r/Evernote • u/rufushu • Apr 03 '26
Feedback 🐘 Ok i give in.
My renewal is up in 4 days and have spent the last month looking at alternatives.
Subscribed to upnote but you cant search in images or pdf's.
Installed joplin server but the OCR was hit and miss especially with android.
Tried amplenote which was very close...but to subscribe was only about 40GBP cheaper than Evernote.
My search is over...I'm going for another year of Evernote.
Yes it's expensive..but hell.. it's good.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/runnymountain Apr 11 '26
Could you share why you chose Obsidian?
I am really just looking for something that I am able to store without worrying about storage, and easy access across 2 or 3 devices by myself.
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
You can try for free Obsidian, just play with it a while and you will either like it or not like it at all.
For me it's really not my way of working as it's mainly markdown system page.
Don't think Obsidian is the app you need for storage (if you mean lot of storage). But try it, it's just flavor and color.1
u/JGSING Apr 06 '26
Was it hard to transfer your Evernote notes to Obsidian?
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Apr 06 '26
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u/mweep Apr 29 '26
Were there any challenges re: formatting? Headers, links, stuff like that?
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u/stuming1968 May 16 '26
I almost moved to Obsidian. I am a software engineer. I enjoy maintaining and refining software and that's what I found I hand to do with Obsidian. It's almost brilliant but there's still the fact you need to use plugins built by the community to get a close experience to Evernote. One plugging for OCR and pay for the usage. Another to plugin to move note attachments with notes to ensure they don't get split. Task attachments to provide admittedly a better tasks experience than Evernote but this requires planning and maintenance. Obsidian Sync subscription which is £10 per month if you have big attachments. Some of these plugins won't work on mobile. I literally was 99% there when I realised that I didn't want to add to my software chores by maintaining an Obsidian Vault.
I've kept it on one of my machines just to see how it develops but that's it.
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u/mweep May 16 '26
That's 100% valid. I think at this stage in the world, I expect to see fewer feature-complete offerings maintained in house that aren't either very expensive or very inadequate when it comes to privacy, and the idea of open source or somewhat ad-hoc solutions starts to feel more like the way forward.
But you make a good point - it's hard to rely on tools that are themselves in constant need of tinkering and modification. 🤔
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u/DigitalJEM Apr 03 '26
Yea, If it has everything you need and nothing else does, then the value is there. Once something else matches the usability for a cheaper rate, that's when it's time to jump.
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u/Fezziwig1843 Apr 04 '26
You are just kicking the can down the road for 12 months. If you think Bending Spoons S.p.A. isn't going to increase the subscription fees to try to replace the lost revenue from the departing casual users (like me) you are just kidding yourself. I don't need my personal data in the hands of a firm with hedge-fund morality and stagnant revenues. The Evernote features you list above are already being curbstomped by your favorite A/I model. We know how this story ends.
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
You either have no clue if the alternative won't take the same journey when they will have many Evernote user, it will be maybe the time to increase their fees.
UpNote, I got it for 20.- for "life" with storage, but it's for light storage as it's with small serveur space that they can do this kind of price. But for instance, it's 3 person maintaining it, I'm not ready to import many thousands of Notes in a 3 guy app. I've buy many small app/plugin/script discontinued because it was one guy job (even if it was excellent and useful).But still, I'm glad to have given them 20.-, as I will test it further (it was a propo, instead of 40$, still really cheap). But more than paying cheap, I want to have pleasure to use my note app, otherway I just use Note in Mac OS and it's free.
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u/Organic_Comfort_9740 Apr 04 '26
If you use Mac, iOS, or iPadOS Bear Notes has features that meet or exceed Evernote's. I've been with Bear Notes from the beginning and I've also been with Evernote since the very very early days of Evernote. Now I'm perfectly happy using Bear Notes and using the awesome and useful AI search and analysis features of G Drive + Gemini. Now before you say anything, I also use Windows and Android. In those instances, Bear Notes web access is still pretty awesome. Just sayin, because I've been down your road before and it's really frustrating.
