Bear
Launched 2016
152 features found available
In their words
Write naturally. Bear is a beautiful, powerfully simple Markdown note taking app to capture, write, and organize your life. Read more
Pricing
Our most recent pricing details for Bear:
$0 Basic
$2.99/month Pro
Features pertaining to how the app comports itself visually
Display option where the editor shows black background with white text
A "distraction-free" option where all sidebars are hidden and the editor is in full screen view
Formatted text can be edited while markdown formatting symbols are hidden
Allows multiple notes to be open and edited simultaneously in separate viewing windows within the application.
Different sets of colors can be chosen to alter the appearance of the app window
Editor can show content exactly as it will be exported/printed
AI integrations offered by the app or a first-party plugin.
Can suggest how to revise/rewrite selected text using AI
Longform text can be analyzed with specific improvement suggestions, which can be individually approved/rejected
Tasks from notes can be viewed on a calendar
What kind of content can be uploaded or inserted into notes?
Content of the PDF can be viewed inside the note, rather than clicking on PDF and having it open in an external PDF viewer
The title and body of the PDF are automatically indexed in search
Features that pertain to how the app interfaces with its customers
The company has a specified URL at which users can discuss the product and ask questions in a format where answers can be upvoted (Reddit, etc)
A menu to view available keyboard shortcuts is located within the app
The company offers a version of the product that can be used indefinitely at no cost, without a note limit
What measures are taken to ensure customer data remains private, even to employees of the companies themselves?
AKA “end-to-end encryption,” data can be encrypted on the user’s device before transmission, ensuring the decryption key remains inaccessible to the note app provider
An explicit policy describes how security is implemented, and what access employees have to data.
Note content can be created such that even a user who gained access to the note app's cloud database (employee or intruder) couldn't decrypt content (i.e., they couldn't obtain a usable decryption key even if possessing the database contents)
A documented claim exists that note content will not be accessed by employees
Notes can exist purely on the local file system of the device, without syncing
A note or block can have a password applied to hide it
A documented claim that all note data is encrypted "at rest" on the server
A documented claim that all note data and their attachments are encrypted "at rest" on the server
What options are available for formatting text and related content in a note?
a vertical bar formatted to the left of the selected text allows for an indented "quote" styling
dotted points are used at the beginning of a paragraph to assemble unordered lists
A sub-list contained within an unordered list
Apply visual styles (like colors or font styles) to the code
Multiple languages can be selected to define the code syntax highlighting
There exists a means to recolor the background behind specific text in more than one color
App provides a built-in means by which to capture user drawings, sketches, or handwriting
A permanent text selection formatting menu is available at the top or bottom of the editor
Note body text can be "collapsed," "contracted," "folded" or otherwise hidden under its (non-bullet list) header
Can font size be explicitly set? I.e., not just through setting it as a header
Text or images can be linked from a particular string of text in the note (not just URLs)
Text can be indented (without bullets, block quote, or other incidental features)
A formatting text style that slants the letters evenly to the right
Numbers are used at the beginning of the line to assemble ordered lists
A sub-list contained within an ordered list
Text formatting can be toggled between left to right and right to left in the editor
A set of links to each header in the note can be inserted into the note or sidebar
User can choose an explicit font (not just a theme) to restyle text
What functionality specific to images is possible?
The note app provides editing tools that allow an image in a note to be cropped (e.g., to remove the left half of it)
The note app allows the edges of the picture to get dragged so it becomes larger or smaller
An image (such as jpeg, png, gif) can be inserted and viewed in the note editor
Words in the image are added to full text search, so the note will show up in search results that contain a word from within the image
Text or handwriting from within an image can be inserted into the note body
What features are provided for interoperability between apps? How much lock-in is there?
Notes can be deleted from an active account en masse without emailing the company
Hierarchy (tags,folders) are exported in a way that other apps can import
When an export is initiated, the downloadable package includes image files for each image uploaded to the user's notebook
A button or link is provided that triggers a download of all note content
Full content download includes images, videos and PDFs that were present in notes
App includes a built in importer for Evernote notes (ENEX)
App includes a built in importer for any markdown notes (MD)
Automatically writes note content to a chosen directory on disk
Content uploaded to the app can be configured to automatically persist to a local directory
App automatically syncs note & image data to the cloud without implementing extensions, and without signing up for a secondary account on a storage provider
What features does the note provider offer in terms of third-party integrations and utilities adjacent to the note content itself?
A syntax exists to make numeric or date calculations within the app
Date and time can be evaluated and inserted into a note
Hotkeys can be remapped from their default values
It's possible to setup callbacks to external services when a note changes
Which login types are supported?
Features specific to the mobile experience
Note content can be viewed from outside the app via native iOS widget
A quick access icon on the iOS home screen includes a search bar
How can note & task content be connected and visualized?
For any given note, the app provides a way to browse all other notes that contain links pointing to it
UX is provided to find references to a note (aka mentions of the note title) and quickly convert them into links
It's possible to create a link from one note to another note
Means provided to link to specific content in another note (be it a heading, paragraph, task, or bullet)
A dialog is provided to look up other notes as link targets while creating a new link in a note
A dialog is provided to look up other specific headers/blocks as link targets while creating a new link in a note
How well can the app function without internet access?
How fast is it?
Which platforms are officially supported?
An iPad app (separate from iOS app) has been published to App Store
An installable app is available that isn't a Progressive Web App or thin Electron wrapper
What options are there for navigating around the app and finding the note you're after?
A list of all notes containing a word or phrase can be produced
Enclosing the search query with quote brackets, the results only show words from within those quotes
The app’s organizational system (e.g., tags, folders) can be used as a filter for full-text search
Search results can be sorted by the note's date of creation
A hotkey is available that can be used to access an input box that searches notes, and a note can be selected from that list without using the mouse
The quick search shortcut can apply a filter to the results for tags or folders
What features exist to share notes with the world?
App provides means to embed note content in web pages outside the app
Does the app support formatting data in tables?
Left, center, right-aligned text can be defined per cell, row or column
How can content be filed, organized and subsequently browsed?
When entering text into the search field, matching hierarchical tags/directories are offered to help the user filter note content
The app provides a means by which to arrange notes such that they can be browsed through a tree structure (e.g., tags, folders)
Organization of folders or hierarchical tags can have at least three levels of sub categories
A note can be in multiple navigation hierarchies concurrently (i.e., because it has multiple tags)
Emojis can be used to demarcate note hierarchy members
Notes that were tagged or filed in one hierarchy can be merged en masse into another hierarchy
What to-do list and scheduling features does the app support?
A task is automatically removed from the list, or can be configured to do so, once a task box is checked
What functionality is offered to capture content discovered on the internet?
The URL of the web page from whence the capture occurred can be included among the content inserted into note
An official Chrome web clipper extension is offered by the note-app
The clipper can capture an entire web page, even when it is taller than their viewport
An official Firefox web clipper extension is offered by the note-app
An official Safari web clipper extension is offered by the note-app
Did we miss something?
We are constantly working to make sure this page stays up-to-date with the features available in Bear. If there is a feature you think we missed, please email us a screenshot and the URL where the feature is described to [email protected].
Our goal is to respond to all correction submissions within a few business days.