Bear - Markdown Notes Reviews

by Platooon12457

Title says it all. I’ve been patiently waiting for years for an update that would finally allows us to have some basic search functionalities to no avail. I admire this app for it’s simplicity (that’s what prevented me from deleting it altogether despite competitors like evernote and onenote offering search and so many more features) but when even the most rudimentary tasks such as being able to find and jump to a phrase in a long note is not possible, I consider that just too simple to allow for any serious use cases. Having been a developer myself, I simply cannot understand why it is so hard for these devs to create a simple search function which has been requested over and over by hundreds of this app users. It certainly wouldn’t take lot of coding knowledge to add this basic feature so again I cannot understand why they still can’t seem to figure it out after years have come and went. That being said, I regret to say that my patience has worn thin and I can longer just hope that the issue will eventually be resolved. So I am officially deleting Bear and would end by recommending Evernote, onenote, or heck even the already included apple notes app over this app if anyone reading this cares about basic search functionality.

by HeresMyTwoCents

Bear provides a beautiful, distraction-free writing environment, which is much appreciated. But for the life of me, I can't understand why these developers won't let us sort our folders/tags in the left-hand column MANUALLY. This may come as shocking news, but being forced to sort things alphabetically or by date DOESN'T WORK for everyone! These are OUR folders... we should at least be able to structure them the way it makes sense to US.

And WHY does it require so many unnecessary taps to create a new note? Whenever the sidebar is open, there is NO WAY to create a new note! Can't be done from there. You have to — for some unknown reason — open an existing folder first, and then the New Note button will appear at the bottom of the screen. Sheesh! Talk about inconvenient.

I guess that's why I keep sticking with Ulysses. I prefer this app's visual environment, but until they fix these issues, it just won't work at all.

by Seanbhappy

Very impressive in so many ways but has some major problems for note taking. 1. It has some irritating multi minute delay when using the share to this app notes 2. It does not have the ability to search within a note, so if you have long notes and are looking for a phrase it will get you to the note but not to the actual place where the phrase is in the note. Apple note, Evernote, simple note and nearly all other note taking apps can do these two things well. I really want to use this app notes as my main note taking app but these issues must be resolved. The sync issue is so slow I can not continue working with the shared note until is “shows” up in this app notes. I have tested this with iPhone and iPad and both are multiple minutes slow, adding a sync button might help this but what is strange is that all the other note apps can do instantly without fanfare or help from me. The search feature within long notes is a must, I just don’t know why this has been so long in coming with this app, naturally I am assuming it is coming to this app? I am using the premium features and it was the same with basic free as well. Please fix, this would be an instant 5 star app.

by DavieMustard

I switched from evernote earlier this year and on every level besides one, this app is an almost perfect note app. The markup, the speed, the tagging, and the search for notes is all exactly what i was looking for in a note app. However, the long-requested feature of searching within notes is still not present. I am seriously considering going back to evernote, as i use these apps at work for finding quick information, and in-note searching is a nearly critical feature. If not for this app’s exemplary performance (and i strongly prefer its interface to other apps), i would probably have bitten the bullet and gone back to evernote, but i might have no choice if they don’t prioritise the in-note search feature. It’s frustrating because on all other areas it’s such a fantastic app, but that one feature is remarkably necessary. Imagine being unable to search for words in a word processing app!? It significantly reduces the usability of this product, even though the rest of it works so flawlessly. Please add this feature! I know it’s been requested for years at this point

by SweetKuni

I originally began using this app as a replacement for Evernote, which I'm still very glad I did. I love the quiet, elegant UI, and I'm getting used to markdown and tags as methods for styling and organizing, respectively. I really love this app on both desktop and iOS.

However, on desktop you can search all your notes, or search for a string within a single note, both of which I find essential functionality for a writing app. On iOS you can only search through all notes. There is no way to search within a single note, and there's no way to jump to the result of any given search.

