Alternative to Evernote? After 6 Years, am so Done.

[GrandGrimoire 2]

I've used this app every day for 6 years, but I feel like all it does it now is squeeze things smaller and smaller, and constantly try to wring money from me.

To start with it was free, the main reason I used it for my novel project; I never needed premium features, it was great the way it was. I'm quite poor and paying for an (expensive) app is a luxury I cannot afford. Suddenly there was only one note allowed per notebook. Annoying and kinda pointless as a 'notebook' but at least my loads of old notes remained. The relentless, unyielding pop ups to upgrade to the paid version seem to be more and more frequent with every login, and are officially getting on my nerves.

The features just keep getting fewer for those who can't pay. Suddenly I can only use one device? Nah that's it, I'm out. Unless things change, it feels pointless using Evernote at all.

Sorry Evernote. If you're going to push away low income people, you're going to lose a lot of users :(

 

[gazumped 12,054]

As a commercial enterprise that wants to stay in business,  Evernote can't afford to support a population of free users. 

Alternatives here - https://noteapps.info or  https://toolfinder.co

[PinkElephant 8,772]

Just for the record: There are 50 notes allowed (including trash), and 1 notebook. Which means 1-50 notes in that single notebook, not 50 notebooks with a single note each.

It may come as a surprise, but EN needs to pay for the resources they need to operate and improve the service. And they can’t (couldn’t) cross finance the product from other sources. Subscription income was the only regular source.

So first they run a business, and take business decisions. 

And second if you want something for „Free“, you need to watch out for an app that is paid for by „alternative income“. Usually it’s somebody who has another core business (Google or Microsoft come to mind). Or you need to look for OpenSource or newcomers.

Just be warned that for many „Free“ services you pay with your privacy. And not every newbie of today will be still around when your novel hits the top spot of the bestseller books. Make sure they don’t take your data with them when they belly up.

[Cristiano478 236]

Em 26/08/2024 at 18:11, GrandGrimoire disse:

Sorry Evernote. If you're going to push away low income people, you're going to lose a lot of users

 

 

Honestly, that's exactly what they want. 😅 You're being a bit silly by taking it personally (sorry). It's just business. Sometimes it's better to have a few users who pay a lot than a ton of users who pay little (or nothing, like before).

As for alternatives, there are plenty out there. I’d recommend UpNote — it’s just as good as Evernote and way cheaper. The only downside is that it doesn’t have a web version.

[NeverSurrender 1]

On 8/26/2024 at 10:11 PM, GrandGrimoire said:

I've used this app every day for 6 years, but I feel like all it does it now is squeeze things smaller and smaller, and constantly try to wring money from me.

To start with it was free, the main reason I used it for my novel project; I never needed premium features, it was great the way it was. I'm quite poor and paying for an (expensive) app is a luxury I cannot afford. Suddenly there was only one note allowed per notebook. Annoying and kinda pointless as a 'notebook' but at least my loads of old notes remained. The relentless, unyielding pop ups to upgrade to the paid version seem to be more and more frequent with every login, and are officially getting on my nerves.

The features just keep getting fewer for those who can't pay. Suddenly I can only use one device? Nah that's it, I'm out. Unless things change, it feels pointless using Evernote at all.

Sorry Evernote. If you're going to push away low income people, you're going to lose a lot of users

 

I couldn't agree more - Also, there's the eternity it takes the developers to manage to correct or write some code! Especially when users are screaming for help with annoying problems....... And some Forum users are trying to boost their pathetic ego's by giving snotty replies or comments to perfectly understandable frustrations of people who have been told that the issue, which they have is now (after several decades have past 😭) "A Priority". 

So, either wait...... For a complete update of the app or find a new one - my choice is Joplin.

Realise this is an olde thread but am sure that there is a certain "Elephant in the room" who will doubtlesy be subscribed, and be compelled to reply - to keep his "My life is so sad, that I spend most of my time on this forum, making sure I get the totally worthless  "accolades " in my profile! 

As the song goes ".... Sad but True" 

[RoboRobbie 1]

Being a ‘paid’ user and have been using Evernote since 2011 the app is nowhere as stable as it was a few years back

As others have mentioned I too am looking at an alternative 

The latest updates for my iPhone 14 have resulted in:-

- Images will not upload first time and in some occasions having to restart the app more than once

- My phone getting really hot when app is in use

- Unable to copy and paste from one note to another either general text or links unless again restarting the app

- Being unable to select all the text in a multiple check box list

- The annoying location of the AI button that takes a few seconds to appear

Sorry Evernote team, if you want to charge premium rates you need a product that works consistently and for now you don’t have that. Maybe you should be offering refunds for a defective product or do better testing before final role outs 

 

The app at the moment is not one I would recommend to anyone 

[brettmansdorf 6]

