Far too expensive!

[dragotron 0]

I started porting my notes from iPhone over to evernote because I liked what I was seeing.

 

THen I realized.. I can't access my evernotes notes on my phone if I dont have an internet conection! That's lame!

 

Anyway. I just wanted to come here to say that the prices are far too much.

 

$5 a month????

 

I was thinking one time fee of 20 tops... It's a website with an app!!!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I started porting my notes from iPhone over to evernote because I liked what I was seeing.

 

THen I realized.. I can't access my evernotes notes on my phone if I dont have an internet conection! That's lame!

 

Anyway. I just wanted to come here to say that the prices are far too much.

 

$5 a month????

 

I was thinking one time fee of 20 tops... It's a website with an app!!!

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/12981-offline-synch-should-not-be-a-premium-feature/?p=62104

[jefito 5,589]

But complaining is free, thankfully.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

It's a website with an app!!!

 

And I'm not even sure what this has to do with the price of tea in China.

[JoshAlfie 2]

I wholeheartedly agree. Evernote is a brilliant service.

However, compare it to the cost of manufacturing an iPhone and all the attached services. In Australia an iPhone costs $799 and may last 2-3 years on average. Three years over Evernote premium costs $140.97. This is over a staggering 17% the cost of the iPhone itself!

Personally, Evernote does not account for 17% of my use of the iPhone.

In addition, Evernote costs almost half as much as buying a yearly subscription of Microsoft Office 365. Something just isn't right with that picture. For me, Office is worth much more than double what Evernote is worth.

This is why as a relatively light user of Evernote I can never see myself spending $47/y. The fact that it's "the price of a coffee per month" is meaningless because it's relative to the use a user gets out of it.

Hence, i can never justify the cost of Evernote out of principle even though it is a brilliant service. I would, however, gladly pay $1 a month for a lower tier premium with a few less features like offline reading, access to history, etc.

[jbenson2 2,147]

It's fun to read these comments.

"Evernote is a brilliant service." but....
Why is Evernote allowed to force their customers to pay these outrageous amounts year after year?
There ought to be a law.
You know what they say about statistics.
42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that a lifetime of premium payments (30 years) could set me back $1,350.
Oh, the horror!
 

[Metrodon 2,184]

Isn't this a really simple choice? If there are enough premium feature to make it worth it for you to go premium then you do so. If there aren't, then you don't and you get access to a pretty decent service for free. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I wholeheartedly agree. Evernote is a brilliant service.

However, compare it to the cost of manufacturing an iPhone and all the attached services. In Australia an iPhone costs $799 and may last 2-3 years on average. Three years over Evernote premium costs $140.97. This is over a staggering 17% the cost of the iPhone itself!

Personally, Evernote does not account for 17% of my use of the iPhone.

In addition, Evernote costs almost half as much as buying a yearly subscription of Microsoft Office 365. Something just isn't right with that picture. For me, Office is worth much more than double what Evernote is worth.

This is why as a relatively light user of Evernote I can never see myself spending $47/y. The fact that it's "the price of a coffee per month" is meaningless because it's relative to the use a user gets out of it.

Hence, i can never justify the cost of Evernote out of principle even though it is a brilliant service. I would, however, gladly pay $1 a month for a lower tier premium with a few less features like offline reading, access to history, etc.

 

I don't see the correlation between the cost of manufacturing an iPhone to the cost of a software app.  Especially one that spans a multitude of OSes.  But like everything else in this world that has a dollar amount attached to it, if it's worth it to you & in your budget, you'll pay for it.  If it's not worth it to you and/or not within your budge, you won't & you'll have to "make do" or find another app that is more worthwhile to you and/or in your budget.  It really is a no brainer. 

 

Additionally, it's always nice to reward devs who work hard to make a "brilliant" app by tossing a few bucks their way, since they have rent to pay & kids to feed, just like the rest of the world.  Not to mention costs associated with keeping the "brilliant" app up & running & staying current with the various computers/devices.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I started porting my notes from iPhone over to evernote because I liked what I was seeing.