So when you search for a tag or any string in this app on iOS, the best it can do is say, "Your string was found in the following notes." But if those are of any significant length, you still have to manually scroll and scan the note to locate your string. This is my one feature request. As soon as they get this figured out, Bear will be perfect.

by Jbeach4

Bear is truly amazing. I had tried probably close to a dozen list/to-do/notes apps during my time in gradschool and many worked alright but I never fell in love. But ever since I have had this app, I am nearly perfectly content. It looks great, it syncs perfectly and instantly between all of my devices (iPhone, iPad, Macbook). The tagging system works really well for my feild of work. I use Bear for both work and personal, and it is so great.

My only complaint and it will continue to plague my experience is that I cannot collaborate on any notes. It seems simple enough to add a feature so that my wife and I can collaborate on a grocery list or "movies we want to rent." But alas, Bear will continue to gets lots and lots of run in my life (I use it extensively every single day!), however it will still make me disappointed everytime I have to use some other sub-par app just to make a collaborative note... Developers, hear my cry!

by Jtc2762

I use this app to take notes on school and often access it from each of my devices (MacBook, iPad, and iPhone). While I’ve had a wonderful experience with it on all these devices, there’s one specific area where the iPad version is crippled in comparison to the Mac version, and this is the “find” functionality.

On a Mac, you can easily search for keywords within a particular notebook (or hashtag, or what have you). Once you locate the note where the keyword is located, you can then search within that note. On the iPad, this is somewhat different. You *can* search within a notebook, however you can not search within a particular note.

This is such a small thing, but it has made the iPad version significantly less useful for me. I’d love if I could have the same functionality on both devices and I’d up my review to a 5/5 if a future update addressed this. Otherwise, this is a wonderful app and I recommend it to everyone.

by Dtemple11

I have been using Evernote heavily since 2009. In recent years, as it has become incrementally more bloated and more expensive, I’ve been looking for a replacement, but everything I found was missing some particular feature that I needed. this app, while much simpler, and ostensibly less powerful, does absolutely everything I REALLY need for organization, writing, business tracking, and creative thought. It does it in a visually beautiful way, with a markup language that really makes the tool fade into subconscious and lets me record thoughts without distraction of too many buttons and gimmicks. Tagging, note linking, formatting, and organization are completely intuitive. The cost is far less than Evernote Premium, and there are not restrictions with using on all of my Apple devices.

I hope they can implement note sharing without messing with their formula, and I hope they expand to other platforms so I can share with friends, coworkers, and family, but if it stays just as it is today, this app will continue to be the foundational piece of my workflow and creative and business processes.

by Meron A.

And patiently waiting for the desktop version as well!! Everything about Bear from the user interface, the features like the ability to categorize notes with a simple method using hashtags -makes life SO much easier when you don’t have to go back and reorganize/rearrange your notes all you have to do is add hashtag anywhere in the file and it’s automatically categorized to whatever you decide to name it. That is just one of the many small features I love. The note taking style is great as well with the ability to add quotes, bullets, heading, highlighting etc etc I could go on. I use Bear to store recipes, personal thoughts, ideas, any information I need to remember, and eventually would like to use it to take notes for my classes if and when the desktop version becomes available. Hopefully 🤞🏾🤞🏾Thanks for this all around amazing app!

by Jcotney17

I’ve used Scrivener in the past but it was daunting to get into. The complexity made getting started seem like an uphill battle. I love it and I’ve used it for years (along with the genius Scapple). this app, however, is simple and easy to get started. That simplicity is paired with a flat-out beautiful interface that makes staring at a screen for hours not seem like a chore.
Don’t get me wrong, I will still use Scrivener for long-form content because it’s research and export functions are great but this app’s smooth beauty and iCloud sync are really gaining a foothold in the market share of my mind. Perhaps as this app becomes more fully-fledged (if they are going that direction) they will gain more. I strongly suggest everyone on the fence try this out. I think you’ll be impressed.

by Monstak

I spend all day writing ideas for games like characters, places or stories and when I'm not at home Bear allows me to write my ideas the way I want to do it (for now). Bear has a clean and simple interface, it has MANY options and is also intuitive.

Even though it is very good, it is not perfect. I think that it lacks the ability to edit the size and position of the images that are imported and the drawings that are made in the application. It has not been a problem for me, but I see it as a necessary function, for example: to illustrate an idea that I am writing in a single space (and not with the huge image above or below the paragraph).

