# Bear Reviews **Vendor:** Shiny Frog **Category:** [Note-Taking Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/note-taking-software) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 45 ## About Bear Bear is a note taking tool for Mac and iOS. ## Bear Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users praise the **ease of use** of Bear, allowing for distraction-free note-taking and efficient organization. (2 reviews) - Users value the **ease of use** of Bear for simple note-taking and effective organization through tags and sync. (2 reviews) - Users love the **intuitive design** of Bear, which creates a distraction-free environment for focused writing. (1 reviews) - Users love the **ease of use** of Bear for simple note-taking, appreciating its organization and cloud sync features. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **organization features** of Bear, which simplify note-taking and enhance efficiency with tags and cloud sync. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users desire **more features** similar to Notion or Craft, such as slash commands for enhanced functionality. (1 reviews) - Users find the **subscription requirement for syncing** across devices frustrating when seeking a free tool. (1 reviews) ## Bear Reviews ### 1. Bear Makes Note-Taking Effortless with Tags and Cloud Sync **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alex B. | Video and Photo Production Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 05, 2026 **What do you like best about Bear?** The ease of use that bear enables for simple note-taking while giving the ability to stay organized with easy tags and cloud sync is key. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Wish there were features like found in Notion / Craft where you can use a slash command to find other important features. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed a way to take notes in meetings that can sometimes go from client to client and rapidly changing without getting disorganized. ### 2. Minimalist, Focus-Friendly Writing—But Syncing Costs Extra **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Victor Z. | COO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2026 **What do you like best about Bear?** Bear feels like a quiet desk when I open it. There is nothing shouting for attention. I can just type and not get pulled into menus or notifications. It makes focusing on text actually possible. **What do you dislike about Bear?** To sync across devices I have to pay. If I just want a simple free tool, that feels irritating. I expect syncing these days without a subscription. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clean and distraction free writing space ### 3. simply the best for markdown in my opinion **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Philip C. | Leader Node at DTube, Consulting, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 27, 2023 **What do you like best about Bear?** i love the way i can write in markdown, post to my blog in markdown, export is great too, backup is solid, love the way the tagging vanishes after i've used it so it's nice and clean to look at. **What do you dislike about Bear?** could be a little cheaper on the yearly but very good all the same. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** cloud. i can pick up any device, laptop, ipad or phone and i'm ready to write from anywhere. super solid. ### 4. Bear is a creative alternative to Evernote **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Law S. | D, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 14, 2022 **What do you like best about Bear?** Bear has a minimalistic User-Experience (UX) / User-Interface (UI). I love that it syncs on my iPhone 12, iPad Mini 6, Mac Mini (2020), MacBook Pro (2018) and Apple Watch 6. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I do not have many dislikes - maybe the 100s of alternatives out there have a lot more native integrations with other apps. Another dislike might be organization is lacking a bit. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you want to compartmentalize your notes by app, Bear is great for those creative Shower Thoughts **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I wanted another note-taking tool for non-business-associated notes and dislike the native Apple Notes app on iPhone and OS. Also, the structure and weight of the app help it quickly load to catch creative lightning in a bottle. ### 5. A beautiful note taking app for Mac and iOS made with great detail **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rohit S. | Documentation and Training Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 14, 2022 **What do you like best about Bear?** I like the fact that the Bear app is minimal on purpose. So there are very less distractions if you're using the app to take down notes, ideas or creating content for your blog. It is super easy to use, offers many optimizations and also comes with a whole lot of keyboard shortcuts. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I would have liked its pro version to be with more advanced features but then that would just lose its objective of being a minimalistic note-making app. Other than this I don't like the default option of the notes being saved to icloud storage. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using Bear for about a year now, for daily notetaking and even for creating draft content for my office work. I love how I can sync my notes within the apple ecosystem and make my own personal keyboard shortcuts as well! ### 6. Preparing a to do list is now very easy **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Müge G. | Software Testing Specialist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 30, 2021 **What do you like best about Bear?** By creating the shortcut link of the notes, I can make a shortcut from a long archive of notes. I also use the archiving feature a lot instead of deleting it entirely. Sometimes what seems unnecessary may become necessary later on. **What do you dislike about Bear?