Moleskine Evernote Journal with Smart Stickers, Soft Cover, XL (7.5' x 9.5') Ruled/Lined, Kraft Brown, 176 Pages (Set of 2) 4.5 out of 5 stars 455 $24.22 $ 24. Evernote transforms the way you work. We design products that fuel inspiration for your projects, from start to finish. Evernote constantly stops working and you to upgrade to Plus or Premium which very annoying. If I send a note to someone via email or whatapp, it’s a problem if that person does not have. And so, if that is one of your concerns and you just want an app for taking notes, Evernote is a better choice. Moving on, since Notion offers an all-in-one workspace to work. Brief weekly maintenance usually wednesdays between 2-6pm pt Apr 8, 2021 (3:03 pm PT) Service release beginning.
The days of writing notes in various notebooks, furiously scribbling research on notecards, and jotting down ideas on sticky notes that end up in unexpected places are on their way out. Electronic note-taking tools have become more popular for students, professionals, and, well, anyone with ideas, notes, or to-dos.
While some of us diehards still like putting pen to paper (you can pry my notebook from my cold, cramped hands), there’s no denying that note-taking apps make it easy to organize, save, and share notes with others in a way you just can’t do with physical notes.
Evernote has become synonymous with note-taking from its inception in 2008. But just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s the right tool for you.
An Overview of Evernote
Used by 225 million people worldwide, Evernote is a leading note-taking app, with cross-platform syncing so you can update notes on any device. A widely used Evernote feature is the Web Clipper, which allows you to save website screenshots, articles, and PDFs directly to your account.
Evernote 2020 Review
Features:
- Find templates for notes like goal tracking, weekly planning, and budgeting.
- Go paperless with document scanning.
- Include information from the web with web clipping.
- Upload and search handwritten notes from Post-it notes, whiteboards, etc.
- Use centralized team spaces for shared team notes and resources.
- Compatible with Browser, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS.
- Integrates with Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Slack, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams.
Best for: Anyone looking for a free version that’s packed full of value, or businesses that need an easy-to-use option for team sharing and collaboration.
Cost: Evernote Basic offers note-taking features for free. Premium ($7.99/month) and Business ($14.99/month) provide advanced features for organizing, sharing, and collaborating.
Top Evernote Alternatives for Better Note-Taking
Whether you’re looking for something feature-rich and complex or a simple text-based app where you can dump your ideas, you’ll love these Evernote alternatives.
1. Ideanote
AppSumo Deal: Ideanote
Collect, develop, and prioritize the right ideas with the right people in one platform.
$59.00 | $2,988.00
Marketed as the world’s #1 all-in-one innovation platform, Ideanote gives you one central hub to capture and manage your ideas, notes, and to-dos. This app makes it easy to collaborate with your team (or anyone else!) while developing, managing, and tracking ideas. Ideanote offers a customizable and intuitive workflow that makes note-taking easy and helpful.
Features:
- Use 100+ idea-collection templates for situations including efficient meetings, new customers, expansion, resources, and processes.
- Crete goal-oriented idea collections centered around a challenging question.
- Each member gets their own profile to manage ideas, see progress, and customize settings.
- Move, copy, edit, and archive your notes for better organization.
- Get real-time notifications on updated notes.
- Drag and drop files from your desktop to an Ideanote card.
Best for: Large teams that need an innovative and immediate way to exchange ideas and notes.
Cost: Starter ($249/month), Business ($649/month), and Enterprise ($2,899/month) plans all include unlimited members and their own innovative workspace, with different numbers of admins, ideas, criteria for each plan.
For a limited time, you can get a 1-year deal of Ideanote’s Business Plan at $59 on AppSumo.
2. Sticky Notes
AppSumo Deal: Sticky Notes by Ukiv
Lightning fast, easy-to-use browser extension for taking notes in Chrome and Edge.
$49.00 | $120.00
Sticky Notes is a browser extension that makes it easy to take notes in both Chrome and Edge. Accessing and organizing notes is also easy, and the app allows you to work offline so you can continue to jot down ideas, to-do lists, and other info at any time. With a range of beautiful themes, this browser extension allows you to personalize your experience while making note taking fun!
Features:
- Beautiful handpicked themes to create an experience that’s easy on the eyes.
- Open Sticky Notes in just one click inside your browser.
- Save your notes with optional Cloud backups and organize them into folders.
- Access notes quickly by clicking the extension icon.
- Works offline; take notes without an internet connection.
