Ruud Wijnands

There is no need to respond further to any of my remarks. I am checking out here. This was my first and last experience joining the Evernote forum. I respect that people have different opinions, experience things differently, and have different perspectives on the same matter. I have no need to "be right" about something, and someone may consider my arguments flawed. That's fine. On the scale of the Universe, none of this conversation is important anyway.

10 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

If you don’t get the value you need, go watching.

But don’t use bogus arguments for it.

So aggressive. Why? Bad day? Or a need to be right? You are right my friend. If that makes you feel better, have a happy life. Maybe find something fun or nice to do or join some boxing classes to get rid of your aggression.

2 minutes ago, agsteele said:

Then I guess you'll be making a switch soon if not already but you did previously infer that you had not been given Note History or Advanced Search. I thought you had missed that it was available to you on Free.

I hope you'll find the service that meets your needs for the future.

Thanks, I have. I started using Obsidian 1.5 years ago. First, as an experiment, I learned that in parallel with Evernote use, I started using Evernote less and less. Obsidian offers many more useful features, and all of them are completely free of charge. Yet, I decided to fund the Obsidian authors and some of the plugin creators because I do not mind paying for great tools as long as it is balanced with the value I get.

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Plus had all that was available at that time. Nothing was taken away. It just continued on that level.

There were additional features, and the management back then decided to bundle them, and launch Premium. Plus was grandfathered, existing users could stay.

Later they launched Tasks and Boolean Search, decided again they need to bundle them. A user focused version of Tasks went to Personal (plus all Premium features), the collaborative use of Tasks and Boolean Search went to the new Professional level. Again nothing was removed, Premium was as split: Full Premium plans were converted to Personal, rebated Premium users could upgrade, or stay on rebated Premium, without full Personal features.

The result were 4 individual plans

Plus (grandfathered since 2018)

Premium (grandfathered since 2021)

Personal (active)

Professional (active)

The only change in plans after BS took over was that the grandfathered plans can’t be renewed any more. The users can decide to move to Personal (with a price hike, buffered by a first year rebate) or drop to Free.

Conclusion: There were never features removed from existing plans.

As @agsteele has added, many features were now opened to the Free plan as well - which functions as a trial plan. Subscribers can choose between Personal or Professional.

 

I am sorry, but that is simply not true and you can easily google some of the examples I gave.

BUT... Let's agree to disagree. I do not need to be right about anything. I tried to answer your question and you don't recognize it or don't like my answer. Either way, I am ok with it. It's not important enough to me whether you agree or disagree.

You are a happy user, and I am happy for you. The fact that I am not due to the current pricing increase doesn't need to be of concern. It doesn't make more wrong or right—I wish you a fantastic life and prosperity. 

3 minutes ago, agsteele said:

The functions available have moved about all the time with subscription.  Most recently 14 functions that had previously been paid for were released to Free users https://evernote.com/blog/14-features-for-all

• Note history and restore (Formerly Personal)
• Offline notes and notebooks (Formerly Personal)
• PDF and image annotation (Formerly Personal)
• PDF export (Formerly Professional)
• Business card scanning (Formerly Professional)
• Spreadsheet preview (Formerly Professional)
• Boolean search (Formerly Professional)
• Geographic search (Formerly Professional)
• Document & image search (Formerly Professional)
• Email notes to Evernote (Formerly Personal)
• Share notes via email (Formerly Personal)
• Custom global keyboard shortcuts (Formerly Personal)
• Customize the “create” button on Mobile (Formerly Personal)
• Custom templates (Formerly Personal)

So, yes, features move between plans but many of those cited previously were only ever part of a paid plan and some are now part of Free already.

Sure, that happens too. And that is great if you are a user of these features. It doesn't change my opinion that the current pricing is not worth it for me anymore.

19 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Now, which feature was ever taken away from one paid plan and moved to another ?

I answered the "ever" part of your question. Agree?

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

EN got (nearly) bankrupted by the Freemium model. For sure it got them sold.

But back to the question. I assume you can’t answer it because there is no such feature. New features were often reserved for new subscription plans, all existing features remained available.

If the new prices are adequate depends on your use cases. This you need to answer yourself.

If not, go watching.

Not sure what you mean. I mentioned several features that got changed between the models. ???

In the recent plans everything remained available. True. Again, I am a user since 15 years back. I am referring to the changes Evernote made over time that made me have to pay extra to keep using features I used. I am not necessarily referring to the current change. For the current change you seem to recognize we simply have to pay significantly more without getting any added value.

5 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

You buy a package - no matter what you intend to use.

You said there were features taken away and moved to more expensive subscriptions. This implies you already have been a subscriber. Free doesn’t qualify, for reasons explained.

Now, which feature was ever taken away from one paid plan and moved to another ?

Correct, as stated I have been user for 15 years. I think that counts for something. Anyway, I started with the free subscription. Evernote calls the subscription plans, even though you are of the opinion that that is not a subscription. I did not make this up. I had to move to a paid subscription a long time ago because of a reason I honestly don't remember. I only remember that I used a feature and had  to move to a 35 Euro subscription (or something number in that area) to keep using it. And at the time I had no problem with it. As I said, I always loved Evernote and I have been a very happy user for many years. 

