Bear vs Notepad

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 60 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R2] Bear 5/5 · US Just wonderful: Like many other people, I have used practically every Notes app on the planet trying to find “the one“. Bear is “the one”. I think the biggest advantage Bear has is its broad feature set is grounded in focused simplicity. No app can be all things to all people and still be usable, so the developers have had to say “no” a lot. Making the vastly improved text editor is going to hel
2. [R3] Bear 3/5 · US Cute Idea: When I was looking for a notes app, the name and icon to this felt cute, so I checked it out. I like the simplicity and childlike feel to it. It has the features you would expect. A three columned layout, ability to create tags, ability to attach files, and plenty of text formatting options. One thing that I wasn’t a fan of is how to create tags. You have to create a hashtag symbol in
3. [R4] Bear 2/5 · US Nice UI, horrible UX: Overall, the app presents a visually appealing and thoughtfully designed aesthetic. However, from a functionality standpoint, the experience is significantly lacking. During my evaluation on an iPad, I found the process of attaching photos to a note to be particularly frustrating. The method for adding images from the photo library is far from intuitive, I had to resort to sea
4. [R5] Bear 5/5 · US New callouts are gamechanging… but: Callouts are exactly what Bear needed; they resolve the longstanding workaround of using quote blocks. I can comfortably say that with callouts there are no other notetaking apps that accomplish Bear’s balance of utility and simplicity That said I do have some constructive feedback: 1. Spacing below callouts is awkward. Text/lists are either directly under the
5. [R8] Bear 5/5 · US Best Note Taking App: This might be my first review on the App Store. This is a fantastic app. I’ve used Onenote, Notion, Obsidian, and many others and keep coming back to bear for one reason. Simplicity. It can be as complex or as simple as you want, but the simplicity it creates for the user is just so good. It syncs with iCloud securely, and attachments are search with their super fast search.
6. [R13] Bear 2/5 · US Quality App Uses Atypical Organization: Bear is a nicely designed app that uses an unusual tagging structure for file organization. I think it will work well for many users looking for an Apple Notes replacement that uses plain text however, certain design decisions make it unusable for me. Bear doesn’t use a traditional hierarchy of directories for note organization but instead uses a tagging s
7. [R22] Bear 1/5 · US Unable to use: App print is gray on white background, lacks sufficient contrast to be easily read. Font too small. When I have to work hard to read something! I just pass. App not useable for ne.
8. [R1] Bear 1/5 · US Notes disappeared: All of my notes that I’ve had for 4 years disappeared due to an “error” and I can’t get them back. Switching to another notes app, what a disappointment.
9. [R6] Bear 3/5 · US Sync Issues: I’m a big fan of this app, but over the last few years there’s been sync issues, where my laptop and phone app disconnect and I’m not able to catch the disconnect/have to troubleshoot months later. The app also closes if I scroll too fast/far down the list.
10. [R7] Bear 1/5 · US Do not rely on sync: I had to reset my phone to factory condition, double checked that the sync was on and was backing my notes up to iCloud… Only to find out after resetting my phone that all of my notes were gone, and it synced to the sample notes on reinstall of the app. Absolutely worthless. I completely regret ever signing up for pro and spending my money on this.
11. [R10] Bear 1/5 · US Hang on to your notes: All of my notes were deleted upon update.
12. [R15] Bear 3/5 · US Greed is a sin: This is a 5 star app held back by one simple mistake: pricing. I would GLADLY pay this dev a one time double digit fee to flip the switch to use my own iCloud memory to sync notes between my devices, because this app is very intelligently put together. Unfortunately, they are attempting to charge a monthly fee for that service. You might argue that clicking buttons is very difficul
13. [R16] Bear 1/5 · US Not worth the coin. You have to pay to store to iCloud?!: You have to pay to store to iCloud?! That’s silly and greedy. I have been developing software for over 40 years. I can understand wanting to get paid for your work. But this limitation makes this software untestable for one’s environment. Free apps do save to iCloud. It also doesn’t allow you to edit the raw .md files, which free app
14. [R19] Bear 1/5 · US Not “in-app” purchase. SUBSCRIPTION based!: EDIT 04/16/25: Annual price raised to $29.99. Same complaints as before. Software is not a service and I will not RENT it from you., Previous review: I am sick and tired of all these apps that claim to be free with “in-app purchases” that you think will be a reasonable $3 or $5 price tag for something simple like the basic ability to sync your writin
15. [R20] Bear 4/5 · US Lifetime Purchase: Need lifetime purchase IMMEDIATELY
16. [R18] Bear 3/5 · US No Cross Platform: I've been using this app on and off for years to journal but the lack of cross platform (pc or browser version with cloud sync) made me move to Obsidian. It's a shame because I'm choosing to pay double the price of Bear Pro for a subscription to Obsidian with enough space to accommodate my files. That money could be going to Bear if they had the capabilities. If cross-platform s
17. [R34] Bear 2/5 · GB Over hyped app: In this day and age it is odd to find an app asking for payment just to get notes synced! It saves data in plain text format. Markdown cannot hide the fact that the app cannot handle rich text formatting. There is no web or Windows app so not a cross platform model.
18. [R35] Bear 4/5 · US Good & Smooth: Good, smooth app. Super helpful w/ all the extra quirks Apple does not have in notes. Only thing missing is the pinch to zoom like Pages has (for me). I wud give it 5 stars but I feel like customer service could be better. When they wrote back on inquiries there short & not very well explained. Short replies which makes more email response for at least the times I’ve reached out 😞.
19. [R11] Bear 5/5 · US DELETE NOTES RIGHT NOW!: My original review trashed this app so badly, heck, I even called out the Apple editor!, that, looking back on it, I wonder what was wrong with me that day I reviewed it. Even without a subscription, there is so much you can do with this app. Has anyone ever complimented how great your Notes note looked? No, because Notes doesn't let you change its font, or let you add
20. [R24] Bear 3/5 · US WARNING FOR TRANSFERRING NOTES: Let me start off by saying I love bear and have been using it for maybe half a decade now. I have tons of notes in there, and even with the free version it does exactly what I need it to do. So then here comes the issue: I recently got a new iPad and wanted to copy the notes from my old iPad onto the new one (I have the app on all my devices, but because I have the
21. [R43] Bear 2/5 · GB You need Pro: I got drawn in by the free version, which works great for note taking, but then you find there’s no decent export format or sync with the free version. Have switched to Zoho Notebook and had a faff getting my notes out of Bear. It’s not impossible, but it’s a pain. Rather wishing I hadn’t bothered trying it now.
22. [R23] Bear 4/5 · US Almost perfect: I’ve jumped around lately, trying other note apps, some with calendar integration, some with more features, but ultimately I come back to Bear. The tagging is so easy and clean, the sidebar isn’t cluttered with things I don’t use, and if I capture something quickly and don’t tag it, it’s already in the Untagged area awaiting processing. I have two tweaks that would make it 5-star
23. [R36] Bear 3/5 · GB Excellent, but tags are the wrong choice: Effective and pretty UI, bugs are very rare, frequently updated, perfect sync with no issues, secure, and the best take on editing Markdown. One problem: the choice of tags, over folders, for organisation will turn your notes into an unmaintainable nightmare over time as your collection grows. There is also no way to put the app into a “pseudo-folder” mo