Best for: Busy entrepreneurs and business owners who want an easy and convenient way to store notes, to-dos, and ideas right from their browser.
Cost: The Free Forever plan is limited to three notes but offers basic themes and unlimited lists. Premium Plan ($9.99/month) gives you all nine notes, premium animated themes, automatic backup of notes, and multi-monitor support. Get lifetime access through AppSumo deals for just $49.00.
3. Google Keep
Google Keep is one of the simpler note-taking apps on our Evernote alternative list, with an easy-to-use, clean interface. With Google Keep, you can take notes on your phone, tablet, or computer, syncing across devices or sharing notes with friends and family.
Features:
- Label, pin, and color-code notes.
- Collaborate on notes in real time.
- Speech-to-text functionality for note dictation.
Best for: People looking for a simple note-taking app without all the bells and whistles.
Cost: Free
4. Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is marketed as a digital notebook where you can “gather your notes and make them even better.” OneNote makes it easy to organize your thoughts across notebooks, sections, and pages with quick navigation and search to find what you’re looking for.
Features:
- Use on unlimited devices for free.
- Draw thoughts and annotations with your finger or a stylus.
- Use Web Clipper to save web content with one click.
- Share notebooks with coworkers, friends, or family.
- Include mixed media notes like audio, video, and other files.
Best for: Entrepreneurs already using Windows, Office365, or OneDrive, and those who want a free app with lots of features.
Cost: Free
5. Notejoy
Notejoy has become a well-known product for teams that want to share and collaborate on notes with others. With real-time editing by multiple users and threaded discussions, Notejoy has some of the best team collaboration features of any note-taking app. Integrations with Trello, Slack, and scanner apps also make it a must-have for teams.
Features:
- Edit notes in real time with multiple team members.
- See who has viewed and added to notes.
- Threaded discussions with @mentions and reactions.
- Embed Google Docs, Microsoft Office docs, PDFs, videos, and audio.
- Clip any webpage or forward emails to Notejoy to create notes quickly.
- Organize notes with nested notebooks, nested tags, team libraries, pins, and archives.
- Available on a browser, Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
- Integrates with Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft Office, Slack, Trello, HubSpot, and scanner apps.
Best for: Teams looking for a single, well-organized place to collaborate, store, and share knowledge with others.
Cost: Free option includes up to 5 users, 3 team libraries, 5 notebooks, 10MB per file upload, and up to 100MB library storage. Paid plans start at $4/month and offer additional features and more storage.
6. Bear
A newcomer to the note-taking software game, Bear allows you to create and sync notes across your Apple devices. A unique feature of Bear is the hybrid markdown editor that offers a full range of formatting options. This feature, along with the ability to export and get important stats like word/character count, read time, and paragraph numbers, make this app ideal for authors and students.
Features:
- Compatible with Mac and iOS.
- Format text as you type with a hybrid markdown editor.
- Organize notes using hashtags and slashes for nested tags.
- Use focus mode to concentrate on the task at hand.
- Beautiful themes and typography, including a Dark Mode.
- Encrypt individual notes with a password or Face/Touch ID.
Best for: Writers and students who need the option to take notes or write long-form content they can format before exporting.
Cost: Free option: Create notes, add tags and attachments, and export notes. Pro subscription ($1.49/monthly or $14.99 annually): Syncing, themes, and more powerful export options.
7. Simplenote
Simplenote‘s appeal is described in its name — it’s a simple app with a simple user interface. Simplenote offers a no-frills experience with minimal features, making it ideal for those who tend to get overwhelmed or distracted by all the options and functionality of other mobile note-taking mobile applications. If you’re looking for a distraction-free experience with simple text notes, and you don’t need advanced features, Simplenote may be your new go-to program.
Features:
- Available for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and web browsers like Chrome.
- Automatic and real-time sync.
- Add tags to find notes quickly with the instant search feature.
- Share notes with others or publish notes online.
- Write, preview, and publish notes in markdown format.
Best for: People who prefer simplicity over fancy features or want a distraction-free note-taking experience.
Cost: Free
8. Dropbox Paper
Dropbox Paper is another powerful alternative to Evernote that’s ideal for team collaboration. In addition to allowing you to add and edit notes as a team, Dropbox Paper offers a task management tool that lets you assign to-do lists, add due dates, and mention team members in real time within the document. You can also drop a link to nearly anything in your note — YouTube video, Pinterest board, Google Map, SoundCloud clip, GIF — and Paper displays the preview properly.
Features:
- Compatible with Windows, iOS, and Android.
