A Sad, Sad Day Has Come to Evernote

[PissedOffCustomer 1]

I have had Evernote for almost as long as Evernote has existed.  I had the Best plan they offered and paid extra for a long time.  I wasn't uploading huge files on the daily, but was using it for basic notes.  I decided to downgrade to a basic plan.  I've been using the basic plan for quite a while now.  Today, I get a notice out of the blue (after entering a basic telephone number into a note) that in order to continue and have Unlimited Devices, I must pay $5.83/month.  Evernote used to be a simple tool to help people.  If you are using it for storage of voice or large files/uploads, I get it... you charge more.  For someone who has one account with two phones and two computers for simple notes to be shared, come on.  Why are we grabbing at the dollars like huge companies?

[PinkElephant 8,115]

You should read the messages you get: You tried to use a function that exists, but is restricted to a subscription. So EN simply tells you: If you like to use it, you need to subscribe. Or if you don’t like subscribing, don’t use it. Where exactly is your problem ?

The Free plan has limits. One of the most nagging restrictions is probably the limit of 2 devices, combined with the monthly unsync limit. And it is obviously designed to be exactly this, nagging. I run a free account beside my subscription, I know. I often run into this „If you want to continue, either subscribe or unsync another device“.

It is IMHO perfectly fair to expect anybody who wants the functions of a full plan to pay for the full plan. If you don’t want it, stick to what Free gives you without paying. Millions of users do, and are happy with the outcome.

[Boot17 1,450]

Some win big with the limitations and plan structure and some don't.

Winners: If I paid the premium price for 10 years and upload the max GB allowed each month (supposing it was 20 GB per month like the Pro plan) then I could currently have 2.4 TB of data in Evernote. And then if I went to the Freemium model, Evernote would continue to host my 2.4 TB indefinitely at no cost to me! I'm sure there must be some people that are abusing (or, rather, taking advantage of) that and are winning big here.

The Not Winners: Then, there are others that don't upload hardly any data and don't have many notes... mostly text and don't really use much of Evernote's services, but they want to run it on 3 devices for free... nope - sorry! These people are losing out.

I would guess that the 2 device restriction is the biggest squeeze point to get people to pay or to find something else.  Even though I'm not a heavy data user, I know I couldn't use Evernote with the limitations of the free plan because I need to run Evernote on 6 devices (Web, Mac, Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone).  I also definitely don't come close to the 10 GB upload per month so I'm sure I'm subsidizing freemium and heavy users more than others might be. (Which I'm ok with, btw, because I feel like I get a lot of value out of Evernote. It's worth it to me.)

I think Evernote has always been first and foremost about the money else there would be no product (whereas other big tech companies can offer it for free because they make their money elsewhere).

[PinkElephant 8,115]

I wouldn't say anybody is loosing. If I don't upload a lot, it is because I have no use case to upload a lot.

And if I need 3 devices, then I have to accept that I left the Free plans limits. It is up to myself to rethink this position, and find out if I can do with less. This is one of the reasons the web client often is a good alternative: It does not count the physical devices, it is a client by himself.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,959]

4 hours ago, Boot17 said:

I think Evernote has always been first and foremost about the money else there would be no product (whereas other big tech companies can offer it for free because they make their money elsewhere).

But the "elsewhere" is not insignificant: many of them make their money by selling our personal data. As someone once said, "Invading your privacy is Facebook's business model." Evernote does not do that, and I'm happy to pay, what, 2 bucks a week (Professional) to get access on multiple devices, plus other services that I find useful, rather than just dump everything onto Google Docs and lose control of my privacy.

[Paul A. 621]

On 10/6/2022 at 6:59 PM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

rather than just dump everything onto Google Docs and lose control of my privacy.

FYI Dave, Google doesn't monetize your content on Docs, Drive, Photos, Gmail, or similar, so there's no privacy implication in storing information there instead of on Evernote. See, for example:

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/10381817

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/10375054

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,959]

13 hours ago, Paul A. said:

FYI Dave, Google doesn't monetize your content on Docs, Drive, Photos, Gmail, or similar, so there's no privacy implication in storing information there instead of on Evernote. See, for example:

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/10381817

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/10375054

Thanks. Nevertheless, Google's overall intrusiveness just leaves me wanting to use them as little as possible.

