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Migration guide · Notes & Knowledge

The 3 best Evernote alternatives

Evernote is a cloud note-taking app for capturing text notes, web clips, scanned documents, and to-dos, with strong OCR-powered search across attachments and a well-known browser Web Clipper. It stores everything in Evernote's own proprietary account format (exportable as .enex XML) and syncs it across devices from Evernote's cloud. Acquired by Bending Spoons in 2023, the product went through a major repricing in late 2025 that replaced the old Personal/Professional plans with capacity-capped Starter and Advanced tiers.

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Bottom line

Joplin is our top pick — A free, open-source, Markdown-based note app with end-to-end encrypted sync and native Evernote import. We compare all 3 options below, with honest trade-offs.

Jump to the full comparison →

The cost

Free tier: 50 notes, 1 notebook, 1 device, 1GB storage. Starter: $8.25/month billed annually ($99/yr) or $14.99/month billed monthly — 1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, 3 devices, 5GB storage. Advanced (recommended tier on Evernote's own pricing page): $20.83/month billed annually ($249.99/yr) or $24.99-$24/month billed monthly — unlimited notes/notebooks/storage/devices (subject to unpublished 'safeguard limits'). Team plans (Flexible) start around $10-14.99/seat/month; Enterprise is custom-priced. Verified directly against evernote.com/pricing and evernote.com/compare-plans, July 2026.

Why people consider an alternative

People look for an Evernote alternative mainly over the November 2025 repricing, which retired the old unlimited-once-you-pay Personal/Professional plans and replaced them with hard capacity caps (1,000 notes on Starter, and 'safeguard limits' even on the nominally 'unlimited' Advanced tier) — long-time users who accumulated years of notes were pushed toward the pricier Advanced tier just to keep their existing notebook count. Others want their notes, clippings, and attachments stored as portable files on infrastructure they control rather than Evernote's proprietary cloud format, or want a free tier that isn't limited to a single device. This isn't a knock on the product: Evernote's OCR-backed search, Web Clipper, and cross-platform polish remain genuinely strong — the alternative is usually chosen for cost predictability, portability, or offline-first ownership, not a technical shortcoming.

When Evernote is still the right call

If your workflow depends on Evernote's OCR-searchable scanned documents and Web Clipper, or you're a team that wants a fully-hosted, zero-maintenance product with dedicated support and SSO (Enterprise tier), Evernote remains a mature, well-supported choice — nobody has to run a server, and the search quality across large note libraries is still excellent.

The verdict — at a glance

AlternativeLicenseSelf-hostPricingSovereignty
Joplin★AGPL-3.0 (app + CLI); optional Joplin Server sync under a separate personal-use licenseYesCore app is free forever with no note/device caps. Sync is free if you bring your own WebDAV/Nextcloud/S3/Dropbox target, or self-host Joplin Server for personal use at no cost; Joplin Cloud (managed hosted sync) starts around $2.99/month.88
TriliumNext NotesAGPL-3.0YesFree and open source, unlimited notes and self-hosting. A third-party paid sync-hosting service exists for readers who don't want to run their own server, but self-hosting the sync server yourself costs nothing.87
Standard NotesAGPL-3.0YesFree tier: unlimited plain-text notes, unlimited devices, 100MB total storage, no rich text/attachments/history. Paid Productivity tier: $90/year (Markdown, rich text, spreadsheets, unlimited history). Professional tier: $120/year (adds 100GB encrypted file storage, family sharing). Self-hosting the sync server is free.80
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Macrostack's top pick

Joplin

A free, open-source, Markdown-based note app with end-to-end encrypted sync and native Evernote import.

Every alternative, compared

#1★ TOP PICK

Joplin

A free, open-source, Markdown-based note app with end-to-end encrypted sync and native Evernote import.

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OPEN SOURCEAGPL-3.0 (app + CLI); optional Joplin Server sync under a separate personal-use licenseSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Joplin stores every note as a plain Markdown file (with attachments alongside), so your notes stay readable and portable outside the app itself. It runs on desktop, mobile, and terminal, supports optional end-to-end encryption, and imports Evernote .enex exports natively — notebooks, tags, and attachments included. Sync works over your own Nextcloud/WebDAV/S3/Dropbox, Joplin Cloud (a paid hosted option), or a self-hosted Joplin Server.

Strengths

  • +Notes stored as plain local Markdown files — genuinely portable, readable by other tools, and easy to back up outside the app
  • +Native .enex importer designed specifically for migrating from Evernote, including notebooks, tags, and attachments
  • +No note, notebook, or device caps on the free core app — unlike Evernote's tiered limits
  • +Choice of sync backend: your own cloud storage, self-hosted Joplin Server, or paid Joplin Cloud

Trade-offs

  • −The official self-hosted Joplin Server component is source-available under a Personal-Use-only license, not a plain OSI license — fine for an individual, but read the license before using it commercially
  • −OCR and full-text search across scanned/image attachments is far less capable than Evernote's
  • −UI is more utilitarian than Evernote's polish; no built-in Web Clipper-style page capture as refined as Evernote's
Core app is free forever with no note/device caps. Sync is free if you bring your own WebDAV/Nextcloud/S3/Dropbox target, or self-host Joplin Server for personal use at no cost; Joplin Cloud (managed hosted sync) starts around $2.99/month.
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#2

TriliumNext Notes

A self-hosted, tree-structured personal knowledge base built for power users with very large note collections.

