Doubling the price??

[Jeffrey Hallett 4]

Am I seeing this correctly?  From the traffic, I think I am... Evernote is doubling the cost??  Looking at the plans, my impression is that someone in Product Management has made a terrible mistake in creating the tiers.  Personal and Professional are only $40 apart and frankly, the Personal plan is far too heavy and overpriced for someone using the product personally. 

I just wanted to check in and see if others are experiencing the same thing.  I will likely not renew at this new price - a moderate increase is reasonable, but double??  I've been a user for a long time and sadly Evernote is pricing me out by adding bulk to the new "personal" plan that I, as a personal user, will not get value from.

I can only hope someone on the product management team is monitoring these forums so they see the backlash and can potentially correct this serious error before Evernote dies.  I can't see subscribers hanging around for long.

[gazumped 11,760]

Hi.  Not sure about doubling the price - it depends on whether you were already on some sort of discounted deal beforehand - but there's certainly a substantial increase.  That's after a few years of no increase at all,  so part of the increase is down to inflation;  plus Evernote has now ended the many and various 'grandfathered' discount schemes that were inherited from previous product changes. 

We're several months into the increases now,  so I don't see any chance that Evernote will change their tune - although if you go to cancel your subscription you may find that they're willing to offer a discount in this first year of higher charges to retain your payment. 

Up to you whether the discounted price seems acceptable - the only other option is to find an alternative supplier.

[Jeffrey Hallett 4]

I appreciate that I've probably had an exceptional deal for a while now, having been a long-time subscriber on what was their Plus plan (which has now been eliminated).  I have no problem with price bumps over time either as capabilities and costs go up.

However, I do think the team has made a major mistake in how they position the "Personal" vs "Professional" tiers.  I think they could create more differentiation and provide a lower cost option for Personal users by restricting some features and perhaps lowering some of the maximums on storage and record counts.

While I get a lot of value from the features I use, I also realize I use only a very basic feature set for my personal use, and I tend to think I'm not alone in that among other personal-type users.  Sadly, as much as I love the product, I probably can get the functions I use typically plus other features I'm more likely to use that better suit my use cases in another product at the same price point.

Also, my subscription is through the Apple Store directly, so I'm not sure how I'd even petition for a discount. Appreciate the suggestion though. 

[PinkElephant 8,263]

A low cost option has been requested several times.

Now answer this question to yourself: How likely is a low cost subscription, when at the same time EN is actively stopping all grandfathered plans ? These are plans that for a reduced price offer a reduced feature set …

[mackid1993 956]

The price increase was announced nearly a year ago after 7 years of no increases. They send an email about a month prior to your renewal. The new owners have made marked improvements to the service. If it's not worth it to you or if you aren't taking advantage of things like tasks and document management it may be best to look for a less expensive, less feature rich solution. Many free services will import enex just fine.

It may help to know if you go and cancel you will likely be offered 40% off your renewal. That will buy you another year to make a decision at a reduced cost.

[Jeffrey Hallett 4]

Appreciate the comments back, and yes, I do get I always have the option to vote with my feet.  I do love the product and I agree the improved service warrants a boost in the subscription rates, but I also think the team there has made a very critical mistake in how they've segmented the features and capabilities on their tiers and made the Personal tier carry more features, capability, and price than a true "personal" user needs or wants to pay for.

[mackid1993 956]

7 minutes ago, Jeffrey Hallett said:

Appreciate the comments back, and yes, I do get I always have the option to vote with my feet.  I do love the product and I agree the improved service warrants a boost in the subscription rates, but I also think the team there has made a very critical mistake in how they've segmented the features and capabilities on their tiers and made the Personal tier carry more features, capability, and price than a true "personal" user needs or wants to pay for.

Those features were added after the price increase. They made Personal and Professional basically the same, Professional gets more upload, you can assign tasks, and connect more than one calendar as well as google workspace calendars.

[Colinz 4]

Just cancelled my subs after probably a decade of using Evernote. I cannot justify a doubling of the subs. The product has become over-engineered with capabilities way way beyond what I originally enjoyed about it. Sadly, off to Upnote for £29.50 lifetime subs.

[PinkElephant 8,263]

The app is not build for basic note taking. Simple as that, good luck.

[Jeffrey Hallett 4]

I think these two latest responses are a good summary of perhaps where Evernote is now missing the boat.  We all appreciate the hard work the team has put into making a great product, but they've lost the division between the personal basic note-taker and the power-user.  They would do well to create a lower-tier for more basic note taking, and clearly differentiating a premium professional product with a higher price tag that includes more advanced features like sharing, calendar integration, AI, etc.

[gazumped 11,760]

1 minute ago, Jeffrey Hallett said:

They would do well to create a lower-tier for more basic note taking

If you're going to offer a cut-down version of your service,  you need to have a final,  fully operational version of what that service is before you can start paring it down.  Evernote is sensibly (MHO) getting their full product set up before they consider any options.  

[PinkElephant 8,263]

There are enough apps in the basic note taking segment of the market. Many of them are offered by indie devs or small outfits with a narrow cost footprint.

