Goodbye Evernote, and thanks for these 10 years… or not.
I’ve been an Evernote user for over a decade. More than 1,300 notes, categorized, tagged, maintained, and synced across all my devices. For a long time, it was a useful, stable, and, above all, reasonably priced tool. I had no intention of switching. For me, it was simply the best.
When Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons, the first thing that happened was a price increase. A considerable price increase. At the time, I managed to get a discount to renew, bringing the price down to around €40-€50, and I decided to give them a chance: there were frequent updates, some interesting improvements, and the feeling that the product was still alive. So far, so good. The new Evernote lived up to its promises and continued to earn my trust.
The problem has now arisen with yet another pricing change. To maintain roughly the same functionality I’ve had until now, I have to upgrade from the current Personal plan (€99 per year without discounts) to the new Advanced plan, which costs a whopping €199 per year. Double the price. And we’re not even talking about new features or real advantages to justify it. Simply paying more for the same thing. Just because.
The worst part is that even paying more, they continue to impose completely absurd new limits, such as syncing on only 5 devices. And this is on the Advanced plan. On the paid plan one step below, they add limits like syncing on 3 devices, 1,000 notes, or 20 notebooks. This seems like a complete joke. I’ve been paying for Evernote for years precisely because I could forget about these kinds of restrictions. Now they want to turn that basic aspect (especially on a paid plan) into an expensive “privilege.”
This, for me, is the last straw.
It’s similar to what happens to me with Netflix and other streaming services. Constant price increases and more imposed limitations, advertising, etc.
I’m not going to pay double under any circumstances to keep exactly the same thing I have now. I’m not going to accept absurd restrictions designed to force users onto the most expensive plan. And above all, I’m not going to continue entrusting my notes to a company that changes the rules of the game year after year.
Trust, once broken, can’t be recovered.
And now, time to migrate
I know it won’t be fun moving more than 1,300 notes. I know it will take time to restructure everything, choose another application, and adapt. But I prefer to invest that effort now than remain trapped on a platform that has made it clear how it sees its users: as a source of income that can be squeezed a little more each year.
Years ago, I suspected it wasn’t a good idea to tie myself to a proprietary format and entrust all my notes to a company that could “cut off the tap” at any moment. I should have listened more carefully to my inner voice. Even Evernote itself imposes restrictions on exporting your own notes, completely artificial limits that only aim to tie you to its platform.
Fortunately, migrating these days isn’t complicated using third-party tools, since I can easily export my notes with tools like Evernote ENEX Exporter and import them, keeping their formatting virtually intact, into Joplin or Obsidian. These tools give you complete ownership of your data, without tying you down to anything. Both have their pros and cons, so I have time to choose the most suitable replacement.
So, this marks the end of my time with Evernote.
Goodbye Evernote.
I won’t be back.
Never.
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