I used Evernote for well over a decade now, and while I initially liked the note-taking client, it has been nothing but a constant source of annoyance over the last 18 months. Whether it’s needlessly shoehorning AI features, stability issues, and not being able to sync reliably, using Evernote has been a burden.
In spite of all that, I continued to use Evernote because I didn’t find anything else that did all the things I wanted of a note-taking client. But the 2026 price hike is the last straw; with Evernote nearly doubling the price of the subscription, I finally decided it’s time to move to another note-taking utility.
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(Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)
I need four things from a note-taking client: availability on all major platforms (as well as a web client), straightforward sync, proven security, and formatting features. I know there are plenty of good note-taking apps now; I bought a lifetime sub to UpNote two years ago (it costs just $39) as it was the closest alternative to Evernote. The only problem with UpNote is that it doesn’t have a web client, and that was a dealbreaker.
Notesnook doesn’t have any such limitations. I wrote this post on the Notesnook web client, and I was able to set up the utility on Windows, my Android phones, and my iPad Pro M4. It’s there wherever I need it, all my notes are synced automatically, and the interface gets out of the way, freeing me up to write what I want — like a good note-taking app should.
I’ll admit that I didn’t use most of the features that Evernote offered, but I started using it all those years ago because it was reliable and allowed me to store all my notes in a single location regardless of whatever device I was using.
In that sense, Notesnook feels the same way now; the utility has excellent security, is built on an open-source platform, and the UI has enough features without shoving any kind of meaningless AI bloat. Honestly, it’s refreshing to see Notesnook steer clear of any AI integration, and that made it all the more exciting to use.
(Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)
Basically, what I’m saying is that Notesnook is what Evernote should have been, and I’m glad there’s now a good note-taking alternative. I tested out plenty of services over the last year, but Notesnook is the one that fit the bill for my own use case. It even has a Evernote importer that made it extremely easy to move all my notes over.
Best of all, I’m not paying anything to use it. Notesnook has a sensible free tier that lets you create 50 notebooks with 50MB of total storage and individual notes of 10MB, and it is ideal for just my writing needs.
The service has an Essential tier ($1.99 monthly or $19.99 a year) with 1GB of storage and better customizability, and the Pro plan ($6.99 monthly or $69.99 a year) builds on that with 10GB monthly storage and a much greater control over the UI, and additional features. Regardless of what plan you use, end-to-end security is built into the utility — even on the free tier, and that’s great to see.
Now, Notesnook had its own price hike last year, but at least the justification makes sense — it’s to make the service sustainable and add new features — and I can get behind that. Even with that, $69.99 a year for the Pro tier is reasonable in the context of the unfathomable $249 Evernote is charging, and if you don’t need all the extras, the Essential tier is great at $19.99 annually. Or if you just need a reliable note-taker with good built-in security, you can do what I did and just use the free tier until you need to move to a paid plan.
