Beginning today, the prices for our Plus and Premium tiers will change for new subscriptions, and access from Evernote Basic accounts will be limited to two devices. Current subscribers and Basic users who are using more than two devices will have some time to adjust before the changes take effect. If you are impacted, look for a message from us in the coming days.
I use Evernote, but to such a small extent that I’ve never seen the advantage of paying for the service. I have a few dozen notes that I access on my different devices. But the new plans limit how many devices you can use to two. Essentially, that’s a computer and a mobile device, though many of us have more than one of each.
Evernote, for me, has always been a solution in search of a problem. I understand how useful it can be for teams, in an enterprise environment, and it looks like the company wants to limit shun casual users like myself and focus more on the team aspect of its service. Fine; I’ll find a replacement. Apple’s Notes is starting to look good; the changes in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra look like that app might be a good candidate. (Note that I’m not averse to paying for a service, but I simply don’t see the need given my use of Evernote.)
However, I don’t trust iCloud, and I would prefer something that syncs via Dropbox, so I can have local copies of my data, backups, etc. Any suggestions?
Source: Changes to Evernote’s Pricing Plans – Evernote Blog
Note: several people have suggested Microsoft OneNote. I find the app’s interface off-putting, but I may try it out. You can get a free OneDrive account to sync your data, and if you use this link to sign up, you can get an extra 500 MB storage (added to the basic 5 GB), and I’ll get extra storage as well.
Since 2010 (when I decided I couldn’t trust MacJournal any longer) I’ve been using a combination of nvAlt on my Mac and a variety of Markdown apps (chiefly Byword and 1Writer) on my IOS devices. The weak link in the system is nvAlt which is getting a bit long in the tooth (fortunately Brett Terpstra is working on a replacement), but since I keep the main nvAlt folder in Dropbox and since everything there is a text file, I could at some point replace nvAlt with any other Mac Markdown app (e.g., the folder is also accessible as an “external folder” in Ulysses on my Mac).
As you no doubt know, when it comes to taking notes, there are lots of good reasons to save them as text files. But of course this system won’t work at all for those who want to save images.
I archive my PDFs in Zotero which, thanks to an app called Zotfile, the PDFs can be moved back and forth to my iPad for reading. Zotfile also extracts any notes or highlighting I’ve done, and they can then be shipped over to nvAlt for rereading and revision. The system is simpler than it sounds and seems to be pretty solid (and, should something go wrong, everything has been backed up to a number of different places).
Yes, I tried that sort of frankensolution some years ago. I don’t really have the patience any more for that sort of setup. I’d much rather that everything be stored in a way that I can see it the same on all platforms. I also like having it accessible on the web, as it is with Evernote, Notes, and some other options.
Just curious, what made you stop trusting MacJournal? I used to use it quite a bit.
Since 2010 (when I decided I couldn’t trust MacJournal any longer) I’ve been using a combination of nvAlt on my Mac and a variety of Markdown apps (chiefly Byword and 1Writer) on my IOS devices. The weak link in the system is nvAlt which is getting a bit long in the tooth (fortunately Brett Terpstra is working on a replacement), but since I keep the main nvAlt folder in Dropbox and since everything there is a text file, I could at some point replace nvAlt with any other Mac Markdown app (e.g., the folder is also accessible as an “external folder” in Ulysses on my Mac).
As you no doubt know, when it comes to taking notes, there are lots of good reasons to save them as text files. But of course this system won’t work at all for those who want to save images.
I archive my PDFs in Zotero which, thanks to an app called Zotfile, the PDFs can be moved back and forth to my iPad for reading. Zotfile also extracts any notes or highlighting I’ve done, and they can then be shipped over to nvAlt for rereading and revision. The system is simpler than it sounds and seems to be pretty solid (and, should something go wrong, everything has been backed up to a number of different places).
Yes, I tried that sort of frankensolution some years ago. I don’t really have the patience any more for that sort of setup. I’d much rather that everything be stored in a way that I can see it the same on all platforms. I also like having it accessible on the web, as it is with Evernote, Notes, and some other options.
Just curious, what made you stop trusting MacJournal? I used to use it quite a bit.
I just use Simplenote. It only does ASCII text notes, but that’s all I need. Syncing always works a treat.
For some notes I want to be able to save graphics as well.
I just use Simplenote. It only does ASCII text notes, but that’s all I need. Syncing always works a treat.
For some notes I want to be able to save graphics as well.
Fair enough. I don’t have any recommendations for that.
I see Dropbox has its own thing (in beta – whatever that means these days) called Dropbox Paper which might be of interest. Or Google Keep?
