Bear

Bear is where quick notes and long-form writing live in the same place. It writes in plain Markdown but renders it inline as you type, so the page stays clean without hiding your structure. Everything is one flat library, tied together by hashtags instead of folders.

Why it makes the list

Bear nails the thing most notes apps miss: it is a genuine pleasure to write in. Custom typography, a dozen carefully made themes, and an editor that feels native to macOS down to the last detail. It won an Apple Design Award for exactly this craft, and the 2.0 rewrite made it faster and added a proper table editor and backlinks.

Standout features

• Inline Markdown with a live preview that never gets in the way

• Nested hashtags (#work/ideas) for organization without folder trees

• Wiki-style note links and backlinks for building a web of ideas

• Beautiful export to PDF, HTML, DOCX, and image

• Encrypted notes, sketches, and file attachments

• Fast full-text search across an entire library in an instant

Pricing

Free to use on a single device. Bear Pro ($2.99/month or $29.99/year) unlocks sync across all your devices, every theme, and the full set of export options.