New blog post: Future-proofing Evernote’s foundations

[Federico Simionato 1,027]

In this one, I tried to dive deep on a few of the structural changes the team worked on in the last few months.

I hope you find it interesting.

https://evernote.com/blog/future-proofing-evernotes-foundations/

[PinkElephant 8,242]

Thanks for sharing.

My personal elephant currently are the abysmal seconds when I create a new note on iOS.

On my iPad Air 5 (with an M1, completely overpowered, latest iOS, EN iOS 10.53.1) it takes more than 15 seconds from hitting the new note button until the note is open and ready to receive whatever information I want to drop into it.

It takes a similar time on my iPhone 11 Pro max. It seems that it doesn’t depend (much) on the device, it just takes turns until the new note is ready to digest anything.

No idea how this slipped into the code base first (it used to be snappy all the time) and then made it into a release client.

[Paul A. 633]

I'm happy to see a focus on the foundations, and that Evernote still aspires to be a second brain. That's encouraging. I hope you don't pivot to "innovation" too quickly. There still seem to be some fundamental problems with the current clients (note content disappearing, slow loading, etc.).

I was also confused by the "Navigation" section. What exactly do these changes portend? I also didn't see any mention of previously discussed "metadata sync;" hopefully that's still coming, too.

[WilliamL 656]

Most of that I couldn’t follow 😂 that’s no bad thing tho. 

I think working on the foundations is good - the app is feature rich but a little inconsistent at times. Strengthening that is good - no one wants data loss or misbehaving tasks. 

[gazumped 11,739]

Brilliant! Thank you for the background.  More like this when you can,  and more often please;  it's vastly reassuring to know that there's a lot of focussed activity aimed at precisely the issues that annoy more advanced users - speed, accuracy and glitches.  I'd be very happy if you could manage a monthly bulletin,  even if it is very light on detail.

As you get into innovation,  please don't forget the hundreds of user requests for additional features - but please measure all of them against a need to keep the apps relatively simple and easy to use - and still quick and accurate!

[Meursault 11]

I've really appreciated the transparency. Excellent article.

[VincentC 274]

Thanks for the update.  It's very well written -- clearly you and you team put a lot of time and thought into creating it.  

I'm looking forward to the continued improvements.

 

Vinnie

[mackid1993 897]

I noticed a ton of old Java Enterprise legacy junk while browsing through the account pages and the like. Glad to hear that you guys are modernizing and especially embracing Docker. 

[Federico Simionato 1,027]

3 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

and then made it into a release client

That's on me. The team identified the issue before releasing, but since fixing that would have required additional time, I made the call of releasing 10.53 to address all the issues of 10.52. This took away further time from the fix for the long note creation times on iOS and Android.

A fix is being tested right now, hopefully we can begin the rollout before the end of the week, although I cannot guarantee that yet.

[janndk 553]

5 hours ago, Federico Simionato said:

In this one, I tried to dive deep on a few of the structural changes the team worked on in the last few months.

I hope you find it interesting.

https://evernote.com/blog/future-proofing-evernotes-foundations/

Nice to hear about long-term intentions for Evernote 👍 But what about the price - seems that it's about to increase again!? EN Web just popped up a message telling it's a last chance to get Evernote for the current list price (EN Professional DKK 909). However, I can't see the new prices anywhere. When will the new prices take effect, and how much is the price increase this time? 😰

[Alxa 483]

Thanks for the excellent article and insights. Sounds really promising! I somehow missed words about the once announced meta data sync. RTE is good, but everything else regarding sync between clients beside RTE is still slow (e.g. home updating on mobile) and often intransparent.  On mobile the Android client  is still far away from being stable and competitive regarding speed. Long term bugs (e.g. image rendering fails), still leave a bad taste. Sadly no words on the Android client.

[Danni P. 22]

5 minutes ago, Alxa said:

Long term bugs (e.g. image rendering fails), still leave a bad taste

ditto

[janndk 553]

3 minutes ago, Danni P. said:

9 minutes ago, Alxa said:

Long term bugs (e.g. image rendering fails), still leave a bad taste

ditto

Filtering with subtags still not working 😕 

[RJLUK 308]

2 hours ago, janndk said:

Nice to hear about long-term intentions for Evernote 👍 But what about the price - seems that it's about to increase again!? EN Web just popped up a message telling it's a last chance to get Evernote for the current list price (EN Professional DKK 909). However, I can't see the new prices anywhere. When will the new prices take effect, and how much is the price increase this time? 😰

[Kheldar3211 12]

This was a great read, thank you @Federico Simionato Looking forward to the future!

