bare vs. the tools you've been
making do with.
Beautiful editors have no Git. Git-capable tools weren't built for writing — or they bury it under a system you never asked to run. Here's the honest map, including when the other tool is the right choice.
| Capability | bare | Obsidian + Git plugin |
VS Code | iA Writer | Typora |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beautiful, native macOS app | ✓ | Electron | Electron | ✓ | Electron |
| Built for writing, not code | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Git built in — no plugin, no terminal | ✓ | Plugin | ✓ | — | — |
| Nothing to configure or maintain | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| No graph, no vault, no second brain | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commits are explicit — nothing automatic | ✓ | Auto-timers | ✓ | n/a | n/a |
| Price | from $5, one-time | Free† | Free | $49.99 | $14.99 |
† Obsidian is free for personal use; Sync and commercial use are paid. bare is pay-what-you-want from $5 — one-time, no subscription, with a 14-day free trial. Prices checked 22 July 2026.
iA Writer without the terminal. Obsidian without the weight. VS Code without pretending your notes are code.
When to pick the other tool
bare wins by staying small, which means there are jobs it deliberately doesn't do. Honest advice:
- Pick Obsidian if you want a knowledge system — graph, backlinks, canvas, plugins, mobile. It's superb at that; bare deliberately isn't one. Full write-up: bare vs Obsidian + Git plugin.
- Pick VS Code or a Git client (Fork, Tower) if you need branch management, hunk-level staging, or in-app merge resolution. bare's Git is deliberately smaller: what it does and refuses to do.
- Pick iA Writer if your writing doesn't live in Git and you want the finest pure-prose experience with publishing built in.
-
Pick Typora if you want live WYSIWYG-style rendering while you
type and Git isn't part of your workflow. bare keeps source and rendered page
separate on purpose —
⌘Eflips between them.
Methodology
- Compared on macOS against each tool's current public version, 10 July 2026, from first-hand use and each tool's own documentation and pricing pages.
- bare is made by us, so read the table as a map of positioning, not a scorecard — that's why it also names what bare doesn't do, and this page recommends alternatives.
- Spotted an error? Email help@bare.md and we'll correct it quickly.
Decide on your own folder.
Point bare at a real Git-backed folder of Markdown and you'll know in five minutes.
Download free for macOSDeep dive: bare vs Obsidian + Git plugin · More on the Git side: Markdown editor with Git built in