 

THen I realized.. I can't access my evernotes notes on my phone if I dont have an internet conection! That's lame!

 

Anyway. I just wanted to come here to say that the prices are far too much.

 

$5 a month????

 

I was thinking one time fee of 20 tops... It's a website with an app!!!

 

Hi. Welcome to the forums. 

 

I think I can see where you are coming from with this, because when you extrapolate costs out over time, you discover some initially frightening numbers. If I have a coffee a week from the coffee shop on my way to work, and that coffee is about $4, then I will spend more than $200 a year on it. Over the course of a 30 or 40 year career, that could be as much as $6,000 for that little luxury. Is it worth it? That's tough to say. Each person will calculate the costs and benefits for their particular case differently.

 

What I can say is that the coffee doesn't magically appear in your hand inside a comfortably furnished, sparkling clean coffee shop full of staff ready to take your order. Somehow, that location has to make money in order to continue to exist. You may not drink the coffee there every day, but you are basically paying for it to be there whenever you want it. $6,000 for a place to rest and relax during the course of your working career? Maybe it isn't so bad after all. It seems frightening at first, but makes more sense if you think through it. 

 

In the case of Evernote, they are experimenting with a new business model. It is an innovative twist on the "freemium" model we hear so much about these days. Personally, knowing that Evernote has a plan to make money, it is working, and it will ensure their long-term success makes me much more interested in investing my time and money into the app. Sure, there are a lot of free apps out there, but the downside with them is that they don't tend to have long-term plans. I encourage you to listen to some of what Evernote has to say for themselves (http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-multimedia.html). In particular, try the "

Phil Libin: Freemium for Consumer Internet" links 

(

).

 

I think that once you know the logic behind the system, it makes it a little more compelling, and you can guess why a lower-price model might not be sufficient to support the overall structure -- your notes available to you for the rest of your life whether you are free or not. How many other apps offer you free lifetime subscriptions? Not many, because they aren't thinking much beyond the IPO.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

However, compare it to the cost of manufacturing an iPhone and all the attached services. In Australia an iPhone costs $799 and may last 2-3 years on average. Three years over Evernote premium costs $140.97. This is over a staggering 17% the cost of the iPhone itself!

 

There's also the "value added" aspect.  An iPhone with no apps is just a camera phone.  But given that I can deposit a check to my checking account, pay my AMEX bill, renew prescriptions, tether my iPad to my iPhone or send info to my Evernote from my iPhone gives my iPhone more value.  Back in the "olden" days, when you'd migrate from one PDA/smartphone to another, there was quite often the painful experience of migrating your data.  However, Evernote has added value b/c I can use it on iOS, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Android or just by using the web client.  Five years from now, I'm expecting Evernote to be there for me when I'm using whatever my computer/device is & no migration headaches.  I'm no longer "locked" into say, Palm OS, like I was for many years.

[JoshAlfie 2]

I don't see the correlation between the cost of manufacturing an iPhone to the cost of a software app.  Especially one that spans a multitude of OSes.  But like everything else in this world that has a dollar amount attached to it, if it's worth it to you & in your budget, you'll pay for it.  If it's not worth it to you and/or not within your budge, you won't & you'll have to "make do" or find another app that is more worthwhile to you and/or in your budget.  It really is a no brainer. 

 

Additionally, it's always nice to reward devs who work hard to make a "brilliant" app by tossing a few bucks their way, since they have rent to pay & kids to feed, just like the rest of the world.  Not to mention costs associated with keeping the "brilliant" app up & running & staying current with the various computers/devices.

You ignored the part I mentioned about Apple's services. Apple's iCloud service and iOS development can be somewhat related to what Evernote does. Evernote is also a basic word processor so it can be related to what Microsoft does. When you consider the energy that it takes to make and maintain Evernote and compare it with the energy it takes Apple to service 300 million customers on iCloud then you will realise that you are paying the Evernote team plenty.