- Variety of templates, including meeting notes, launch plan, brainstorming, creative brief, project plan, new hire onboarding, and product spec.
- Annotate specific parts of an image with feedback.
- Turn Paper docs into professional-looking presentations in one step.
- Simplify to-do lists with task management tools like task assignments, due dates, reminders, and task completion.
- Integrates with Sketch, Invision, Dropbox, Slack, and more.
Best for: Dropbox customers looking to collaborate on notes, or teams that need task management capabilities for project management.
Cost: Free
9. Notion
Notion is another Evernote alternative focused on team collaboration. One of the best note-taking apps for teams, Notion offers a variety of project management capabilities, including Kanban boards, tables, and lists to customize your workflow. Unique to Notion is the team wiki feature, which allows you to turn your team knowledge into a database of easy-to-find answers. If you’re just looking for a personal note-taking solution, Notion may be overkill.
Features:
- Web app, desktop app, and apps for iOS and Android devices.
- Turn any type of project into a template, including multi-layered pages.
- Use tables to create databases or a team wiki.
- Nested hierarchical organization, including dropdowns.
- Collaborate in real time, mentioning coworkers when you need input or responses.
- Invite others to work on notes or share with your entire company.
- Embed 500+ other apps inside your Notion pages to create a hub for your team’s work.
Best for: Teams that need an easy way to collaborate on notes while accessing a team wiki.
Cost: Free plan allows unlimited pages and blocks you can sync across devices and share with five guests. Paid plans start at $4 a month and offer unlimited guests, unlimited team members, admin tools, and advanced permissions.
10. Zoho Notebook
Zoho Notebook is a unique Evernote alternative, as it takes a novel approach to creating note types by using different note cards. Zoho offers different formatting for text notes, checklists, audio notes, photos, files, sketches, and smart notes with advanced formatting. Another distinction between Zoho Notebook and other solutions is a beautiful visual experience, with separate images for each notebook and colored backgrounds.
Features:
- Available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.
- Use pinch and swipe gestures to navigate the app and organize notes.
- Customize notebooks with image covers and color-coded note cards.
- Search for and organize notes using tags.
- Secure notes with passcodes or Touch ID.
- Automatically sync notes to the cloud across all your devices.
Best for: People who need to manage many different types of notes within the same app, and people who are visually inclined and want a beautiful experience.
Cost: Free
11. Apple Notes
If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re probably already familiar with Apple Notes. While simple, Notes makes it easy to capture thoughts, create checklists, and sketch ideas quickly. It comes loaded on your iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, so there’s no need to download the app. To create a note, open the app, tap the “compose” button, create your note, and tap “Done.” Then it’s saved and synced to all your devices. It couldn’t be easier!
Features:
- Use iCloud to update your notes across all your devices.
- Pin important notes, so they are easier to find later.
- Create checklists to mark off as you finish.
- Format with headings, bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, and more.
- Scan and sign documents within the app.
- Add attachments like a website, photo, video, or Google map.
- Organize your notes in folders.
Best for: Apple users who want a quick and easy way to save thoughts, ideas, to-dos, notes, and attachments.
Cost: Free
12. Turtl
Turtl is a close all-in-one Evernote competitor, with the biggest difference being that it’s a secure and encrypted open-source application. Turtl works well for any kind of notes or project, including passwords, shopping lists, bookmarks, and more long-form content. It also allows you to gain control of your data by installing your own Turtl server at home or work.
Features:
- Sync across devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android. An app for iOS is coming soon.
- Use bookmark browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
- Share and collaborate with teammates or family members who can access your data without compromising security.
- Protect note data with Turtl’s high-end cryptography.
Best for: Entrepreneurs and individuals who want a secure and encrypted notebook that’s collaborative.
Cost: Free for up to 50MB of note data and 3 collaborators. Paid plans start at $3/month and offer more storage and additional collaborators.
13. Quip
Owned by Salesforce, Quip brings all your notes, docs, and team members into one place where you can collaborate and chat with ease. A unique feature of Quip is its chat feature, which is built into every document. Quick to set up and easy to use, Quip makes it easy to get started with creating and maintaining living documents.
Features:
- Integrates with Salesforce’s CRM software so you can create spreadsheets with live Salesforce data.
- Streamline your workflow with a built-in chat feature, team chat rooms, and 1:1 messaging.
- Templates for sales, service, marketing, manufacturing, project planning, and more to kickstart your workflow.
- Collaborate on documents and edit with others in real time.
- Out-of-the-box security with encrypted, auditable, and controlled data.
