Both Bear and Agenda are note taking apps for macOS and iOS. Both are great note taking apps that support my favorite markup syntax called Markdown.
I’ve been a Bear user for over a year now. I use it on a daily basis. I’ve even included it in a post about My Development Toolbox. I really do use it almost every day and I really love the app. I’m happy to pay the yearly subscription fee for it.
Recently (roughly two months ago), a new note taking app was released for macOS and iOS call Agenda. It looked promising. It also has a few features that Bear does not have. Agenda allows you to link notes to both calendar events (and days) and to people. These custom features are great for taking notes during a meeting. You can have notes and action items from a meeting (or day) linked directly in your note taking app.
Agenda is a really well done app. However, there is one feature that is missing from the app that is currently a dealbreaker. Inline images. I often attach screenshots or other images to my notes all the time. Agenda doesn’t currently support this. But it’s something that they are currently working on.
There are also something about the user interface in Agenda that I’m not completely sold on. If you have a bunch of notes, they can be difficult to hide (or declutter). If I want to only focus on a given note at a time, Agenda’s interface makes that tough. Bear has this nice sidebar with a list of notes, which I can select one and focus on it completely.
For now, I am going to continue to use Bear as my main note taking app. I am a subscriber to both Bear and Agenda. As Agenda continues to evolve, I will revisit from time to time to see how they are growing.