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Mary F

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Is there anyway Evernote can be used offline without buying a premium account? My husband and I are looking at getting out first tablets with wi-fi. I was thinking about using Evernote to keep track of 100s contacts however I need the info offline. I was thinking we could make notes, etc while off-line when sync once we get home. Is anything like this possible?

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Evernote can be used to create notes while offline whether you're Free or Premium, and then will sync those notes as soon as you have signal.

What it can't do as a Free user is access notes from your database to view/edit them while offline. So it *can* be used for your use case.

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I don't have a smartphone and really don't want the monthly charges so tether is not an option unfortunately. It doesn't sound like it would work because if I understand I wouldn't have access to my contacts when I'm offline on the tablet. I would on the laptop but not the tablet.

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On the laptop (with Evernote), you always have access to everything when you're offline. With mobile devices (like an Android tablet), you need to be Premium to access your notes offline.

If using Evernote Hello (our contact manager), you have access to contacts you create, while offline (Premium or Free). Evernote Hello is currently iOS only, but Android is on the way.

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Hello,

I noticed if you manually sync a single note in your EN for Android (by opening them) then you can later edit/view it in your Android device off-line and later can sync back when you are on-line again.

BTW, Evernote should consider to create a different pricing plan for users who just use the very basic functionality of EN, does not use 1 GB, just a very small amount of text e.g the 60 MB / month with full notebook sync for e.g. 20 USD/year.

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We actually do have discounted pricing for groups, but we've discussed a la carte pricing in the past and decided that, at least for the time being, we're not going to do that.

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I often do not use even 1 MB/month, still actively using Evernote every day!

Understand, I think you guys at EN may re-consider a'la cart pricing.

And you could still convert lots of free users to EN Lite user or so.

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Just to see if I have it right - if I enter information into Evernote on the Android tablet, while offline. Then sync it when I get home, it will no longer be available when I am offline again?

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The lite thing sounds good to me also. It would also give folks like me a trial to see if they use it alot or not. As it is, if I'm going to have to pay for MB I don't use I'll probably find another way and not worry with syncing to the computer.

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  • 2 months later...

BTW, Evernote should consider to create a different pricing plan for users who just use the very basic functionality of EN, does not use 1 GB, just a very small amount of text e.g the 60 MB / month with full notebook sync for e.g. 20 USD/year.

I am trying out Evernote and now researching the problem of not having my notes accessible on my smart phone when out of range, which is often for me. I checked your pricing and it's not going to happen. For some with good incomes, another ongoing bill for the rest of our lives may seem fine, but I avoid ongoing payments like the plague. $50 a year is $500 in ten years. Nope, I'm not paying $500 every decade for this convenience. I might pay $10 a year for syncing, not more.

I like Evernote, but the problem of paying to store stuff on my own smartphone breaks it and is making me look for alternatives to Evernote. You've created the niche, but you have to make it more workable for low income people or you'll just create a niche for another company. . There is always somebody else that is looking to pickup the slack.

Sure, charge for increased storage, high usage, yes, but don't cripple it. Or else make it very cheap to fix the broken part.

Just letting you know....there are already cloud-based alternatives to Evernote and the better you do, the more likely that others will enter your niche. This problem will definitely be ripe for remedy with the competition. On the other hand, the more you offer, the harder it will be for others to usurp. And your sheer momentum will help offering more to remain profitable.

Anti-virus? Email? Office suites? All partially priced out of the market by competition with free and open-source options.

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I like Evernote, but the problem of paying to store stuff on my own smartphone breaks it and is making me look for alternatives to Evernote.

Dude. Seriously. If it was stored on your smartphone, why would you need an internet connection??? You're paying Evernote to store your notes on THEIR servers that you can ACCESS from & DOWNLOAD to your smartphone.

And although I posted this today in another thread, I'll repost here for you:

We try to offer a very rich set of functionality for Free users, which you can use for years without paying us a nickel. But we are a business with employees who like to eat food and pay rent, so we must choose some set of features and capabilities that are reserved for paying customers to encourage some people (approximately 5% of all active users) to cover the cost of writing the software and running the servers.

