Nimbus Notes - an Evernote substitute - but where is the native / local data option

[Tamagotchi 46]

I posted issues on moving data to Evernote alternatives. The data is the most important thing. The elephant is nice but the data essential. There is no perfect app and the transition is fraught with compromise - as Evernotes odyssey from Legacy to EN10 shows. 

This post serves to:

1. highlight how smooth the transition has been to date 
2. note the two platforms have common performance issues
3. I would really like a heads up on Nimbus experience on a Mac as I am considering one.

The general discussion forum is well suited to this. 

Competition

It is instructional to compare Nimbus and Evernote back to back. Nimbus and Evernote 10 are quite similar. Nimbus has head start and spent two years taking the best of note-taking apps, building on a green field. The app has targeted essential things and the editor excels where Evernote has always been weak. The apps - desktop and browser - are stable and hard to tell apart. The addons for Chrome and Gmail are stable too. It works like a dream. Nimbus is missing features, but there is something very satisfying to see the solid engineering behind this thing. Everything about the website, apps and company leaves the impression. After the Evernote neglect, it feels like a breath of fresh air. 

A smooth transition 

The goal was to import all notes into Nimbus, done in steps, first 46 notes, then 2200 notes and finally today all 11,000. I did not delete anything out of Nimbus but rather just created a new folder and import the next run into that. 

Everything works with Nimbus and the importing has proved this. Follow the instructions and it works first time. A 2GB enex file can take as long as 8.5 hours to process. Uploading is only a few clicks and the rest is waiting

Uploading enex is not included in the usage limits for the month with Nimbus. Uploading all your notes is just a matter of waiting for the batched jobs to be processed. 

“For Nimbus Note Free account users, there's a limit to the number of notes you can create. For every workspace, you can create up to 50 notes. This includes notes made via Nimbus Clipper, in addition to desktop, mobile, and web apps. Notes created through Nimbus Capture (for example, screenshots and screencasts) aren't counted and can be created in any quantity. Also, notes imported from Evernote are not counted.”

The notes take up to 30 seconds each to convert and are automatically synchronised with the browser app once converted. The notes are immediately available. Uploading multiple enex one after the other might work. The desktop app, multiple browser tabs and the batch process run together without obvious conflicts. The whole system seems robust. 

Evernote comparison

I have had everything open together. Evernote - Legacy, and both EN10 browser and Windows 10 app. Additionally, I have Google all the services in Chrome and work 90% of the time in the browser. 

Legacy is good. EN10 in a Chrome browser tabs is stable for me but has limited functionality. EN10 for Windows 10 would not even start early this week. After the update, the app starts how but the synchronisation fails consistently with an error message. I have uninstalled for the second time. 

Comparing side by side

I capture interesting pages with both Evernote and Nimbus clipper. Evernote is still ahead with the capture but not by much. The clipper on Evernote is one of its best features. For a complex, modern marketing website (Apple iPad Air 2020 launch) Nimbus was ahead. Both do well on news websites. 

Shared problems

This forum warns: "these apps all use Electron". The performance of Evernote 10 (browser version), Notion and Nimbus is similar. All apps with fresh and free accounts and no data are fast. Loaded with GBs of data and they do less well. Only Legacy has local data and the rest need to download/refresh with irritating frequency. 

A simple test: change the sort for all notes from ascending to descending and jump back to the top of the list. There is a long delay before anything appears. Notion too, with 11k records in a table and multiple views, performs similarly. Legacy is instantaneous. 

Local data and native apps

Nimbus is a good Evernote alternative with local folders, browser and mail add ons, stable, works on all devices and all OS, screen capture, page capture, video capture, inexpensive, team cable, mail forwarding address, good help and chat support, a forum, easy to use, OCR of all attachments, and editor that has good tables and database and excel-like functions to add things up in the columns. 

Performance is an issue. Are in the habit of working pretty quickly on the desktop with lots of short cut keys and will hammer out something in rush? With Electron apps, shortcut keys are for the dogs as any head start is lost waiting for the app to respond. With these new apps work flow is significantly throttled. 

Request

The forum has echoed that "Apple is the last place where the support native apps" and a place where the support the native. @pinkelephant has mentioned Devonthink.

I am considering looking at Apple desktop setup with Devonthink. For those out there who use Devonthink what would you recommend?

[CalS 5,280]

32 minutes ago, Tamagotchi said:

Everything works with Nimbus and the importing has proved this. Follow the instructions and it works first time.

I found that notes I had emailed to EN were hosed upon import to Nimbus.  Only did about 500 as a test but all were borked.  You see the same, or maybe you don't use the email to EN feature that much?  I also thought search was not as rich functionally as EN.  Fixable I suppose but not close at this point.  I did think the "front end" UI was as you say very similar.  Ditto the lagging response time. 

Neither holds a candle to the leader of the pack, that being 6.25 in my view.  But alas, that ship has sailed at this point, though still floating.  Hopefully for a while longer.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi. DEVONthink is a pretty impressive app. However, I think each of us has all kinds of workflow peculiarities, priorities, and so forth. There probably isn't a concise, satisfactory answer to your question. The best thing is probably to go to the DEVONthink forums, read up, and give it a spin.

Personally, I've been using both apps side by side for over a decade now, so you may also find yourself in a situation where it isn't an either / or decision. Evernote's latest update and development direction has convinced me to greatly reduce the amount of time I spend in Evernote, but it seems unlikely that I will ever be able to commit completely to one app or another. 

[Tamagotchi 46]

One final comment. With 11k plus notes loaded, Nimbus Notes desktop is slower than Nimbus Notes in a browser tab. I dumped the desktop app, as I did for EN10 desktop, in preference for the browser tab. 