Anyway, I will give it 5 stars because Bear fulfills in a great way its purpose and I have not noticed any kind of problem related to Bear .

by Tjstar2099

When I first downloaded Bear, I wasn’t sure what I could with it... now, almost a couple of years later, I’ve crafted my first book on it I hope gets published. Once I bought the yearly version, it made everything to keep writing, even when I feared I couldn’t use my Mac anymore!!! But, the seamless transition between my iPad and iPhone more then made up for the lack of my Mac. I can’t speak highly enough for Bear. The one wish I have for it, if and when it gets another update, is to simply register different pages, so it doesn’t run on and on, like a waterfall. To be able to do that would make this a game changer as far as composition goes! Other then that, awesome execution and definitely big props for the idea. I’ll use it to keep writing my stories, no matter what. Thanks for this tool, and hopefully those that read this will use it going forward!!! Excelsior!!!

by Booberdoopers

I got Bear a few months ago I believe and haven’t been dissatisfied or disappointed yet with it! It’s easy to use and navigate, wonderful and creative things you can do in it, and it’s just awesome! I’m very into writing stories and Bear helps me to organize the plots and main points for the story. I also use it for lists as well and it works perfectly! I’d recommend this to many people if I knew many writers or just people who like creativity in note taking or lists but, sadly, I really don’t know anyone that would use it. When I meet someone who would though, this is the first things I’m bringing up in the conversation! I hope, if the developer(s) see this, that you keep it up and don’t ever shut down Bear or take it off Bear Store.

by Grumpkid

On my iPad-where I type out this review-I own Bear and use it pretty much all day, everyday! It so useful, and the mechanics are so well done; however, I have a bit of a gripe. Maybe about a some two weeks ago, I downloaded Bear for my phone. (The phone isn't an Apple device.) The phone version was very glitchy and seemed to have adds. The normal one on my iPad doesn't, so I wondered why this could be. So, a few days pass after deleting, it and I wanted to see if my phone or Bear fixed itself in the time I was gone. To do that, I went back to the PlayStore on my phone, looked it up, and didn't see it. Every couple of days, I would check time and time again, and it stayed that way. Just nowhere. I don't know if it was a bootleg, but no matter the case, please release this on phones! I know the format is smaller, but this is only so I could reedit while I'm on the go.

by Jared White

If you just want to jot down quick bits of info and save them into an archive you largely forget about, Apple Notes works just fine. If you want to journal and keep a diary of your life, maybe give Day One a try.

But if you want to take notes, write in robust Markdown syntax, save outlines and concepts, refer back to past insights, cross-reference relevant topics, organize everything by incredibly flexible tags, and import and export documents with ease: then this app is hands-down the best tool for the job.

I've tried a ton of different editors over the years and used a variety of different storage systems. Only this app has proved to be the most flexible, visually appealing, and performant for everything I need out of a Markdown-based document workflow (on both iOS and Mac). I'm slowly weaning myself of all other note/writing apps and making this app the center of my content world. I highly recommend you investigate doing the same!

by Hendricksmd

I think this app is the perfect level of robust, and simplicity as far as note apps go. I have been obsessed with trying to find the perfect writing and notes app and I just keep coming back to this app. The main drawback for me is that I have a windows PC as a gaming computer that I can’t run it on being an iOS/macOS exclusive but they supposedly have a web interface in the works. I switched back to Evernote for a while just because of the cross platform issue but I just felt myself missing this app and the syntax highlighting and simple tag and search system and I decided to stop fighting it and just enjoy it. Because it’s so great and the team is very transparent about their plans and care about their users.

When I was spending time switching apps from this app to Evernote or OneNote, this app was always the easy one to work with when exporting and importing as well. It’s just a pleasure to use all around for me.

Minor complaint that I have is when sharing on IOS to Bear , it’s very difficult for me to put the new note in a specific place. I can just tag it in a location so I can find it later but I think little pop up share window could have some more navigation options.