Adding full offline synchronization to low-powered mobile phones takes many months of engineering to build and tune, so we've put that into the "pay" bucket instead of other options (e.g. charge everyone for the Android client).

If you find another app/service that works well for you, then great! But to rag on EN for charging a measly (repeat, MEASLY) $5/month (something just under $4/month if you pay annually) for their work is tragic.

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  • Level 5*

BTW, Evernote should consider to create a different pricing plan for users who just use the very basic functionality of EN, does not use 1 GB, just a very small amount of text e.g the 60 MB / month with full notebook sync for e.g. 20 USD/year.

I am trying out Evernote and now researching the problem of not having my notes accessible on my smart phone when out of range, which is often for me. I checked your pricing and it's not going to happen. For some with good incomes, another ongoing bill for the rest of our lives may seem fine, but I avoid ongoing payments like the plague. $50 a year is $500 in ten years. Nope, I'm not paying $500 every decade for this convenience. I might pay $10 a year for syncing, not more.

I like Evernote, but the problem of paying to store stuff on my own smartphone breaks it and is making me look for alternatives to Evernote. You've created the niche, but you have to make it more workable for low income people or you'll just create a niche for another company. . There is always somebody else that is looking to pickup the slack.

Sure, charge for increased storage, high usage, yes, but don't cripple it. Or else make it very cheap to fix the broken part.

Just letting you know....there are already cloud-based alternatives to Evernote and the better you do, the more likely that others will enter your niche. This problem will definitely be ripe for remedy with the competition. On the other hand, the more you offer, the harder it will be for others to usurp. And your sheer momentum will help offering more to remain profitable.

Anti-virus? Email? Office suites? All partially priced out of the market by competition with free and open-source options.

I think we ought to clarify what the situation is right now. What you are saying about Evernote and low-income people is simply untrue.

Evernote is free. You don't even need a computer to use it. You can go to the library and access it anytime through their computers (in the US). This is arguably one of the most accessible applications available today. It's not dumbed down in any way. You get essentially the same experience as paid users.

You can access it anytime on your mobile device as well, assuming you have a cellular connection, which is pretty ubiquitous as well. I wouldn't say that everyone has a smart phone nowadays, but with the pre-paid options, most people could if they wanted.

The question here is: how does Evernote earn revenue? Paying for servers to supply service to more than 23 million users around the world 24/7, staff to run it, developers to work on the app across all of the major computer platforms, etc., etc. costs substantial sums of money. They've decided that there are just a few features they will make available only to premium members in order to entice them to buy into the system. It amounts to the price of a cup of coffee each month. When compared to other online services (Dropbox, iCloud, etc.), I think you'll find it isn't terribly different.

Although I understand what you are saying, and can certainly sympathize with your plight, I also want to see Evernote stick around for the longer term. It needs to find a way to generate revenue. So, if you can suggest another option, I bet they would be interested in hearing it! I am not sure that momentum and constant innovation is going to be enough...

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  • 1 month later...

BTW, Evernote should consider to create a different pricing plan for users who just use the very basic functionality of EN, does not use 1 GB, just a very small amount of text e.g the 60 MB / month with full notebook sync for e.g. 20 USD/year.

I am trying out Evernote and now researching the problem of not having my notes accessible on my smart phone when out of range, which is often for me. I checked your pricing and it's not going to happen. For some with good incomes, another ongoing bill for the rest of our lives may seem fine, but I avoid ongoing payments like the plague. $50 a year is $500 in ten years. Nope, I'm not paying $500 every decade for this convenience. I might pay $10 a year for syncing, not more.

I like Evernote, but the problem of paying to store stuff on my own smartphone breaks it and is making me look for alternatives to Evernote. You've created the niche, but you have to make it more workable for low income people or you'll just create a niche for another company. . There is always somebody else that is looking to pickup the slack.

Sure, charge for increased storage, high usage, yes, but don't cripple it. Or else make it very cheap to fix the broken part.

Just letting you know....there are already cloud-based alternatives to Evernote and the better you do, the more likely that others will enter your niche. This problem will definitely be ripe for remedy with the competition. On the other hand, the more you offer, the harder it will be for others to usurp. And your sheer momentum will help offering more to remain profitable.

