Writing · Shiny Frog Ltd.

Bear Markdown Notes & Journal

Markdown notes with no account and no sign-up, in a sidebar that has spent years pretending it is not really an iPad layout.

Free · 4.66 from 1,285 ratings · iOS 16 or later · updated 22 October 2026

Bear is plain-text Markdown with an unusual amount of care applied to it. Tags are nested and written inline anywhere in a note instead of being filed in a panel. Notes link to each other wiki-style. An info panel carries the table of contents and the backlinks, there is web clipping through an app extension, sketching on a canvas that extends as you fill it, and dictation from an Apple Watch.

The privacy position is stated plainly on the listing rather than implied: no sign-up, no account to create before you can write, and the developer says it cannot see your notes, your tags or anything else.

The awards are old enough to mean something. An Apple Design Award in 2017, App Store App of the Year in 2016, and Editors' Choice for seven years running after that.

What the fold changes

Split View is Apple's own argument for the device, and writing is where it is easiest to make: the note on one side, the thing you are writing about on the other. Bear has a second reason to want the room. A sidebar, a tag tree and an editor is a three-column design, and a phone has only ever been able to show one column of it at a time.

That is an argument rather than a test. The iPhone Duo has been on sale since 23 October 2026 and this app has not been seen running on one.