[Chi Ho Leung 8]

Great update, thank you @Federico Simionato

Great to see we focus on the foundations and infrastructure, and start to embrace modern technologies e.g. docker, micro services, API etc.  Yes reliability, speed and data security are important aspects for Evernote being our second brain for work and life. It's never an easy mission given the number of users and their number of notes and the scale of the platform. Appreciate the continued focus and the transparency. 

Looking forward to seeing Evernote being strong again.

[eric99 998]

20 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Thanks for sharing.

My personal elephant currently are the abysmal seconds when I create a new note on iOS.

On my iPad Air 5 (with an M1, completely overpowered, latest iOS, EN iOS 10.53.1) it takes more than 15 seconds from hitting the new note button until the note is open and ready to receive whatever information I want to drop into it.

It takes a similar time on my iPhone 11 Pro max. It seems that it doesn’t depend (much) on the device, it just takes turns until the new note is ready to digest anything.

No idea how this slipped into the code base first (it used to be snappy all the time) and then made it into a release client.

On my Android client it takes 3 minutes... What the hell is it doing, is it mining bitcoins or something?

[agsteele 2,964]

1 hour ago, eric99 said:

What the hell is it doing, is it mining bitcoins or something?

It's awaiting the fix later this week.😁

[AlbertR 562]

THX @Federico Simionato for this open mind of information transfer. Keep on going! 👍
Beside all the interresting topics especially one took my attention:

• ... On mobile ... navigation now uses native APIs, which will help improve performance.

Does this mean that you might use native UI components in future to speed up fluidity on Windows as we love it from former systems?

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

This really was quite helpful and encouraging, even for someone without the technical knowledge to understand, for instance, "Before, configuration was managed by Puppet. Now, everything is packaged as a Docker container." I have the image of my data being transferred from the care of a marionet to the care of a stevedore, so, yes, feels better! 😄

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

One question: the blog post refers to changes to navigation in Android v. 10.52. Could that be responsible for the new bug/feature in which when in a notebook search no longer defaults to that notebook, but requires a filter to get that limitation?

 

[Federico Simionato 1,027]

On 8/21/2023 at 11:21 PM, janndk said:

Nice to hear about long-term intentions for Evernote 👍 But what about the price - seems that it's about to increase again!? EN Web just popped up a message telling it's a last chance to get Evernote for the current list price (EN Professional DKK 909). However, I can't see the new prices anywhere. When will the new prices take effect, and how much is the price increase this time? 😰

We checked your account, it was previously on Premium but then it appears you manually upgraded to Personal in June 2022. Then you received a Personal price increase like everybody else.

[janndk 553]

5 hours ago, Federico Simionato said:

We checked your account, it was previously on Premium but then it appears you manually upgraded to Personal in June 2022. Then you received a Personal price increase like everybody else.

@Federico Simionato 

I was premium until EN10 came out, and got "downgraded" to personal. Upgraded later to professional, and then personal ...until I canceled the whole subscriton about a month ago.

Anyway - I'm not talking about price increase from premium to personal, but about the coming price increase for professional.

Evernote keeps trying to get me back, and back to professional. I'm getting some sales mails from you from time to time. And now Evenote popped out a message saying that it was the last chance to get EN professional for DKK 909. As that is the current list price for professional, I assume it means the price is about to increase again?

So I'm just asking when will the new prices take effect, and how much is the price increase this time? 

[janndk 553]

@federico

Just got it again!! ☝️

DKK 909,00 / year. "Are you sure - You are not able come back to this offer again"

[Lowdown 10]

@federico

Long term user on PREMIUM,  until renewal in  30 days.

Found your link to be so missing the point that it made me worry .

You REALLY MISSED THE BOAT , unless it was the Costa Concordia.

Um, proportionally, very few are being excited about the programing, IT'S THE PRICE INCREASE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_the_economy,_stupid

It was like asking Narcissus for the forecast.

 

Talk about missing the elephant.

That would account for the need of a shovel.

 

 

[s2sailor 2,278]

1 hour ago, janndk said:

So I'm just asking when will the new prices take effect, and how much is the price increase this time? 

In case you haven't seen this:

https://evernote.com/blog/evernote-pricing-upcoming-features-update/

Converting to USD, and I realize Evernote pricing isn't equal across geos, it looks like they are offering you professional at the personal rate, which is a deal under the new pricing model.  New pricing started for renewals beginning in May.  Some have already dealt with this; others that renew at the beginning of the year have more time.  Mine renews tomorrow ... I've downgraded from professional to personal to help remove some of the sting.

