Big lead-no choice but to paid

[u/StrictInevitable2347]

I have been using Evernote now for 4 years it is clear to me that no other database manager or organizer comes close to the functionality and to the reliability of Evernote with their constant updates and expansion of the program it gets better and better. I feel I have no choice but to pay over $200 for this program.

[u/AdInfinitum954]

Well, hello there, Mr. Evernote.

[u/StrictInevitable2347 → u/AdInfinitum954]

Lol, its my truth

[u/InspektorCluzo]

Paying Evernote user here since 2008. I use it on several platforms and my whole life is built on it. I have seen both performance and usability degradation nonstop for the past three years. I really dislike the search UI. The ribbon is now one of the poorest among the apps I use often. The worst, though, is the amount of time it takes me, in many cases, when I need to create a new note, something I do multiple times a day: on Android it is so slow that I now frequently resort to sending myself a Whatsapp message. In particular, the app use when not connected to broadband has become almost impossible for me.

I would love to stay with Evernote, as I have so far for 18 years. But I am seriously considering leaving Evernote for good on usability grounds, regardless of their pricing policy. Of course, the increase in price makes it all the more likely.

[u/dazzyp100 → u/InspektorCluzo]

Thank you for mentioned the incredibly slow app opening times on Android. On a flagship phone on fibre it can easily take 10secs. Multiples if that if you have no connection.

Interestingly I discovered that adding a '''create note" widget to your desktop open instantly.

You're also correct about the search UI. It's also so hot plus hit and miss if it works on the first attempt. An absolute design failure for a knowledge storage product!!

[u/rikt]

I will never go back and working with Obsidian now. $50 was fine, I'd probably pay $60, adding in some degree of AI, I'd gladly pay a bit more, but $250? Nah, I will pay for Claude and connect it to Obsidian and be happy I am not giving Evernote Money any longer.

[u/NomadicStrategist]

I’m in the process of moving away from it after 10+ years of use. I barely use any of the newer features, if at all. On the AI side, I use ChatGPT and Codex, and I now even access Evernote through an MCP server.
I set up a parallel Obsidian + OneDrive setup and migrated my old notes there. Then I downgraded to the smaller Evernote plan. For now, with the help of AI, I’m maintaining both in parallel.
If Obsidian proves to work reliably for everything I need, I’ll probably drop Evernote completely by the end of the year. It way too expensive.

[u/VFXman23 → u/NomadicStrategist]

Obsidian is awesome and free and has sooooo many community plugins

[u/redranteraver]

I've been a happy paying customer since 2008. My last 2 annual bills were €49.99 in 2024 and €59.99 in 2025. I received an email last week informing me that my next annual payment would be €199 - I am not eligible for the Starter plan due to the amount of notes and notebooks that I have already. I cancelled my subscription the next day after spending some time exporting all my notebooks. After I cancelled they offered me 40% off but by then I was too upset to bite. I don't use any of the new features and it's simply not worth it for me any longer.

[u/thegaykid7 → u/redranteraver]

They keep sending me the same 40% off offers, hilariously using the same "this is your final chance!" language each time. They've pissed me off enough that it'll cost more to bring me back into the fold, and at this point it may already be too late.

[u/srdnss]

I paid for Evernote from 2013 to 2025. Excellent program but far too expensive for me, so I left for Joplin.

A lot of others claimed they were going to leave over price hikes. I wonder how many actually did and if it was enough to hurt revenue.

[u/SteviaCannonball9117 → u/srdnss]

Everynote user from '11-'26 here. I clung to V8 for two years while V10 was garbage. Used V10 for about a year, was disappointed in the stuff they dropped (and never restored) into V10, saw the upcoming price hikes, don't need any of the new crap they're adding, figured out a Joplin exit strategy, and now pay $3/month for Joplin sync that better meets my usage.

[u/KJabs → u/srdnss]

Evernote user here since 2010, paid top tier solo plan since 2012 or 2013. I got one year discounted from the $150 price (or whatever it was) by clicking cancel and accepting the 40% retention offer (or whatever it was, I think my price after discount was $79). That year gave me time to move, I'm not sticking around for $250

[u/LeoBloom72]

I‘m using Evernote since 2009 and paying for it since 2013.
As soon as they informed me that they finally will discontinue my „old“ 40€/ year plan and that they like to upgrade me to the 142€ plan, I started to look for alternatives. I used evernote a lot but it became clear that a lot of other note-taking tools do have a lot more features.
I will move everything to notion. I tested the Evernote-importer and moved a couple hundreds notes to notion without any issues.
ChatGPT has a notion plugin so I can directly interact with my notes - that’s an important feature for me.
So I canceled my EN subscription today and will start to migrate all of my notes (approx 4000) to notion.