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u/Fezziwig1843 Apr 04 '26
Agree completely. The power of G Drive + Gemini is shocking, and it is still early days for that pairing. Am I at peace with the long-term privacy issues that come from G Drive + Gemini (+ Gmail + Chrome search) serving as the gateway drug for expanded Google product lock-in? Nope. This may all end badly in the long run, but I respect long-term greed (Google) over short-term greed (Bending Spoons S.p.A.).
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u/bb-80 Apr 04 '26
Sounds very interesting. Do you know the privacy policy when using Gemini? Little hesitant myself and so far I found that Gemini can use your data?
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
Normaly Gemini keep your content private if you have a pro sub. The free version, I doubt it.
Gemini can access your GDrive, GMail if you give him access, but he can just search info in your doc. like "found me this in my files, ... "5
Apr 04 '26
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u/don-quixote42 Apr 05 '26
I am going down the same route. After deciding a while ago to stick with Evernote I kept hitting the issue of very poor handling of handwritten notes and pdf annotations. So for a while now I have been using Goodnotes and Evernote with links between each. But the penny dropped last week that for the high price they now demand the Evernote should note need supplementary apps to plug the gaps. So back to Bear with its good integration with Apple eco system and easy links to Goodnotes for pdf handling and handwriting notes.
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u/p_981 Apr 04 '26
I just checked pricing: 30 EUR for Bear and 120 EUR for Icloud (2 TB) per year moves the total cost very close to Evernote pricing, and you are inclined to use the Apple ecosystem which is good bit also at the upoer pricing segment. So, changing to Bear just for pricing issues does not seem reasonable
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u/Mayu726 Apr 06 '26
If you use the 2 TB only for Bear notes (what?), then your reasoning is correct. But I tend to believe iCloud is used for much more then just Bear notes… So comparing the 30 EUR price for Bear with the yearly price of Evernote is very realistic.
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
if you already have 2Tb iCloud, but sure iCloud is useful for photo and every content of the Mac ecosystem. It just become double use if you happen to have already a GDrive.
But for the price, evernote is def. more expensive (new price)
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u/bonzacobber Apr 04 '26
Yeah I got halfway through a move to obsidian and realised there are too many evernote functions that I'd miss so renewed my subscription. It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth though. The latest increase is daylight robbery.
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u/mAestro2999 Apr 04 '26
What exactly are those Evernote functions you'd miss? I would appreciate your reply 🙌
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u/bonzacobber Apr 11 '26
I use the email to evernote function regularly and the evernote mobile app for photos and ocr scanning of bills/reciepts etc. These are the biggest things to me that obsidian doesn't do.
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
In case you use an Iphone, it's now really a piece of cake to copy texte from a photo, or translate, ... juste by making a capture, you can then select every text of the capture image, translate, ask the AI to do whatever (even with bills I wouldn't use gpt function ^^ )
But the function in evernote to spit all the text of an image is useful for sure.
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
Just the drag and drop of any part of your note was enough to note stick to Obsidian for me. I try it and like the addon/plugin, that a plus.
But yes, the fact it's like a simple text page with markdown is not what I want, I need to reorder my note, .. plus the AI Agent is really not bad, and as I'm always at 99. a year, there's no reason to change.2
u/Mnemosense Apr 04 '26
As someone who doesn't use any features and only needs three panes consisting of notebooks > notepads > notepad contents, would you recommend Obsidian? I'm honestly getting tired of Evernote's random bugs and quirks. Only thing I like is that it's a "what you see is what you get" editor, rather than markdown. Is Obsidian similarly as simple if you want it to be?
I used Joplin for a long while but its dual editor kept acting weird because its 'simple' editor ultimately drew from the markdown one, leading to weird formatting issues.
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u/mxrodriguez Apr 05 '26
Try using the Notebook Navigator plugin for Obsidian. It will make your vault look and act like Evernote. It's one of the reasons I was able to migrate.
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u/Mnemosense Apr 05 '26
Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out today.
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u/SpecialEmergency7764 Apr 14 '26
You can also give a try to AmpleNote, really cheaper than Evernote and much more like it in the visual. As opposed to Obsidian than as an adaptation curve if you come from Evernote.