From a business viewpoint it probably makes no sense to downgrade a complex product just to compete in this field.

[Jeffrey Hallett 4]

Exactly a reason I think they are in a good position to start experimenting with other tiers of service.  

[PinkElephant 8,263]

It is usually more difficult (and expensive) to reduce a complex product by taking away features, than to develop the same bottom up. Too many dependencies, and in the end you deliver software that will be more prone to a buggy behavior than without the downgrade.

And what for ? You don't gain many users unless you rebate it a lot - and then you don't gain a lot of money by getting a lot of users. EN has been there, by allowing the grandfathered subscriptions to continue over years.

[Colinz 4]

Just cancelled my subs after probably a decade of using Evernote. I cannot justify a doubling of the subs. The product has become over-engineered with capabilities way way beyond what I originally enjoyed about it. Sadly, off to Upnote for £29.50 lifetime subs.

[Colinz 4]

Thank you all for explaining why there's a 50% hike in the renewal as the team continue to develop the product. As a matter of reference, I see that Microsoft offers a suite of nine apps (inc Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for less than the forthcoming Evernote cost increase.

I honestly feel that the Evernote product is being so heavily upgraded just because it can. Given the feedback here, I do not believe that the early users need or want these upgrades. Evernote is over-developing a perfectly flexible and workable product. But that's just my opinion

[PinkElephant 8,263]

Apple offers a full software suite for no extra charge, including a Notes app. Still there is room for other developers, even in that ecosystem.

What does this tell you ?

Pick what you like, and what supports your use cases. Don’t get enough value: Go watching.

[Colinz 4]

Thank you all for explaining why there's a 50% hike in the renewal as the team continue to develop the product. As a matter of reference, I see that Microsoft offers a suite of nine apps (inc Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for less than the forthcoming Evernote cost increase.

I honestly feel that the Evernote product is being so heavily upgraded just because it can. Given the feedback here, I do not believe that the early users need or want these upgrades. Evernote is over-developing a perfectly flexible and workable product. But that's just my opinion

1 hour ago, PinkElephant said:

Pick what you like, and what supports your use cases. Don’t get enough value: Go watching.

Wow, I don't think like you and get passive-aggressive in return. Please do not respond further to my disappointment that I can no longer afford Evernote.

[s2sailor 2,317]

For better or for worse I think the rate hike is due to it being, arguably, underpriced for several years, but also that it is being positioned as a premium app.  They don’t appear to want to compete in the low end market.  We all have to go through the decision on whether it is worth it to us or not.  There are several low cost or even free apps out there that may fit your use case better.

Personally, I struggled with the increased cost as well but decided to sign up for another year to see what develops. I’m feeling better about the decision now that several long overdue features that I have wanted are being added.  I’ll feel great about the decision when they start tackling the bugs better and get their support system under control.

[PinkElephant 8,263]

@Colinz No offense intended.

It is simply a fact, and wrapping it into some marketing speech doesn’t make it different: The „old“ EN is dead. There were probably users who just wanted a simple note app, with good syncing, OCR and search.

History showed this user segment didn’t carry the business model - EN was even not profitable when they just maintained the legacy clients, without any progress. Instead they build up technical debt. So the owners decided to sell.

If the new owners would do more of the same, they would get more of the same. So they decided to take the service (and it’s users) to new areas of uses. 

We all need to watch where this course will take us. We are committing with a yearly subscription, and can renew or skip when it becomes due. We assign a finite amount of money, and that keeps us covered.

And when it becomes due again it’s decision time. That’s all.

[eugenes 30]

7 hours ago, Colinz said:

I honestly feel that the Evernote product is being so heavily upgraded just because it can. Given the feedback here, I do not believe that the early users need or want these upgrades. Evernote is over-developing a perfectly flexible and workable product. But that's just my opinion.

yes, EN can do this. but so can you and any user in response to their decision, there is a big notetaking app market nowadays (i for one migrated to free Notion plan and downgraded to the EN free plan and i don't miss the paid plan)

[Jeffrey Hallett 4]

I too would just downgrade to the free plan, but it's actually too small in terms of number of notebooks and notes.  I'm definitely on the side that they just left a massive hole between their tiers and will lose a lot of small-medium users.  I appreciate everything that was said about the market and the new owners desire to be more profitable, but I dont' see them picking up new users with their new features and plans, but I do see them losing a lot of lower-tier users in favor of other options.

[PinkElephant 8,263]

We should not forget some aspects here: 1) Lower level plans as well keep some users away from the higher level, 2) every account comes with a base cost impact, that does not alter a lot with account sizes.

If I take a typical low budget account (say 50% of Personal), in terms of the bottom line impact it is not in the middle. It is a lot closer to actually break even, than to the higher level plan. You can probably afford to loose 10 users from such a budget plan, if this means 1 or 2 fully paying users either stay with the more expensive subscription, or don't downgrade over time.

It's not only the number of users that is relevant.

What bugs me more is how will be the strategy to actually win new subscribers. "Will be" because currently I mainly see them correcting mistakes from the past.