Alternatives

Best Bear alternatives

Bear's calm writing, without the walls

Bear is a beautiful, calm Markdown-flavored writing app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, with Apple Pencil sketching, an Apple Watch app, and password-locked notes. People look beyond it for a few concrete reasons: there's no Windows or Linux app, notes live in Bear's database rather than as files you can open elsewhere, sync sits behind the Bear Pro subscription, and it isn't a knowledge-base app — no backlinks or graph.

Full disclosure: we make Octarine, one of the alternatives below. It's listed first and marked as ours. Every entry's strengths and tradeoffs come from that app's own pages, linked in the sources at the bottom.

Octarine

We make this one

The same kind of calm writing app, on plain Markdown files, on every desktop.

Best for: Bear writers who also use Windows or Linux, or who want their notes as files they own.

Strengths

macOS, Windows, and Linux apps, with one workspace everywhere
Notes are plain Markdown files in a folder you choose
Backlinks, a graph, split panes, tabs, and separate workspaces
Sync through built-in Git or any folder service, at no extra cost

Tradeoffs

No Apple Watch app, Apple Pencil sketching, per-note encryption, or search inside images and PDFs
No Android app, and iOS is in TestFlight for Pro users
Native Apple polish is Bear's home turf; Octarine is a cross-platform app first

Price: Free core; Pro $79 one-time

Octarine vs Octarine

Obsidian

A vault of plain Markdown files you shape with thousands of plugins.

Best for: People who want files plus an ecosystem, on Mac and mobile alike.

Strengths

Notes are plain Markdown files in a vault folder
Thousands of community plugins and themes
iPhone, iPad, and Android apps in both stores, free including commercial use

Tradeoffs

Features arrive via plugins you assemble yourself
First-party sync (Obsidian Sync, $4 / user / month) and Publish are subscriptions

Price: Free; Sync and Publish subscriptions

Octarine vs Obsidian

Craft

Designed documents made for sharing, with real-time collaboration.

Best for: Bear writers whose notes increasingly need to be read by other people.

Strengths

Rich layouts, cards, and styling beyond plain Markdown
Real-time co-editing, comments, and share links
Apps for macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, and the web, with AI on every plan

Tradeoffs

Documents live in Craft's cloud by default; a local folder turns off sharing, comments, and version history
The free plan caps at 1,500 blocks

Price: Free to 1,500 blocks; Plus $10 / month or $96 / year

Octarine vs Craft

NotePlan

A calendar-first planner where events, tasks, and daily notes live together.

Best for: People whose notes are really a planning system.

Strengths

Calendar events and time-blocked tasks sit beside your notes
Daily, weekly, and monthly notes as Markdown files
Built-in AI, including voice transcription

Tradeoffs

No free plan — $99 / year or $12 / month
No Windows or Linux app

Price: $99 / year or $12 / month

Octarine vs NotePlan

UpNote

A simple, inexpensive notebook that runs on every platform, including Android.

Best for: People who want Bear's simplicity but need Windows, Linux, or Android.

Strengths

Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android apps with built-in sync
Inexpensive, with a lifetime option
Rich-text editing with Markdown shortcuts

Tradeoffs

Notes are stored in UpNote rather than as files, though Markdown export exists
The free plan caps at 50 notes

Price: Free to 50 notes; $1.99 / month or $39.99 lifetime

Octarine vs UpNote

Why people switch from Bear to Octarine

Bear confines your notes to Apple devices and to its own database. Octarine keeps the calm, minimal writing view and puts it on plain Markdown files that open on macOS, Windows, and Linux — with backlinks, a graph, split panes, and separate workspaces for when a notebook grows into a knowledge base.

Sync runs through built-in Git or the folder service you already use — iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Syncthing — at no extra cost, and the core app is free with a one-time Pro purchase.

What you give up: the Apple Watch app, Apple Pencil sketching, password-locked notes, and search inside scanned PDFs and photos. Those are real Bear strengths, and if they're why you use Bear, it's a better pick for you.

Bear exports to Markdown, so trying Octarine costs you an export and nothing else.

Moving from Bear Octarine vs Bear, feature by feature

Choosing between two of these?

Sources · Checked Nov 9, 2026

Each app's strengths and tradeoffs are drawn from its own pricing pages, help docs, and release notes — the same sources as our one-on-one comparisons, which were last verified November 4, 2026. Facts were re-checked against those sources when this page was compiled.

Product names and logos belong to their owners; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.

Something wrong or out of date, including if you work on Bear? Suggest a correction

Best Bear alternatives

Octarine

Obsidian

Craft

NotePlan

UpNote

Why people switch from Bear to Octarine

Choosing between two of these?

Start writing with Octarine.