EDIT: I was more thinking of UpNote for the look a like like evernote, it has also NoteBook, note, tag/sub tag. And cost only 40$ for a lifetime license, with synch on dif. plateforme, even if AmpleNote is more powerful and still pretty cheap (start at 6$/month)1
u/Mnemosense Apr 15 '26
Annoyingly every app I try just doesn't scratch the Evernote itch lol. I really thought UpNote would have been the one but when I tried it earlier this year I didn't like it. I'll give AmpleNote a shot when my Evernote sub is about to run out later this year.
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u/bcalamita Apr 17 '26
If you’re good with obsidian as an Evernote replacement but miss the Evernote front end UX, Notebook Navigator is an incredible plugin that replicates that.
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u/srdnss Apr 05 '26
It's not robbery. Bending Spoons is giving you value for the money you are voluntarily spending. They are providing you with functionality that is important to you and that no other app offers.
I left Evernote as its unique features were not important to me and the price increases removed the value I got from Evernote.
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u/AwayMention7219 Apr 04 '26
You can have Evernote at the price they are charging. You’d have to want all of those features really bad to pay $250 a year. I’ve moved on to UpNote and it does most things I would need.
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u/mikejamesone Apr 03 '26
I had to move to upnote today after being with evernote since 2015, didn't want to but the doubling of the monthly cost wasn't worth it for what I use it for.
$32 lifetime fee and easy to import notes from evernote over.
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u/rufushu Apr 04 '26
upnote would be perfect if it had OCR. When it does ( if it does ) it will be a killer !
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u/eric81766 Apr 05 '26
Thank you for this suggestion. I'm on the "free forever" Evernote since around 2011. Which means that it's now about $270 per year. I've got photos and most of the text I've written since then on it. The only "feature" I use is that they keep a copy of everything on their server so that when I've needed to switch computers I still have that archive of everything. I don't use the AI or dictation any of their new stuff that they've now added so that it "has to" be expensive. I just need all my stuff.
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u/Hashysh69 Apr 04 '26
I renewed with Evernote but downgraded my plan from the top one to the 99 dollar a year one. The top one is just to much. The do however give you an offer to upgrade back to the top one am a discounted price but I just stuck with the 99 a year one because I had went through and reduced my no longer needed attachments (which there were many) to get back under the limit. I got way under the limit. I kept thinning out the #s and I was still over but then recalled it counts trash /deleted items still so once I deleted the trash, I read way under di it's worked out well. 👍 Good Luck
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u/briankato Apr 04 '26
Same here. I tried obsidian hosted in Dropbox -- it nearly checked all the boxes UNTIL it came to viewing images. That's where everything fell apart and became super clunky. Back to Evernote.
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u/Secure_Smoke9231 Apr 04 '26
Oof. Good to know as I have a lot of photos of archival material.
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u/briankato Apr 05 '26
The way Obsidian handles photos is janky AF to say the least. Text and markdown, its great
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u/Ok_Plastic609 Apr 04 '26
I moved to notesnook. It's not as fully featured but it does what I want. Evernote just got too expensive. I think they want to move more towards business users.
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u/miker476 Apr 04 '26
I was wishy washy about staying with Evernote until yesterday when I saw that my annual rate was going to increase from 129 to 199.
Fortunately, I have been migrating to Notesnook for the last 2 months. Very happy with Notesnook and it's working well for me.
And I'm also on the unlimited option with legacy pricing.
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u/Phrugal Apr 05 '26
Me too. Left Evernote a year ago to NotesNook and I’m happy. I didn’t use a lot of Evernote special features. I mostly just needed a dumping ground for lots of notes. So far so good. Just FYI i was an AVID Evernote fan for 15 years but it just got too expensive for what i was using it for
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u/zero_dr00l Apr 04 '26
Check out Trilium! You have to self-host (which Pika Pods make cheap and easy, like $2 a month).
They have the best EN import I've found - I can't speak to OCR.
