Vidalia

EN is blocked in most corporate network. NN is still accessible under most cases because due to its low popularity (compared to EN) it escaped most sys admins' radar for now. This issue has forced to look alternatives of EN. Of course, NN can be blocked one day then I'll be searching for another alternative.

The concept of paying a company to store some notes on their server is bit old fashioned now. A decade back it was novelty, now several apps offer this feature, often for free. Hence, this is not a profitable long term business model. One can keep Word, Excel files in Onedrive, Dropbox and can edit in any device (PC + mobile) using Microsoft Office which is almost free (most people have access to Microsoft Office via corporate licence/school and even if that is not available, it is easy to get a pirated copy of Office or freeware like LibreOffice which is fairly good at editing DOCX/XLSX files). I am following above workflow for last 2 years and happy with it. I still log in to Evernote to retrieve some old notes. If I think any note is useful, then I'll export it else I'll let my old notes die in Evernote over time.

EN v10 runs on Electron, which is effectively a browser disguised as native desktop app.

When EN was founded, the original CEO wanted EN to be a 100-year company. Sadly he left EN few years later and EN no longer officially wants to be a 100-yr company. I don't see how EN can grow. Cross platform note taking is no longer a novelty. Many others like Microsoft, Google etc. offer it for free. If you keep notes as Word DOCX files [not taking of OneNote here] you can open it in mobiles and edit it using free Word software. Keeping notes in a proprietary format is no good. While EN uses HTML like format it is not exactly plain HTML. How long EN lasts is a difficult question to answer. Even if Microsoft goes bust, there is enough support for DOCX file format to remain editable for a very long time. As long as you can keep your data in an editable format, it hardly matters how long EN last. We should focus to our data rather than application we use to process that data. I keep my notes as DOCX, HTML & RTF in Dropbox & OneDrive. These are accessible in mobiles too and I can search inside those files in desktop and mobile (both Dropbox and OneDrive now offers content search even for free users). So I am no longer tied to any proprietary applications. As long as I have access to any app that can open DOCX/HTML/RTF I am safe.

I did the same. I moved my regular notes out of EN and left remaining in EN. I still log in to EN and pull notes when necessary. This way I never had to do any big bang migration. I am also not replacing EN with any single product. Apps are like tools. There are several screwdrivers in one's toolbox. So I now use specific apps for specific purpose - like Notion for project management, OneNote for those notes which I must need without internet etc. It seemed crazy at first but now it has become part of my workflow. It never happened that I can't remember which thing I kept in which app. So I feel having all notes in one platform is kind of overhyped concept.

EN was originally founded with a vision to be a 100-year company. Since then original CEO has left and market condition has changed. So I won't be surprised if EN goes bust in near future. There will be always a small cult like users who would prefer a locally installed desktop app but industry trend and millennials are inclined to Cloud and hence a viable business may have to capture this market to remain profitable.

O365 is part of corporate subscriptions in most multipnational companies as well as educational institutions. The license often allows O365 in personal devices too. So, for millions of people Microsoft Office is effectively free. Even if not, then LibreOffice can open DOCX and XLSX files easily. Most people don't have enough complex formattting or macros to prevent interoperation with non-Microsoft applications. I think DOCX is now defacto world standard for formatted documents. I would argue that EN should abandon their ENEX format and either adopt standard HTML and/or DOCX. The DOCX format is now open so EN should be able to read/write DOCX. EN can't compete with Microsoft (or Google or Apple for that matter) so best to have a product that complements these behemoths' product range. Tried Joplin. It is a good product and free. Only 2 dislikes - I am not a great fan of Markdown and don't like storing all notes in one SQLDB database (yes, EN does in same way with SQLDB I think).