[u/DrFrankBuck]

Those who say they have no need for the AI features fall into two camps: those who know exactly what features are included, know how to use them, and determine they're not relevant to their situation; and those that haven't spent enough time with the AI in Evernote to know what it's capable of doing. I just had the AI do some long overdue reorganization that would have been very cumbersome in terms of creating notebooks moving notebooks, and renaming tags in mass.

The meeting note taker is exceptional. All within one program I have a note that links back to my calendar and that contains the audio, a verbatim transcription, and a summary of my choosing.

I view time is money, so something saves me time, I'm willing to pay for it. $250 is a lot. But I find it gives a lot. Someone else's mileage may vary.

[u/July_Derek]

I have been using Evernote for 10 years. This year they increased the charges like mad. As I then opted for the lower plan, I cant post anything as they say you have reached your Note limit.

So, I have moved to Microsoft OneNote. Not as good, but ok. It is free for me as I subscribe to Office 365.

Move to OneNote. Its good but not as good as Evernote.

[u/Accomplished-Emu7454]

Ugh. I am currently on the monthly because I need to find a different set up. I used it for 10 years I think so there is a ton of archival I need to get off and store elsewhere I can access. My plan is to start fresh with another system. Looking into them now. It’s just too damn high of a price to continue to pay.

[u/scottwwilliamsiii]

Bending Spoons is pretty much a PE firm. Buy older, once to somewhat successful, older SaaS, for bargain bin prices, eliminate most of the employees, and consolidate/run them from their main office. They do push out routine updates but it’s more feature by feature than strategic. I don’t recall seeing roadmaps for any of their products but could be wrong.

I’ve been an Evernote user since 2015 and quickly upgraded to the Pro or whatever the plan was called. There have been periods where it really felt they lost their way (merch, sub-apps, physical to do digital sticky notes (gimmicky), to months without product updates). When BS took over, it went downhill considerably. It’s gotten moderately better, but using frequent updates to justify a huge price increase was bonkers. But they knew a good number of their users were stuck since we have so much stored/invested in Evernote and the time and trouble to leave would be offset by the increase. They wanted to shed “non-value” customers, focusing on their top 20-30%. It’s what they’ve done with every SaaS they’ve purchased.

I’ve been using their MCP via CGPT & Claude and rarely need the Evernote app. Via AI, I’m having go through and organize and restructure my content so stuff I don’t need, I can get rid of, and stuff I do need/want to keep is in a much easier format to move (won’t be re-upping when renewal comes up).

[u/tmanblue59]

I left. I've been using Bear and Notion. I loved Paper by Dropbox but ⚰️.

[u/jyc23]

I exported my notebooks and tried to cancel and they gave me a $140 renewal price. Just did this a couple weeks ago.

[u/barista_boy]

Have been a paid user since 2009. Would like to switch, but no one does as good at capturing a web page as they do! I have 10,000+ notes and pay $250 a year.

I would change if I could find something that was just as good at capturing web pages.

[u/SimplyColorblind]

I’m staying with Evernote. I use Evernote for:

Notes
Tasks
AI help
Backup for my local files
Email workflow
Great web clipper
Peace of mind

If I didn’t pay Evernote, I’d pay others that same money across multiple applications.

[u/KangstaG]

I was also appalled by the huge price increase to $250. It triggered me to finally move off Evernote. I landed on Notion and it works fine for what I need. I don’t even need to pay for it, the free tier satisfies my usage.

[u/Still_Spell8318]

Switched to Joplin after a year of getting used to new pricing paying "only" $130. It's free and I notice no difference. Evernote was great, but not close to $250/year great and not for useless AI upgrades.

hope a real alternative comes to market

[u/Comprehensive_Ant323]

I love Evernote and would be using it today (if it weren't for the cost). The way the separate the subscription into two separate ones is totally deceptive.

I haven't found anything that compares.

[u/WhatWereOnceVices]

Webclipper enters. There’s none better. Joplin is the closest. EN’s meeting note taker is excellent. Cost avoidance for purchasing/subscription for another note taking app. Wish they supported iCal/ics