Anti-virus? Email? Office suites? All partially priced out of the market by competition with free and open-source options.

Spot on! but I can see there a few Evernote fanatics here. I was excited about the Evernote until I found out that I can't manage my notes offline.

This is a huge drawback / limitation for me. It's the whole purpose of keeping them, so that I can view them whenever and wherever I want. £35 for the ability to save memos on my own phone?! no thank you. I'll find something for free. £5 one off is more adequate for me. £35 is is a high price regardless of your earning especially considering that many companies offer free cloud service (I get Box 50GB for free). Uninstall.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree with some of the views here in this string.

Since Evernote is free, with the option of a preimium account, then Evernote should install the feature that a person can sync an Evernote note to their computer "offline" via bluetooth connection, which most laptops and Android Phones support.

Syncing the notes to Evernote online is either "automatic" or "manually" when the person desires.

This is my reasoning.

Access to the web can be questionable for those who travel, depending on where they are. A person can make a note on his smartphone and when back to the motel, sync it with his laptop, since the area he is in has no Internet connection. Then when he gets home, he can sync it with his Evernote account online.

Next, syncing a note offline should be in text format. Of course Evernote has to decide how such offline formating / syncing works for notes that contain images or audio.

I have always believed in simple formats for electronic storage, since these basic formats are very common for most applications. With the way it is now, when I sync a note with my laptop it gives a URL and that is annoying when I need to access to the information on my laptop to do more involved work, but alas...no internet connection, my work is stalled.

So that is one downfall of Evernote and this downfall would be the reason why I uninstall it because I require offline syncing with my computer because I am not always in a wi-fi zone.

So this has nothing to do with money, it has to do with "functionality" and how practical that functionality really is.

To have the ability to sync offline with a computer should always be one of the basic features an APP has.

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I can see both sides here:

1) Many people like me (student) love evernote. Then at some point we have lots of information stored (in my case contact-details) in a note and need to have a look at them (in a place without internetconnection) and *bam* we realize that offline only works with some notes, some times (I could not figure out when exactly. Although it is claimed that if I create a note on my android device it will always be visible in offline mode, this is not true if I modify it on my windows-evernote and then try to access it).

I cannot afford to pay the subscription now, but I love this app so much that the day I start working, I am sure I will use evernote very excessivly (so it only makes sense to go for the subscription).

2) Offline Synchronization is a well built feature, which needed lots of man-hours and evernote is a company with employees who shall be paid. You don't want to offer a "lite"-subscription to make the "real" subscription more attractive.

Now I have an idea:

Offline synchronization does not create huge server costs (which high usage, huge notes etc do create). Why don't you offer a non-free-app which includes offline-sync for let's say 15€? I guess there are many people out there who won't switch to a pay-subscription but who would be willing to pay for this (and only this) feature a one-time-fee.

This way you earn money with a feature which does not have running-costs and your subscription-system will still be simple as you want it to be.

Opinions?

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I'm mystified by some of the reasoning in this thread. :huh: And I'm not a fanatic, I'm a grumpy old-skool freeware type. But even I pay for Evernote. It's a service. There are so many apps that allow you to sync files for free between android and 'the cloud' (dropbox, google) why not use one of those? I use Droidedit on Android and Writebox on Chrome to work in .txt files, for example, cos I don't like Evernote as a writing environment. Evernote's usage is effectively free, I just can't see them ever offering you more than that. Really.

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  • Level 5*

I can see both sides here:

1) Many people like me (student) love evernote. Then at some point we have lots of information stored (in my case contact-details) in a note and need to have a look at them (in a place without internetconnection) and *bam* we realize that offline only works with some notes, some times (I could not figure out when exactly. Although it is claimed that if I create a note on my android device it will always be visible in offline mode, this is not true if I modify it on my windows-evernote and then try to access it).

I cannot afford to pay the subscription now, but I love this app so much that the day I start working, I am sure I will use evernote very excessivly (so it only makes sense to go for the subscription).

