Bear Alternatives

Bear provides flexible writing and note-taking with markdown support and cross-note linking, popular among Mac users for its clean interface. Users seek alternatives primarily due to privacy concerns over its reliance on Apple's ecosystem, cost complaints for plain text functionality, and the availability of better options on Mac.

For users wanting stronger privacy protection, Standard Notes encrypts notes end-to-end across all devices while maintaining markdown support and seamless syncing. Those frustrated by Bear's Apple-only limitations can turn to Obsidian, which offers similar markdown editing and internal linking but works across Windows, Mac, and Linux with a powerful graph view to visualize note connections. Users seeking more advanced knowledge management find Roam Research's graph-based approach superior for linking and visualizing complex note relationships. Trillium Notes handles hierarchical note organization with rich text formatting, making it ideal for complex projects that outgrow Bear's simpler structure.

filter to find the best alternatives

Bear alternatives are mainly Note-taking Tools, but if you're looking for Todo List Managers or Task Management Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Windows, Android, Linux, Mac and Open Source. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Bear.
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Alternatives list

  1. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Minimal - Writing & Notes is a writing app inspired by meditation. It includes features such as note lifetime, collaborative writing, note-to-website publishing, Todo integration, and cross-device syncing, with a focus on spacious and modern design.

    26 Minimal - Writing & Notes alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Apple Watch
    • Apple Messages
     
  2. Zonote icon
     4 likes
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    Sticky notes + Markdown + Tabs. All in one .txt file.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  3. NoteFolio icon
     Like
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    NotesFolio: Private, Simple Note Organizer. Passcode protect your notes and folders.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once or Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Apple Watch
     
  4. SpringNotes icon
     3 likes
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    Write styled Markdown notes, sync across Mac, iPhone and iPad add to-dos and tags, export to a variety of formats and choose your favourite style from a variety of colourful themes.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad
     
  5. Prime Draft icon
     4 likes
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    Prime Draft helps writers maintain focus by using a distraction-free fullscreen interface, automatic goal tracking, customizable writing environment, and limited text view, preventing edits once a sentence is finished. Supports backup creation and secured progress tracking.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
     
  6. Steno Notes icon
     5 likes
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    Steno is a lightweight note taking and writing app centered around minimalism to avoid all the unnecessary and distracting stuff.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Android
     
  7. Allegory icon
     3 likes
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    Allegory is a powerful notes app with a beautiful iOS-centric UI. The minimal and focused writing experience, combined with an impressive set of powerful features, makes this the ideal choice for everyone.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once or Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Apple Watch
     
  8. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Write beautifully. Organize easily. Find everything. Fuss free writing. Saves notes as RTF files on user specified folder. Can search across all notes. No sign up/log in required. Portable application.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  9. IdeaLog icon
     1 like
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    With IdeaLog, you can easily capture and organize all of your ideas in one place. Add tags to quickly find related ideas, create folders to keep things organized, and add notes to elaborate on your ideas.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once or Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • iPhone
     
  10. VSNotes icon
     3 likes
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    VSNotes is a Visual Studio Code extension.

    VS Notes is a simple tool that takes care of the creation and management of plain text notes and harnesses the power of VS Code via the Command Palette.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Visual Studio Code
     
  11. 1Writer icon
     8 likes
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    1Writer combines all the basic text editing features you would expect with all the advanced features you will ever need. Use 1Writer to write, research, revise, and share your ideas with maximum efficiency.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • iPhone
    • iPad
     
  12. Nextcloud Tasks icon
     10 likes
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    Once enabled, a new Tasks menu will appear in your Nextcloud apps menu. From there you can add and delete tasks, edit their title, description, start and due dates, reminder times, mark them as important, and add comments on them. Tasks can be shared between users.

    274 Nextcloud Tasks alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Nextcloud
     
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