 

This is fine though and I have no problem with their business model. Make as much money for yourself as you can, that's the law of business. What I am saying is that many Evernote users can be classified as "light" users and would actually pay if there was a cheaper option. They could reduce the upload limit of 1GB/m (I never get even close to 60MB/month) and add offline reading and note history for a reduced price as an example. I would gladly pay for it.

 

The risk Evernote is taking by not offering a paid solution/service to the light user that wants more features is that eventually someone will. I was already looking around for an alternative, although, there's really nothing out there of significance yet. Doesn't mean that there will never be, though.

 

As a result, I feel it's in Evernote's best interest for profitability, for growth and retaining customers that they offer more solutions that target different types of users.

 

[boomtime 0]

I have to agree. I don't see where Evernote is worth 5 dollars a month. I was just about to convert my notes from springpad, until I saw the price to upgrade. A company can charge what they wish, and that is as it should be. But I choose not to buy at this price.

 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I have to agree. I don't see where Evernote is worth 5 dollars a month. I was just about to convert my notes from springpad, until I saw the price to upgrade. A company can charge what they wish, and that is as it should be. But I choose not to buy at this price.

And that's why there is chocolate & vanilla. If we all liked the same thing, there would only be one app.

[George Goodman 10]

I think it is a matter of how much one uses any service that determines what feels a reasonable price.  I listen to local public radio during my commute and at my desk for about two hours each day; making a pledge of $0.25/day feels cheap, but you do what you can afford.

I use Evernote on (at least) four platforms, use it as both inbox-staging and archive for everything I do, store all of the recipes my wife and I want to keep, and more.  I don't really have the monthly upload bulk to require Premium, but the front-of-the-queue OCR and other things make my days easier.

If another person doesn't see value of $60/year in what they get from Evernote, then they shouldn't pay it.

 

Now, can we move on?

[CaptainTime 94]

Well it is up to each of us to decide what the value of a tool is to us. But Evernote compares quite well to others I am using.

 

Here are some tools I use every week.

 

Evernote - $45 per year

CRM (Nimble) - $180/year

Project Management (TeamworkPM) - $588/year

Webinars (Adobe Connect) - $588/year

 

Compared to these other tools, Evernote is a bargain! And it is just as important to my work and life as the other ones.

[May 268]

Evernote is the only thing worth paying for ...

[JoaquinToral 0]

I don't have a stable income and yes, evernote is what I use for my daily life. After knowing that I can't access my notes without connection it turned me off big time.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I don't have a stable income and yes, evernote is what I use for my daily life. After knowing that I can't access my notes without connection it turned me off big time.

I'm sorry you don't have a stable income & I understand not everyone thinks EN is worth $45/year for their use. But the price is very reasonable for the service they offer. And we all like to get paid for our hard work. So even though you may choose to not have a premium account, I'm sure you can relate when Dave (CTO of Evernote) says...

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/12981-offline-synch-should-not-be-a-premium-feature/?p=62104

And there are certainly other options out there for those who want a free app.

[ApplianceJunk 23]

There is always pen and paper...

Could be cheaper or even free if you look around for them and you won't need a internet connection to access your notes.

[ApplianceJunk 23]

Personally I like the G2 pens by Pilot.

http://www.pilotpen.us/ProductGroup/35-G2.aspx

[JoaquinToral 0]

 

I don't have a stable income and yes, evernote is what I use for my daily life. After knowing that I can't access my notes without connection it turned me off big time.

I'm sorry you don't have a stable income & I understand not everyone thinks EN is worth $45/year for their use. But the price is very reasonable for the service they offer. And we all like to get paid for our hard work. So even though you may choose to not have a premium account, I'm sure you can relate when Dave (CTO of Evernote) says...

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/12981-offline-synch-should-not-be-a-premium-feature/?p=62104

And there are certainly other options out there for those who want a free app.

