Mimir vs. Bear
Mimir vs. Bear: one built on bullets, the other on documents. Price, sync, and which to choose.
Bear is a Markdown notes app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, known for its
design. Like Mimir, it keeps your notes on your device and links notes
with [[brackets]]. Bear organizes notes as documents sorted by tags.
Mimir organizes them as bullets on pages, with a journal entry for each
day.
Checked on 2026-10-11.
Which to choose
Choose Mimir if you think in bullets: notes you indent, move, and show in more than one place, with a journal entry for each day. Cloud Sync is a one-time purchase that encrypts your notes on your device before it sends them.
Choose Bear if you write in documents, sort with tags, or want tables, sketching, scanning, and sync through your own iCloud account. Its iPhone app has 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Both run on the same devices today. The choice is between bullets and documents.
At a glance
| Mimir | Bear | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Mac, iPhone, iPad | Mac, iPhone, iPad |
| Where notes live | One database file on your device | A database on your device, synced through iCloud |
| Price | Free. Cloud Sync is a one-time purchase. | Free without sync. Pro is $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year. |
| Status | Active | Active |
Where Bear is heading
Bear updates often. Version 2.9, on 2026-07-16, added workspaces that narrow the app to one tag. Bear 3.0.1 reached the App Store on 2026-09-28.
Price
Bear is free to use without sync. Bear Pro adds sync through iCloud, more themes, more export formats, and searching text inside images and PDFs. It costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year in the US, after a free trial.
Mimir is free on every device. Syncing between devices is the one paid feature, a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.
What they share
- Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
- Notes on your own device, usable offline.
[[Links]]between notes, and a list of what links to each one.- Markdown-style formatting as you type, and to-dos.
Where they differ
- A Bear note is a document with headings, which you can fold. Mimir is an outliner: everything you write is a bullet you can indent, move, and show in more than one place.
- Bear sorts notes with nested tags in a sidebar. Mimir has no sidebar or tags. Pages come into existence when you link to them, and the journal holds each day.
- Bear has tables, sketching, scanned documents, a web clipper, and tools that connect it to AI assistants. Mimir has none of these.
- Bear syncs through your iCloud account and supports Apple’s Advanced Data Protection. Mimir’s Cloud Sync uses Mimir’s own servers and encrypts your notes on your device before sending them.
What people say
Bear won an Apple Design Award, and reviewers praise it as fast and calm to write in. The common complaints are the lack of folders and sync that works only through iCloud.
On iPhone and iPad, Bear has 4.7 out of 5 stars from about 6,900 ratings on the US App Store.