Thanks devs and designers for the steady quality updates and this wonderful simple app! Maybe one day you’ll find some way to make this cross platform or have a good web interface but I like it enough to stay.

by 386728

I’m a stickler for efficiency, so when I use PC apps, I like to use keyboard shortcuts. I write my class notes digitally, but doing so on an iPad’s Notes app is difficult when I can’t use keyboard shortcuts. this app makes it easy to *italicize*, **bold**, ~underline~, and ::highlight:: without breaking my typing flow on an iPad, in addition to easily being able to make headers and lists with keyboard shortcuts on MacOS. In addition, you can easily switch between typing on MacOS and drawing diagrams on your iPad! Even though I am not subscribed to the Pro version of this app, it is possible to inter-convert from this app to Notes by exporting as RTF. Then you can save the notes as PDF from the Notes app. The only complaint that I have is that there is a bug when trying to import files from within the this app app where I cannot exit from the file browser window. Other than that, this app is an incredibly efficient and functional app. 👍

by Hcgchica

Oh my gosh- coming from the apple notes app, this is like a dream come true. I was getting so frustrated with the apple notes app once portions of my notes just started DISSAPEARING- yes, that’s right- paragraphs and paragraphs of text just started not being there. So frustrating!! So I went on google to research best notes app for ipad/iPhone and came across this app- it’s FANTASTIC!!! The hashtag that makes folders? Brilliant. The check mark boxes for to do lists- that I can actually check off and have a strike through go through that to-do line item? Brilliant. I LOVE Bear. So glad the other one started losing my data so I could find something WAY better- the this app app. Everyone should use this it’s awesome. I upgraded to the $15 plan per year which is nothing for what it achieves for me with the cross syncing with my devices- I’m constantly switching between my pad and phone so that’s a must for me. Thank you guys you really thought about things intuitively for your users. You guys rocks.

by Spccdt

What stands out the most to me about this app is how rock solid its fundamentals are: it’s clean, fast, reliable, and equally powerful on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. The watchOS app is also nice, supporting dictation. Every feature Bear supports is apparently done to a high standard of quality.

Where I feel this app could improve is on two fronts. First, I do feel that they “gate” smaller improvements behind huge ones (like their editor overall, currently in Alpha, and their web app workstream). Making some small feature-level improvements would go a lot toward making Bear feel tended-to rather than being maintenance, especially with the super stiff competition in the note-taking market these days.

Second, a big feature that to me is lacking is the ability to separate workspaces/profiles/repositories within your notes. As it stands, there is no good way to separate work and personal notes inside of this app. This really limits how I can interact with this app from my work machine. Another feature that I would love to see in an option to completely hide Markdown control characters once they are typed, because I think they really make the note look visually cluttered/noisy.

Overall a very solid “alternative” note-taking app that can be trusted with your notes, even if it evolves *very* slowly relative to its competitors. I still recommend this app over many others.

by Manthehelm

I've been using this app Pro for a few years now and am never going back to Evernote! I love the simple and intuitive UI that has some serious features underneath. I use it for my work, freelance, and personal notes. I'm always running in a million different directions, and the ability to rapidly jot down a note or idea and file it with the hashtag system in seconds is a game-changer.

If you're a user with multiple Apple devices, I would definitely recommend going for the Pro. Being able to sync notes between my devices instantly is awesome. The ability to make urls to your notes is also great because I can drop them into my project management software to quickly access relevant notes outside of this app. Lastly, I know some people complain about lack of collaboration but I think that the current simple but powerful philosophy is the way to go. Otherwise, I fear they would go the way of Evernote and become an overcomplicated experience.

Keep up the great work Shiny Frog!

by Vamp007

Awesomely simple and powerful, well thought out UI. One of its most powerful features is its search. All notes apps do search but being really powerful and fast in search is key. I am a long time Evernote user and I could use apple notes but it falls apart in search. Once you have lots of notes you need to be able to find what you are looking for easily and flexibly. For example notes that have two words you are looking for but you want to enter those words only partially for whatever reason. Evernote is also very powerful in this area but overly complicated and overly feature rich in others. I’m going to give this app 4/5 because it has no web or androide app. Notes are not something I am comfortable tying myself to without being platform agnostic. A++.

by Im_Adopted

I used this app for several years on my iPhone 6 Plus, and it was great for keeping my notes better organized and with additional styling options that are missing in the Apple Notes app.