 

 

I thought it's free that is why i got a bit disappointed. I do pre-load the note before going out though and let the app run in the background. At least create a feature that would only allow 1-5 notes to be loaded outside per day. Well it's just me being cheap person. haha

[Metrodon 2,184]

I think Evernote's conversion rates from free to Premium are just under 4%, although this may sound low it is actually incredibly high for this model. The average is around 1%.

 

Given that they are so successfully converting users, I think you could almost say that their pricing is too cheap and that they could increase it and still maintain a better than average rate.

[evernote-fan 34]

I absolutely disagree: Evernote is not too expensive!

 

Evernote changed my life and is THE tool for the organization of every aspect of my life. So it's absolutely worth paying it. I even went Pro at a time I didn't need the Premium features just to support the wonderful product and the developers.

[chirmer 567]

Evernote is a flat-out bargain. What other app is online storage with offline access of photos, files and notes, is a basic wordprocessor, task manager, portable scanner and OCRer, AND is available on the plethora of platforms that Evernote is? That's not even taking into account the value added to one's life from having all that info one would normally forget tucked away safely, a few clicks or taps away. Let alone for a measly $5/mo?

 

Evernote doesn't even have competition, let alone at this price range. The closest would probably be the Office Suite (for ~$11/mo) or Springpad (free). But the Office suite is horribly cluttered, a bajillion apps combined to do what Evernote does with one, and over twice the cost. Springpad is free but has about 1/100th of Evernote's features (no offline access, no note formatting beyond the absolute bare bones, no OCR, etc.).

 

If you refuse to pay the $5 on "principle", call it what it is -- you're cheap or it's out of your budget, but it's most certainly not overpriced. I get a heckuva lot more out of this $5 than I do from my weekly macchiato from Starbucks.

[Wanderling 143]

It depends what you use it for, to me it is a nice service but too much for Premium.

• Offline access - I get this for free with Springpad. I use Springpad for stuff I need offline access to, like shopping lists or things I have to act on in the intermediate future. Evernote is a dumping place for long term storage.
• Password lock - sorry, I simply don't trust Evernote (or any other cloud solution) to keep my data safe. I assume whatever I put there can be accessed by someone else. If I have something to protect, I will do it on my end before uploading it to Evernote. That's what encrypted files are for.
• Limits - I don't ever hit them.

I wish EN had an intermediate paid plan, say $10 a year for offline access with somewhat increased upload limit. Heck, even $20. At $45, that's just too much to justify. I can afford it, but it's not worth it - for me. I think EN is losing $$$ by not offering cheaper yearly plans with lesser storage than the current one.

 

As to the Office Suite being the competition - I don't get this comparison. In my experience, most people who pay for it mainly need the power of Excel, with macro support and online storage, and perhaps Powerpoint. Something that is hard to get for free, combined with ease of online access (Open Office and LibreOffice are great free standalone packages, but don't replace MS Office if you have to collaborate with others).  Free online word processors are plentiful, and Evernote is a rather sucky one.

[Wordsgood 526]

Joaquin Toral

Okay, I'm late to this discussion, but felt the need to chime in. I'm confused about your statement that "without connection, you can't access your notes." Also was it you who said earlier in the thread something about only being allowed 5 to 10 notes per day?

I have a free account and can access all my notes offline when I don't have access to my home wi-fi. I just need to remember to sync when I get home if I've made any changes or added any new notes while out. And I've made upto dozens of notes in a single day with no problems and no demands I upgrade to a paid account.

If you have run into that I suspect it has more to do with the size of that data files you're trying to put into Evernote, rather than the number of notes. There are daily and monthly data limits, though I can't recall at the moment what they are. Search the forum or check the Knowledge Base if you want to know more.

I do know there are a lot of free users that have considerably larger databases than mine, and who are obviously a lot more active in their use of it.

So basically, I fail to see why you think Evernote is trying to "force" you into becoming a paying member, or for that matter, why you think $45.00 a year is outrageously expensive. Like you, the income level for my husband and I in the past few years has been sketchy to say the least, and that is the only reason I am still a free user. Right now, for me personally, $45.00 is a lot of money. But I do not believe the price itself is too much and in fact think it's quite a bargain!

