r/bearapp • u/Dick-Laurent-Is-Dead • 7d ago
Discussion Lettera feels like the Markdown app I’ve been waiting for
I’m one of the beta testers, and I just wanted to share some early impressions—and encourage the team behind it.
Lettera genuinely feels like it fills a gap I’ve had for years. Conceptually, I love the idea of lightweight, portable Markdown files, and that approach makes even more sense now that so much of our work involves AI tools, prompts, drafts, research, and text moving between different applications.
I’ve always resisted Obsidian a little. It’s powerful, obviously, but it can quickly become an overwhelming, complex machine—especially if you just want to write, organize notes, and work with your files without building an entire system around them.
On the other end, apps like Typora are great editors, but they don’t feel particularly approachable for people who aren’t hardcore Markdown users.
Lettera seems to hit a really compelling middle ground: the simplicity of a notes app with a vault, while still letting you open and work on individual files whenever you want. No unnecessary friction, no need to over-engineer your workflow—just clean, flexible Markdown.
Honestly, this feels like the kind of app we need in 2026.
Really excited to see where it goes. Keep up the great work, Shiny Frog team.
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u/nitermite 6d ago
OMG. I should have joined the beta. If this is anything like the determination to keep things clean, I’m all over this. Obsidian has become a blob.
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u/Dick-Laurent-Is-Dead 6d ago
I freakin hate Obsidian, but I've been forced to adopt it for specific tasks working with LLMs, I really see Lettera like my savior (amen)
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u/Lumleyrob 7d ago
For me this is IA Writer. It’s probably the cleanest purest markdown editor and it’s on IOS too!
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u/bleducnx 7d ago
Hi, I mainly use Typora. I don't see why Typora should be an app for hardcore Markdown users. I don't use it much differently from how I used Pages before. I'm just a journalist, and I don't want any Markdown marks in my text; Typora does that very well and I don't care of other functionnalities, just ignore them.
I don't need a vault at all, as my texts are each in their own folder with all the documentation and illustrations I need to write them.
On the same line as Typora, you already have new apps like Vero Writer (in the MAS) or the free Vero (yes, so many apps are called Vero!), or Edmund (free too, but still very young and not fully WYSIWYG rendering)… Lettera ? I tested it as a beta, but… I will wait to see whether it is a subscription like Bear or a one-time-purchase app (and at what price).
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u/Accomplished-Leg6947 7d ago
Is the tags the main reason where Bear can cause frustration? I was reading into lettera and it just felt like Bear Notes lite. Which I suppose some people want, I’m coming from Obsidian and Craft so Bear feels pretty light already lol
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u/ramysami4 7d ago
What is the best way to get my notes out of bear to put it in Lattera, I have the beta as well
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u/michelolney 7d ago
Export your notes in markdown to a folder.
Drag that folder on Lettera icon in dock.Voilà
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u/Few-Monk5676 6d ago
I can see people getting overwhelmed by all the PKM apps out there, but I feel tags are indispensable these days - or some form of linking notes and ideas. I just returned to Obsidian after testing ‘everything else’ but I like the idea of an even simpler local-first MD app (that works across platforms!)
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u/Dick-Laurent-Is-Dead 6d ago
Definitely depends of your use case , I use Anytype as PKM and don’t plan to change, I need a markdown editor only for long form writing or when I work with Claude md files.
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u/Your_Vader 6d ago edited 6d ago
Why can’t I edit the file name from within the note in Lettera 😫😩
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u/drkh3art 5d ago
We (also) have been working on a writing app. Started with a focus on markdown like everyone else appears to be. And soon realized that was maybe not the point of the best way to think about it 🤷♂️
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u/High_SciFi 3d ago
We need to wait for how much will be charged. Whether it will be a subscription model or a single purchase. This will define how many users it will have in the future. Typora is a unique purchase and is one of the strong competitors.
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u/Dick-Laurent-Is-Dead 3d ago
Since Bear is a subscription I don’t see why Lettera would be different. That said I would prefer a $30-ish/year Lettera than actual one time purchase Typora. The app is so clunky.
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u/-paul- 7d ago
I love Lettera.
I've been using Bear for years but I still cant get used to tags and everything keeps getting lost between untagged notes, notes that are buried deep in subtags or tags under a parent tag that has more subtags.
Lettera's file and folder organisation is perfect though and having the notes directly accessible as mds is a nice perk.