Bear is a Markdown-focused note app with cross-note links, hashtag tagging, powerful search, Focus Mode, iCloud sync, and multiple export options. Users appreciate its clean interface and Apple ecosystem integration, though some seek alternatives with stronger privacy features or cross-platform availability.
Obsidian leads as the top-ranked Bear alternative, extending Markdown note-taking with backlinks, bidirectional links, and graph view for mapping relationships between ideas. Standard Notes adds end-to-end encryption and encrypted backups for privacy-focused users, expanding beyond Bear's iCloud-style syncing. Notesnook focuses on private, encrypted notes with two-factor authentication and reminders for security-conscious users.
Bear alternatives range from local-first vault apps like Obsidian to encrypted sync-first tools like Standard Notes and Notesnook, giving users options across privacy levels and platform support.
Open source choices like Zettlr suit users who prefer auditable code and community-driven development. Linux users have native desktop apps available through Standard Notes for workflows outside Windows and macOS.
For self-hosting, AFFiNE and Outline can run on your own infrastructure for complete data control. Markdown workflows remain portable with Obsidian keeping notes in plain-text format, while offline functionality works reliably with Anytype during travel or unreliable connections.
Cloud sync becomes essential for multi-device users, with Evernote and Notesnook both including syncing across devices. For WYSIWYG-style editing, Standard Notes, Notesnook, and Anytype all list WYSIWYG support among their notable features for users who prefer rich-text editing over raw Markdown.
Perfect personal productivity tool 🙀 Never lose your data again and store your notes, links, files, and a lot more. The whole infrastructure is designed to help an advanced user to be in a good shape with data.
Write styled Markdown notes, sync across Mac, iPhone and iPad add to-dos and tags, export to a variety of formats and choose your favourite style from a variety of colourful themes.
Prime Draft helps writers maintain focus by using a distraction-free fullscreen interface, automatic goal tracking, customizable writing environment, and limited text view, preventing edits once a sentence is finished. Supports backup creation and secured progress tracking.
Allegory is a powerful notes app with a beautiful iOS-centric UI. The minimal and focused writing experience, combined with an impressive set of powerful features, makes this the ideal choice for everyone.
Steno is a lightweight note taking and writing app centered around minimalism to avoid all the unnecessary and distracting stuff.
Write beautifully. Organize easily. Find everything. Fuss free writing. Saves notes as RTF files on user specified folder. Can search across all notes. No sign up/log in required. Portable application.
1Writer combines all the basic text editing features you would expect with all the advanced features you will ever need. Use 1Writer to write, research, revise, and share your ideas with maximum efficiency.
VSNotes is a Visual Studio Code extension.
VS Notes is a simple tool that takes care of the creation and management of plain text notes and harnesses the power of VS Code via the Command Palette.
Memo is a beautiful history-based notes app built with iOS design guidelines in mind. Additions and deletions are automatically stored in the history timeline, which can be scrubbed to travel forwards and backwards in time through the note.
With IdeaLog, you can easily capture and organize all of your ideas in one place. Add tags to quickly find related ideas, create folders to keep things organized, and add notes to elaborate on your ideas.
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