Alternatives to Bear
Polished markdown notes for Apple platforms
Bear ranks #7 of 13 in Note-taking, with an Alt Score of 62. It is proprietary, freemium from $2.99/month and available on macOS, iOS and Web. 11 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Writers, students, and knowledge workers on Apple devices who want a fast, distraction-free place to capture notes and organize them without rigid folder structures.
A Markdown editor for text, images, tables, and checklists in a single note. Notes are organized with nested, color-coded tags instead of folders, and can be exported to PDF, HTML, DOCX, and other formats. Pro adds cross-device iCloud sync, extra themes, and advanced search including OCR on images and PDFs.
You write notes in Markdown, tag them for organization and filtering, and (with Pro) they sync automatically across Mac, iPhone, and iPad via iCloud.
Why people leave Bear
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
How Bear compares with its alternatives, feature by feature.
| Note-taking checklist | Bear | Amplenote | Joplin | Evernote | Standard Notes | UpNote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Markdown support | ||||||
| Sync between devices (native) | ||||||
| Local-first storage | ||||||
| End-to-end encryption | ||||||
| Web clipper | ||||||
| Templates | ||||||
| Tags & notebooks | ||||||
| Handwriting & stylus | ||||||
| OCR of images | ||||||
| Version history | ||||||
| Data export formats | ||||||
| Offline access |
Every fact and feature listed for Bear is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Platforms macOS, iOS, Web verified 2026-07-11
Bear Web is a web app designed to complement the native Bear apps on Mac, iPhone and iPad
https://bear.app/faq/what-about-bear-for-web-android-windows/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
Bear 2.4 update: Better encryption, smarter todo, and more!
https://blog.bear.app/2025/05/bear-2-4-update-better-encryption-smarter-todo-and-more/ -
Starts at $2.99/month verified 2026-07-11
Monthly subscription - available for $2.99
https://bear.app/faq/features-and-price-of-bear-pro/ -
License Proprietary verified 2026-07-11
The Service and its original content, features and functionality are and will remain the exclusive property of Shiny Frog Ltd. and its licensors.
https://bear.app/terms/ -
Pricing model Freemium verified 2026-07-11
The free version of Bear can export your notes to: .txt - Plain Text, .md - Markdown, .textbundle - Text Bundle V2 (Markdown), .bearnote - Bear Note, .rtf - Rich Text Format
https://bear.app/faq/export-your-notes/ -
Markdown support Yes verified 2026-07-11
Bear uses CommonMark, a well-defined and highly compatible specification of Markdown.
https://bear.app/faq/how-to-use-markdown-in-bear/ -
Sync between devices (native) Partial verified 2026-07-11
iCloud sync for all your notes and TagCons across all devices
https://bear.app/faq/features-and-price-of-bear-pro/ -
Local-first storage Partial verified 2026-07-11
On both iOS and macOS, Bear's notes are stored in a SQLite database.
https://bear.app/faq/where-are-bears-notes-located/ -
End-to-end encryption No verified 2026-07-11
Every piece of information stored within CloudKit is encrypted with Apple's private keys.
https://bear.app/faq/syncing-privacy/ -
Web clipper Yes verified 2026-07-11
Bear's powerful and private browser extension lets you quickly save full web pages or selected portions straight into Bear with a single click.
https://bear.app/faq/browser-extensions/ -
Templates No verified 2026-07-11
While Bear doesn't have much built in support for templates, there is a variety of template tools that work great in Bear.
https://blog.bear.app/2020/04/tools-for-creating-templates-to-use-in-bear/ -
Tags & notebooks Partial verified 2026-07-11
Tags can be nested within other tags, just like folders in a typical file structure.
https://bear.app/faq/how-to-use-tags-in-bear/ -
Handwriting & stylus Partial verified 2026-07-11
Bear currently does not support handwriting search within sketches, only typed text, tags, and metadata
https://bear.app/faq/how-to-sketch-in-bear/ -
OCR of images Yes verified 2026-07-11
OCR search for text inside PDFs and images
https://bear.app/faq/features-and-price-of-bear-pro/ -
Data export formats Yes verified 2026-07-11
.html - HTML, .docx - Microsoft Word Open XML Format, .pdf - Portable Document Format, .jpg - JPEG
https://bear.app/faq/export-your-notes/ -
Offline access Yes verified 2026-07-11
If you see a strikethrough cloud icon, it means that the device is not connected to the internet, or that you have disabled sync from Bear's preferences.
https://bear.app/faq/sync-troubleshooting/
FAQ
Yes. Amplenote, Joplin and Evernote have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Joplin, Standard Notes and Notesnook — every license claim links its source.