I want to start by saying that this is not a “Bear is best”” or “10 reasons why you should switch to Bear” kind of post.
There are many excellent blogging platforms out there. The concept of “better” isn’t really relevant. It all depends on your personal preferences and requirements.
This post simply outlines why I chose Bear after trying many different tools. If your blogging habits align with mine, Bear might be the right platform for you too. If you’re already happy where you are — congratulations, no need to read further.
Simplicity
At the last minute, I decided to leave this part out. Not because Bear isn’t easy to use (it really is), but because so are most other indie platforms. You’ll be up and running in no time, whichever you choose.
Customization
Simplicity often equals “not very customizable.” But not with Bear. Here you get the best of both worlds — simplicity and customization. It’s a pretty unique product in that sense. Check out the Neat Bear features page for some examples.
Theming
Bear comes with nearly 30 ready-made themes to choose from in the dashboard. There are also quite a few user-created ones, like the McLuhan Lite Theme. If you want to go a step further, there’s a built-in style editor that lets you add your own custom styles endlessly.
Markdown
Most blogging platforms support Markdown, but many use a WYSIWYG editor. That often means if you copy text back to your own editor, the markdown is lost. With Bear, everything stays in plain text — your markup is always preserved.
Analytics
Even though I don’t care much about statistics, I do find it motivating to see where readers come from and how they discover my posts. Bear provides a built-in analytics tool that’s more than enough for most bloggers. If you need more advanced stats, you can always integrate external services.
Community
The Bear community is something special. There are so many interesting and inspiring bloggers and posts to discover — all within the bearblog.dev domain. Once you’re in, it’s hard to leave. That sense of connection was a big reason I decided to get back on Bear blog — for life.
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before “Relax,” said the night man, “We are programmed to receive You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”
Philosophy
Another important reason for me was the philosophy behind Bear. Reading posts by Herman Martinus, the creator, like Building software to last forever and My product is my garden made me feel confident that this platform is built to last.
Lifetime
I don’t like subscriptions. Whenever possible, I prefer a one-time, lifetime purchase over ongoing fees. With Bear, if you decide to upgrade (using it for free works perfectly fine), you get three options:
- Monthly
- Annual
- Lifetime
What’s missing?
Bear includes a way to collect email addresses, but you’ll need another service to actually send newsletters. I do wish there were a simple built-in email feature — nothing fancy, just a way for readers to get notified when a new post is published.
These are my main reasons for choosing Bear for blogging. It fits my blogging workflow and my reasons for writing.
Thank you, Herman, and all the wonderful Bear bloggers who keep inspiring me to write and share.
PS. If Bear isn’t for you and you’re still searching for the right platform, check out Manu’s great list of all the blog platforms.