And I was even willing to pay double the price later, because I felt this tool was necessary for my productivity. Things really started changing when they introduced tasks and Google calender integration and increased the pricing again. I remember that the user interface became very annoying. It was constantly reminding me that I had not upgraded for that unnecessary task integration. I felt violated. Ultimately, I gave in and paid extra just to get back to a usable user interface that stopped bugging me to upgrade.

Now the pricing is raised to a point where I simply do not consider it worth the money. There are many free note taking apps out there these days with much better features for the needs I have. Like note linking. Yes, Evernote has this too these days, but it was added not that long ago and the implementation is cumbersome compared to the free alternatives. It's simply not worth it anymore. 

It's fine if you feel different about it. That is great for Evernote.

3 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

A free account is no subscription.

Users of a Free plan don’t contribute, and no company has any obligation to keep offering any feature for these users. They could even stop offering a free plan at all.

I am not sure why you are so defensive for Evernote. Evernote has different users and became big with the freemium model. I agree with you that they can do whatever they want, because it is their company. That doesn't mean their users have to be happy with what they do. I am one of those users that isn't happy and is indicating that the current pricing is not worth it for me anymore. I am sure there are plenty who are still very happy. If you are one of them, I am happy for you. Great! It's entirely up to you.

Having different opinions about the value  doesn't make one user versus the other more wrong or right. It's a purely personal matter. If you like their features and are willing to pay for them this much then that is excellent for Evernote.

1 minute ago, Ruud Wijnands said:

Sure. Some features that were once available in the free version of Evernote but later became exclusive to paid subscriptions include:

1. In 2016 the number of devices to sync
2. As of December 2023, free accounts have a new limit: 1 notebook and 50 notes; the previous free limit was 250 and 100,000 notes.

3. Offline access: Initially, offline access to notes was available to all users, but Evernote later restricted this feature to Premium and Business subscribers.

4. Advanced search functionality: Premium subscribers gained access to advanced search features, such as searching within attached documents and PDFs, which were not available to free users.

5. Enhanced collaboration tools: Certain collaboration features, like the ability to share notebooks with editing permissions, were restricted to Premium and Business users.

6. Note history: Evernote introduced a feature allowing users to access previous versions of their notes, but this was only available to Premium and Business subscribers.

But the topic started for me with the current pricing. These were price changes in 2015 or 2016.

That in contrast to the new pricing where I need to pay a lot more for features I don't use or need. The app hasn't changed much for the rest. Calendar integration and a very poor task management system are not worth that price increase.

1 hour ago, PinkElephant said:

Can you name a single feature that was taken away from you and moved to a more expensive subscription ?

Just one ?

Sure. Some features that were once available in the free version of Evernote but later became exclusive to paid subscriptions include:

1. In 2016 the number of devices to sync
2. As of December 2023, free accounts have a new limit: 1 notebook and 50 notes; the previous free limit was 250 and 100,000 notes.

3. Offline access: Initially, offline access to notes was available to all users, but Evernote later restricted this feature to Premium and Business subscribers.

4. Advanced search functionality: Premium subscribers gained access to advanced search features, such as searching within attached documents and PDFs, which were not available to free users.

5. Enhanced collaboration tools: Certain collaboration features, like the ability to share notebooks with editing permissions, were restricted to Premium and Business users.

6. Note history: Evernote introduced a feature allowing users to access previous versions of their notes, but this was only available to Premium and Business subscribers.

On 3/10/2024 at 5:18 PM, gazumped said:

They somehow managed to hang on to tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers,  so I think they'll struggle on for now.  Good luck with Obsidian.

Oh, I am sure they are fine with the current pricing. They need a lot fewer subscribers to make the same income. And I am sure there is an audience for some of these overly priced features too. The point is that I have always loved Evernote for its simplicity. It was a no-nonsense tool. It isn't anymore. I do not feel appreciated as a long-term customer when I get a mutilated UI that continuously wants to force me to buy a more expensive subscription and where the features I had in the past are taken away and pushed to the more expensive subscription. It's aggressive and disrespectful to its users this way.

I've been a loyal user since 2009. I started with 35 Euros. Then some years later it became 60 Euro with no additional features. Some years back, they again changed the pricing, and I started paying something like 90 Euros. The new pricing at 135 euros is just insane. The so-called unique features aren't unique at all. I moved everything to Obsidian. 100% free of charge. It works like a charm, and I can keep my notes stored in a free GitHub or on my Synology.

Evernote has lost its mind. It has always been a great app. Somehow, they thought adding poor implementation of task management is worth extra money, or a newly designed home screen or calendar integration with Google Calendars and, recently, Outlook. Evernote.... it's not! O365 offers similar features better integrated for less. It's that I hate OneNote. Otherwise, there would be zero reason to stick with Evernote. There are tons of other free note-taking apps out there these days.

After 15 years and with this price increase I am afraid it is time to say goodbye. Evernote is not differentiating enough to pay this insane amount of money for a yearly subscription. 90 Euros was already at the edge, because I felt I was paying for features I did not ask for and features that have better implementations in other tools. It's a bummer to see such a nice app go to waste. I wonder if the Evernote team still knows who their users are/were. It's a bummer that in 15 years they never once asked what features I would have like and that they somehow thought their ***** tasks management and calendar integrations were going to be a game changer.