Well, that's my two cents. Cheers.

I don't have a stable income and yes, evernote is what I use for my daily life. After knowing that I can't access my notes without connection it turned me off big time.

I'm sorry you don't have a stable income & I understand not everyone thinks EN is worth $45/year for their use. But the price is very reasonable for the service they offer. And we all like to get paid for our hard work. So even though you may choose to not have a premium account, I'm sure you can relate when Dave (CTO of Evernote) says...

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/12981-offline-synch-should-not-be-a-premium-feature/?p=62104

And there are certainly other options out there for those who want a free app.

I thought it's free that is why i got a bit disappointed. I do pre-load the note before going out though and let the app run in the background. At least create a feature that would only allow 1-5 notes to be loaded outside per day. Well it's just me being cheap person. haha

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Joaquin Toral

Okay, I'm late to this discussion, but felt the need to chime in. I'm confused about your statement that "without connection, you can't access your notes." Also was it you who said earlier in the thread something about only being allowed 5 to 10 notes per day?

I have a free account and can access all my notes offline when I don't have access to my home wi-fi. I just need to remember to sync when I get home if I've made any changes or added any new notes while out. And I've made upto dozens of notes in a single day with no problems and no demands I upgrade to a paid account.

If you have run into that I suspect it has more to do with the size of that data files you're trying to put into Evernote, rather than the number of notes. There are daily and monthly data limits, though I can't recall at the moment what they are. Search the forum or check the Knowledge Base if you want to know more.

I do know there are a lot of free users that have considerably larger databases than mine, and who are obviously a lot more active in their use of it.

So basically, I fail to see why you think Evernote is trying to "force" you into becoming a paying member, or for that matter, why you think $45.00 a year is outrageously expensive. Like you, the income level for my husband and I in the past few years has been sketchy to say the least, and that is the only reason I am still a free user. Right now, for me personally, $45.00 is a lot of money. But I do not believe the price itself is too much and in fact think it's quite a bargain!

Well, that's my two cents. Cheers.

Eventually, you will get to the point where you will not be able to access all your notes with a free account & without a wifi connection, since that's a function of the notes being cached. Eventually, the cache will be cleared in order to use it for something else.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/39907-used-to-have-offline-access-to-notes-without-premium/

[Wanderling 143]

Actually, you can get most of the Premium features for free with OneNote now.

 

• Offline mode on phones and tablets - check.
• OCR and search in PDFs - check.
• Password protection - check (I haven't looked if it's encrypted but I assume it is, given that Excel password protected files are encrypted).

On top of this, a killer formatting tool.

 

A disadvantage is the size - on the iPad, it's one hefty sucker, taking up half a gig. But, it beats $45/year.

 

The only reason I didn't switch to OneNote is that I don't use EN much to begin with, and don't have time to invest into moving all of my data into OneNote. However, I will start looking into it once I get free time; a big advantage is that all OneNote files are stored in OneDrive and not on some server that I have no direct access to. I can copy files manually if for whatever reason I don't want to sync them & want to only have a local copy on some machine.

[chirmer 567]

• Offline access - I get this for free with Springpad. 

Actually, Springpad doesn't support offline access. If you sync to mobile, your mobile devices will cache it, but if you're at home and your net's down, you can't get to your Springpad notes on your computer. http://support.springpad.com/customer/portal/articles/1233561-how-do-i-access-my-springpad-data-offline-

 

Actually, you can get most of the Premium features for free with OneNote now.

 

• Offline mode on phones and tablets - check.
• OCR and search in PDFs - check.
• Password protection - check (I haven't looked if it's encrypted but I assume it is, given that Excel password protected files are encrypted).

On top of this, a killer formatting tool.

 

A disadvantage is the size - on the iPad, it's one hefty sucker, taking up half a gig. But, it beats $45/year.

