Bear pricing
Free tier, Pro $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. Free tier with local notes and some exports; iCloud sync and OCR search need Pro.
Prices checked on the Bear site ↗ on 2026-11-12.
Bear plans and prices
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Local access to your notes and 3 free themes. iCloud sync and search inside PDFs and images need Pro |
| Bear Pro | $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, after a 7 day free trial | iCloud sync, search inside PDFs and images, plus the free features |
- Pro: $2.99 per month after a 7 day trial, or $29.99 per year, as listed on bear.app
Is Bear free?
Bear has a free plan, with paid upgrades. Free tier with local notes and some exports; iCloud sync and OCR search need Pro.
How much does Bear cost?
Bear pricing, plan by plan: Free: $0. Bear Pro: $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, after a 7 day free trial.
Is Bear open source?
No. Bear is not open source. License: Proprietary.
What platforms does Bear run on?
Bear is available for macOS, iOS, iPadOS. Notes are stored as: Bear app library, iCloud sync with Bear Pro.
Is Bear worth paying for?
What you get
- Tags with icons and nested organization instead of folders
- Exports to Markdown, PDF, HTML, DOCX, ePub and more
- Inline sketching and OCR search in photos and PDFs (Pro)
Limits to know before you pay
- Apple devices only
- iCloud sync requires Bear Pro
Bear is a good fit if all your devices are Apple devices, or if you want a polished notes app with tags, or if you do not need Windows or Linux.
Free alternatives to Bear
These apps have a free app or a free plan. Prices come from each vendor's own site.
| App | Price | License | Notes stored as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian pricing | Free for personal use | Proprietary, free for personal use | Plain Markdown files on your device |
| Notion pricing | Free plan, paid from $10 per member per month | Proprietary SaaS | Notion cloud, block-based pages (Markdown import and export) |
| Logseq pricing | Free | Open source (AGPL-3.0) | Local Markdown or Org-mode files (outline format) |
| Joplin pricing | Free app, optional Joplin Cloud from 2.99 EUR per month | Open source | Local notes in an open format, synced to a service of your choice |
| Zettlr pricing | Free | Open source (GPL-3.0) | Markdown files on disk |
| AppFlowy pricing | Free personal plan, Pro from $12 per member per month billed annually | AGPL-3.0 (per the GitHub repository) | Workspace data in AppFlowy Cloud or on your own self-hosted server |
See all Bear alternatives compared on price, platforms and license.
Bear compared with other apps
Every price on this page comes from Bear's own website and was checked on 2026-11-12. Prices, plans and regional taxes change, so confirm on the official pricing page ↗ before buying. Markdown Tools is not affiliated with Bear.