All valid points. I do use attachments. I keep attachments and in respective folders and only insert the path of attachment in my notes. But I admit this process works if your note taking is predominantly using desktop. For mobile devices, in my experience, the fastest note taking apps are usually those which are bundled with the apps itself e.g. Apple Notes notes and similar for Android where each manufacturer provide their own notepad which allows rich text note taking. Handwriting is a pain in mobile though. I simply can't do in small mobile screen. Tablets/iPad is better for handwriting. My pet hate for word processors is that, besides being slow at times, they are designed for single document editing where as note taking is shuffling between several notes at a time. So I want to see word processors with EN style file listing on the left. Notepad++ does it, along with few other apps, but they only handle plain text. I have also realized that hoarding notes does not help. 90% of my notes have no value after 6 months and it is not a great loss if these notes are not in a common place. The very nature of "note" is a throwaway type. If a note needs to be preserved, it becomes a document in my computer disk. I have also started taking notes using pen and paper [shock - horror] 😦. From my scribbling, if I discover something worth preserving for future, I just retype else just let it fade into oblivion. This works as a filtering mechanism and prevents garbage entering into my "digital notes" system. Everyone is different - so if something works for me does not mean it will work for others. 😀 We are all individuals with different needs and wants.

Any other applications you migrate to potentially can behave same way as EN couple of years down the line. I believe the focus should be on your data and not what app to use. A tradesman has lots of different screwdrivers in his toolbox. In same way, you don't need to use only one notes app. You can use different apps for different stuff. For example, I use Notion for project management. EN only for retrieving historical notes. Most of my new notes are either in plain text or RTF and some are in DOCX format too. When I need to find something, I just run a search app which scans all my files and fetches relevant ones. The plain text and DOCX are all editable in mobile phones. Still have not found any good app for editing RTF files in Android though. Hence I am no longer tied to any specific notes app.

Why do people assume that migrating to a non-EN platform requires all notes migrated to new platform at once? Can it not be just take 10% of notes which are most useful and then pull other notes as and when required? If you have not accessed any note in last 1 year may be those are not important OR you can just leave it in EN and refer back when necessary? I personally use 3 different apps. Over a period I have moved my stuff out of EN. I still have few hundred notes in EN but it won't be end the world if I lose them.

Remember the golden rule, if you are not paying for the service, you are the product. 😀

Does EN disclose how many paid users it has got? Typically the conversion ratio is very low, usually fewer than 5 in every 100. So if EN has 200 million total users, paid users probably 2 million roughly. It is still a very large number though. But I'd still say, EN does not have any unique selling point as such. Behemoths like Google. Microsoft, Apple are offering notes for free and Onenote is a highly accomplished product. If you don't need to "edit" files frequently in mobile, Dropbox itself is a good proposition as you can "view" most common file types in Dropbox without any other apps.

It will be hard for EN to do good financially now. Majority of people in the world don't need or use any cross platform note apps. EN user base is long tail, very few users use it heavily where as most users use it very sparingly. I don't think EN is competing against its competitors like Onenote, Notion but EN is competing against all those who simply think apps like EN is not worth paying for. Historically EN was good as 2nd brain because one could access all personal notes at work which was indeed beneficial for productivity. However, this trend has seen 2 big changes. [1] Many corporate organizations now block cloud notes like EN, ON etc. to prevent data leaking. [2] People mostly working from home, so they can access their personal data anyway.

Isn't that the strategy to attract and retain paid users? More the volume of data one has entered in EN, higher the migration effort and less likely the user willing to move away and thus more likely to pay up for staying back.

It is not difficult to write a note taking app per se. The problems start when 1. They want to make it cross platform, hence it ends up lowest common denominator to maintain same code base rather than taking advantage of native platform. 2. They use a proprietary notes format making it complex migration (export/import) necessary when you want to quit them. 3. They force you to store your notes into their cloud, thus incurring cost of storage. They do all these to make it a profit making business. The way out is: 1. Save notes in open format like RTF, DOCX, HTML etc. 2. Keep notes as files in local device - which you may link with cloud like Onedrive, Dropbox etc. 3. Use a 3rd party app for searching across all files. Of course this solution is not as well integrated as EN but it kinds of decouples you from the vagaries of any app. Now some may argue that ENEX format is HTML, but no it is not. You can't open ENEX without Evernote to make any sense of data.