Yeah, I've been paying since early in 2008 on this account and early in 2010 on another.  Originally - it was so impressive I would show it off (as often everyone would ask 'what are you doing' followed by 'what program is that'.  I was a roving ad for them.  The last 8 or so years - not so much - but for the most part - it has continued to service it purpose.  I've only 40K on this account - but the database is surging into the 240gb range.  Second account has more.  They have continued to move their core competency away from archival and reference into an "all things for everything" vision - which I can appreciate (not use) - but the fact that more often than not - it is ABSOLUTELY shoved down our throats.  I don't give a $h&t about the money - I ONLY care about the functionality - and lately their search and speed can only be described as lacking.  I've not left because of the hassle (and bulk) - but as AI improves and machines get faster (I'm on an M1ultra, M2pro, and Gen13 intel) - there will be a real alternative.  ALL they would need to do is to allow the USER (you know - they guy paying them some 15+ years) to be allowed to turn on and off features which seemingly rob the system of the ability to perform as it once did.  I find the excuse "cause they need to make money" - well its somewhat a red herring - as I feel they have lost their way - they were the undisputed, end-all, goto for storing and referencing - being able to organize and find what you need.  Perhaps I'm just misguided - and missed the usefulness of all the (sizzle, sizzle, sizzle) features, I just miss when they used to deliver (the steak).   If I were starting from scratch - there is no way I'd used it now - it's so bloated...    Any of you remember when their optical search engine was excepting - ten years ago I could type in a date 8/11/2014 and it would find every shred of a receipt that related - today - it finds nothing...  Hell, just now I typed in 2014 - and you would not believe the number of notes it comes up with that do not relate.  So please, do NOT tell me they have not changed their focus, nor that they did not damn near run it into the ground trying to be all things to everyone.  I am grateful its still stable enough to use for what I need - although now I must label and tag it to death, as the search is nothing compared to its previous self...     I'm just worried that once AI, and archival devices (I use HDD spinner and an NVME - in parallel - so once I have something that can scan (optically) through and organize (the latter part is still lacking) - I will leave, as I'm no longer their focus.  Remembering everything used to be a thing...

[PinkElephant 8,772]

Nothing is robbing the client any performance, there are no functions that could meaningfully be removed. It’s just how it works:

There are 2 factors:

The clients are running inside of a framework. This ensures the reuse of code between clients - not being able to do this was one of the key factors that doomed the legacy clients. The framework behaves in many ways like a dedicated VM (actually it’s that „lean“ browser engine driving Chrome).

The client, even when installing a local database is always trying to sync every user interaction directly with the server.

Thats it, no magic wand in sight.

[biglarry5 12]

There may be better note storage apps out there for people who are starting from scratch, but few people like myself are willing to try them out because of the enormous amount of data we accumulate over the years. I wouldn't venture to export them from Evernote to some other app fearing this would create a loss of data and a jumble that would take as much time to untangle and organize anew as transferring those notes one by one.

I've always been satisfied with EN's ease of use as a basic note storage utility. I have a hunch that if EN limited their app to that function only (without bells and whistles designed to compete with Microsoft and other office use apps) and made everybody pay 50 bucks a year for its use, they would make as much money or more based on a flood of new users than what they're making now. Another option would be to have a tiered subscription for note/photos addition and storage only at $50.00 and higher prices for more complex functions.  Otherwise, I predict a steady erosion of subscribers who will not be willing to pay 130.00/yr or more for their simple usage, and in a vicious circle, consequent price increases will produce an even faster loss of users. 

[gazumped 12,054]

1 minute ago, biglarry5 said:

I have a hunch that if EN limited their app to that function only ..., and made everybody pay 50 bucks a year for its use, they would make as much money or more based on a flood of new users than what they're making now.

Others in the market offer exactly that service (not sure about the price though) so anyone who needs just that can find their heart's desire.  I think Evernote is still polishing their revamp of the original functions though,  and I'd be unhappy if the existing app got cut down,  ad would a lot of other 'professional' users who rely on it as their daily driver.  Bending Spoons are a savvy company and I'm sure they keep a close eye on their attrition rate.  If and when tey get the chance to add more products I'm sure they'll take it...

[RoboRobbie 1]

It’s a shame they can’t offer a reduced version similar to OneNote and then if people want the Premium package with AI etc they can pay more 

[biglarry5 12]

2 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Others in the market offer exactly that service (not sure about the price though) so anyone who needs just that can find their heart's desire.  I think Evernote is still polishing their revamp of the original functions though,  and I'd be unhappy if the existing app got cut down,  ad would a lot of other 'professional' users who rely on it as their daily driver.  Bending Spoons are a savvy company and I'm sure they keep a close eye on their attrition rate.  If and when tey get the chance to add more products I'm sure they'll take it...