Best for: Teams that need to develop and maintain documents that change over time or organizations already using Salesforce.
Cost: Starter ($10/user/month) plan includes unlimited documents, spreadsheets, and slides with group chat and 1:1 messages. Enterprise ($25/user/month) plan adds single sign-on, enterprise API and customization, and custom live apps.
14. Roam Research
Marketed as a personal knowledge management system, Roam is a note-taking tool that’s ideal for organizing ongoing research and collecting data. Roam was inspired by the Zettelkasten method of note taking, which involves writing lots of small notes on rearrangeable index cards instead of taking pages and pages of notes that you then have to sort through. Roam is unique because it allows you to collect notes using “networked thought,” which helps you discover and create relationships between notes and ideas.
Features:
- Available through web browser.
- Use bidirectional links to link existing topics or ideas together.
- Use in-text links or page links at the bottom of notes to jump from one note to another.
- Get a bird’s-eye view of all your pages and how they are linked using the graph overview.
- Insert code, images, videos, tables, nested lists, diagrams, and more.
Best for: Students and professionals who need to keep track of research or ideas over time and want to see how the ideas/data interconnect.
Cost: Professional plan ($15/month) offers up to three private or public Roam graphs, unlimited collaborators, and API access. Believer plan ($500/5 years) adds first access to new features, community calls with the team, and priority support.
15. Obsidian
A direct competitor to Roam, Obsidian markets itself as “a second brain” that helps you make connections between your notes and ideas. This knowledge base works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. Encouraging you to make connections between your ideas, Obsidian makes it easy to connect notes with backlinks and a graph view. The ability to use offline may be a game-changer for those who want to collect ideas or make notes without the distraction of the internet.
Features:
- Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- Use offline for a distraction-free experience.
- Connect ideas and notes using backlinks with a graph view for a bird’s-eye view of connections.
- Split panes infinitely, resize, and pin to keep content linked.
- Build your own note-taking toolkit with plugins like graph view, page view, backlinks, daily notes, word count, and search.
Best for: Anyone who wants to organize their notes, data, and ideas by connecting and linking based on themes or topics.
Cost: Personal plan is free for personal use; no sign-up or account needed. The Catalyst ($25+ one-time payment) and Commercial ($50/user/year) plans offer additional support and access.
16. Nimbus Note
Nimbus Note is the ultimate note-taking, sharing, and organizing tool for easy collaboration across team members and clients. This powerful platform eliminates the scatterbrained feeling of juggling tools, folders, and those pesky sticky notes on your monitor. With customizable workspaces for team members to get on the same page, simple tracking, seamless embedding, and even live desktop screen recording, productivity for your team just got a whole lot better.
Features:
- Use isolated workspaces, each with their own access permissions, branding, and third-party integrations
- Unlimited nested folders for each workspace to manage complex projects
- Assemble notes with a block editor, which lets you embed files, audio, video, websites, and widgets like Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Drive
- Mobile app lets you scan papers and add them straight to your notes
- Flexible tables that act as spreadsheets, databases, or both
- Nimbus Capture lets you record desktop videos with a live feed from your webcam, with the ability to take on-screen notes
- Public pages that you can share with teams and clients with ease
- Embeddable code of shared Nimbus Pages for your website or blog
Best for: Project managers of small and large teams looking to consolidate all their documents and info in one collaborative workspace
Cost: Pro Plan ($24.99/year), Business Plan ($70/year).
How to Pick the Best Evernote Alternative
If you aren’t loving Evernote as much as you thought you would, there are plenty of note-taking applications that are just as good as, if not better than, Evernote. The key to picking the best Evernote alternative is to choose a program that has the features you care about most, fits in your budget, and works with the technology you’re already using every day.
Start with a free trial from one of the contenders above to see if you like using the software.
If you’re ready to commit, check out our AppSumo deals on note-taking software like Ideanote and Sticky Notes.
So, what is Evernote? It’s a note-taking app designed to collect and organize text, pictures, videos, and audio recordings.
These notes are then backed up to the cloud. This allows the user access to their notes from any platform.
But why do people use it? How do people use it best? And is it best for your purposes?
What is Evernote?
No two workflows are alike, but Evernote could help keep you productive and organized.
First, Evernote is relatively easy to use. There are tutorials everywhere because of its popularity and wide user base. With a shallow learning curve, you won’t have to take much time to understand the app.
Evernote organizes your notes into Notebooks, which are essentially file folders.
The notes themselves are text files with a standard blog-style GUI for formatting text, inserting images, or putting in basic code blocks.
