Bear alternative

Bear's elegant themes, with your Markdown files actually on disk.

Bear's reading themes are some of the best in any Markdown app — but your notes live inside an iCloud-locked SQLite database, not a portable plain file. MDDock ships 13+ reading themes (Work / Reader / Cream / Proposal / Stage / Mono / Code / Letterpress / Minimal / Newsprint / Paperback / Codebook / Night Owl) and stores every note as a plain .md file you own.

Why Bear users move to MDDock

13+ themes, plus AI that reads your notes

Bear's theme engine is polished; MDDock matches it with 13+ reading themes for long-form, slides, and code. Then layers AI memory and hybrid recall so your assistant can answer from your notes, not just match keywords.

Plain .md files, plus Office round-trip

Every note in MDDock is a plain .md file in a folder you control — back up with git, sync with Dropbox, ship with your repo. Import Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Excel when colleagues send them, export back when needed.

One-click Agent skill install

Install MDDock skills for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex and your AI coding agents can read, search, and answer from your local Markdown vault. Your themes stay; your lock-in disappears.

Bear is elegant. MDDock is elegant and portable.

Other alternatives

MDDock is not affiliated with Bear. Bear is a trademark of its respective owner.