That's why I suggested a win-win option: Add a large number of basic subscribers for 50.00, and charge much more for the bells and whistles. I'm willing to bet that the user ratio between the former and the latter is and will always be in the vicinity of 65% vs. 35%. 

[s2sailor 2,426]

37 minutes ago, biglarry5 said:

That's why I suggested a win-win option: Add a large number of basic subscribers for 50.00, and charge much more for the bells and whistles.

The trade off here is how many users paying the $130 rate would then decide that they can get by with the $50 plan?  So there would be some loss of revenue to balance against additional lower price subscribers.  They tried that years ago with the Plus plan and it was a failure.  That said, there are enough new features now where drawing a line between a basic plan and a professional plan may make sense trying again.

[Anonyme For Liberty 19]

I agree they push away unpaying customers away. I had installed free evernote for my old parents, there was no need to pay a subscription for just a few notes.
It was convenient for me as paying customer because i could share notes with them.

But the ads of Evernote are very aggressive and misleading, using all the techniques of black pattern. My parents can be fooled by such methods so i had no other choice than to uninstall the software for them...

Shame on the marketing of this italian company.

[PinkElephant 8,772]

For just a few notes it’s the wrong app. Which is not the fault of an Italian company, but of the person who picked it.

Its not the only app that for sustained use requires a subscription.

[Boot17 1,534]

7 hours ago, Anonyme For Liberty said:

I agree they push away unpaying customers away. I had installed free evernote for my old parents, there was no need to pay a subscription for just a few notes.
It was convenient for me as paying customer because i could share notes with them.

But the ads of Evernote are very aggressive and misleading, using all the techniques of black pattern. My parents can be fooled by such methods so i had no other choice than to uninstall the software for them...

Yeah - it used to be a good choice for use cases like that. I did the same thing for my mom about three years ago. I don't know if she is still using it (hopefully not) but I should check in on her just to make sure she isn't because I can see her accidentally subscribing due to the tricky wording. Even I clicked the wrong thing one time just a couple of weeks ago due to the misleading wording even though I was anticipating it. 

[PinkElephant 8,772]

Same story: Move her off to another, less feature rich app that has a permanent free plan. Or question yourself if she really needs a notesapp.

[Adeena 7]

I've been an Evernote user since 2010. Paid since... 2015? (Not sure when I started paying).

About 2 years ago, I tried: Obsidian and Zettlr. Both free. But I came back to Evernote. FWIW... I still like the backlink/linking in Obsidian better (and was one of the reasons I was looking at alternatives) but since Evernote has made some improvements in that area, it's working for me.

There's also Google Keep if you need a very very bare bones place to keep notes. I use that to share the grocery list with my hubby because I couldn't get him to try anything else.

I also tried Notion's free plan. Notion is... I don't know. I like some features. But in many ways it's a lot more than I need. I would use Notion if I needed a team wiki (although I'd also probably use Confluence for that...)

Evernote is working really well for me and has been for a long time. And as someone said above... there's a team of people and they aren't doing this work for free! So I'm happy to support (fellow) software devs and their teams.

-Adeena

[UV Catastrophe 0]

On 8/30/2024 at 5:25 PM, Cristiano478 said:

 

Honestly, that's exactly what they want. 😅 You're being a bit silly by taking it personally (sorry). It's just business. Sometimes it's better to have a few users who pay a lot than a ton of users who pay little (or nothing, like before).

As for alternatives, there are plenty out there. I’d recommend UpNote — it’s just as good as Evernote and way cheaper. The only downside is that it doesn’t have a web version.

There's nothing silly about complaining how our choices are limited by commercial interests. Yes, it's the way it is, but we also have every right to complain about it.  It's not always easy to keep transferring notes from one platform to another everytime a provider decides it's too good for poor people. This is how companies like Evernote eventually kill themselves. Evernote isn't Oracle or SAP with Fortune 500 companies investing millions to license-up their business systems. Evernote depends entirely on individual subscriptions, so a generous free-tier is probably more critical to their survival than you think. 

For those looking for alternatives... I would suggest a look at Notion,  

[PinkElephant 8,772]

You are correct - the generous Free tier (and the unwillingness to stop long grandfathered, deeply rebated subscriptions) was what ultimately broke the success, and led to a fire sale. It's good to see that the new management has a more focussed view of necessities, and the drive to put these decisions into practice.

It makes the app a place for those who decide to subscribe, which is a much smaller and better defined group than this bunch of free users who complain about everything you can imagine (and more), whine about being discriminated, but are unwilling to contribute a nickel.

Suddenly when the money earned is invested into the business instead of into carrying a bunch of lazy heads around, development is kicking in, technical debt is purged and new features rolled out.

This could have happened years earlier.