[janndk 553]

12 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

In case you haven't seen this:

https://evernote.com/blog/evernote-pricing-upcoming-features-update/

Converting to USD, and I realize Evernote pricing isn't equal across geos, it looks like they are offering you professional at the personal rate, which is a deal under the new pricing model.  New pricing started for renewals beginning in May.  Some have already dealt with this; others that renew at the beginning of the year have more time.  Mine renews tomorrow ... I've downgraded from professional to personal to help remove some of the sting.

DKK 909,- is the current official list price for professional subscription.

https://s24953.pcdn.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Evernote-pricing-table-2023.pdf

As the price is apparently going up (again) soon, I'm asking for more information: When? And how much will the price increase this time? 10% 50% 100% ??

[Jon/t 1,356]

If I get the gist of this the "offer" price is the same as the full price.

If that's correct, I would imagine its an error in the pricing grid in the backend... a quick one to support might solve it.

No mention of any more price increases coming.

[s2sailor 2,278]

12 minutes ago, janndk said:

DKK 909,- is the current official list price for professional subscription.

That table reflects the new increased pricing.

... and I see your point now.  I think the "offer" is an error and best to confirm with support. The only increase I'm aware of is shown in the table.

[janndk 553]

8 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

That table reflects the new increased pricing.

The table shows the current price.

Current price for EN professional is 909,-

Evernote says it is the last change to get EN professional for 909,-

That means there must be a new price coming soon, so I'm asking what is the NEW price?

[s2sailor 2,278]

1 minute ago, janndk said:

That means there must be a new price coming soon

Or the offer was in error, which I think is more probable.

[janndk 553]

6 hours ago, s2sailor said:

Or the offer was in error, which I think is more probable.

Oh yes, it's Evernote after all, so errors are of course always the most probable explanation 🙄😉

Anyway, today's sales message is that I can save NaN% 🤔

 

[PinkElephant 8,242]

It looks iconic 😎 or lost in translation 🙃.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

I don't suppose there's any chance that NaN is Danish for "none"? 

[eric99 998]

22 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

I don't suppose there's any chance that NaN is Danish for "none"? 

close, it´s "Not a Number" 

[BruTam 4]

I've used Evernote Teams in the past and currently have Evernote Pro. In the bigger picture of current SASS (software as service) subscription prices, I feel Evernote is competitive and a good, fair, and reasonable value. I've also thoroughly tested MANY other notetaking and PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) applications and platforms looking to jump ship from Evernote, but always circled back to EV because it elegantly ticks all the boxes for my workflow.

Running on current Apple MacOS Ventura 13.5 and iOS 16.6, Evernote is rock solid on all my Apple devices, syncing up perfectly FAST!

Additionally, the TechSupport I receive from BendingSpoons has been stellar, with super fast response time, intelligent help, and insightful suggestions. 

Thanks, Bending Spoons! GREAT job so far!!

[l0nEr 7]

Is there any timeline on AI Search and how it will work?
is just a new 'search function' or more like a chatbot, with the ability to summarise my notes etc (i.e. evernote becomes a custom database).

Any clarity on that?

[gazumped 11,739]

The biggest thing in AI search seems to be the ability to ask questions in natural and general language - so forinstance "where did we go for a holiday last year?"

Don't know if the new Evernote has changed its policy,  but the old firm weren't in the habit of giving time-to-release estimates;  too much can go wrong and delay things.  There seems to be a lot going on though,  so I'd suggest "later this year" is a good guess.

[Federico Simionato 1,027]

Internally we are targeting September for the release on desktop, but we are still polishing it and I cannot guarantee any specific date.

[l0nEr 7]

im noticed that obsidian has a (new) plugin like Khoj and multiple AI support

theres also mem.ai, notion AI, etc...

If Evernote claims they are focused about AI, im just wondering whats the target...  really looking forward to a 2nd brain with 'writing capabilities', although i do understand if some people arent comfortable..

 

Great. thank u! coz im not in the trial... 

[PinkElephant 8,242]

Plugins to apps mean the „mother“ app has no control and takes no responsibility for security and privacy of the plugins.

It is known that many AI providers use the data from their users to train their neural networks. This means the user data is ingrained (sort of stored) in the network.

To see what happens you need to check every plugin and it’s dev separately.

Happy readings…

[realistdreamer 23]

This message was very much appreciated.  It was probably too technically detailed for many, but I appreciated the depth and candor.  Until trust is rebuilt with some of the potential evangelists turned skeptics, I think the detail is the preferred route.  

[Shak 9]

Not only did I found it very interesting @Federico Simionato, it also gave a much better idea and sense of the challenges involved in re-working the system for the modern times.