Bear has a monthly subscription for premium features, one of them being cloud saves for your notes, but I didn’t feel like spending a MONTHLY payment for these features. Unfortunately, I forgot that I needed to manually save my notes before upgrading to my new iPhone 8 Plus, so when I got this app downloaded again I found that all my notes were gone.

With the outrageous subscription plans for premium features, and my own ignorance of not backing up my notes, I’ve decided to pass on this app for now. I’d rather have my notes automatically synced to the cloud without having to pay money each month.

by Cmsteahly

I’ve tried just about every popular notes app to ever grace Bear Store, and this app is my current favorite. It’s become my go-to for all notes, PDFs, writing, etc. The incredible themes and typography really sold me on Bear . It makes writing and engaging your notes enjoyable - something the Apple Notes app has never achieved.

My only issue with Bear is that notes to which you add a number of images are difficult to scroll through. Scrolling up and down on a note which contains a handful of images is very choppy and lags. This seems to be true for only the mobile version of Bear . The desktop version of Bear works very smoothly. If this choppy issue would be addressed, I would provide five stars.

Other than that, I think this is the best notes app for the iOS/MacOS ecosystem.

by Riz 75

I've used Evernote since 2013 and had over 5000 notes on it. Its a great app but the problem is that they use their own cloud services for syncing (I don't trust anything but iCloud for privacy reasons), full of useless features (at least for me), and the design is not very aesthetically pleasing.

Then I came across this app. Its such a beatufil app with great desgin and typography. Importing notes from Evernote to this app was remarkly quick on Mac. I had previously tried to move to OneNote by MS and it took several days to upload to their cloud. It took just 20 minutes to migrate from Evernote to this app as everything happened locally on the Mac. Then it took couple of days to sync all documents and picutures via iCloud. Since then, all the syncing happens almost instantly and seamlessly via iCloud.

iOS versions of the this app app are also gorgeous and just a pelasure to use. They look great on both iPhone and iPad.

this app has all the features I need and nothign that I don't need. I love Bear and look foward to using it everyday.

What can be improved? I think this app extension for both Mac and iOS can be improved with more options to copy just text, just images, PDFs, or "reader" version of the web pages on safari.

by Smr111

I adore Bear. I tried a bunch of different writing apps and I chose this one to be the one where I collected all of my personal writing and brainstorming.

I love pretty much everything about it. I use EverNote and Scrivener for other applications, but this app is the only one that makes me feel happy when I use it, so that's why I use it for personal writings.

One complaint: on my 2017 iPad, when I press and hold in order to move the cursor to an exact spot, I have to make sure my finger is EXACTLY halfway between the top of the screen and the keyboard, because if it's above or below, Bear thinks I am trying to scroll up or down and it scrolls SUPER FAST. It is so jarring and strange and annoying. I checked other writing apps and none of the other ones have this behavior.

by The Curt Jester

As someone who has used integrated systems for saving documents for decades, I am never quite sastisfied with the current system I am using.

So I have used Evernote, OneNote, Apple Notes, markdown files in Dropbox, etc. this app has been pretty close to perfect for me, especially as a Markdown user.

Tagging and being able to use multiple tags along with directly linking your notes in other notes, makes this like a personal wiki. The synching across macOS and iOS has been flawless. I also really like the support for keyboard shortcuts in both macOS and iOS. Theming is also excellent. Embedded PDF files are easily viewed in both macOS/iOS.

To get me to switch over to a new system is a high bar. this app meets that bar and exceeds most of my expectations. High quality app.

Now since no app is perfect, these are the main features I wish for.

+ Support for Markkdown tables.
+ Inline search for intances of matches in a single note on iOS (is supported on macOS already)
+ iOS, icon to show Sidebar when you are in the full editor view. Keyboard shortcut also. Sure it is only two clicks to get back to this view, but I find myself doing this navigation a good deal.