2) Offline Synchronization is a well built feature, which needed lots of man-hours and evernote is a company with employees who shall be paid. You don't want to offer a "lite"-subscription to make the "real" subscription more attractive.

Now I have an idea:

Offline synchronization does not create huge server costs (which high usage, huge notes etc do create). Why don't you offer a non-free-app which includes offline-sync for let's say 15€? I guess there are many people out there who won't switch to a pay-subscription but who would be willing to pay for this (and only this) feature a one-time-fee.

This way you earn money with a feature which does not have running-costs and your subscription-system will still be simple as you want it to be.

Opinions?

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

Evernote is a free service that allows you to sync across any device as long as you have an Internet connection, so if you modify it on your Windows computer, then you can access that note on your Android device. I am not aware of any guarantee that you can view a note offline on Android if you are a free user. Occasionally, it may be retained in your cache, but that is more by chance than design.

Your idea sounds interesting, but would involve the development of an entirely separate app and its maintenance for years to come, so I think that it is unlikely to work out well for Evernote financially, not to mention the loss of money from Premium subscribers who might switch to it. I understand the attraction of a one-time fee, but unlike most apps that use Amazon or some other server farm, Evernote maintains its own servers with your data on them, so I think the business model needs to be a little different.

Anyhow, good luck in school, and I hope you enjoy using Evernote there! I certainly have :)

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This topic is close to my heart. At the moment Evernote seems to be divided between free and amazing value or expensive paid which may suit some professional or corporate users but is really too expensive for me. I'm about to be retired on a modest income doing a small amount of professional work, personal projects and quite a lot of travel away from networks.

I believe in paying for software, I would be happy to pay a one-off or annual charge but I only want this one feature and can't justify the cost of the full package.

A Lite or a la carte package could generate a lot of revenue for Evernote and it might even allow them to limit the free package.

Incidentally a lot of US contributors to these discussions may be unaware how difficult it can be to stay online when crossing borders and urban users forget that some of the best places to spend time are off the networks. I spent a week this year camping and cycling in southwest Scotland and we hardly sniffed a phone network all week. When there was one it was very slow and unreliable.

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  • Level 5*

This topic is close to my heart. At the moment Evernote seems to be divided between free and amazing value or expensive paid which may suit some professional or corporate users but is really too expensive for me. I'm about to be retired on a modest income doing a small amount of professional work, personal projects and quite a lot of travel away from networks.

I believe in paying for software, I would be happy to pay a one-off or annual charge but I only want this one feature and can't justify the cost of the full package.

A Lite or a la carte package could generate a lot of revenue for Evernote and it might even allow them to limit the free package.

Incidentally a lot of US contributors to these discussions may be unaware how difficult it can be to stay online when crossing borders and urban users forget that some of the best places to spend time are off the networks. I spent a week this year camping and cycling in southwest Scotland and we hardly sniffed a phone network all week. When there was one it was very slow and unreliable.

Hi. You make a good case for a business model with several tiers. At the very least, you provide them with food for thought. In Evernote Podcast 25 they rejected the idea of adding more tiers at the moment, but said they won't reject the possibility, and might consider it when they have more employees to handle the extra complexity. I think the number thrown out was 200, and Evernote will surpass that this year, so you never know :)

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Now I have an idea:

Offline synchronization does not create huge server costs (which high usage, huge notes etc do create). Why don't you offer a non-free-app which includes offline-sync for let's say 15€? I guess there are many people out there who won't switch to a pay-subscription but who would be willing to pay for this (and only this) feature a one-time-fee.

This way you earn money with a feature which does not have running-costs and your subscription-system will still be simple as you want it to be.

Opinions?

My opinion is that you don't really know the overhead involved. IE, it may not be more taxing on the servers but it may require more engineer hours to not only implement but maintain. To quote Dave Engberg (CTO of Evernote) in a post I've Evernoted but can't find in the new message board, accessing data offline on an iPhone or Adnroid phone "costs us many engineer months of effort to add to the clients."

Additionally, implementing tiered/cafeteria premium options involves more overhead. So yes, it's really easy to sit back & say "That should be easy to implement"...but when you're directly involved & know all the aspects that are affected, you realize that not much is really all that easy/effortless/free to add/change. Pretty much everything has a cost associated with it. EN must determine how & what they will offer for free & what will be premium features. Trying to second guess their decisions is a time waster, IMO.