** When I copy it in other areas and paste it into Bear, it can come in a very different format. And I would like to use the keyboard delete button to archive or delete or create like a shortcut. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have a routine morning meeting with the team every day. This meeting was discussed yesterday and today, and since I keep all my notes on Bear, it is straightforward to list my items here. In addition, I love to use uses such as coloring, emoji, icons among my notes, and it helps me a lot in this regard. ### 7. Move over Evernote...and Apple Notes! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rick M. | Director of Photography, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 24, 2021 **What do you like best about Bear?** My favorite thing about Bear is how the developers seem to listen to their user community. I like how quick and effortless it is to start a new note using markdown. The UI is clean and minimalistic. I really like how notes can be bundled together. Bear allows you to copy notes in markdown, html, rich text and plain text and export notes as PDF, MD, DOCX, JPG, HTML, RTF. Bear syncs across all my Apple devices. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I wish you could login to your notes via web browser. I would like to be able to have some sort of table function. I know this is in the works but even Apple Notes has this feature. I wish some of the new features that the show up in Panda (the Beta test version of Bear) would trickle their way into Bear sooner. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I organize to-dos and notes by topic and project. It's a great catch-all note taking app. ### 8. Tried almost every notes app for better focus. Bear wins in simplicity + power. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rob L. | Product Marketing & Education Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Bear?** This may sound silly, but as a writer, I'm particular about my writing environment. I want a minimalist interface with almost nothing on it, large type in the middle of the screen only, and formatting options. Bear ticks all the boxes beautifully, on both desktop and mobile. **What do you dislike about Bear?** As of the time of writing this article, the main Bear app still shows your markdown. The new Bear app, (called "Panda") which I am beta testing, hides all this. This is the one thing I didn't like about the old app and it's being fixed. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** The free version is rich with features, and if you don't like seeing your markdown in-line, go to their site and find the Panda beta download. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Distractions are the enemy of getting into flow. To write good stories, I need a text editor to just sit down and write in. After trying so many different apps (Google Docs, One Note, Evernote, Workflowy, Notion, iA Writer, SimpleNotes, and some others I'm probably forgetting)... Bear provides the best experience for me. Clean, fast, creativity-boosting! ### 9. Easy Note Taking with Lots of Customisable Features **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 18, 2020 **What do you like best about Bear?** You can write your notes in markdown, adding easy formatting and code snippets **What do you dislike about Bear?** Have to pay to unlock nice features through the Bear Pro subscription **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Taking down notes, keeping code snippets ### 10. A superior markdown notepad **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alexander H. | Product Owner, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** It is a extremely good markdown citizen - you can type in GitHub flavoured Markdown and it has no issues whatsoever. I have a lot of notes apps, but ones that respect markdown, whilst being fast at search are hard to find. It also has quick shortcuts for todays date, supports checkboxes (and a filter so you can have one giant to-do). But really, it's the speed that you'll stay for. That also means speed of sync across devices (iOS/MacOS). It even has multiple themes (multiple dark modes, for those who are interested). The build in tagging support is powerful, and allows you to create tags anywhere in a document, it doesn't need to be formatted in a specific way, the sidebar will capture all of the tags created. Finally, it has excellent exporting support - HTML, Markdown, .txt. You'll be able to share your notes, easily. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Honestly I have nothing to dislike. It's a former Apple Design Award winner, it's quite a high bar. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Dive in. If you care about Markdown, this is your notepad app. It also works excellently in tandem with it's iOS app, and system 'share' actions on MacOS. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** To reliably sync notes that I take in the field, in a syntax I use (markdown), and share that across devices immediately. Also, quickly dragging all of my 'todo lists' into one single point, where I can see what I've actually achieved. ### 11. Bear is the perfect note taker! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** I really like how Bear uses iCloud to sync my notes across my iPhone and Macbook. Bear has constant updates that bring great features, such as new themes, a feature to lock certain notes with a password, and the ability to tag certain notes into sub groups. **What do you dislike about Bear?