Having this idea gives much more amplitude and tolerance for some app mis-behaviour here and there, so I'd suggest keeping this more transparent mode and making your challenges and roadmap (even if technical and even if filtered) more visible to users (or whould I say to the community) earlier - why not quarterly with a forward looking perspective?

I believe this may contribute to prevent lots of negative views "out there" and set the stage for greater growth.

Thanks !

[Felix Attard 1]

Thanks for this Federico and all the Team.

Really appreciate all the work in strengthening the back-end to make everything more stable.

[Petsolb 55]

Thank you for your update about your current development priorities.

I do hope that there will be time to sort some of the long-running bugs and issues, like the inability to center images. The workaround with using tables to center images tend to be more cumbersome and add unnecessary clutter.

[janndk 553]

On 8/21/2023 at 5:25 PM, Federico Simionato said:

In this one, I tried to dive deep on a few of the structural changes the team worked on in the last few months.

I hope you find it interesting.

https://evernote.com/blog/future-proofing-evernotes-foundations/

Some widgets are not working.

 

[John in Michigan USA 129]

TL;DR: I stopped reading at "Future-proofing".

Longer: Future-proofing is a marketing buzzword and in most cases indicates a focus on forecasts, sales quotas, etc. instead of a focus on delighting the user. Rather than trying to anticipate the future, which is impossible, focus on customer experience. The new code base was supposed to reduce bugs and make the UX more consistent and logical. Instead, we get buzzwords, new bugs replacing old bugs, old, dead bugs coming back to life as zombies, features come and go with no rhyme, reason, or warning. What is Evernote's core promise? It is the elephant, which NEVER FORGETS. All new features should be on hold until data integrity can be assured. No more data or formatting loss, no more broken links, no more undo that breaks your document, no more stale search results, stop relying on async programming to fix slow code.

[John in Michigan USA 129]

On 9/13/2023 at 6:01 AM, Petsolb said:

Thank you for your update about your current development priorities.

I do hope that there will be time to sort some of the long-running bugs and issues, like the inability to center images. The workaround with using tables to center images tend to be more cumbersome and add unnecessary clutter.

Sad to hear that this is still a problem. I don't center many images, but I was using the image-inside-a-table work-around to indent my images, and prevent them from auto-resizing to max size. The pre v.10/RTE notes still have problems converting to post v.10/RTE, but in my experience once you're on the new note system, the standard indent command (from the toolbar or format menu) works great for images, and the "display as Title" feature solves the image auto-resize problem. I had assumed that image centering had also been fixed. I guess it hasn't? Or perhaps it was fixed but then regressed?

[PinkElephant 8,242]

@Petsolb What I don’t understand (and dislike) is the tendency to make a bug out of a nuissance, and a real issue out of a bug.

Not being able to center an image is not even a bug, it is a feature decision which disables the formatting options for text when a picture is selected. That’s it, it is a design decision. One may like it, one may dislike it, but it doesn’t even qualify for a bug, because nowhere centering an image is described as a feature.

Since it is no feature, it can be absent. Image centering being absent is just that, a matter of fact.

If you want it, write at support, or send feedback. But stop blowing your personal software design preferences up into a problem or worse.

[Petsolb 55]

@PinkElephant I find it fascinating how one can always count on you popping up in the forums to instruct other users how to think and feel, always on hand to help out with the exact wording of other their messages. Did you forget that you were the first one in this thread to post a reply, mentioning an issue that could easily have been submitted to support like you advice others to do? Please could you try to resist the urge to make every single discussion in here be about you and what you think is sensible? People are different, unless you own this forum don't expect everyone to write or behave exactly like you, and maybe give Bending Spoons a chance to reply as they seem genuinely interested in being transparent and communicating directly with their users (which hasn't always been the case with Evernote in the past).

I might be mistaken, but I seem to remember that aligning images used to be possible (years ago), but this is not possible currently. If this change has been confirmed by the developers to be an actual feature decision, please feel free to direct me to that information.

I guess there are users who feel being able to align an image would be a purely aesthetic feature, but for visual thinkers it can be very useful.

[gazumped 11,739]

@Petsolb while everyone is entitled to an opinion,  personal comments about other users is not acceptable and can lead to posts being deleted. 

Please see https://discussion.evernote.com/guidelines/ for details.

51 minutes ago, Petsolb said:

maybe give Bending Spoons a chance to reply

The one individual from Bending Spoons who is replying in the Forums is probably a little busy right now.  You should expect comments from other users to be the main response.  If you want direct contact please raise a Support ticket.

