over 20 new features, a better Bear Pro, six new themes, and a refreshed UI throughout.
- Tables
- Markdown hiding
- Nested styles - Use multiple styles on your text
- The new Info Panel with ToC and Backlinks
- Backlinks - View a list of notes that link to the current note
- Table of Contents - An outline of a note based on headings 1-6
- Folding sections - Click a heading icon to fold sections and hide their content
- Image resizing and cropping - Scale and crop any image added to Bear notes
- Footnotes
- Custom fonts support for Text, Headers, and Code
- Search now works inside images, PDFs, and other documents (Bear Pro required)
- GIF support
- Link previews - A rich media thumbnail view of the linked website
- PDF previews - A thumbnail view of attached PDFs
- New widget: Random Note
- Pin tags in the Sidebar
- Six new themes: Notes, Dark Notes, Rosé Pine, Rosé Pine Dawn, Tokyo Night, Academia
- Two new Shortcuts: Export Note and Backup (Mac only)
- Tagcons search
Information
App requirements
- Intel 64
- Apple Silicon
- macOS 11 or later
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User Ratings
Jul 15 2023
Version: 2.0
Bear 2.0 Pro feature set is substantial. I'm still exploring.
Jul 12 2023
Version: 1.9.6
Bear has (finally) received an update - to version 2.0! The new version includes tables, hiding of marking syntax and backlinks among other features.
Jan 31 2021
Version: 1.8.2
Best app, replaced OmniFocus and DEVONthink for me and it just works. Spaces. which is the new kid on the block and copies bear (not fair) still has a lot of bugs but bear just works. thanks guys
Apr 5 2020
Version: 1.7.10
Does the pro have the export option to 'Confluence'? I want to be able to import Bear Notes in Confluence.
Jan 20 2020
Version: 1.7.8
I have used this for over a year and found it very reliable, very easy on the eyes, and best at handling simple markdown and links. Well worth the subscription price.
Dec 18 2019
Version: 1.7.7
The more I use Bear, the more I like it. I love the tagging/nested tagging way of organising my notes. The interface is clean, the web clipper works well, and even things that used to annoy me (like constantly seeing the markdown code instead of the preview) have grown on me. It is now my default notes app on all my devices.
Sep 16 2019
Version: 1.7.2
No typewriter mode. No list notes unless tagged them. Not worth for rent.
May 2 2018
Version: 1.5.1
Bear sells itself disingenuously. First, it markets itself as "Rich previews while writing so you see prose, not code." This is only partially correct. Bear uses markdown, and while it displays the rich previews, it still shows the code (e.g. H1 for heading, ** for bold, etc.). Also, it advertises a 'Focus mode' (even though there's no such menu item in the app itself), which simply hides the sidebar and notes. It's nothing like the focus mode on apps such as iaWriter which turn the app full-screen and turn on typewriter scrolling. Which brings me to my final peeve. Users have been requesting typewriter scrolling since the very early days, which myself and many others feel is indispensable in any serious 'writing app', but the developers have steadfastly refused to implement it. I bought a year's subscription to help fund development, but won't be buying another one.
Feb 28 2018
Version: 1.4.3
Not to sound combative, because the program looks beautiful and functional, but ... can someone explain to me why it needs a subscription? I have and use a wide variety of word processing and note-taking software (pro writer, y'see) but haven't been able to discover why Bear is better than, let's say IA Writer or Byword (to name but two candidates that don't require a subscription).
Apr 12 2017
Version: 1.1.2
Bear can't sync between two or more persons. I share an Evernote account with my wife and would like to switch to Bear, but it's restricted to syncing with only one iCloud account. I asked the dev about syncing with other people and syncing using another service like Dropbox (which my wife and I share), and got this reply: "Currently, this is not possible as the Bear app can only sync notes via a single iCloud Drive account but we will add this option in the future. We are evaluating this, and there is no ETA to it."
Apr 11 2017
Version: 1.1.2
I don't like the idea of "renting" software on a yearly basis. It just goes against my grain that I don't own what's on my Mac. I'll pass on this.
Apr 7 2017
Version: 1.1.1
Just bought this fine app, I'm adding it into my dock. I'm also going to recommend this to my kids. Just get it, I don't think you will be disappointed.
Apr 5 2017
Version: 1.1.1
Unfortunate that the developer is putting so much time into this app and none into Pixa.
Mar 22 2017
Version: 1.1
Still no typewriter mode for longer pieces of writing. This has been a highly requested feature on their website, but they still haven't implemented it. Until they do this, I will keep using alternatives such as Ulysses.
Jan 26 2017
Version: 1.0.6
This company kind of abandoned development of Pixa (which is unfortunate), so I'm not sure I would trust them to keep working on this either.
Free
In-app purchases
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