** There isn't anything in particular that I don't like about Bear. It is easy to use and fairly cheap if you choose to be a Pro member (which allows your notes to sync across devices). **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Bear is a notes app that has many features that other notes apps don't offer. With a sleek design and ease of use, Bear is definitely work trying out! **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bear helps me organize my work notes based on projects. I have realized that I can create checklists within Bear based on each project which help me prioritize certain features and stay on task. ### 12. Replaces old-school notepad with online searchable database **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nick J. | Marketing Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 15, 2019 ### 13. Best soft for Mac and iPhone - structured and beautiful storage of your notes. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Artem K. | Entrepreneur, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** Comfortable mode of input, reading, searching for information, synchronization between devices. And a beautiful design. The possibilities of text formatting and storing notes using hashtags are very well implemented. The main advantage of hashtags is that they are easy and convenient to deal with. The mark can be put in any part of the text and create a new one on the go. For example, in Evernote would have to fool your head with separate notebooks. Apple has folders, but seriously, someone uses them?)) **What do you dislike about Bear?** Deficiencies not found. A good balance of features, design, convenience, and software speed. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Much needs to be recorded. Well, almost everything)) Fleeting ideas, conclusions from an article or a book, the results of an important conversation with a colleague, thoughts on the course of the project, personal memories, observations. It is easy to do here, it is pleasant and it seems to me effective. I advise you to try. ### 14. Lovely and straightforward interface **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Business Supplies and Equipment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 22, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** Bear is a beautiful app. I love the ability to easily create different types of lists, break up my notes with titles, and include code and photos. The ability to change skins and app icons is also a nice touch. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I dislike having to pay a premium to retrieve my notes across devices. As much as I love the flexibility of markdown, I wish the option to switch was available as it does not translate well to Slack or Google Docs. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I’m able to easily create to do lists without multiple apps and streamline my note taking process. ### 15. Bear is a good Apple Note replacement **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vinay A. | Senior Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** On top of basic text capture, Bears adds tagging and markdown-like formatting to each note. The note syntax is similar enough to Markdown that you basically don't notice the differences. You can also easily export to HTML, PDF, and other formats. **What do you dislike about Bear?** The syntax is Markdown-like -- sometimes it would be very nice to have plain Markdown (with common extensions). Also, it doesn't integrate with common publishing systems (such as Wordpress). This makes a common action (publish to blog) more cumbersome than I would like. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you're looking for a note-taking app, Bear is fantastic. Don't expect integration with publishing systems any time soon, though. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Bear to jot down ideas, take notes, and capture useful text. ### 16. Bear Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Sports | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 06, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** I like the simplicity of it and the various options you have with changing the text (i.e. bold, italicize, etc.). Having headings is helpful, as is the ability to tag your notes for easy navigation. The themes option is definitely not a necessity but it is a nice accessory to have if you want to change the look of the app. Being able to convert notes to PDFs or other files is also super helpful. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I don't like that you have to have a premium account in order to handoff between your phone and laptop. This should come standard by now, not be a "bonus" feature. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Good if you want to upgrade from iOS's native notes app while still keeping things simple, clean, and easily accessible. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps me keep miscellaneous personal notes organized and is good place to store recipes and shopping lists, which makes getting groceries quick and simple. ### 17. Beautiful, User-Friendly Markdown Notation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** I like the simple, attractive design of Bear. It makes you WANT to take notes! **What do you dislike about Bear?** The interface of it can sometimes be *too* basic **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Keep an open mind. It’s tempting to want to continue to use word/etc. for notes—but try markdown for a day. Give yourself time. It’s totally worth the time savings. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Best helps me maximize time while notetaking. Because of its markdown system, it saves time in major ways. ### 18. Great quick note app **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrew R. | UX Designer, Graphic Design, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 04, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** Markdown is my preferred way to take notes so I love that this uses that and gives me a minimal amount of organizational tools to have as little friction between ad hoc note taking. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Lack of ability to collaboratively take notes. $15 per year for sync between mobile and desktop feels a bit steep too. I still pay it but it was a hard sell for me initially. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to quickly take notes and give them a bit of structure with quick markdown. A minimalist note taker also helps me focus during those times. ### 19. Simple Note Taking **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** Compared to other note taking solutions I have used, Bear the most aesthetically pleasing. I love that the short cuts to bold, italicize, etc. are easy to remember, and one can easily see when the note was last edited. **What do you dislike about Bear?** The major thing this tool lacks is the ability to easily add color to the fonts. I also do not like that if you delete all the words from a note, it does not delete the note itself, you have to click the trash can to do this. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Simple to use without **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bear gives me a centralized location for my meeting notes which helps all my meetings run more efficiently. I also use Bear to hold templates, and canned responses so that I do not have to open a ton of different documents to find what I am looking for. ### 20. bear review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 04, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** ability to organize notes into categories and subcategories by using the hashtag or pound sign **What do you dislike about Bear?** it is hard to customize and edit font and its sizes **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** read the onboarding and tutorials given to you at the start. Also check out their helpful tips. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** taking notes during user interviews or lectures ### 21. Switched from Apple Notes to Bear **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 08, 2019 **What do you like best about Bear?** Bear's interface is clean and simple. Even with lots of notes, Bear keeps everything organized and eliminates any clutter. Lots of different way to customize your view. **What do you dislike about Bear?** When you copy notes from Bear into an email or Slack, you lose the formatting. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Bear to take notes during meetings and create groupings of notes as a backlog for project coordination. ### 22. Seems like a great product, terrible customer service **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** From what I've seen, the Bear app is great! It looks super slick and you can write in markdown, can quickly link and reference other lists, and seemed easy enough to learn how to use. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I had a coupon code that wasn't working and reached out and customer service tried to help me, but when it didn't work they basically threw their hands up and said too bad... the cost for Bear Pro isn't that much, but the experience with customer service wasn't what I was hoping for and I'm not desperately seeking a note taking app. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you have a coupon code to redeem, don't expect customer support to be of much help. That said, if you don't mind paying for the app, it's really pretty and could helpful if you're looking for something with a little more control over the formatting and linking. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** A clearer and more efficient way to take notes. ### 23. Note taking Application: Bear **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian M. | Communications Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** The best thing about Bear is the clean, fluid and customizable user interface and rich user experience. **What do you dislike about Bear?** The software is not multiplatform and not available on the web. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** It is not multiplatform ( available for Android and web ) and you cannot share to have collaborators. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Finding a minimal note-taking an application that is clean and customizable as well as ### 24. Beautiful and simple writing and note taking **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Toni S. | Consultant, Partner, Public Relations and Communications, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** The best thing in Bear is its simplicity. It's beautiful to look at and a joy to use for writing blogs, taking notes, etc.. The UI is extremely intuitive. The free version is already very capable, and with modest fee you get nice syncing and export capabilities. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Simplicity means that some nice features are missing. Myself, I'd like to se at least a typewriter mode for more focused writing. Publishing to Wordpress would also be neat. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I write a lot. Blogs, marketing copy, memos, etc. Bear keeps things organised and keeps out of the way to let me concentrate on my writing. ### 25. Well designed and quite useful. Makes me want to write more. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Doug T. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** The themes and how well designed it is. It makes me want to use it and write more. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I wish I had a little more control over the formatting of what I write. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** A tool to draft the outline for my books and chapters. It's helped me to be very organized in my outlining - and to follow a pattern as I create topics and supporting ideas. ### 26. Best new discovery in note-taking **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Erin C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** I've been using the built-in iOS and Mac OS apps Notes for years, and I'm so glad a colleague recommended Bear to me. Not only is it far more visually attractive, which is important to me - it's far more customizable, and the organization techniques via hashtags are simple, useful, and intuitive. **What do you dislike about Bear?