[Petsolb 55]

@gazumped Well, why don't we all try to make an effort to stay within the guidelines then? I'm sure most of us are willing and able to.

[gazumped 11,739]

8 minutes ago, Petsolb said:

@gazumped Well, why don't we ALL try to make an effort to stay within the guidelines then? I'm sure most of us are willing and able to.

You know I'm one of the moderators here,  right?

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

3 hours ago, Petsolb said:

I might be mistaken, but I seem to remember that aligning images used to be possible (years ago), but this is not possible currently. If this change has been confirmed by the developers to be an actual feature decision, please feel free to direct me to that information.

I guess there are users who feel being able to align an image would be a purely aesthetic feature, but for visual thinkers it can be very useful.

I get that last part. But if you recall that Evernote used to be able to align images (others here don't remember that being the case), it seems to me that it's up to you to document that. Even if it once was possible, it's not possible now, as you say, which means that if it ever was a feature, the feature has been removed, for whatever reason. My understanding would be that this is not a bug, which would be a feature not working as intended, but the lack of a feature at all. Which I believe is all that @PinkElephant, in their usual if sometimes annoyingly blunt way, was trying to say.

I think what's happening here is that you referred to 

On 9/13/2023 at 6:01 AM, Petsolb said:

long-running bugs and issues, like the inability to center images

which PE took to mean that the inability to center images was a bug, whereas you may only have meant that it was an "issue." If so, hopefully we can correct one another's mistaken understandings without slamming them personally.

Lack of image alignment clearly is an issue for some people, and may make Evernote less than ideal for some purposes. People who want to use Evernote for coding find it less than ideal (no highlighting in code blocks). People who want to use Evernote to write novels find it less than ideal. It makes sense to request that a feature be added (or added back?). But Evernote is a generalist tool, and just can't work optimally for every imaginable purpose, so that for some purposes a more specialist tool may be required. IMHO, which may not be yours, but is still allowed to be expressed, I think.

[Petsolb 55]

@Dave-in-Decatur I take your point, which is why I suggested we all make an effort in my previous post here. I didn't intend for that message to be ironic, so apologies if it came across as such.

18 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

What I don’t understand (and dislike) is the tendency to make a bug out of a nuissance, and a real issue out of a bug.

(...)

Since it is no feature, it can be absent. Image centering being absent is just that, a matter of fact.

(...)

If you want it, write at support, or send feedback. But stop blowing your personal software design preferences up into a problem or worse.

This is not about being blunt, which I can handle. But scorning others for sharing their thoughts on a user forum in good faith isn't very useful, or even instructing other people what to say or not to say in their posts ('stop blowing your personal software design preferences up into a problem or worse').

I did not intend to enter a lengthy discussion about what constitutes a feature or not, define it however you like. I referred to 'bugs and issues' in plural, and image alignment was one example. If you don't find that to be an issue, then fine. At the end of the day it's up to the developers how they wish to prioritize.

Now I really do not wish to keep this conversation going in this thread, but do send me a message if you feel like it.

 

 

[gazumped 11,739]

Thanks for the additional input folks,  but I think we're (again) way off topic for this thread.  @Federico was simply sharing what has been going on in the background,  plus some updates since.  While I'm sure he'll note any feedback,  I'd imagine he is going to be a little busy for some time. 

I'm sure we'll get further updates and responses as time permits.  Meantime sit back and try to enjoy the ride...

If you do have any concerns about missing features / bugs or anything else...

• Subscribers can raise priority support queries here -  https://help.evernote.com/hc/requests/new 
• Free users here -  https://twitter.com/evernotehelps
• In both cases it's usually easier to use the Settings > Support option in the mobile client

 

[bloggerhh 0]

thanks for sharing

[inseek 0]

So, I have been on the Evernote Plus Plan since 2011. I was paying a reasonable $34.99 + tax for note taking application, and on 2023-04-20 I got an email that "The price of your Annual subscription will increase from 34.99 USD to 49.99 USD per Year ($54.43 with tax included)". Today, a new email stating that my existing plan has been discontinued and transitioned from Plus to Personal, and on the next renewal the price is going up again to $129.99 + Tax which will bring it close to $150/y....sounds ridiculous! It is like 4 times the price increase overnight compared with what I was paying!

Good companies care about their customers, especially these who've been paid customers for 10+ years, and don't do this to them. I hope Bending Spoons reconsider the pricing and discounts they should offer to their loyal customers, otherwise, we'll have to look for alternatives.

 

[gazumped 11,739]

On 9/18/2023 at 1:44 AM, inseek said:

I hope Bending Spoons reconsider the pricing and discounts they should offer to their loyal customers, otherwise, we'll have to look for alternatives.