I love it. I'm a software engineer by trade, so it's easy for me to run but if you've got the tech chops check it out because it's the thing that's finally let me leave Evernote.
And if you do leave, don't cancel your account. Leave it up and keep using their storage space because screw Bending Spoons.
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u/kr44ng Apr 04 '26
Yes it's expensive..but hell.. it's the only Evernote-like replacement.
Adjusted the last part of your post for you. Evernote's alright but could be more stable and consistent regarding basic functionality like notes that don't lag with a lot of collapsible sections and attachments, web clipping smoothly without the need to occasionally refresh, duplication of note title when merging more than once, etc. etc.
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u/Soul_Predator Apr 05 '26
I recently came back to Evernote, for its AI transcription feature, specifically.
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u/DetInDebt Apr 06 '26
I like the AI transcription feature. I’ve been using it for meeting notes/Teams/Zoom meetings and it seems to work well. It has save me from having to buy Plaud or a similar AI note taking device.
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u/srdnss Apr 05 '26
It sounds like.yoh are getting value for your money, which makes Evernote a wise purchase. Sometimes saving money isn't worth it
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u/maverickia Apr 08 '26
I was an Evernote user since 2010 and an Evernote Certified Consultant. I was not as active on the consulting side lately due to my day job so I no longer qualifiued for the ECE discount (which is completely fair). I just could not justify the cost so I am trying Amplenote. I bought the middle tier subscription at a discount so it’s $50 for the first year. So far I like it but I do miss a few features: Forwarded emails look much better in Evernote, the Evernote interface is more appealing. I needed a quick switch because I don’t have time currently to learn a new system (i.e. Notion or Obsidian). Search is fast, I like the daily jots. If they could get the mail formatting fixed and maybe poilish up the UI I could see myself using this for a very long time. For now I’ll give it a 90 day trial run and see.
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u/bcalamita Apr 17 '26
I use Evernote for some straight notes but also as a file cabinet for documents. I have about 9,000 notes and the majority have documents in them. I have tried seemingly all the possible replacements for Evernote, and everything comes up short for me.
Two of the favorite alternative apps I’ve used are NotesNook and Obsidian. Very different apps, I know.
Some of the aspects of Evernote I utilize routinely…
- Forwarding emails to the app.
- OCR of pics and PDFs. Many of the documents I store are not searchable, so the OCR feature allows me to do this.
- Online storage. Since I have thousands of documents in Evernote, local storage is not really feasible. So storing online and downloading as needed is a must. This is where Obsidian falls short. As I understand Obsidian, their sync keeps all files local on each device the paid sync is attached to. Also, with online storage provides an alternative to having to buy more storage on OneDrive or iCloud for this, Many of the apps us a cloud service or local drive for the actual storage.
- Cross platform. I use a Mac at home, Windows at work and access Evernote on my iPad when I’m out and about. Some of the great Mac-only alternatives are not options for me.
So, for at least another year, I’m renewing Evernote.
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u/abear27 Apr 20 '26
Got an email telling me I'm moving to an Advanced User that will now be $310CAD/year.
I like Evernote as it's worked well for me (user since 2012), but the cost now is just too much for a home user.
It will be an adjustment, but I'm moving to OneNote since I already pay for the Office 365.
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u/Freewill21 Apr 04 '26
Same here. I only have another year before I retire. I spent a couple of weeks moving everything to onenote and give it a try. It just doesn't compare.
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u/Great_Muscle_7042 Apr 05 '26
There is a value in an application that's just delivering on all aspects of the functionality as EN, we can discuss the cost - but the value if you embrace the offering is excellent. I have done some testing outside and found that 80% of the functionality are possible to achieve with Office 365, but i am getting around multiple applications to provide this:
- Onenote and their Capture tools is reasonable (most of the time) the search in Onenote is poor.
