Potential new user coming from Catch - First, a question

[gingerfinger 0]

I am looking at moving my thousands of notes into Evernote (from a Catch Notes text export), but I am concerned that it looks like you have to pay to use Evernote if you don't always have an active data connection.

 

Am I understanding things correctly that Evernote requires either ( a ) $5/month (or $45/year) or ( b ) an active data connection in order to be used?  If it requires either ( a ) or ( b ) to be functional, can anyone recommend a free replacement for Catch that doesn't require an active data connection?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I am looking at moving my thousands of notes into Evernote (from a Catch Notes text export), but I am concerned that it looks like you have to pay to use Evernote if you don't always have an active data connection.

 

Am I understanding things correctly that Evernote requires either ( a ) $5/month (or $45/year) or ( b ) an active data connection in order to be used?  If it requires either ( a ) or ( b ) to be functional, can anyone recommend a free replacement for Catch that doesn't require an active data connection?

Hi. Yes and no. Evernote on mobile devices works just fine without an active connection if you are creating new notes (or editing new notes that haven't been synced yet). However, you will have to have a connection or Premium if you want to download notes for offline use. You don't need a connection on the desktop to creat or edit notes.

[gingerfinger 0]

Thank you so very much for your reply.  I appreciate it.

 

I was really hoping that Evernote would be my new note taking tool.  It looks great.  But the price is way too steep for me.  I would be happy to buy an app for a one time charge, but spending $45/year is too much for me (in 5 years I would have spent as much as just buying a small tablet computer, and keeping all my notes on it!).

 

I don't need much... just the ability to take quick notes, edit them, and search within them.  Picture and voice notes are a plus.  Hash tags are a big plus.  Catch Notes was really perfect.  And interestingly, even though they discontinued Catch Notes, the app worked fine until just the other day when it suddenly stopped working.  Don't know why.

 

I don't want to have to turn on data in order to view my notes (takes too long and uses up data allotment), or be unable to see them if I can't get a data connection.  That seems like a big step backwards.  Maybe Evernote will add the ability to keep your notes local on your own mobile device in the future without charging an annual fee.  Until then, any ideas of a good notetaking app that doesn't require an active data connection (without an annual fee)?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Thank you so very much for your reply.  I appreciate it.

 

I was really hoping that Evernote would be my new note taking tool.  It looks great.  But the price is way too steep for me.  I would be happy to buy an app for a one time charge, but spending $45/year is too much for me (in 5 years I would have spent as much as just buying a small tablet computer, and keeping all my notes on it!).

 

I don't need much... just the ability to take quick notes, edit them, and search within them.  Picture and voice notes are a plus.  Hash tags are a big plus.  Catch Notes was really perfect.  And interestingly, even though they discontinued Catch Notes, the app worked fine until just the other day when it suddenly stopped working.  Don't know why.

 

I don't want to have to turn on data in order to view my notes (takes too long and uses up data allotment), or be unable to see them if I can't get a data connection.  That seems like a big step backwards.  Maybe Evernote will add the ability to keep your notes local on your own mobile device in the future without charging an annual fee.  Until then, any ideas of a good notetaking app that doesn't require an active data connection (without an annual fee)?

Sure. I talk about a couple on my site like VoodooPad and nvalt + notesy.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=62

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=51

They are fantastic apps, but in the end, only apps. They are not services, like Evernote, so their potential and their flexibility will be more limited. Personally, I think you get a lot for $45 a year with Evernote, but it all depends on your use case.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Yes it is important to recognize that Evernote is, in large part, a service, NOT just a product. Your annual fee is your subscription to a service (server space, computational power, and various features that draw on those resources more heavily, plus a few PRODUCT features such as "offline notebooks" on mobile).

One major reason why Evernote does not default to storing notebooks offline on mobile devices (ignoring, for now, the fact that this is a paid feature) is that many Evernote users have very large note databases. I have a comparatively modest database of 900 notes but it's I clocking in at 2gb. I don't want all 2gb of that (and it's growing, of course) on my iPhone and iPad. I keep only my active travel notebooks "offline".

As for issues around cellular data, it is really quite modest, unless you are frequently downloading and opening large note attachments while on a cellular connection (and you must explicitly TELL Evernote to do this, so you have full control in this regard), but the same could be said about email or web browsers.

While the features available to free and premium users change over time, offline notebooks on mobile is a pretty big ticket premium feature, so while things could (and have been known to) change, don't count on what hasn't happened yet! In addition, the insistence (I use insistence rather than "requirement" since you can have offline notebooks) on a data connection also reduces the risk of serious sync errors by ensuring that changes are pushed as quickly as possible back to the canonical copies on the server. 

One thing that is nice is that premium can be purchased Monthly. Before I became an annual subscriber, I "tested" premium on a busy travel month. For $5 I got a month of premium, largely so I could access travel information offline in case my international cellular SIM card didn't work or some other issue arose. After that month I dropped down to free again for nearly a year, and was very happy. By the end of that year my use of Evernote had grown substantially enough that I both needed, and could justify, the premium membership. My point is, switching between premium and free is pretty easy so you can always go with premium "as needed" without obligation and without breaking the bank.