Bear vs We Bare Bears

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. [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
4. [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.
5. [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
6. [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.
7. [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.
8. [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.
9. [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
10. [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
11. [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
12. [R20] Bear 4/5 · US Lifetime Purchase: Need lifetime purchase IMMEDIATELY
13. [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 😞.
14. [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
15. [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.
16. [R45] Bear 3/5 · GB No sync between platforms, otherwise ok: Decent enough app, but there are plenty of cheaper ones out there and free ones that sync between different platforms which I guess is what most people want. I’ll never purchase something that is available on one one platform only. Sorry that’s only my view I know, but I’m sure plenty of other people will be thinking along the same lines
17. [R57] Bear 5/5 · US Powerful yet Simple: Been using this app daily for the past year. Very easy to navigate, customize and create. Syncs across all Apple Devices flawlessly. Great Apple Watch app as well. Highly recommend.
18. [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.
19. [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
20. [R26] Bear 4/5 · US Love it but please add folders.: I absolutely love this application, but please add folders. Being able to have multiple different tags grouped together without having to have multiple tags on each note would be fantastic.
21. [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