Looking for a Free Alternative to Bear, Ulysses, or iA Writer?

Let's Start with Honesty

Bear, Ulysses, and iA Writer are good apps. They're made by talented teams who've been refining their products for years. If you're using one of them and it's working well for you, there's no reason to switch.

But you're reading this page, which probably means one of a few things: the subscription renewal just hit and you're reconsidering, you're a student who can't justify the annual cost, you tried the free tier and hit a wall, or you just want something simpler. Whatever brought you here, let's talk about what Indent does and doesn't do compared to each of these apps.

Indent vs. Bear

Where Bear costs you: Bear Pro is $30 per year ($3/month). Without it, you lose sync across devices, most export options, and some themes. The free version is essentially a preview that nudges you toward subscribing.

What Indent offers instead: Indent doesn't have a tagging system. It doesn't organize your notes into a library. It works with plain markdown files wherever they live on your device or in iCloud. But the core editing experience is fully featured from day one: bi directional editing, split view, three view modes, PDF and HTML export, and three themes. All free.

If Bear's organizational features are essential to your workflow, Indent isn't a replacement. But if you mostly use Bear to write and export markdown, and the tag system is something you could live without, Indent gives you that writing experience without the annual cost.

Indent vs. Ulysses

Where Ulysses costs you: $50 per year ($6/month). There's no one time purchase option and no meaningful free tier. You either subscribe or you don't use it.

What Indent offers instead: Indent doesn't have a library, doesn't publish to WordPress, and doesn't track word count goals. What it does have is a clean, focused markdown editor with bi directional editing, split view, document outline, and export to PDF, HTML, and Markdown. For someone who writes in markdown but doesn't need publishing integrations or library management, Indent covers the essentials.

The honest question is: how much of Ulysses do you actually use? If you use the publishing features and writing statistics daily, keep Ulysses. If you mostly use it as a nice place to write and preview markdown, you might be paying $50 a year for features you rarely touch.

Indent vs. iA Writer

Where iA Writer costs you: $50 as a one time purchase. That's fair pricing for a premium app, and there's no subscription to worry about. But it's still $50.

What Indent offers instead: Indent doesn't have a focus mode or syntax based style analysis. Those are genuinely unique features that iA Writer does better than anyone. But Indent has something iA Writer doesn't: bi directional editing, where you can edit directly in the rendered preview. And it has something else iA Writer doesn't: a price tag of zero.

If focus mode is the feature that makes or breaks your writing process, iA Writer is worth the $50. If you want a solid markdown editor that previews and exports your work with no upfront cost, Indent is the answer.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Indent	Bear	Ulysses	iA Writer
Price	Free	$30/yr	$50/yr	$50 once
Bi directional editing	Yes	No	No	No
Split view	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
PDF export	Yes	Pro only	Yes	Yes
HTML export	Yes	Pro only	Yes	Yes
Native Apple app	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Document outline	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tag organization	No	Yes	No	No
Library management	No	Limited	Yes	No
Focus mode	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Publishing integrations	No	No	Yes	No
Dark mode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

What Indent Doesn't Have (And Why That's OK)

Let's be upfront about what you won't find in Indent:

• No Zettelkasten or backlinks. If you're building a personal knowledge base with interconnected notes, you want Obsidian, not Indent. Indent edits one document at a time.
• No tag based organization. Bear's nested tag system is elegant. Indent doesn't try to replicate it. Your files live wherever you put them in your file system or iCloud.
• No library management. Ulysses keeps all your writing in a searchable, filterable library. Indent uses the file system. You manage your own folders.
• No focus mode. iA Writer's sentence level focus is a unique feature that Indent doesn't have. If that's central to how you write, iA Writer remains the best choice for it.
• No publishing integrations. You won't publish to WordPress or Medium directly from Indent. You export to PDF, HTML, or Markdown, then publish using whatever tool you prefer.
• No plugin ecosystem. Obsidian's community plugins are a huge part of its appeal. Indent is a closed system: what you see is what you get.

Here's the thing though: most people who write in markdown don't use most of these features. They open an editor, write a document, preview it, and export it. That's the workflow. And for that workflow, Indent is fully equipped.

The Subscription Fatigue Problem

This isn't about any one app charging too much. It's about the cumulative effect. Your cloud storage is a subscription. Your music is a subscription. Your email client might be a subscription. Your task manager, your calendar app, your note taking app, your writing app: subscriptions, all of them.

At some point, paying $30 to $50 a year for a text editor starts to feel like a lot, even if the app is good. You start wondering: do I really need all of this, or do I just need a place to write markdown?

Indent exists for people who've asked that question and concluded they need less than they're paying for. It's not a lesser app trying to compete with premium tools on features. It's a focused app that does the core things well and doesn't charge for any of it.

Indent's Strengths

While Indent doesn't match the feature depth of premium editors, it has a few things they don't:

• Bi directional editing. Edit in the markdown source or directly in the rich preview. Most editors, including Bear and Ulysses, don't offer this.
• No cost, period. Not "free with limitations." Not "free for personal use." Not "free tier." Free. Every feature, every platform, no exceptions.
• No account required. You don't create a login, provide an email, or agree to marketing. Download it, open it, start writing.
• Truly native. Built with SwiftUI for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS. Not a web wrapper, not Electron. A real Apple platform app with real keyboard shortcuts and real system integration.

Who Should Switch to Indent

You might want to try Indent if:

• You're paying for Bear Pro but mostly use it to write and export documents, not to organize thousands of tagged notes.
• Your Ulysses subscription is renewing and you realize you've never once published to WordPress from it.
• You've been eyeing iA Writer but can't justify $50 for a text editor right now.
• You use the free version of any of these apps and keep hitting paywalled features.
• You're a student, hobbyist, or casual writer who needs a solid markdown editor without ongoing costs.

Who Should Stay Where They Are

Stay with your current app if:

• You actively use Bear's tag system and have hundreds of organized notes.
• You publish directly from Ulysses to WordPress or Medium on a regular basis.
• iA Writer's focus mode is genuinely integral to your writing process.
• You've built an Obsidian vault with plugins and workflows that depend on its ecosystem.

These are real advantages that Indent doesn't try to replicate. If they matter to your work, the cost of those apps is justified.

Try It. It's Free.

The nice thing about Indent being free is that trying it costs you nothing. Download it from the App Store, open a document, write something, preview it, export it. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't, you haven't lost a thing.

No trial to cancel. No credit card to remember to remove. Just a markdown editor on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, ready whenever you are.