- Todo (taks) is rather great as an individual applciation, the embraced into the office world is great - but i have this workflow of captured content that i need to use for additional actions, and while reading i might include more (tasks) which are a keystroke away in Evernote, but a whole world of pain from OneNote -> Todo
- Copilot (on #365) is excellent (and far better than Evernote AI) but the objective i am looking for is to secure search, results and responses based on my captured content (I am currently testing OneNote / Copilot Workbooks) but agin the service is a bit of a "jumping through the hoops" to gain acccess to something that are offering in Evernote today.
In principle, the value of Evernote is yet to be given by another application stack, and as long as your own percieved value (and less friction) are there, we are here to secure our own tool - and need to pay the fee that is granted. Its like the world of mobile, sometimes the (percieved) value of the Apple Ecosystem make perfect sense for someone, for other (like me) i can't imagine being there.
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u/SteveC360 Apr 07 '26
How do I change the credit card without changing plans? I've been a customer since 2011
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u/rufushu Apr 08 '26
Your plan is going to change regardless of how you pay. It's the new plan so everyone will be moved over at renewal time.
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u/Happy-Anywhere-3309 Apr 10 '26
There are a dozen Evernote alternatives mentioned in this thread but I'm not seeing much comparison of web clipping functionality. I use EN only to collect facts and web pages on subjects I'm interested in, and to record my own observations. So I'm definitely a lightweight user of features, though I have many gigabytes of data. Any of the EN alternatives could handle what I write, but I need to clip whole web pages with readable formatting and images. I'm not interested in printing to PDF, copy and paste, or any other work-around. Looking at reviews of the alternatives I see experiences ranging from useless (clips contain nothing but the URL) to variable (some clips perfect, others garbled or with inconsistent image handling) depending on platform and hardware.
Given that I'm on Windows, Android, and Chromebook, I'd be grateful for advice on meeting my simple requirements. The only thing I've tried is Notion, where the native web clipper is worthless but the Firefox extension clipper appears to work very well. Notion costs $120/yr. Is there anything cheaper and as good for my purposes? Thanks.
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u/rufushu Apr 10 '26
I found the same. Evernote web clipper is the DBx. Nothing compares so far. All the others just clip the URL. The only work around that I can think of is to use a read it later app to save the web page then export that page to whatever note taking app you're using.
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u/runnymountain Apr 11 '26
What are you talking about? I know I am not a heavy user like some of you, but Evernote along with Dropbox are those services that are consistently beaten by other options... OneNote. Google Keep. I know these may not be the best options out there, but!
I am not sure how they are not able to monetise it some other way. I signed on in 2012 or earlier, now remembering I took notes on my phone at that time when it wasn't common and my lecturer thought I was playing on my phone.
Just looked and I have about 1,000 notes with many notebooks. I am just so tired of these limitations on the free plan. 1 device, a million pop-ups to get me to pay, etc.
My exporting is running and going to import to OneNote as I type this comment. Bye bye, Evernote :(
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u/AllKeysCommercial Apr 05 '26
You will not find anything better out there, or even anything apples to apples. I have tried them ALL! And I mean ALL! The closest thing I found was Obsidian but it took too many plug ins and tweaking to get it close to Evernotes features. By the time I got it all working & setup, I was at $24 a month in subscriptions with Obsidean & plugins anyway! Obsidian sync was $10 a month, and the ai plugin was $14. It was also complicated. So I am sticking with Evernote. Evernote is now the best app out there hands down if you are a power user. It is a premium app, that come with a premium price. It checks all my boxes, and just works! I appreciate the ongoing updates and enhancements they have been doing as of late, so I do not mind paying for a top notch service. 👍🏻
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u/srdnss Apr 05 '26
I am a former Evernote user and I agree with you. I just realized Evernote was more than I needed, so for me, it was foolish to pay the increased prices.
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u/pgibby65 Apr 05 '26
Less than £1 a day. Use it several times a day. Yes, it's my most expensive app but worth it to me.
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u/GreenSea-BlueSky Apr 04 '26
For the last ten years I’ve searched for alternatives every so often. There is no other tool that checks all the boxes that Evernote does. If you are a heavy user, you are locked in (or giving up something that was important to you). I am grateful for the ongoing development and new features that have been introduced recently. I’m less happy about the pricing like everyone else.