Maybe Apple’s Notes is your best bet, although like you I don’t like relying on iCloud for syncing.
Fair enough. I don’t have any recommendations for that.
I see Dropbox has its own thing (in beta – whatever that means these days) called Dropbox Paper which might be of interest. Or Google Keep?
Maybe Apple’s Notes is your best bet, although like you I don’t like relying on iCloud for syncing.
If you don’t trust iCloud why in heavens name would you trust OneDrive? The integration in OS X is worse, same goes for iOS, in my experience it is much more unstable than iCloud. And if it is only 10-20 notes you want to be able to use on all devices if you happen to have 1Password then add them as secure notes. No pictures though unless you add them as attachments.
Maybe the best thing is to increase your trust of iCloud by combining it with a good backup and switch to Apple Notes although in terms of functionality it is lightyears behind Evernote…
If you don’t trust iCloud why in heavens name would you trust OneDrive? The integration in OS X is worse, same goes for iOS, in my experience it is much more unstable than iCloud. And if it is only 10-20 notes you want to be able to use on all devices if you happen to have 1Password then add them as secure notes. No pictures though unless you add them as attachments.
Maybe the best thing is to increase your trust of iCloud by combining it with a good backup and switch to Apple Notes although in terms of functionality it is lightyears behind Evernote…
In my opinion, there are only three apps that can replace Evernote without losing too much fucionality: The soon to be released Devonthink To Go 2, Apple Notes and OneNote. With Devonthink you avoid fencing into a system, so most probably that would be my choice. Paying $70 (in order to search for text inside PDFs) is just too much.
In my opinion, there are only three apps that can replace Evernote without losing too much fucionality: The soon to be released Devonthink To Go 2, Apple Notes and OneNote. With Devonthink you avoid fencing into a system, so most probably that would be my choice. Paying $70 (in order to search for text inside PDFs) is just too much.
I started using Evernote as my electronic notebook about five years ago. At the time I just wanted to get away from taking notes on paper. Note taking software from Apple and Microsoft was buggy and primitive at the time and, after testing many apps, I decided Evernote was the only game in town.
I use it every day, have thousands of notes in it, as well as clippings of related material, travel documents, images, business cards, etc. I always have with me a Macbook Air, or my iPhone, on which to take the notes and it is generally faster than writing by hand. Incredibly convenient to have the notes in electronic form: searchable, multiple folders, and equivalent to 7 or 8 bound paper notebooks by now.
That said there are many features of Evernote I will never use — all the teamwork stuff, for example — so in principle a more mature version of the competitor Note taking apps might work. If I moved away now I would probably go for a simple Word Processor like iA Writer and forego the richer features of Evernote. But at £19 p.a. subscription (from memory) the cost of Evernote is trivial for the value I get.
I started using Evernote as my electronic notebook about five years ago. At the time I just wanted to get away from taking notes on paper. Note taking software from Apple and Microsoft was buggy and primitive at the time and, after testing many apps, I decided Evernote was the only game in town.
I use it every day, have thousands of notes in it, as well as clippings of related material, travel documents, images, business cards, etc. I always have with me a Macbook Air, or my iPhone, on which to take the notes and it is generally faster than writing by hand. Incredibly convenient to have the notes in electronic form: searchable, multiple folders, and equivalent to 7 or 8 bound paper notebooks by now.
That said there are many features of Evernote I will never use — all the teamwork stuff, for example — so in principle a more mature version of the competitor Note taking apps might work. If I moved away now I would probably go for a simple Word Processor like iA Writer and forego the richer features of Evernote. But at £19 p.a. subscription (from memory) the cost of Evernote is trivial for the value I get.
I tried Evernote for a while and had constant syncing problems. At the time they seemed only interested in glomming on more and more features that I didn’t need and did nothing to improve the syncing. I eventually switched to Apple Notes out of frustration and have had virtually no syncing problems since. And this was before the big Apple Notes upgrade that made it a more complete solution. I wish that there were a few more features in Notes like better formatting and a good outliner (that would perhaps work seamlessly with Pages), but I will take rock solid syncing over more features, and for me that means Apple Notes.
I tried Evernote for a while and had constant syncing problems. At the time they seemed only interested in glomming on more and more features that I didn’t need and did nothing to improve the syncing. I eventually switched to Apple Notes out of frustration and have had virtually no syncing problems since. And this was before the big Apple Notes upgrade that made it a more complete solution. I wish that there were a few more features in Notes like better formatting and a good outliner (that would perhaps work seamlessly with Pages), but I will take rock solid syncing over more features, and for me that means Apple Notes.