Comparison
ML-42 reads and edits the markdown files already in your folders for $12.99 once; Bear stores notes in its own database and syncs them through a $2.99-a-month subscription.
Last updated: 2026-08-28 · Bear facts checked against bear.app's own pages on that date.
ML-42 is a native macOS app for reading and editing markdown files already on disk, across as many folders and projects as you want, for $12.99 once.
Bear is a native Apple notes app that stores notes in its own database, with tagging, sketching, and iCloud sync as part of a $2.99-a-month Pro subscription.
| Dimension | ML-42 | Bear |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | One pane: a file list and the note, open on launch | Full notes app: tag sidebar, rich editor, sketching and OCR panels |
| Storage model | Plain .md files in your folders | SQLite database owned by the app; markdown-compatible syntax stored inside it |
| File ownership | Files exist on disk whether or not the app is installed | Notes live inside the app; getting them out means exporting (PDF, HTML, DOCX, or markdown) or using a community script against the database |
| Works on existing folders / repos | Yes — that's the product | No — notes are created inside Bear; import brings content into its database |
| Native vs Electron | Native SwiftUI (Mac) | Also native Apple development — no Electron angle here |
| Platforms | macOS 26 or later, Mac only | Mac, iPhone, and iPad, with well-regarded iOS apps |
| Sync | None built in — your folders, your sync method | iCloud sync as a Pro feature, automatic, with support for Advanced Data Protection |
| Price model | $12.99 one-time (introductory; will rise) | Free tier without sync; Pro is $2.99/month or $29.99/year |
| Track record | New app, currently version 1.1 | Apple Design Award winner and an App Store Editors' Choice, with years of refinement |
| Tags / organization | Folders and favorites — whatever structure your disk already has | Nestable hashtag tags with 250+ customizable icons, plus OCR search inside photos and PDFs (Pro) |
| AI-agent workflow | Agents edit the same files you see, and the app auto-reloads | Agents can't easily write into Bear's database; automation is limited to x-callback-url and Shortcuts |
| Extra media features | Embedded local images; markdown focus | Sketching, document scanning, photo and PDF OCR |
| Learning curve | Minimal | Also minimal |
Open ML-42 and it behaves like a native Mac window — you're reading the folder you pointed it at immediately, no note to create first, no database to import into. The window is one pane: a file list and the note itself.
Bear's interface is also native, polished, and an Apple Design Award winner — a tag sidebar, a rich editor, sketching and OCR tools, all built around notes that live inside its own database. Both apps are well-made; Bear packs an app's worth of note-taking features around your writing, while ML-42 stays a single pane over files that already exist outside it.
Bear stores notes in a SQLite database inside its own app container, not as individual files on disk. The syntax you type is markdown-compatible, but the storage underneath is a database that Bear's own developers discourage touching directly.
ML-42 works the other way: the files it shows you are plain markdown files in whatever folder you pointed it at, before and after you open the app. There's no database in between.
To get content out of Bear, you export — PDF, HTML, DOCX, or markdown, with richer formats reserved for Pro — or you reach for one of the community scripts built to bulk-export the database to markdown files. The fact that those scripts exist and are still maintained says something about the demand for a way out.
ML-42 doesn't have an export step, because there's nothing to export: the files are already sitting on disk in the folder you opened, with or without ML-42 installed.
Bear is a personal notes app: nestable hashtag tags, sketching, document scanning, and photo and PDF OCR search on Pro, backed by an Apple Design Award and years of refinement. ML-42 has none of that — no tags beyond your folder structure, no sketching, no OCR.
What ML-42 does instead is stay out of the way of files that already exist for other reasons — a git repo, a docs directory, the context files an AI agent reads and writes. Agents can write directly into those files and ML-42 picks up the change automatically; they can't easily write into Bear's database at all.
ML-42 is not a knowledge-management system. It's a reader and editor for folders that exist for other reasons — repos, docs directories, agent context. If you're choosing a home for personal notes, Bear may simply be the better category fit; ML-42 competes when the files already exist and need to stay where they are.
Choose Bear if
Choose ML-42 if
Also see ML-42 vs Obsidian
Buy it once. It's yours — no database, no sync to rent, no subscription. Native macOS.
Learn more about ML-42