Bear Reviews

i love the way i can write in markdown, post to my blog in markdown, export is great too, backup is solid, love the way the tagging vanishes after i've used it so it's nice and clean to look at.

could be a little cheaper on the yearly but very good all the same.

cloud. i can pick up any device, laptop, ipad or phone and i'm ready to write from anywhere. super solid.

Bear has a minimalistic User-Experience (UX) / User-Interface (UI). I love that it syncs on my iPhone 12, iPad Mini 6, Mac Mini (2020), MacBook Pro (2018) and Apple Watch 6.

I do not have many dislikes - maybe the 100s of alternatives out there have a lot more native integrations with other apps. Another dislike might be organization is lacking a bit.

If you want to compartmentalize your notes by app, Bear is great for those creative Shower Thoughts

I wanted another note-taking tool for non-business-associated notes and dislike the native Apple Notes app on iPhone and OS. Also, the structure and weight of the app help it quickly load to catch creative lightning in a bottle.

My favorite thing about Bear is how the developers seem to listen to their user community.

I like how quick and effortless it is to start a new note using markdown.

The UI is clean and minimalistic.

I really like how notes can be bundled together.

Bear allows you to copy notes in markdown, html, rich text and plain text and export notes as PDF, MD, DOCX, JPG, HTML, RTF.

Bear syncs across all my Apple devices.

I wish you could login to your notes via web browser.

I would like to be able to have some sort of table function. I know this is in the works but even Apple Notes has this feature.

I wish some of the new features that the show up in Panda (the Beta test version of Bear) would trickle their way into Bear sooner.

I organize to-dos and notes by topic and project. It's a great catch-all note taking app.

This may sound silly, but as a writer, I'm particular about my writing environment. I want a minimalist interface with almost nothing on it, large type in the middle of the screen only, and formatting options. Bear ticks all the boxes beautifully, on both desktop and mobile.

As of the time of writing this article, the main Bear app still shows your markdown. The new Bear app, (called "Panda") which I am beta testing, hides all this. This is the one thing I didn't like about the old app and it's being fixed.

The free version is rich with features, and if you don't like seeing your markdown in-line, go to their site and find the Panda beta download.

Distractions are the enemy of getting into flow. To write good stories, I need a text editor to just sit down and write in. After trying so many different apps (Google Docs, One Note, Evernote, Workflowy, Notion, iA Writer, SimpleNotes, and some others I'm probably forgetting)... Bear provides the best experience for me. Clean, fast, creativity-boosting!

You can write your notes in markdown, adding easy formatting and code snippets

Have to pay to unlock nice features through the Bear Pro subscription

Taking down notes, keeping code snippets

It is a extremely good markdown citizen - you can type in GitHub flavoured Markdown and it has no issues whatsoever. I have a lot of notes apps, but ones that respect markdown, whilst being fast at search are hard to find.

It also has quick shortcuts for todays date, supports checkboxes (and a filter so you can have one giant to-do).

But really, it's the speed that you'll stay for. That also means speed of sync across devices (iOS/MacOS).

It even has multiple themes (multiple dark modes, for those who are interested). The build in tagging support is powerful, and allows you to create tags anywhere in a document, it doesn't need to be formatted in a specific way, the sidebar will capture all of the tags created.

Finally, it has excellent exporting support - HTML, Markdown, .txt. You'll be able to share your notes, easily.

Honestly I have nothing to dislike. It's a former Apple Design Award winner, it's quite a high bar.

Dive in. If you care about Markdown, this is your notepad app. It also works excellently in tandem with it's iOS app, and system 'share' actions on MacOS.

To reliably sync notes that I take in the field, in a syntax I use (markdown), and share that across devices immediately. Also, quickly dragging all of my 'todo lists' into one single point, where I can see what I've actually achieved.

Bear is a beautiful app. I love the ability to easily create different types of lists, break up my notes with titles, and include code and photos. The ability to change skins and app icons is also a nice touch.

I dislike having to pay a premium to retrieve my notes across devices. As much as I love the flexibility of markdown, I wish the option to switch was available as it does not translate well to Slack or Google Docs.

I’m able to easily create to do lists without multiple apps and streamline my note taking process.

I like the simple, attractive design of Bear. It makes you WANT to take notes!

The interface of it can sometimes be *too* basic

Keep an open mind. It’s tempting to want to continue to use word/etc. for notes—but try markdown for a day. Give yourself time. It’s totally worth the time savings.

Best helps me maximize time while notetaking. Because of its markdown system, it saves time in major ways.

ability to organize notes into categories and subcategories by using the hashtag or pound sign

it is hard to customize and edit font and its sizes

read the onboarding and tutorials given to you at the start. Also check out their helpful tips.

taking notes during user interviews or lectures

I like the simplicity of it and the various options you have with changing the text (i.e. bold, italicize, etc.). Having headings is helpful, as is the ability to tag your notes for easy navigation. The themes option is definitely not a necessity but it is a nice accessory to have if you want to change the look of the app. Being able to convert notes to PDFs or other files is also super helpful.

I don't like that you have to have a premium account in order to handoff between your phone and laptop. This should come standard by now, not be a "bonus" feature.

Good if you want to upgrade from iOS's native notes app while still keeping things simple, clean, and easily accessible.

Helps me keep miscellaneous personal notes organized and is good place to store recipes and shopping lists, which makes getting groceries quick and simple.