With Nimbus Notes, the functionality of the desktop and Chrome browser app is the same, including right-click menus. They look identical too. There is no loss of functionality moving to the browser with Nimbus Notes and only benefits. 

The Android app is good too with a familiar UI but I have yet to find an option to download the notes. The default is a snippet for each note which is download automatically. 

[eric99 980]

11 hours ago, Tamagotchi said:

 

 

Shared problems

 Only Legacy has local data and the rest need to download/refresh with irritating frequency. 

A simple test: change the sort for all notes from ascending to descending and jump back to the top of the list. There is a long delay before anything appears. Notion too, with 11k records in a table and multiple views, performs similarly. Legacy is instantaneous.

I don't see this in V10 for windows, the response is instantaneously after sorting the notes. Also, if there would be no local data, how then is it possible that I can see all my notes with disconnected network?

I wouldn't even consider Nimbus or Notion if my data is inaccessible with disconnected network..

https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/hhak5p/why_does_it_requires_an_internet_connection/

 

[toao 148]

9 hours ago, Tamagotchi said:

I am considering looking at Apple desktop setup with Devonthink. For those out there who use Devonthink what would you recommend?

have posted it in another thread somewhere, but as you are asking: I have just completed my transition from evernote to devonthink due to the V10 disaster and compiled some of my experiences and observations over at the devonthink forums. here's the link:

https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/moving-from-evernote-to-devonthink-in-2020/59211

[logandb 227]

5 hours ago, Tamagotchi said:

One final comment. With 11k plus notes loaded, Nimbus Notes desktop is slower than Nimbus Notes in a browser tab. I dumped the desktop app, as I did for EN10 desktop, in preference for the browser tab. 

With Nimbus Notes, the functionality of the desktop and Chrome browser app is the same, including right-click menus. They look identical too. There is no loss of functionality moving to the browser with Nimbus Notes and only benefits. 

The Android app is good too with a familiar UI but I have yet to find an option to download the notes. The default is a snippet for each note which is download automatically. 

The option to download the notes in Android is under Settings/Synchronisation/Synchronisation type.

Glad to hear it's working well with 11K notes. I've imported a few hundred, but am a bit tentative about committing further (I have 25K notes) until I understand the benefits and limitations for my particular work flow.

[Tamagotchi 46]

Nimbus: the search grinds to a halt between 9:00 to 12:00 UTC. The search is a weak point. Breaking the content into many folders does not help. 😕

[Tamagotchi 46]

3 hours ago, toao said:

have posted it in another thread somewhere, but as you are asking

Yes, I read it thank you.

[CalS 5,280]

3 hours ago, Tamagotchi said:

Nimbus: the search grinds to a halt between 9:00 to 12:00 UTC. The search is a weak point. Breaking the content into many folders does not help. 😕

Search is not particularly rich either. Import is a fail as well.  I imported a 500 note test.  499 appeared in Nimbus IOS, 494 on Nimbus web, and 438 on Nimbus desktop. Not good. Plus the format of tables and notes created via sent emails was trashed in some cases.  Fixable I suppose, but not ready for me at this point. 

[avevers 70]

Interesting @CalS - I'm revisiting Nimbus (despite other concerns I have about it) simply because of the new appsumo deal.

I don't like the data cap of that deal, however, and I have (I think) about 30,000 notes in EN. I don't know how many notes I have and don't - shouldn't - care. I like Evernote's unlimited notes model. From what @Tamagotchi has found, however, I'm concerned Nimbus might not handle my number.

Turns out that if you subscribe to Nimbus from their website, not via appsumo, you won't have their seemingly unlimited storage for much longer. They're going to impose a cap apparently but haven't implemented (or notified subscribers). I don't sit well with this. I don't care for any cap when talking about a notes app and I don't care for Nimbus not being open about this.

This is why I'm not sure about Nimbus overall, but this is a time limited appsumo deal.

Really, really, angry at Evernote for this enormous inconvenience - both at looking at alternatives and at the inevitable, massive,  migration exercise. At least I've 6 months before my EN renewal is up, but that appsumo deal will be long gone.

[CalS 5,280]

4 minutes ago, avevers said:

Really, really, angry at Evernote for this enormous inconvenience - both at looking at alternatives and at the inevitable, massive,  migration exercise. At least I've 6 months before my EN renewal is up, but that appsumo deal will be long gone.

Same here.  I have a bit over 50k notes 8k of which are local (no home for them in New and Improved EN).  The LAST thing I want to do is port all/part of that anywhere.  Nimbus has local folders but too many issues at this point for me.  6.25 still has the best feature set but for how long.

Unfortunately my renewal is next month so I will me paying same price for 10% functionality.  Oh well.  Shite happens. 

[CalS 5,280]

30 minutes ago, avevers said:

I don't like the data cap of that deal, however, and I have (I think) about 30,000 notes in EN. I don't know how many notes I have and don't - shouldn't - care.

If I read it right it says 50 GB as the cap.  That’s twice the size of my current EXB.  So not the most threatening of caps.  Am I missing something?

[avevers 70]

Well I've asked over in appsumo how that 50GB cap is split up across workspaces. Because based on their file management I'd need two workspaces and that might mean 25GB cap per workspace. I hope I'm wrong. The question is, bizarrely, still awaiting moderation approval. As you say though, shite isn't it?

[ab1kenobee 105]

Hello, All:

My comment in another thread: Alternatives to Evernote 10

[PinkElephant 8,103]

Probably the world looks brighter for Mac users: DEVONthink was developed from scratch to be a local install, offering cloud sync as an addition, especially if you use the mobile client. It is a multi-database installation (a database practically being what is a notebook or a stack in EN), and you decide on a database-level what to sync to the cloud, and what not. Clients are Mac & iOS only.

Furthermore Apple Notes has an "on device" option, that will not sync to iCloud.