What is Bear Notes?
Minimal Markdown notes for Mac and iOS.
Who is Bear Notes best for?
Bear Notes is best for Mac and iPhone users who want a clean Markdown notes app organized with tags.
Apple-only note takers
Bear runs as native apps on Mac, iPhone and iPad and syncs through iCloud, so it fits people who work only on Apple devices.
Writers who like Markdown
Text, photos, tables and to-do lists sit in one note formatted with plain Markdown, and headings fold away so you can focus on one section.
People who sort by tags
Flexible tags keep projects in order, and any tag can get one of over 250 icons or be pinned to the top.
Private notes
Notes live in your own iCloud rather than on Bear's servers, and Bear Pro can encrypt single notes or lock the app.
How much does Bear Notes cost?
Bear Notes is free if your notes stay on one device, and Bear Pro, which adds iCloud sync, costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year after a 7-day free trial.
- Notes stay on the device, with no iCloud sync
- Export to TXT, Markdown, TextBundle and RTF only
- Document scanning and 3 themes
- iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone and iPad
- Search inside PDFs and images, plus PDF, HTML, DOCX, JPG and ePub export
- Encrypted notes, 28+ themes and 15 app icons
Bear Pro is $29.99 a year if you pay yearly, about 15% less than paying monthly, and both options start with a 7-day free trial. It is bought through the App Store, and one subscription covers every device on the same Apple ID. Students, teachers and researchers can apply for 30% off the first year of the yearly plan. These are US prices; the App Store converts them to local currency and tax. Full pricing on bear.app. We checked these prices on .
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What are the best Bear Notes alternatives?
Three tools on Recaply do Bear Notes's job. All three are open source, so you can run them on your own server.
Beaver NotesOpen SourceChoose it when you need a private Markdown notes app on Windows or Linux as well as on a Mac
DarkwriteOpen SourceChoose it when you want a quiet writing app with custom themes and fonts on Windows or Linux, where Bear has no app
JustnoteOpen SourceChoose it when you need encrypted notes on Android and in any browser too, with extras costing about $5 a year
More open source alternatives
See all
Questions about Bear Notes
What is Bear Notes?
Minimal Markdown notes for Mac and iOS.
Who is Bear Notes for?
Bear Notes is best for Mac and iPhone users who want a clean Markdown notes app organized with tags.
Is Bear Notes free?
Yes. Bear Notes has a free plan: notes stay on the device, with no iCloud sync.
How much does Bear Notes cost?
Bear Notes's paid plans are Bear Pro at $2.99 per month.
Is there an open source alternative to Bear Notes?
Yes. Beaver Notes, Darkwrite, Justnote and Standard Notes and 1 more are open source tools that do the same job, so you can run your own.
What are the best Bear Notes alternatives?
The closest alternatives on Recaply are Beaver Notes, Darkwrite and Justnote.
Where can I try Bear Notes?
On its official website, bear.app.
Does one Bear Pro subscription cover all my devices?
Yes. Bear Pro is bought through the App Store, and one subscription turns on Pro for every Mac, iPhone and iPad signed in with the same Apple ID, so you do not pay per device. Refunds go through Apple rather than Bear.
Does Bear Notes have a student discount?
Yes. Students, teachers and researchers can email Bear's support to get a code for 30% off the first year of the yearly Bear Pro plan. The code cannot be used during a trial, and the plan renews at the normal price after that year.
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