Hi.  You're more than welcome to contact them and explain your extreme situation.  We're mainly other users here who are also dealing with varying degrees of shock from the increase,  but you will be able to raise it with Support (who are also customer service) and see what accommodations might be available...

[PinkElephant 8,242]

Recently I posted something here about „loyalty“. In short terms: Forget about it, it is no viable concept in the legal / business sphere.

You pay your subscription, and it will buy you 1 year of service. That’s all.

If you think the added features (yes, there are some) plus the continued use of the service is not creating enough value to make up for the new price, be loyal to yourself, and move to an alternative.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

On 9/17/2023 at 8:44 PM, inseek said:

So, I have been on the Evernote Plus Plan since 2011. I was paying a reasonable $34.99 + tax for note taking application, and on 2023-04-20 I got an email that "The price of your Annual subscription will increase from 34.99 USD to 49.99 USD per Year ($54.43 with tax included)". Today, a new email stating that my existing plan has been discontinued and transitioned from Plus to Personal, and on the next renewal the price is going up again to $129.99 + Tax which will bring it close to $150/y....sounds ridiculous! It is like 4 times the price increase overnight compared with what I was paying!

Good companies care about their customers, especially these who've been paid customers for 10+ years, and don't do this to them. I hope Bending Spoons reconsider the pricing and discounts they should offer to their loyal customers, otherwise, we'll have to look for alternatives.

The key factor, it seems to me, is that you've been allowed to stay on an inexpensive plan that hasn't actually been offered for a number of years, continuing to pay less than others receiving a comparable level of service. From my perspective, your $35/year was not really "reasonable" considering what you were being offered for it. Evernote's decision to renew that subscription in April was a bad idea on their part, since they must have known that the transition to Personal and the accompanying price increase were already in the pipeline. People with Personal subscriptions already also found (in some cases) that the price was more than it was worth to them. "To them" is the key part. If you don't use or expect to use some of Evernote's key features, such as working across multiple operating systems, collaborative work, tasks, searching attachments, now AI-enhanced search, etc., then $130 may indeed be too much. If you do use them (as I do use significant parts of those features), then it may seem reasonable (as it does to me).

[Bill D 1]

I have been a loyal professional edition user/customer since 2010.   I really don’t get why the Evernote Professional subscription price is going up by 70%.   From 99.99 to 169.99?  Hopefully the copy knows that at times the Evernote did not work for months.  In fact, we needed to downgrade the software version to make it usable.    Finally, the product works.

My big question is, do I downgrade my subscription from Professional to Personal.   What do I give up?

Export notebooks as PDF files?   Currently does not fully work.   Will this get fixed?

Not sure what features I'm currently using that are not in the personal subscription.

[s2sailor 2,278]

1 hour ago, Bill D said:

I have been a loyal professional edition user/customer since 2010.   I really don’t get why the Evernote Professional subscription price is going up by 70%.   From 99.99 to 169.99?  Hopefully the copy knows that at times the Evernote did not work for months.  In fact, we needed to downgrade the software version to make it usable.    Finally, the product works.

My big question is, do I downgrade my subscription from Professional to Personal.   What do I give up?

Export notebooks as PDF files?   Currently does not fully work.   Will this get fixed?

Not sure what features I'm currently using that are not in the personal subscription.

Any decision you make is reversible.  The easy answer is to downgrade and then see if you miss anything that you can’t live without.  Also there is a help page out there that lists the differences.  As a result of the cost increase, I downgraded from professional to personal and can live with the differences.

[gazumped 11,739]

Compare Evernote subscription plans

[inseek 0]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:02 PM, gazumped said:

Hi.  You're more than welcome to contact them and explain your extreme situation.  We're mainly other users here who are also dealing with varying degrees of shock from the increase,  but you will be able to raise it with Support (who are also customer service) and see what accommodations might be available...

Well, I got a response from Customer support to my complaint about 271.5% of subscription price increase. I could not say that I am satisfied, and the explanation given is not convincing...so because I was "lucky" to be on the legacy Plus plan for a number of tears, now I have to suck it up and pay a 271.5% increase, or scramble to find an alternative in a matter of couple weeks?!?

I get that, the company is feeding the users all marketing about AI and "future-proofing / second brain" of an application that was neglected for so long...but will be there enough users lf EN left to enjoy whatever Bending Spoons are going to bring to the table, and at the price that is likely going to rise? There are Notion, Obsidian, Joplin, UpNote, Notejoy, Nimbus Note, Notesnook, Turtl, Zoho, Roam, ClickUp and about 20 more that in certain ways are already future-proof and most of them are priced much lower than EN... The price is not everything, but customer service and willingness to listen to the community and addressing their concerns are. I do not feel that EN/Bending Spoons are good at that.