 

The only reason I didn't switch to OneNote is that I don't use EN much to begin with, and don't have time to invest into moving all of my data into OneNote. However, I will start looking into it once I get free time; a big advantage is that all OneNote files are stored in OneDrive and not on some server that I have no direct access to. I can copy files manually if for whatever reason I don't want to sync them & want to only have a local copy on some machine.

I was really, really looking forward to OneNote releasing for Mac, but it's severely cut down from the paid PC version. The iOS app is already very cut down, feature-wise, from the desktop app, and doesn't compare to Evernote even remotely. The desktop app (Mac and free PC version) is too limited for heavy use, IME. Slow sync, crappy web clipper, tags don't sync, no option to save locally (Mac and free PC version must sync to OneDrive, you can't save to your computer), you have to use Insert > Picture to add media... the list goes on. It's a great basic organizer, but it's not good enough yet (Microsoft has said they'll make a paid Mac version that's fleshed out, like the Office 365 copy) for the limited project planning I'd wanted to use it for -- let alone for heavy use. YMMV but I was in it for less than 10 minutes and hit too many walls to continue use.

[megsaint 441]

Comparing Evernote to OneNote is kind of like comparing apples and...pears. There is overlap but even at free, OneNote doesn't meet my needs. Interesting article:

 

http://lifehacker.com/lifehacker-faceoff-onenote-vs-evernote-1550697885

 

All that formatting fluff really annoys me, too. 

[whitley 3]

$45 a year is totally worth it to me for all the value I get from EN. 

[Wanderling 143]

So, I decided to try Onenote for iOS and converted a couple dozen files I work with most often into it.

What works (specifically on the mobile version):

- offline access to everything. Of course this comes at the expense of storage space.

- OCR search in PDFs and pictures with text. A limitation - this only seems to work on content added on the desktop.

- so far, sync has been fast and without problems. But I've been only using it for two days.

- of course great formatting

What doesn't work or only partially works:

- tags can be added but not searched. Going around this by simply typing tags into the body of a note.

- OneNote doesn't appear in the "open in.." list. To add a PDF file to it I need to use desktop or take a screenshot. This is an annoying limitation, hopefully they will fix it in the next release.

- password protection doesn't work

- While iOS iPad application is nice, Android phone app is very basic. But has the functions I need.

So, is it enough for me to switch from Evernote ? I will see how it performs over the next few months. If I was a heavy EN user, $45 a year wouldn't be a problem, however I still can't warm up to it's interface, and OneNote functionality is very nice and free. And this $45... The other way to look at it is, it's a new 32 GB iPad every 10 years, or at the rate I upgrade, every 4th tablet I buy I give to Evernote, just so that I could find that receipt a year later.

[chirmer 567]

The other way to look at it is, it's a new 32 GB iPad every 10 years, or at the rate I upgrade, every 4th tablet I buy I give to Evernote, just so that I could find that receipt a year later.

Making a comparison like that insinuates you're not getting anything from Evernote for the money. You're buying a service, you're getting service in return. If it's not a service you use, then don't buy it. If it is, then do. Service has just as much value as material things. Unless you hit the Powerball, you can't ever buy everything you want, so every purchase potentially sacrifices another. Thinking that way's a quick way to undervalue everything in your life, IMHO. If you're gonna buy something, buy it and buy into it. Don't spend your time comparing it to something else you could have bought instead, otherwise you'll never be happy! 

 

I didn't warm up to Evernote at first, either. But I wanted to use it because I desperately needed it, so I jumped in head-first. My plan was to give Evernote a full run-through and force myself to use it religiously for a trial period. If at the end of the trial I liked it, I'd keep it. If the trial ended and I was "meh", I'd lose it. Paid 1 month's premium, scanned every piece of paper in sight in, tagged, organized, the whole shebang. I forced myself to use darn near every feature Evernote offers. 15 days in I was sold, and I haven't looked back. Just the thought of not being able to scan everything into my Inbox, regardless of size or file type, I find horrifying. I've grown attached and dependent on Evernote, and a measly $45/yr doesn't even begin to cover how much time and frustration I've saved in return.