Evernote pricing idea

[danmills7 38]

I love Evernote, and I have been using it since 2009 (even though my account says 2010). However, it is really hard to recommend a productivity and organization product like Evernote that costs $70 per year. There has to be a better pricing structure, that would get more people to pay above the free account. Here is my idea about a new pricing model, that would be easy to understand AND would likely pull in more paying customers off of the FREE tier. Isn't paying customers of any kind better than Free Tier users?

 

Basic - FREE	Light User - $35 per year	Premium User - $60	Power User (non-business) - $90
Sync up to 2 devices  Find notes fast with search and tags Apply rich formatting to your notes Clip web pages 25MB maximum note size 60MB monthly upload limit	Everything in Basic Sync up to  4 devices AND web client anywhere  Access notes offline Annotate PDFs Search text inside Office docs and PDFs Create custom templates Customize your Home 50 MB maximum note size 1 GB monthly upload limit	Everything in Light User Sync unlimited devices 200 MB maximum note size 10 GB monthly upload size	Everything in Premium User 500 MB maximum note size (assuming your database architecture will allow for this) 20 GB monthly upload size

 

• Basic - FREE
  • Sync up to 2 devices 
  • Find notes fast with search and tags
  • Apply rich formatting to your notes
  • Clip web pages
  • 25MB maximum note size
  • 60MB monthly upload limit

 

• Light User - $35 per year
  • Everything in Basic
  • Sync up to  4 devices AND web client anywhere 
  • Access notes offline
  • Annotate PDFs
  • Search text inside Office docs and PDFs
  • Create custom templates
  • Customize your Home
  • 50 MB maximum note size
  • 1 GB monthly upload limit

 

• Premium User - $60
  • Everything in Light User
  • Sync unlimited devices
  • 200 MB maximum note size
  • 10 GB monthly upload size

 

• Power User (non-business) - $90
  • Everything in Premium User
  • 500 MB maximum note size (assuming your database architecture will allow for this)
  • 20 GB monthly upload size

 

This approach offers something for everyone, and allows people to explore and discover the power of Evernote. As they build more dependency in their life of Evernote, they will increase their subscription tier to accommodate. And, you give a place for your truly "hardcore" users to go up one more tier of use without having to go to the business plan.

 

Does anyone at Evernote read these posts?

Edited June 6, 2022 by danmills7
Incorrectly said "per month" rather than "per year" for the "light user" option

[gazumped 11,664]

2 minutes ago, danmills7 said:

Does anyone at Evernote read these posts?

Hi.  Yes,  Evernote developers read these posts for ideas and feedback on existing features - but with thousands,  possibly tens of thousands of posts per day,  it takes them a while to get around anything that looks relevant.  The Forums are - mainly - user supported in the hope we more experienced users can provide suggestions,  work-arounds and occasional guidance for newer subscribers.  As a subscriber you do get access to the Support system,  so the way to suggest stuff and get a direct response is to give some feedback through one of the apps or https://help.evernote.com/hc/requests/new

On the main part of your post - as a "power user / non-business" I,  and I'd imagine that goes for most of my colleagues here,  would be extremely underwhelmed to have a $20 increase in subscription,  despite any apparent increases in benefits. 

On the other hand Evernote would be a little upset to lose $10 per head if we all dropped down to the 'new' Premium @ $60 / head. 

The current Premium subscribers provide (I imagine) most of the income that Evernote has,  and upsetting even the tiny percentage that are subscribers out of 250M users is going to have a noticeable effect on your cashflow.  

Plus in any major re-jig of the pricing structure,  you need the co-operation of third party suppliers like iTunes,  who need a way to collect and pass on income; to rewrite the existing payment system to accommodate the new levels; to warn your 3M(?) existing payers that the times, they are a changin',  and offer them new levels of payment.  Plus you need the checks and balances to ensure that users with a 4 device limit don't get to add 5 "by accident".

Then you have to deal with the ensuing departures,  level changes and screams of protest.  The internal costs would not be insignificant.

Plus there's slight matter of an ongoing major upgrade to v10 for which they already revamped most of their systems to save costs.

I somehow don't think any of this is likely anytime soon....  