P.S. EN is currently offering 40% discount for a Personal plan, I am wondering shall I just create a new account, get a discounted Persona subscription, export from my existing account, and import it into a new one. Bending Spoons can make this much less painful for us by just offering this to all of the folks on legacy plans.

/

 

[gazumped 11,739]

10 minutes ago, inseek said:

...or scramble to find an alternative in a matter of couple weeks

You're able to revert to the free Basic plan for the time being - all your current notes will be maintained for as long as you need it.  You can also use the Basic plan for er... "basic" note taking from two devices,  one of which should be the web client.  If and when you find an alternative service you will be able to export important notes over to it.   The price increase is not good news,  but the new owners are not unreasonable - they're just being realistic about the finances they need to run the business.

[Boot17 1,482]

30 minutes ago, inseek said:

P.S. EN is currently offering 40% discount for a Personal plan, I am wondering shall I just create a new account, get a discounted Persona subscription, export from my existing account, and import it into a new one. Bending Spoons can make this much less painful for us by just offering this to all of the folks on legacy plans.

You'll lose the note history if you do that, but since you were on the Plus plan you didn't depend on that anyway (even though it is still there -- just inaccessible).

You could also try going through the motion to cancel your current subscription first -- select the reason is because it's too expensive -- and see if you get a 40% offer to try and retain you as a customer. (That 40% off offer is still going to be over double what you were paying on Plus though.) Worst case, you don't get the offer and you drop to the free tier once your subscription time is over.

Best of luck.

[inseek 0]

19 minutes ago, gazumped said:

You're able to revert to the free Basic plan for the time being - all your current notes will be maintained for as long as you need it.  You can also use the Basic plan for er... "basic" note taking from two devices,  one of which should be the web client.  If and when you find an alternative service you will be able to export important notes over to it.   The price increase is not good news,  but the new owners are not unreasonable - they're just being realistic about the finances they need to run the business.

I understand that Bending Spoons have to pay their bills, but shouldn't we first see what will happen with EN, what "future-proof" features we will get, and then decide? From my point of view, I am asked to pay 4 times more for something that is already built...and the AI-powered search and other new things that BS promised will add even more to the cost of the current subscription.

[s2sailor 2,278]

42 minutes ago, inseek said:

but shouldn't we first see what will happen with EN, what "future-proof" features we will get, and then decide?

That is a personal decision that you will need to make, not a collective one.  We all have unique software needs.  In the meantime, you can downgrade to free while you decide.

[gazumped 11,739]

8 hours ago, inseek said:

the AI-powered search and other new things that BS promised will add even more to the cost of the current subscription.

My understanding is that AI search (which is already here) and 'other new things' are included in this new subscription.  Further increases may follow,  but unless Evernote got its sums very wrong,  they will be more in line with inflation levels than this major reset.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

15 hours ago, inseek said:

I understand that Bending Spoons have to pay their bills, but shouldn't we first see what will happen with EN, what "future-proof" features we will get, and then decide? From my point of view, I am asked to pay 4 times more for something that is already built...and the AI-powered search and other new things that BS promised will add even more to the cost of the current subscription.

So, as I understand it, you've been paying very little for quite a few years to access many of the same features that I have been paying much more for, and now you want to keep paying very little while you test out all the features that I'm paying much more for. And you feel like you're the one being cheated.

[PinkElephant 8,242]

You can always try, can’t you ?

The problem starts if being upset when the answer is: NO !

[John in Michigan USA 129]

23 hours ago, gazumped said:

all your current notes will be maintained for as long as you need it.

That is indeed the current policy, but IMO the writing is on the wall, we should assume it is only a matter of time before that policy too is changed.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,981]

17 hours ago, John in Michigan USA said:

That is indeed the current policy, but IMO the writing is on the wall, we should assume it is only a matter of time before that policy too is changed.

Pure speculation. There's no evidence that Evernote intends to end Free plans, or delete notes of people on Free plans. There's no real evidence they intend to insist on people moving from Free to a paid plan after a certain amount of time,  though there's a lot of speculation about that here too.

[gazumped 11,739]

14 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Pure speculation.

Agreed - apart from some NDA titbits about upcoming features,  no-one knows Evernote's long term plans,  and on a purely business basis I would think that they'd wait for another 6 months or so before considering further major changes.  The results from feature and subscription changes will have begun to shake out by then.  There's also probably still a lot to do in terms of speed and reliability meantime.

