Evernote Hiked Its Prices Again: The Best Free Note-Taking Alternatives

Evernote was once the undisputed king of digital note-taking. Today, following a massive price hike and severe restrictions placed on its free tier, many loyal users are looking for a way out. If you are tired of paying premium prices just to type out your thoughts, plenty of excellent and affordable alternatives exist.

Why Evernote Users Are Looking for Alternatives

When the Italian tech company Bending Spoons acquired Evernote, users braced for changes. Those changes arrived in the form of massive price increases. The Evernote Personal plan jumped from $69.99 a year to a staggering $129.99 a year (or $14.99 if you pay monthly). The Professional plan now sits at $169.99 annually.

For free users, the news was even worse. The Evernote Free plan now limits accounts to a maximum of 50 notes and exactly one notebook. For anyone who uses an app to manage recipes, meeting notes, and daily tasks, 50 notes is simply not enough. This strict cap effectively forces users to either open their wallets or find a new app.

Top Free and Affordable Evernote Alternatives

You do not need to spend over $100 a year to keep your life organized. Here are the most capable free and low-cost replacements available right now.

Microsoft OneNote

If you want a direct replacement for Evernote without spending a dime, Microsoft OneNote is your best option. It is completely free to use.

OneNote organizes your information into digital binders. You get notebooks, sections, and pages. Unlike Evernote, OneNote provides a freeform canvas. You can click anywhere on the screen and start typing.

Key Benefits:

  • Free Storage: Your notes sync through Microsoft OneDrive, which gives you 5GB of free storage right out of the gate.
  • Web Clipper: The OneNote Web Clipper is easily as powerful as the Evernote version, allowing you to save articles, recipes, and screenshots directly from your browser.
  • Text Recognition: It can read and search text inside images (OCR), a feature Evernote locks behind a paywall.

Notion

Notion is incredibly popular among productivity enthusiasts. It operates entirely differently from Evernote. Instead of basic text notes, Notion uses a system of “blocks.” A block can be text, an image, a checklist, a calendar, or an entire database.

The Notion Personal plan is 100% free. It gives you unlimited blocks and pages for individual use.

Key Benefits:

  • Ultimate Customization: You can build anything from a simple daily journal to a complex project management board.
  • Evernote Importer: Notion features a built-in tool specifically designed to import your Evernote data smoothly.
  • Cross-Platform: It works flawlessly across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web browsers.

Joplin

If you love the layout of Evernote but hate the price, Joplin is the app for you. Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking application. The interface looks strikingly similar to older versions of Evernote, featuring a sidebar with your notebooks, a note list in the middle, and the editor on the right.

Key Benefits:

  • Privacy Focused: Joplin offers end-to-end encryption to keep your data secure.
  • Your Own Cloud: Because it is open-source, you control where your notes live. You can sync them for free using Dropbox, OneDrive, or Nextcloud.
  • Markdown Support: It uses Markdown for formatting, which is fast and efficient for heavy typists.

Apple Notes

For anyone deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Notes has evolved into a powerhouse. It is completely free and pre-installed on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Apple has quietly added features over the years that rival paid apps. You can use Smart Folders to automatically sort your notes based on tags, creation dates, or checklists.

Key Benefits:

  • Deep Integration: You can create a Quick Note by simply swiping up from the corner of your iPad or Mac screen.
  • Document Scanner: The built-in document scanner is incredibly fast and creates high-quality PDFs.
  • Shared Notes: You can easily share grocery lists or travel itineraries with other Apple users.

Obsidian

Obsidian is built for people who take a lot of text-heavy notes. It is a local-first application, meaning your files live directly on your computer’s hard drive rather than on a company’s server.

The app is entirely free for personal use. If you want seamless, automatic syncing across devices via Obsidian Sync, it costs $8 per month. However, you can bypass this fee by saving your “vault” (your folder of notes) in a free iCloud or Dropbox folder.

Key Benefits:

  • Future-Proof: All notes are saved as plain text Markdown files. Even if Obsidian goes out of business, you can open your files in any text editor.
  • Graph View: It maps out the connections between your notes visually, helping you see links between different ideas.

Google Keep

If you used Evernote primarily for quick reminders and shopping lists, Google Keep is a fantastic, lightweight alternative. It is totally free and relies on your standard Google account.

Keep operates like a digital bulletin board covered in colorful sticky notes. You can color-code your notes, add custom backgrounds, and pin important items to the top of the screen.

Key Benefits:

  • Location Reminders: You can set a note to pop up on your phone when you arrive at a specific location (like a grocery store).
  • Voice Memos: If you record a voice note on your phone, Keep will save the audio file and automatically transcribe the text.
  • Storage: It uses your shared Google Drive storage, which starts at a generous 15GB for free.

How to Export Your Evernote Data

Leaving Evernote requires moving your data. Evernote uses a specific file format called .enex (Evernote Export). Most major alternatives, including Notion, Joplin, and OneNote, have tools designed to read these files.

To get your data out of Evernote:

  1. Open the Evernote desktop app.
  2. Right-click on a notebook in your sidebar.
  3. Select “Export notebook.”
  4. Choose the ENEX format and save the file to your computer.
  5. Open your new app and use its import function to upload that ENEX file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I easily move my Evernote files to another app?

Yes. You can export your notebooks as .enex files from the Evernote desktop application. Most modern note-taking apps offer a direct import tool specifically for Evernote files, making the transition relatively painless.

Is the Evernote free plan completely gone?

No, but it is heavily restricted. Free users are now limited to 50 notes and one single notebook per account. You can still view, edit, and delete those 50 notes, but you cannot create new ones once you hit the cap.

Which alternative has the best web clipper?

Microsoft OneNote and Notion both feature excellent web clippers that rival Evernote. The OneNote clipper is particularly strong at capturing full web pages, stripping away ads, and saving the clean text directly into your selected notebook.