** So far, there's not much that I dislike, besides some minor bugs with keeping the 'title' of a note in a larger, bold font so as to differentiate it from the body of the note. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** By all means, download it! Pro subscriptions are only $15 a year which is well, well worth it. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's helping me stay organized much better than any other notation software. I can organize my business notes by hashtag to keep everything in its proper place. ### 27. Bear is great for writing with minimal distractions **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tom M. | OCC Volunteer Relations Training & Development Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** Bear's minimalist interface is clean and user-friendly. It's great for writing in markdown and plain text for blog posts or other writing. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Bear is almost too simplistic to be a great organizational tool, especially for work-related projects. It is also only available on Mac/iOS. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you are primarily looking for a writing app with minimal distractions, Bear is a great choice, if you are using a Mac or iOS. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Bear to write in plain text or markdown for articles. ### 28. Fantastic idea, but need plain text version **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** I love the clean interface, the modern text and the contemporary design. I like the size of the widget and the ability to display two or three columns. I like how easy it is to use headers, to change the font and the import/ export capabilities are great. In my opinion, the mobile version is much better than the desktop. It seems made for mobile. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Unfortunately this application displays text as code instead of as plain text. When I copy and paste a link to a website, I don't want to see the http and all the details, I just want to see the name of the url or the name of the company. Same with font. I don't need to know that I am typing in H2 or "body". There really should be a way to turn this off. If there is then it's difficult to find, but it's the reason that I've stopped using it and have switched to Xpad which is an incredibly simple plain text widget. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Check out the interface before deciding to switch to this project, and determine whether or not you can put up with the extra text, eg: the word "link" surrounds any urls, and is in red. This is completely unnecessary in my opinion, and I don't understand why the developers would do this. Other than that, it's excellent! **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was just using this to remain organized. I tend to write notes in here prior to organizing them so it's nice to have something quick at hand. ### 29. Bear a beautiful note taking experience **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian M. | Multicultural Center: Multimedia Specialist, Design, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** I love the customization that this program offers. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I dislike that I cannot access this on the web or can collaborate with other users. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** You won't be able to access this on the web, however, it does a great job on providing intuitive environment for the Apple ecosystem. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having a note taking application with markup and a BEAUTIFUL UI is exceptional since we have to export notes to our clients or to the team. ### 30. Picks up where Quip and Evernote fall off ... **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kathy D. | Senior UX/UI Designer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** I love the ability to format notes super quickly using their markdown options - and the ability to quickly categorize and organize my notes very easily by simply specifying a hashtag. It has full sharing capability and allows you to output to HTML and PDF. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Sometimes there can be a bit of lag when you are creating a new note - and you might accidentally create multiple notes without realizing. Other than that - I love it! **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** I highly recommend paying for premium to allow syncing and to customize the them (for all those dark theme fans out there!). **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick note taking, categorization/organization of notes, and ability to access my notes regardless of platform (mac or iphone). ### 31. Bear is a great note app for minimalists **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Danny R. | Instructional Associate - Product Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 20, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** The simplicity of the solution is really what makes it powerful for me. The way the hashtag tagging system works is also more useful than other note taking apps I've used where you have to create the folders you'd like and then reorganize everything. I also really like the checkbox feature as a way to track my daily to-dos. The little progress bar underneath the note preview in the sidebar is a nice touch. Once they added Apple Pencil compatibility a few months ago, it solidified Bear as the only note taking app I use. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I don't really have any complaints, this is just being nitpicky. I had an instance where the notes I took on my iPad didn't transfer to any of the other devices I have Bear downloaded to and then disappeared altogether. It has only happened the one time, though. Sometimes the device sync can be a little slow. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bear fits the bill as my go-to note taking app both in my professional and personal world. I use it while I'm on customer calls, setting my daily agenda, in meetings, or as a general place to jot down information. ### 32. Best Note taking app I've ever used **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leonardo D. | VP of Sales, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** Both user interface and user experience are absolutely amazing. Shortcuts really save your time and helps you keeping notes greatly organized. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Probably I'd like to renew my subscription outside the Apple App Store. It is the only way to subscribe to Bear currently. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can take notes quickly keeping them fully organized and separated by topic, team and projects. I use Bear while I chat with my colleagues to keep track of important points. I also combine Bear with project management tools to complete tasks better without losing any information. ### 33. Clean Interface-Much better than notes app **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Will M. | Coordinator of Ministry Projects, Religious Institutions, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** This app has multiple functions that make the standard Notes app on your iDevice look like a stone and table. Multiple shortcodes for formatting and structure design. Even more, the app is Apple Pencil functional! **What do you dislike about Bear?** I am not a fan of the subscription payment and that it is currently unavailable on both a Windows and Android platform. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** Ease of syncing between devices and clean interface that leads to easy onboarding. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Task Management and thought-jotting. Great for formatting my text and blogs before implementing into webpages. ### 34. Fantastic note taking software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** Supports markdown, easy to sort and order notes using tags, customisation and colour themes make the UI nice and clean **What do you dislike about Bear?** Search feature is a little basic with no advanced search or ability to search for review title only **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I’m able to keep all of my notes in one place and have a consistent frame of reference when going over them after meetings ### 35. Quick and gets the job done! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 04, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** Easy to use, clean and has just enough features to make it my daily driver at work. **What do you dislike about Bear?** There's a bit of a learning curve if you are used to Office. Also, I find that the sync sometimes doesn't work **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you need a bare bones editor, this is it! **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Note taking is very important. Bear does it effectively and fast ### 36. Bear is Awesome! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniel T. | Android Developer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** I love how you can beautifully format text through just using Markdown type syntax. There's no need to mess with different formatting tools or buttons as in other text applications. Your writing can come to life in just a matter of minutes, and it can be organized in an elegant way. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I wished that Bear had some support for Android, and also you can export your beautifully formatted document in a PDF format. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being productive, taking notes, and organization. ### 37. Great, simple writing and note-taking app **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Conrad O. | Lead Consultant & Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** Easy to use and get started, sync is super-fast and the app themes are easy on the eyes. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Monthly cost not ideal: I'd rather pay a fee upfront for access to the tool over the long term. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Writing, markdown blog post creation, content writing, note-taking. ### 38. A great Evernote Replacement **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** I love that Bear uses markdown (or it's own version). It is so much more simple than the html superset used by evernote but more useful and advanced than that of apple's notes or similar solutions. I also love the organization by tag instead of notebook because it allows the same fidelity of oranization as notebooks and tags but with only one solution that is much easier and intuitive to use. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I've been looking to replace Evernote for some time now, for mostly the same reasons many others have wanted to leave. Evernote still has some advantages like API access and integrations w/ other software. However, if you're looking for a mostly text replacement for notes that you write yourself, Bear is better. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you're looking for a basic note taking app for individual use, try Bear **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've been able to migrate my notes to Bear and save money every month over other apps while still enjoying a fairly rich feature set. ### 39. Beautiful note-taking app **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** I absolutely love the minimal but beautiful UI of the Bear app. I also heavily rely on its ability to sync across all my apple devices, which it does extremely well. The use of markdown is also great when quickly typing out a task-list. **What do you dislike about Bear?** I wish that the app allowed the use of handwriting with the apple pencil on my ipad. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** I would highly recommend purchasing a membership for the ability to sync across devices. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm mainly using Bear for personal note-taking, but I use it pretty frequently at work to create quick to-do lists. ### 40. Great, fast, well thought out tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stuart J. | Director, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** Bear is a fast, well thought out tool with great features. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Honestly, nothing to dislike for me. I've tried lots of editors and this one is great. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** I've tried lots of note taking / writing apps and this is one of the best. The iOS app is great too and syncing works well and fast. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Organisation of notes - everything from quick telephone notes to full meeting notes. Also great for recording tasks. ### 41. Note taking and Filing **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** It is super fast, clean and easy to use. It also works seamlessly between devices. **What do you dislike about Bear?** Nothing right now. I have been using it for a little under a year and I swear by it. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you are looking for a lightning fast alternate for Evernote, I would recommend Bear. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to organize all my notes, files and other info and have it accessible on any device any time of day. ### 42. Perfect balance between Evernote and Apple Notes or Simplenote **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 03, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** I really like the overall design of the app. Bear is really clean and navigation is intuitive for new users. The keyboard shortcuts and formatting options are super helpful. I primarily use this for meeting notes and personal task management and it works perfect once you get set-up. The features are not bloated or overbearing like on Evernote, and more comprehensive than something like Simplenote. **What do you dislike about Bear?** The free version does not include syncing across devices, which is a common feature for other note taking apps in this space. Furthermore, support is lacking for those who struggle to get the sync working correctly, which doesn't make sense for a paid feature. There's no log in, so everything syncs via your iCloud account. While this makes set-up super easy for most users, I had to troubleshoot for an hour or so to figure out that I would need to use my personal Apple ID on my phone and work laptop to get this to function correctly. At least this was my workaround for the issue, their support follow-up was not helpful and instructed me to sign in and out of my iCloud account to make it work. Seems like they don't have this figured out for many use cases yet. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this for taking meeting notes and keeping daily to-do lists. ### 43. Nice and simple **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Bear?** I really like how simple the entire experience is. No bloat at all. I also really like how you can link notes with a hashtag. **What do you dislike about Bear?** As great as the hashtag is with connecting my notes, sometimes it would be really great to have folders to organize things. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** If you’re looking for a streamlined note taking app, then this is a great one to give a try. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Note taking. ### 44. Great for quick note taking **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** I like that you can use most of the formatting commands from the key board. Especially when creating check-lists. It's a very simple UI with clean lines. **What do you dislike about Bear?** There's not much flexibility to it beyond simple note taking. Also, the export options are limited and it's not quite as simple as "copy & paste" because you lose some of the formatting. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** This isn't really a platform that you can share across a company, it's more to the preference of the user taking notes. **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** Speed of note taking. ### 45. amazing app - love it syncs perfectly and so clean **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Bear?** clean, hashtags, syncing.to do lists with gorgeous detail on the left as you check boxes. Great way to organise. Reliable. **What do you dislike about Bear?** nothing - if I could add a feature it would be apple pencil but with a magnifier eg. good notes. Plus alerts/alerts on to do list. **Recommendations to others considering Bear:** do it - worth every penny **What problems is Bear solving and how is that benefiting you?** note taking. organizing notes. To do lists ## Bear Discussions - [Does Bear require iCloud to sync?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/32298-does-bear-require-icloud-to-sync) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Bear pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/bear/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-03+18%3A40%3A38+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=2afccd5b-77e8-4ccc-bf59-2f1e2a32e149&secure%5Btoken%5D=800f3fe5b914baa839732344daef2dfb2241e3106352abed19cdddc40d3c4e50&format=llm_user) ## Bear Features **Agentic AI - Note-Taking Software** - Autonomous Task Execution ## Top Bear Alternatives - [Notion](https://www.g2.com/products/notion/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (10,902 reviews) - [Evernote](https://www.g2.com/products/evernote/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (2,008 reviews) - [Microsoft OneNote](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-onenote/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,817 reviews)