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OPEN SOURCEAGPL-3.0SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

TriliumNext Notes (the actively maintained community continuation of the original zadam/Trilium, which was archived) organizes notes as an unlimited-depth tree where a single note can be cloned into multiple places — a strong fit for readers building a large, deeply cross-referenced personal wiki rather than simple flat notebooks. It runs as a desktop app or a self-hosted server (Docker image available) with notes stored in a local SQLite database, plus per-note encryption, scripting, and a REST API for automation.

Strengths

  • +Handles very large note collections (100,000+ notes) smoothly — a genuine strength over flatter note apps at serious scale
  • +Rich structural features (note cloning, relation maps, scripting, kanban/table/geo-map views) well beyond Evernote's flat notebook model
  • +Fully free and self-hostable with an official Docker image and active weekly release cadence
  • +Per-note AES-128 encryption for sensitive entries

Trade-offs

  • −No official mobile app — mobile access is via browser/PWA or an unofficial third-party Android client (TriliumDroid)
  • −The steep organizational power (tree + clones + relations) has a real learning curve versus Evernote's simple notebook-and-tag model
  • −Notes live in a local SQLite database rather than plain files, so raw-file portability is lower than Joplin's Markdown-file approach
Free and open source, unlimited notes and self-hosting. A third-party paid sync-hosting service exists for readers who don't want to run their own server, but self-hosting the sync server yourself costs nothing.
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#3

Standard Notes

A privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted notes app, open source and self-hostable, now part of Proton.

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OPEN SOURCEAGPL-3.0SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Standard Notes is built around zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption: notes are encrypted on-device before they ever reach a server, so not even Standard Notes (or Proton, which acquired the company in April 2024) can read them. The app is open source and its sync server can be self-hosted, though the free tier is limited to plain-text notes — rich text, Markdown, spreadsheets, and file attachments require a paid plan or self-hosted setup with community extensions.

Strengths

  • +Audited zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption by default — stronger baseline privacy than Evernote's standard cloud storage
  • +AGPL-3.0 open source, with a self-hostable sync server for readers who want full control
  • +Unlimited notes and devices even on the free tier — no per-device cap like Evernote's single-device free plan
  • +Backed by Proton's long-term privacy-focused funding model since the 2024 acquisition, a signal of stability

Trade-offs

  • −Free tier is plain-text only — rich text, Markdown rendering, and file attachments require a paid subscription, a real step down from Evernote's richer free formatting
  • −No OCR or document-scanning search comparable to Evernote's
  • −100MB storage cap on the free tier is tight for anyone attaching files or images
Free tier: unlimited plain-text notes, unlimited devices, 100MB total storage, no rich text/attachments/history. Paid Productivity tier: $90/year (Markdown, rich text, spreadsheets, unlimited history). Professional tier: $120/year (adds 100GB encrypted file storage, family sharing). Self-hosting the sync server is free.
WebsiteSourceDocs

Questions people ask

▸ Which alternative is the closest replacement for Evernote's day-to-day workflow?

Joplin is the closest like-for-like fit: it has a purpose-built .enex importer for migrating straight from Evernote, no note-count caps on the free app, and a similar notebook-and-tag mental model, while storing everything as portable Markdown files instead of a proprietary format.

▸ Did Evernote really remove its old unlimited-with-payment plans?

Yes — in November 2025 Evernote retired the long-standing Personal and Professional plans and replaced them with Starter (capacity-capped at 1,000 notes/20 notebooks/3 devices) and Advanced (nominally 'unlimited' but subject to unpublished safeguard limits). Existing Personal/Professional subscribers were rolled into Advanced at renewal unless they actively downgraded to Starter. Some older reviews and listicles still describe the retired plan structure; check evernote.com/pricing for the current tiers.

▸ Is TriliumNext the same project as the original Trilium?

TriliumNext/Notes is the actively maintained community fork that continued development after the original creator (zadam) stepped back and archived zadam/trilium. The original maintainer has since transferred the GitHub organization to the TriliumNext team, and the project now develops under github.com/TriliumNext/Trilium — the older TriliumNext/Notes repo is itself now archived in favor of that consolidated home, so readers should follow the current Trilium repo rather than older forum links to the archived one.

▸ Is Standard Notes still trustworthy after being acquired by Proton?

Proton acquired Standard Notes in April 2024 and has publicly committed to keeping it open source, freely available, and at unchanged pricing — the same approach Proton took with its earlier SimpleLogin acquisition. The app and sync server remain AGPL-3.0 and self-hostable independent of Proton's own infrastructure, so the acquisition doesn't reduce your ability to run it yourself.

▸ Can any of these alternatives do Evernote-style OCR search on scanned documents or images?

Not natively, and not to the same depth. None of Joplin, Standard Notes, or TriliumNext ship Evernote's built-in OCR indexing for scanned PDFs and photographed text out of the box — if that specific capability is central to your workflow, it's one of the areas where Evernote's paid tiers remain genuinely ahead.

Compare them head-to-head

Joplin vs TriliumNext Notes→Joplin vs Standard Notes→TriliumNext Notes vs Standard Notes→

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Entry last verified 2026-07-12. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.

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