Evernote price hike! What’s the alternative?

It’s been widely publicised recently that Evernote is increasing its prices. The prices will take effect from the renewal of each customer, so not everyone will see it at the same time.

The KeepProductive Twitter account posted about the increase and their Personal subscription is due to increase from $69.99 to $125.99, so it isn’t an insignificant amount.

Given the alleged sizeable increases coming down the line, every paying user is going to have to ask themselves whether the value they get from the service is worth the additional cost. Price increases are not uncommon at this point in time, but Evernote promises that these increases are specifically to enable them to further invest in the product’s capabilities.

Evernote as we know, is becoming part of the Bending Spoons family in an acquisition that has likely cost over $100m. However according to Tech Crunch , Evernote subsequently made significant lay-offs impacting up to 129 people. So either rising profit margins, increasing top line revenue, or both is now a major priority in making good on the promise that the acquisition will deliver product enhancements.

But for those people unwilling to swallow the increase, it may be the time to consider some alternatives. So below are 3 great alternatives worth a look.

Microsoft OneNote

Most people that use Evernote will also be familiar with OneNote. OneNote was released in 2003, so it’s fair to say it’s a mature system. It sits deeply embedded within the Microsoft Office ecosystem and if that’s something you work regularly in, it could be the perfect alternative, particularly as it comes bundled in the Office suite.

OneNote operates in a traditional ~ notebook / divider / note ~ structure which will be familiar to most, but it offers some powerful features, including digital-pen support, ink-to-math, video and audio recording and powerful text editing features. OneNote offers an endless canvas meaning your notes can spread literally far-and-wide. It’s integration with other Office products means you can do cool stuff like open a note from within an Outlook meeting, making notetaking really efficient.

OneNote is supported on Windows, Mac, Android and IOS/iPadOS making it a versatile option that will be available whichever device you prefer to use.

A good resource for OneNote is the YouTube channel: OZTabletPC, hosted by Brett Gillbertson

Craft

Craft notes is known for it’s stunning aesthetics. If design matters to you, then you’ll love Craft. But it’s more than just a pretty face, packed with an editing tool that enables you to create notes based on blocks. Each block being text, media, or sections, and the basis of blocks means you can restructure your notes at ease. Their website demonstrates how a basic note in a Google sheet looks compared to their feature packed application

One of my favourite features is being able to add thumbnails of notes which appear as cards, enabling you to create links to relevant or connected notes. I used this feature when viewing properties prior to moving house in 2022. It meant I could write a note about each property and have them nestled in a master note. Very helpful indeed.

Craft has a free version, but $5 a month will get you started started on their Personal Pro version.

Simplenote

Simplenote is best known for, well, being a simple notetaking application. It reminds me of the early days of Evernote, before some of the additional features were added. If you want a basic, yet well designed and high performing notetaking application, then this is the perfect app for you.

Available at simplenote.com and available on multiple platforms, this could very well be the notetaking app that enables you to just get things down and recorded.

Techradar reviewed this app in 2022 and it’s a great place to head to in order to find out more.

The team at KeepProductive have a very useful ToolFinder which catalogues applications in varying categories, including notetaking apps and it’s worth heading there if you’d like to really explore the world of productivity apps.