The two most useful features are note tags and the Evernote Web Clipper browser extension.
Note tags work like the tags in a blog post or like a hashtag. This gives you a second method for organizing notes. The tags are useful for searching through notes and categorizing them for later use. All notes tagged with “biology” or “research,” for example, can be found and searched through, no matter what Notebooks they might be in.
Now let’s get into the Web Clipper, one of Evernote’s most useful features.
What is Evernote Web Clipper?
Evernote Web Clipper is a browser extension that copies web content directly to your Notebooks. It’s hard to imagine using Evernote without Web Clipper.
Once installed, Clipper lets you grab images, text, and even whole web pages. These can be sorted into whatever Notebook you choose. You can also add tags when you clip.
Why would you do this? How is it useful? Well, for one, you can grab simplified versions of web pages and send them to your notes. If the web page is one you need to look at frequently for research, it’ll save you time. It’s also useful if you need to access the info on that web page while you’re offline or traveling.
If the website in question is littered with annoying ads and pictures, the Web Clipper can strip them out.
Being more productive with Evernote
Anyone who needs to save a lot of information, access it anywhere, and organize it for reference would find Evernote to be handy.
Students can organize their classes into Notebooks. Ideally, they’d store all of their class notes there, accessible from their laptop or their phone. They could use the tagging system for easier studying later on. If you learn a test is on three specific topics, you can sort your notes by those topics by searching the tags. And since the notes are stored to the cloud, you won’t lose them. And depending on the price tier you choose, you could share them easily with other classmates.
Teachers could get similar use out of Evernote by sorting their lectures by topic. Teachers could also open up a Notebook for each student or each class. Then, all personal notes on the class or individual could go in the Notebook. Professional development could also have its own Notebook. That way, all of the lectures or classes you attend could be saved and sorted later. Those training notes could then be shared with colleagues.
Writers of all stripes are perhaps the most obvious audience for Evernote. Research gets a Notebook. Article, blog, or book ideas get a Notebook. Timelines, characters, persons of interest, word-building all get a Notebook. And the mobile nature means Evernote is always close at hand. Get an idea, jot it down, save it to the cloud.
Lastly, though it requires some extra work, Evernote can be synced with your calendar. This could help your productivity by tying your notes or reminders together with actual dates. You can also set it up so that your calendar events all go into a Notebook automatically, allowing you to take notes on the meetings during or after the fact.
Those are just a few use cases you might want to consider. Before you do, let’s take a look at the pricing structure.
What is Evernote’s price and what do you get?
Before you spend a dime on Evernote, consider checking out the free version, which is serviceable and allows syncing between two different devices.
Evernote 2020
If your needs are more complicated, should you pay money for Evernote? Is it worth it? Let’s take a look.
The pricing plan is relatively simple to break down.
What comes in the free version of Evernote?
The free version comes with cloud syncing between two devices. One mobile sync to a phone, one sync to a work or home computer. Simple and easy, and it has all of the full note-taking features described above.
The limits on storage and uploads are pretty small. You can upload 60MB of data a month, with a 25MB maximum size for each note. This isn’t a ton of bandwidth, but for more text and simplified website clips it’s sufficient. PDFs and image-heavy notes, which use more data, will run into this per-month cap and even the individual note cap.
Also, your notes can only be made available offline on desktop or laptop. For travelers or those with spotty connections, this might not work.
Features of Evernote Premium
The Premium version of Evernote runs $7.99 a month and adds a few more features.
The note-taking features are the same as the free version. Other features are expanded.
First, the upload limit increases: 60MB a month for the free version becomes 10GB for Premium. Note size jumps from 25MB to 200MB.
Probably one of the most useful added features is app integration. So if you want to combine your Evernote with Slack or Google Drive, Premium will allow you to do it.
The Premium edition lets you scan documents or business cards and forward emails directly to Evernote. You can also make notes and search through the PDFs you add. Sharing options are more robust, and you can make presentations out of your notes.
Premium Evernote also comes with AI suggestions that relate to your notes. This AI takes the content of your notes and suggests possible web pages that seem relevant. The suggestions aren’t always useful because the AI isn’t terribly robust. The signal-to-noise ratio of useful web page suggestions to unrelated links largely isn’t worth it for this feature alone. You could end up spending more time ignoring the AI’s nonrelevant suggestions than taking them.
So, is Premium a good buy? If you’re uploading a lot of very large notes, maybe. If you need to pull files from Google Drive into Evernote, possibly. If PDFs take up a large portion of your notes, and you need them searchable and annotated, probably.