Also IMHO it's not worth worrying about what 'may' happen.  Far better to get on with your life on the basis of current conditions and leave dealing with any new developments to if - and when - they are actually announced.

-Something about crossing your bridges when you come to them...?

[John in Michigan USA 129]

I have 11 years invested in this product. It is absolutely worth worrying about what 'may' happen.

Granted, claims about "Writing on the wall" are certainly a form of speculation, but there is a clear trend towards charging for everything. EN might continue to offer some sort of free experience, but with greater and greater restrictions as time goes by. For example, they might replace unlimited free trial with 30, 60, or 90 day free trial, or storage/bandwidth/other limitations. Now that free VC money is getting scarce, the days of free services are drawing to a close IMO. Everyone remembers how Google and others used to offer free "unlimited" storage in the cloud "forever". These days it is rare to get more than c. 1-10 GB for free from a reputable cloud storage service. As long as EN don't change the policy of letting free users upgrade for a short period of time, it would remain possible to get your content off the service at a reasonable cost.

Besides, if posting about clear trends and the writing on the wall causes Evernote to reassure us publicly that they will never change that policy, well, that's never a guarantee but it does make it harder for them to change that policy. That's a win in my book!

[gazumped 11,739]

3 hours ago, John in Michigan USA said:

if posting about clear trends and the writing on the wall causes Evernote to reassure us publicly...

Good luck with that... 

I do have a little evidence from my own Legacy account which may support your theories - this was my screen a few hours ago:

Looks like the 'encouragement' to update got a bit more intense - which actually I have no problems with:  Supporting Legacy accounts seems now to be holding v10 users back.  Evernote could do much more if they had total freedom to innovate.  I know this means folks with old operating systems may drop out because they can't update,  and others are still complaining about speed or some other aspect of v10.  But the world is moving along, and everyone has to move along with it or get left behind.

I don't think any of that means the free accounts with free storage will be next.  (I have however,  been known to be very very wrong). 

Nobody knows what proportion of free accounts there are,  but I'm betting it's millions.  If Evernote decided to give less than a year's notice that the non-paying accounts were being wound up and the storage closed,  there would be complaints for years from anyone who missed the original memo and lost their precious data.  Unless and until the company is the acknowledged Gold Standard of note taking again,  and conducts an extensive year-long campaign warning that thigs are about to change,  I really don't think they'd survive the backlash. 

The one anathema to anyone in the IT business is a company responsible for major loss of data. 

Plus - I'm still that 'cross bridges when you have to' guy.  I literally just found out that Nimbus Screenshot have accounts that look amazingly like v10,  and offer imports from a number of note-taking apps including the big 'E' which encourages me to believe that there are new players entering the market every day. 

If folks can't - or don't want to - use Evernote for their storage and note-taking,  there are always going to be alternatives out there...

 

[PinkElephant 8,242]

The issue with the heritage of the Free accounts could be solved quickly and easily: 1 year after an account was created, it is set to „read only“. Data can be retrieved, but not changed or added. This can always be lifted through a subscription.

1 year after it was accessed last, the (known) users email receive a notification that the account will be closed.

1 year after it being closed, it will be removed from the active server, and archived for (say) another 5 years. Archive storage is WAY cheaper than active storage.

And after that …

[gazumped 11,739]

...And just for the record,  my venerable Android 'phone that can't get updated past Evernote 8.13 is also wearing that big red 'Update Me' sticker.  I think the Forums might get a little busier in the next few days...

[Paul A. 633]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:54 PM, gazumped said:

...And just for the record,  my venerable Android 'phone that can't get updated past Evernote 8.13 is also wearing that big red 'Update Me' sticker.  I think the Forums might get a little busier in the next few days...

Hmmm, doesn't Evernote 10 now support Android 9 and later? If you're running Android 8.1 or earlier, your phone must be a bit of a security risk. Be very careful what you do on it (and perhaps time for an upgrade, if you can swing it.)

[gazumped 11,739]

4 minutes ago, Paul A. said:

If you're running Android 8.1

Hmmn..  About that...  Whelp; there's a Prime Day coming up soon and I need to sort out my account with the phone provider...   Thanks for the reminder!

[Paul A. 633]

7 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Hmmn..  About that...  Whelp; there's a Prime Day coming up soon and I need to sort out my account with the phone provider...   Thanks for the reminder!

The new Pixel 8 (shipping next week and currently available for pre-order) will have a guaranteed 7 years of software and security updates. If you use a traditional postpaid carrier plan in the USA it's available for "free" at all the major carriers, I believe. FYI!