 

[PinkElephant 8,107]

Personally I don’t believe this will happen. They could have kept the old Plus-Plan then.

The only szenario I could imagine would be to significantly downgrade the current Basic (maybe to a trial & read-only), and install an in between plan instead. I say „imagine“, not „promote“ …

[buckethead 218]

You basically just described the old plan layout with the Plus plan as the $35/middle tier. Doubtful another tier comes back after they took it away in what, 2018?

[danmills7 38]

Just now, buckethead said:

You basically just described the old plan layout with the Plus plan as the $35/middle tier. Doubtful another tier comes back after they took it away in what, 2018?

You're right, but I thought it couldn't hurt to post about it, since the leadership is completely different since then. I really think they alienate many "low usage" users that want more than basic, but don't need Premium, so they just don't sign up.

[buckethead 218]

1 minute ago, danmills7 said:

couldn't hurt to post about it

True. I agree with you that a middle ground subscription would be a great offering. I’m sure there is data to back up not offering it though. And I’ve been wondering how hard coding a mid level tier is with feature sets as well - probably another factor that goes with cost.
 

I had been on Plus since the last price increase until about a month ago. v10 is at a point that works well for me, the new tasks, home customization, and a couple little things finally pushed me back into Premium. While I agree that $70/yr is a stiff subscription cost - with how much I use EN and what I use it for the cost is worth it. 

[Adam81 1]

This! I would like to use more than 2 devices (3 to be exact) and customise my home screen and link my Google calandar (that is it, not really interested in larger notes as I only use text)  but I cannot justify the Personal Plan pricing (even with 40% off). I think the light user one should be a little lower around $25.

[PinkElephant 8,107]

This has been an idea that has been popping up from time to time.

Look at the Plus plan - probably similar to what you have in mind. Further think about the fact that each plan causes basic cost of administration, pretty similar between the different levels. I think Plus fees more or less just covered the admin share.

It was discontinued …

Personal will cost the equivalent of a „large to go“ per month if subscribed yearly. If you can’t justify this, the advantage for you seems very small, and you don’t need a subscription.

I don’t think (without inside knowledge) we will see a lower priced plan than Personal ever again.

[danmills7 38]

5 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

I don’t think (without inside knowledge) we will see a lower priced plan than Personal ever again.

I agree. I stopped using Evernote shortly after I originally post this last year. There are other products out there that meet most, not all, of my needs for a far more reasonable price. Which made me sad then, but I've moved on.

I guess I should close this account - I forgot about this until I rec'd an email that there was a reply to my post...

[bmcl26 488]

I upgraded to the New Professional Plan when  the plans changed last year and have just renewed it at £82.76p for the year.  Considering that is less han £1.60 per week I am more than happy as EN 10 with Tasks, Calendar & Home is now much improved from previous versions.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,959]

4 hours ago, bmcl26 said:

I upgraded to the New Professional Plan when  the plans changed last year and have just renewed it at £82.76p for the year.  Considering that is less han £1.60 per week I am more than happy as EN 10 with Tasks, Calendar & Home is now much improved from previous versions.

This is my viewpoint too. I also upgraded from Personal to Professional, because it accords more with my usage. The Personal plan, at $70/year, is less than $6/month, less than $1.35/week. If you're only using Evernote for shopping lists and organizing household tasks, fine, free is great. If you're using it for any professional purpose at all, it only seems right to pay such a modest fee. For me, the way to calculate is not simply how much I'm paying, as compared to nothing, but how valuable it is to me. I pay much more than that for a subscription to JSTOR, which gives access to academic journals across a broad range of fees.

[gazumped 11,664]

I think there are several hidden benefits to subscribing too...

1. The company will find it easier to stay in business next year - I like this product I want it to hang around!
2. Contributing towards the cost of maintaining and improving the network I use - so it stays in good(ish) shape
3. Access to help by mail and chat
4. The right to expect reasonable care and support from a service I pay for
5. Peace of mind in that subscriber limits are set high enough that only exceptional usage is likely to cause an issue. - I can worry about what I'm doing instead of how I'm doing it...  
   ('Plus' excepted from the above,  because it's no longer a supported package.)

I'm a Professional now too - it was about time...

 

[PinkElephant 8,107]

Still on Personal …. does the job for me.