It also may be worth it for offline access on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Features of the Evernote Business version
Evernote Business has all of the features noted above, plus team collaboration and team administration features.
The pricing is a little bit annoying because you need to have at least two users. And the $14.99-a-month price tag is per user. So if you’re just looking to expand your account with business features and more bandwidth, you’re out of luck.
The team and sharing features are what you’d expect. Anyone on the team can share and collaborate on notes. Permissions are assigned by the creator of the note. An assigned admin has greater control and access to notes, Notebooks, and sharing permissions.
The monthly upload starts at a flat 20GB overall, plus 2GB per user.
Is it worth it? Probably not, but to answer that question, we have to look at the alternatives on the market.
What is Evernote’s competition?
Of course, Evernote isn’t the only note-taking app on the market. There are plenty of Evernote alternatives that do the job better, depending on the features you prioritize.
Let’s take a look at some of the alternatives to Evernote.
Bear
Bear is a popular note-taking app but is available only for Apple devices. There may be a web version in the pipeline, but that’s not something we can judge at the moment. But if you’re taking notes on your iPhone, Mac, or iPad, Bear is a solid choice.
It’s free unless you’re syncing between devices. Then you’ll have to choose to pay $15 every year for the privilege. Still, if you do math, that’s cheaper than Evernote’s Premium addition.
You can tag notes in Bear with keywords, just like in Evernote. Bear uses a hashtag system instead of a separate tag field, so it’s a little faster. The text notes and Markdown compatibility are comparable to Evernote and its Codeblock functions. It doesn’t have Evernote’s sharing or team collaboration tools; it’s designed for one user.
We’d recommend Bear for single users who just need to take notes. It’s elegantly designed and fast, suffering from none of Evernote’s general feature-bloat problem.
If you have simple needs and are already invested in Apple architecture, Bear is a solid alternative.
OneNote
Microsoft’s note-taking software is a relatively new offering and is part of Microsoft’s Office suite.
OneNote can be accessed via browser or through the desktop or mobile app. It’s more free-form than Evernote and might appeal to note-takers who enjoy less structure. The notes are organized into notebooks, like Evernote. The notes are backed up to your OneDrive instead of a separate account, like Evernote. The similarities end there.
Instead of traditional pages, each individual OneNote scrolls sideways or down infinitely. Think of it like a digital reel of butcher paper. You can throw images into it alongside the text, with each block of text independent from the others. You can also draw over or around your notes.
OneNote works fine as a text note-taker but shines as a loose brainstorming tool.
However, OneNote isn’t free. It comes packaged with the other Office products in Office 365. Microsoft has a complicated pricing schema, with ongoing or subscription prices. The price also changes based on the home or business versions, but you’ll pay anywhere from $8 a month to $12.50 a month, depending.
Google Keep
Google Keep is a free note-taking software that comes with your Google account.
Keep has an interesting format: when you log in to Keep, you’re given a kind of digital corkboard. Your notes will appear as small boxes on the corkboard and can be arranged as necessary. You can also pin certain notes that you use frequently. They’ll show up at the top of the screen.
You can change the color of the notes, add labels, or add reminders right from this corkboard. You can also add drawings or images with a click of an icon.
Sharing is also pretty easy. You can add a collaborator to any individual note—it sends them an email invite.
It isn’t the most robust note-taker, but it is free and has a solid visual presentation. It’s also mobile-friendly.
Our only real caveat here is to be aware that Google has a track record for abandoning software. This may be relevant only if you’re thinking of adopting Google Keep for a large company or for mission-critical notes. If Google Keep is for your personal use, it’s probably not a big deal.
Evernote 2 Device Limit
Is Evernote the best fit for you?
Evernote 2020 Calendar Template
What is Evernote’s defining, most persuasive feature? That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and how you take notes. Do you want to share your notes with team members?
And, lastly, consider your budget.
If you want to spend as little money as possible (ideally, nothing), Google Keep and Evernote’s free versions are solid choices. Evernote has more features but is bloated. Google Keep is faster but also simpler.
If sharing your notes is more important, Evernote Premium and Bear have robust collaboration options.
If you’re a visual person who enjoys more physical-looking notes, Google Keep and OneNote fit the bill.
As you can see, Evernote isn’t the only game in town. It’s not even the best game in town. But it is pretty versatile and well-supported, and it works fine for many people.
Check out our full review of Evernote for a more detailed breakdown of what Evernote does best and where it needs work.