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.
Widget Board is a productivity tool that lets you create custom boards with your favorite widgets such as tasks, notes, media, date & time, weather, calendar and so much more!.
Offers fast, distraction-free note-taking via a high-performance editor with real-time Markdown, local-first storage, image support, Kanban task boards, intuitive drag-and-drop, keyboard shortcuts, configurable themes, fast search, and cross-platform access.
Privacy oriented, without vendor lock in note organizer, todo list desktop application. Work offline with text, markdown and pdf files.
Crossnote is probably the world's first markdown notes reader & editor Progressive Web Application that works offline and supports syncing with arbitrary git repository right inside your browser.
PrivateNotes (formerly Exocortex) is an encrypted note-taking app designed for networked thought. It allows you to link ideas together, creating a web of interconnected notes that mimic how your mind works.
Skribisto is born from the ashes of Plume Creator , keeping the goals while adopting more recent ways to think an application.
Interactive split-screen diagramming, draggable block-based note-taking, and brainstorming tool. Super charged productivity with seamless parallel streaming of ideas.
Lattics is an all-in one knowledge management tool. It offers most of the things in Obsidian, Scrivener and Zotero together.
Knowledge-management tool enabling interconnection and note expansion, semantic network creation, collaboration with task features, and mobile readiness with offline support across devices.
Quiver is a notebook built for programmers. It lets you easily mix text, code and Markdown within one note, edit code with an awesome code editor, live preview Markdown and LaTeX cells, and find any note instantly via the full-text search.
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