Bean
The facts below are what the maker publishes about Bean, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From Bean's own pricing page, checked 11 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Bean | Free | Provided at no monetary cost |
The facts
Each one read from Bean's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Compatibility limits
- DOC and DOCX imports do not preserve images, and DOCX may also lose formatting; ODT conversion can lose images and page layout.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Complex documents
- The maker says Bean should not be considered a replacement for word processors designed for complex documents involving citations or complex page layout.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Development status
- The maker says active development ceased after Bean 3.2.2, while the app remains available for download and may be updated as needed for future macOS versions.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Display and editing
- Bean offers page layout view, dark mode and alternate colors, regular-expression search, word completion, a formatting inspector, and highlighting.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Export
- Bean can export documents to HTML and PDF.checked 11 Oct 2026
- File formats
- Bean natively reads and writes RTF, RTFD, Bean, plain text, and Apple web archive files, and imports and exports DOC, DOCX, and ODT.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Bean’s help documents opening and saving formats through Apple’s file conversion services for ODT and DOCX.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Missing features
- Bean does not have footnotes, sections, or automatic tables of contents.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Product
- Bean is a small, easy-to-use word processor designed to make writing convenient, efficient and comfortable.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Security and warranty
- The license provides the software as is, without warranty, and places the risk of quality and performance on the user.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Support
- The maker says users can report bugs, give feedback, or ask questions by email at [email protected].checked 11 Oct 2026
- Writing features
- The listed features include live word count, document templates, free-form headers and footers, split-window editing, and full-screen editing.checked 11 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- macOS support
- The current download is listed for macOS 10.13 High Sierra through macOS 27 Golden Gate.checked 11 Oct 2026
The company
- Maker
- The help page credits James Hoover with Bean’s coding.checked 11 Oct 2026
Alternatives to Bean
- 1
ONLYOFFICE Docs
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSWebAPI8.7From $8 a month - 2
LibreOffice Impress
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSWebAPI8.6$8.99 one-time - 3
Calmly Writer
Free planAndroidWebLinuxmacOS8.2Free plan - 4
WPS Office
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.2From $41.99 a year - 5
Dropbox Paper
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI7.7Free plan - 6
Collabora Online
Free planAndroidiOSWebLinux7.5From $3.40 a month