[Lowdown 10]

I got Personal/Premium when they DISCONTINUED  Basic features on my two devices. Counting the browser version on two computers  as three devices is ridiculous.

I'm happy to pay , but $80/yr is not gonna happen, $40/yr was fair for Personal, and when the discount ends, I'm gone. Migrating

It's not that great a tool, and they STOPPED offering  something between Freemium and $80 Personal.

If they can't prosper with what they are doing, it's not my project to fix it.

Literally they chased me off, and I am just paying the penalty for time to migrate.

Sad indeed

Edited October 25, 2022 by Lowdown
For Ambiguity, mine and in TOS

[Boot17 1,450]

Conversely, I was on the Legacy Plus plan and paid $36 USD per year for it. I could use Evernote on unlimited devices but I didn't have access to the Task view or versioned history (and other Premium/Personal only features). I thought Plus was worth it to me then and I didn't really care to have those other features until later. Now I pay about twice as much (as I did for Plus) for Personal and it's worth it to me, but I can't go back to the Plus plan if I ever decide I'd like to use Evernote on more than two devices/platforms but not pay for the additional features. It's either $80 USD per year for Personal (or more for Pro) or $0 for Free -- nothing in between (except for those still on grandfathered plans).

Similarly, I was a 'Premium' user on a different application and paid $80 USD for one year and it was worth it, but now I feel like the value isn't there for me. If they gave it to me for another year for 50% off I'd take it. But they don't offer any plans in between so I'm just going to go down to the free plan and hope they send a discount my way sometime. So, just like you, I don't find $80 value in that app and so I'll use the free version in a limited fashion and use other tools to make up the difference. 

8 hours ago, Lowdown said:

and they STOPPED offering  something between Freemium and $80 Personal

They stopped offering Plus in April 2018 and I don't know when they stopped offering discounted Premium for about the same amount, but that must have been a while ago too. In July 2021 they stopped offering Premium, but I think that was about the same price as what Personal is now.

8 hours ago, Lowdown said:

Literally they chased me off, and I am just paying the penalty for time to migrate.

The good thing about Evernote's model is that you can drop to Free and still access all your data indefinitely (albeit from only 2 devices/platforms).

[PinkElephant 8,115]

@Lowdown Fact is that the former Basic model was not properly controlled, and users took advantage. One example was device hopping, repeatedly shedding one device to open on another. This is when EN applied stricter control of already existing rules.

It is more a 2 client than a 2 devices rule: You can have the web client as one „device“, but use it on different browsers. This makes the web client unique for Free, and was probably one of the reasons to count it as a client.

About the price: The current Personal subscription is obviously worth the price for many users. If it does not compute for you, you can move elsewhere. There are alternatives, just find the right one for your use cases.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,959]

11 hours ago, Lowdown said:

I'm happy to pay , but $80/yr is not gonna happen, $40/yr was fair for Personal, and when the discount ends, I'm gone. Migrating

It's not that great a tool, and they STOPPED offering  something between Freemium and $80 Personal.

As usual, the key factor is the personal pronouns: it's not that great a tool FOR YOU. It is FOR ME, and I easily get my $2/week worth of good from it on the Professional plan. If I went to a coffee shop on even a weekly basis I'd pay much more than two bucks for much less benefit. It's all in how each person calculates what it's worth.

I'm a little unclear on who it is that's sad, though. Evernote? Not if they're shedding a user who wants large service for little or no money. If it's you ... then maybe it might be worth $0.22/day after all?

Which leads me to conclude that the problem is in Evernote's payment structure. $80 sounds like a lot of money; no one really feels what a year feels like any more. If they took $1.50 out of a customer's credit card every week no one would even notice it. (I doubt that credit card processors would be willing to handle a $0.22 daily charge ).