Bear vs Craft

Bear

• Writers who want a focused Markdown editor on Mac, iPhone and iPad
• People who prefer organizing notes with tags rather than folders
• Apple users who want notes synced through their own iCloud account

Craft

• People who want polished documents and personal notes in one app
• Individuals and families working mainly on Apple devices, with Windows, Android and web as well
• Small teams of up to 10 that prefer a fixed price over per-seat billing

Bear

• Bear is offered only for Apple devices: Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
• Syncing notes between devices requires a Bear Pro subscription.
• Note encryption, OCR search and export to PDF, HTML, DOCX and JPG are Pro features.
• Subscriptions are billed through Apple's App Store, and prices vary by country.

Craft

• The free Starter plan stops at 1,500 content blocks, 1 GB of storage and 25 MB per file.
• Shared spaces come with the Family and Team bundles, which are capped at 6 and 10 accounts.
• Offline use covers documents opened earlier; creating documents, search and the AI assistant need a connection.
• Prices are set per country in local currency, so the amount shown on the pricing page varies by region.

Bear

Markdown editor

Notes mix text, photos, tables and to-do lists in one place, with sketches inserted inline next to text and attachments.

Tags and nested tags

Notes are organized with tags, including nested tags, and more than 250 icons help individual tags stand out.

Wiki links and backlinks

Notes link to each other with wiki links, and an info panel shows each note's backlinks and table of contents.

Web Clipper

Extensions for Safari, Chrome and Firefox save a full page or a highlighted selection as a note, with the clipping done on your device.

Sync, encryption and OCR search (Pro)

Bear Pro syncs notes through iCloud, encrypts individual notes, locks the app and searches for text inside photos and PDFs.

Export and import

Exports to TXT, Markdown, TextBundle, RTF, PDF, JPG, HTML, DOCX and ePub, with migration guides for Evernote, Apple Notes and Obsidian.

Craft

Block-based documents

Documents combine styled text, headings, lists and tables in blocks, and can be shared or published to the web.

Tasks, daily notes and calendar

Tasks sit inside documents and daily notes, with a calendar view. On Mac, iPhone and iPad, system calendar events appear alongside them.

Whiteboards and Collections

Whiteboards provide a visual canvas, and Collections add structured tracking with rich data to a document.

Craft Assistant

AI help for writing and editing, metered in credits: 15 on the Starter plan and 50 per month on Plus.

Offline editing

Documents opened earlier can be read and edited without a connection and sync on reconnect. Mac and iOS sync in the background; elsewhere it must be enabled in settings.

API, MCP and capture tools

A REST API and MCP server are included in all plans. A browser extension clips web pages, and emails can be forwarded into a space.

Bear

• Free$0

  Markdown notes with tags, links, tables and sketches, and 3 themes. No sync between devices.

• Bear Pro$2.99

  per month, or $29.99 per year

  Adds iCloud sync across devices, note encryption and app lock, OCR search in PDFs and images, 28+ themes and export to PDF, HTML, DOCX and JPG.

Craft

• Starter$0

  One account with up to 1,500 content blocks, 1 GB of storage, 25 MB per file, 7-day version history and 15 AI credits.

• Plus$96

  per year ($10 if billed monthly)

  One account with unlimited documents, up to 5 spaces of 1 TB each, 5 GB per file, 30-day version history and 50 AI credits a month.

• Family$180

  per year ($18 if billed monthly)

  Fixed-price bundle of 2 to 6 Plus accounts with up to 5 shared family spaces.

• Team$600

  per year ($60 if billed monthly)

  Fixed price for up to 10 Plus accounts with up to 25 shared team spaces, member roles and centralized billing.

Bear

• Annual discount

  About 15% lower price with the yearly subscription

  Bear's site marks the $29.99 yearly subscription as 15% cheaper than paying $2.99 each month.

• Education

  30% off the first year for students and academics

  Students and people working in academia can ask support for a code giving 30% off the first year of the Bear Pro yearly subscription. It renews at the regular price.

Craft

• Annual discount

  Save up to 20% with annual billing

  Plus is $96 a year versus $10 a month, a 20% saving. Family ($180 a year or $18 a month) and Team ($600 a year or $60 a month) save about 17%.

• Education

  Free Education plan for students and staff

  Enrolled students, faculty and staff with a school-issued email get free access to premium features, including unlimited documents and 250 GB of storage, re-verified every 12 months.