There was a time when Evernote was synonymous with productivity and was the cutting edge when it came to organizational apps. But there has been a lot of rain since then and although the service is still available, Today it is not an elephant, but a mammoth by note application, an animal that has failed to evolve accordingly and seems more prone to extinction than to surprise again… for the better, of course.

The fact that its proposal does not enjoy the favor of time is evidenced by the decline in popularity that the application experiences in practically all the rankings that are made annually in the media specialized in this type of tools. Evernote rarely appears anymore, and when it does, it’s more like a reference than a recommendation. You could say that alternatives like Notion and its ilk have “eaten the toast”, although its value as a tool remains.

But if there’s a clear indication that Evernote has seen better days in terms of popularity, it’s the gradual increase in the prices of its paid plans, as well as the reduction of features in the free plan. And a business that’s doing well usually doesn’t do these things. After several years of more or less no change, the company was acquired in early 2023 by Italy’s Bending Spoons, who announced a crazy price hike in the middle.

The Professional plan, the most complete that the service offers, has thus passed from 69.99 to 129.99 euros per year. At the same time, a lower tariff is available, personal, which costs 99.99 euros per year (the price is the same in dollars and, since it is paid annually, it represents a discount of almost 30% compared to the monthly payment). In other words, even if you don’t pay 100 euros a year, you can have all the features of Evernote… and some are as basic as the ability to export notes in PDF format.

Of course, if paying users are squeezed, those using Evernote for free won’t be any less… or more, depending on how you look at it. In fact, Evernote’s free bread has been little more than a way to test the platform for years, as the two-device sync limit has already made it clear that non-payers are not welcome. It is clear that paying users deserve more attention, and the number of restrictions on users of the free plan proves this. However, the capping is so brutal that it starts to seem strange that they even offer a free plan.

Here’s how we’re getting to the penultimate nail in the coffin of Evernote’s free accounts, announced a few weeks ago and implemented here: limit of 50 notes and 1 notebook for free accounts. Whoever finds himself in this situation and has more notes will not lose them, he will be able to keep them, including the possibility of editing; but they will not be able to add new ones if the limit has been reached. Which is common in these cases.

What’s the problem? In fact, there are more. It is possible that there are users who qualify for Evernote’s free plan, but with such a strict limit and mostly limited features, there are free alternatives that give it some thought. And speaking of paying… The price of a personal Evernote subscription costs the same as the Microsoft 365 Family tariff (personal costs 69 euros per year) for six people and with an ecosystem of applications that triples that.

I mention Microsoft’s offer specifically because it is one of the most complete and above all because OneNote is part of it. Maybe in a comparison of properties between Evernote and OneNote There is no perfect parity, so it will be up to each user to choose the one that suits them best. This means that OneNote is in some ways superior to Evernote – and vice versa, yes – and anyone with a Microsoft account can use it for free and without restrictions, except for available storage space.

Evernote put the penultimate nail in the coffin of free accounts, yes, but it also further raised the bar of loyalty for non-paying users who, over time and accumulating content, could become customers. On the other hand, it might make sense to limit the number of notes, allow free access to features that are now reserved for paying users, and thus offer a complete “trial mode”. But neither one nor the other.

Let it not be for alternatives, Transparent. It’s true that Microsoft OneNote is the most balanced by comparison, but it’s worth repeating that it will depend on each person’s needs. The challenge for those with a lot of material accumulated in Evernote will be the migration, but there are many applications that make this process possible, including OneNote. However, I suggest you check out Joplin first, an open source alternative that will surprise you.