---
title: "Mimir vs. Bear"
description: "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.

## Sources

- [Bear](https://bear.app)
- [Bear 2.9: Use tag as workspace](https://blog.bear.app/2026/07/bear-2-9-use-tag-as-workspace/)
- [Bear on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bear-markdown-notes/id1016366447)