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This topic is close to my heart. At the moment Evernote seems to be divided between free and amazing value or expensive paid which may suit some professional or corporate users but is really too expensive for me. I'm about to be retired on a modest income doing a small amount of professional work, personal projects and quite a lot of travel away from networks.

I believe in paying for software, I would be happy to pay a one-off or annual charge but I only want this one feature and can't justify the cost of the full package.

A Lite or a la carte package could generate a lot of revenue for Evernote and it might even allow them to limit the free package.

Incidentally a lot of US contributors to these discussions may be unaware how difficult it can be to stay online when crossing borders and urban users forget that some of the best places to spend time are off the networks. I spent a week this year camping and cycling in southwest Scotland and we hardly sniffed a phone network all week. When there was one it was very slow and unreliable.

While I can understand your situation, IMO, the annual cost of Evernote (especially if you're going to be using it for business) is very minimal. I would venture to say that an annual EN subscription is less than half of what many people pay for various other internet/computer related charges including monthly cell phone charges. And we all need to make choices as to what we can afford & are willing to pay for.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Can someone justify why I would give up offline sync of AK Notepad (Catch) on my One X for Evernote? I have offline access to all my notes for free and web access from anywhere.

If you're happy with your setup, why are you wanting anyone to justify anything?

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  • Level 5*

Can someone justify why I would give up offline sync of AK Notepad (Catch) on my One X for Evernote? I have offline access to all my notes for free and web access from anywhere.

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

I think you'll want to compare the two services and go with the one that you think best fits your needs. In my case, I think Evernote has a sustainable business model (it will stick around), it has excellent integrations (Evernote and third-party applications), it is available on every platform, it stores my data on its servers with extensive security, etc. If you could tell us more about your use-case, perhaps we could offer more information.

Of course, there's nothing "wrong" with a lot of other alternatives to Evernote, but there is so much that is "right" with Evernote, I think it is easy to recommend it. Evernote is free to use, and if you want to try out the Permium service, you can pick up a Moleskine notebook (available starting in October) and get three months of Premium along with a great notebook. Or, just pay five dollwars for one month and give it a try. If five dollars a month is a deal-breaker then, you'll want to go with a free service instead.

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  • 5 months later...

This topic is close to my heart. At the moment Evernote seems to be divided between free and amazing value or expensive paid which may suit some professional or corporate users but is really too expensive for me. I'm about to be retired on a modest income doing a small amount of professional work, personal projects and quite a lot of travel away from networks.

I believe in paying for software, I would be happy to pay a one-off or annual charge but I only want this one feature and can't justify the cost of the full package.

A Lite or a la carte package could generate a lot of revenue for Evernote and it might even allow them to limit the free package.

Incidentally a lot of US contributors to these discussions may be unaware how difficult it can be to stay online when crossing borders and urban users forget that some of the best places to spend time are off the networks. I spent a week this year camping and cycling in southwest Scotland and we hardly sniffed a phone network all week. When there was one it was very slow and unreliable.

 

Not having an internet connection can be a real problem!!

 

We are a very small start up in France - I am searching for a solution to have notes that I can synchronize between devices but I also MUST have access to that information when I am in places that have NO internet connection (deep in basements under some of these old buildings, up in little mountain villages, in tunnels, etc....). Also, sometimes in the evening I may have to work on my laptop in places where I do not have internet connection, waiting for a day or two to be able to synchronize.  Good thing I have access to my telephone numbers when I am offline or else I would really be in trouble ( wink wink).  

 

I was getting excited about Evernote until I saw that we cannot have access to our info on the smartphone when offline.  Sigh.  I would prefer to pay a small fee for the application - one that has offline capabilities - than to pay every year for something that has a ton of features I will not use.  

Being a start up we have to be very careful with all of those "little" expenses.  I'll continue my research.  If I can't find anything better-suited I will have to pay for Evernote and I will know that I will have made the best choice.  Until then - here's "happy hunting" to me!!

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