The Top 6 Free Evernote Alternatives
Evernote is one of the most popular note-taking apps of all time. It’s been around for over a decade, and if your work involves any kind of note-taking, you’ve likely heard of it. Users love its ability to sync notes across devices, handle a wide variety of use cases, and support content like images, audio, and scanned documents. But no one app can be everything to everybody, and today, there’s a slew of other note-taking apps giving Evernote a run for its money. Whether you’re looking for a note-taking experience that’s more beautiful, more intuitive, or easier to share, there’s a perfect Evernote alternative out there for you.
Here are six Evernote alternatives to consider, if you’re looking to switch to a new note-taking app.
Notion
Notion is a flexible work platform designed for teams. While it’s great for note-taking, it’s also a project management tool and digital workspace. Notion keeps everyone informed, in touch, and working collaboratively.
Features
As a tool for taking and sharing notes, Notion is a great alternative to Evernote. But it can help you keep the rest of your work organized, too. You’ll be able to assign tasks to different team members, and store all different types of content related to your projects, from images to bits of code. You can also create a wiki for your team that stores all information relevant to your project in one place.
Notion organizes its content into “blocks.” You can organize those blocks however works best for your team, or use one of Notion’s thousands of available templates — including many designed specifically for notes.
Biggest Drawbacks
Notion really stands out for its customizability. Thanks to its blank-canvas design and powerful, flexible nature, you can make Notion into whatever you need it to be.
However, that also means that if it’s strictly note-taking you’re looking for, you might prefer Evernote. If all you want to do is take notes, choosing one of Notion’s templates before you even get started can feel like wasted time — especially if you won’t be making full use of the robust suite of other features it offers.
Pricing
While Notion does offer a free Personal plan, most people will be using it for team collaboration — and that doesn’t exactly come cheap.
Notion’s Team plan costs $8 per user, per month. Well worth it if you need its project management capabilities, but maybe not a justifiable expense if you just need a collaborative note-taking app.
Need to integrate Notion with other work tools? Here’s how Unito can do it for you.
Google Keep
Google Keep and Evernote are both note-taking apps, but that’s where their similarities end. These two systems can both help you work better, but they’re designed for very different needs. Here’s what you need to know.
Features
Evernote is kind of like a virtual binder or journal, designed for longer, in-depth notes. As an Evernote alternative, Google Keep is a virtual surface you can cover in short, timely, and actionable digital sticky notes.
For example, you might use Evernote for taking notes during your undergrad psychology lecture or executive leadership retreat. You wouldn’t use Google Keep that way — instead, you’d jot down small bits of information that you want to be easily accessible, like to-do lists or your child’s soccer schedule.
You can color-code or label Google Keep’s notes by topic, and they’re also sharable in case you want to collaborate on a note (for example, you could have different family members add to a shopping list). However, even if you aren’t diligent about organizing your notes, you can easily search through them to find what you need.
Because it integrates with the rest of Google’s apps, Google Keep is especially great for reminders. If you enter a date into your notes, it will pop up on your Google calendar, and you can set location-based reminders, too.
Biggest Drawbacks
As we mentioned, comparing Evernote and Google Keep is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Google Keep can’t handle the kind of in-depth, super-organized notes that Evernote can — but that’s not what it was designed to do, either.
Pricing
Google Keep is free to use — the only thing you might need to pay for is Google Drive storage. Since it’s intended for simple, on-the-go note-taking, you might not find that you need to upgrade your storage. But if you do, you can buy 100GB of Google Drive storage for just $1.99/month.
ClickUp
ClickUp’s the one app to rule them all, a work tool that combines tasks, chat, documents, and more all in one place. Think of it as a work management tool — like Asana or Wrike — with extra features to replace other tools in your stack.
Features
On top of a strong work hub, ClickUp has two note-taking features: Docs and Notepad. Combined, they can serve as a strong Evernote alternative. Work on new documents, keep track of your notes, and more, without leaving your work hub.
With Docs, you can create any kind of document you might write up in Microsoft Word. You also have the ability to create nested pages, embed bookmarks, add tables, and more. That gives you the flexibility of creating long-form content, wikis, and other documents while working collaboratively.
Conversely, the Notepad is a bit more like a typical note-taking tool. You can quickly draft meeting notes, create checklists, or jot down ideas for later without leaving ClickUp. Best of all, you can automatically turn notes into a ClickUp task, so you can add them to your workflow without any extra work.
The strength of ClickUp’s Docs and Notepad features is that they come nested in a work hub. If you’re already using ClickUp, that means you don’t have to add another tool to your stack to take notes. If you’re not, well this is a good place to start.
Biggest Drawbacks
You’ll definitely get more out of ClickUp’s Docs and Notepad if you’re already using ClickUp as your work hub. If you’re using another platform for task management, you might find it a bit awkward to switch back and forth just to take notes.
Pricing
ClickUp offers one of the most robust free plans out there. Remember that you’re not just getting a note-taking app, you’re getting an Evernote alternative that’s also a strong work hub. You can upgrade to a paid plan for more storage, better reporting, and other premium features. These plans range from $5 per member (monthly) to $19 per member (monthly).
Need to integrate ClickUp with other work tools? Here’s how Unito can do it for you.
OneNote
OneNote is a serious contender as an Evernote alternative — especially if you’re a Microsoft devotee.
Features
Microsoft OneNote was created as a blank canvas for nearly any type of note-taking, from typing to writing and drawing with a stylus. You can even record video and audio notes from within the app, or scan paper documents and convert them into text using OneNote’s Ocular Character Recognition (OCR) tool.
OneNote is a great pick for Microsoft users since it integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft apps like Excel or Word. You can highlight and annotate your notes using a stylus or fingertip, and share your notes for easy collaboration.
Biggest Drawbacks
While OneNote is powerful, it isn’t especially intuitive — some users find its interface to be confusing and somewhat dated. And while it does have a good search function, its organizational powers don’t extend much beyond tagging or color-coding your virtual notes and notebooks.
Pricing
Because OneNote is pretty similar to Evernote, price is an important question — and OneNote definitely has a leg up here, because it’s free! None of OneNote’s many powerful features are locked away behind paid plans.
That being said, you will have to pay for storage if you’re saving lots of notes, or very large files (like video). But that’s not terribly expensive — you can get an extra 100GB of OneDrive space for just $1.99/month.
Notejoy
Like Notion, Notejoy is designed for teams. But instead of going general, Notejoy specializes — it’s all about amazing, collaborative note-taking.
Features
Notejoy boasts a clean, beautiful, and fast user experience without dozens of complicated, unnecessary features. This Evernote alternative is simple by design to help your team focus on the task at hand— taking clear and useful notes!
Everyone on your team can work together and collaborate on Notejoy’s shared documents, which can also accommodate many other kinds of files like external documents, images, audio, and more. Like OneNote, Notejoy also allows you to search text content inside PDFs, images, and other documents using OCR.
Notejoy also makes editing and discussion easy. You and your coworkers will be able to react to notes and workshop them together in threaded comment chains.
Biggest Drawbacks
Notejoy is a strong Evernote competitor, but it does come with a few drawbacks. First of all, it’s a web-based application, so you won’t be able to use it — or access any of your notes — offline. There’s also no ability to draw in Notejoy: typed notes only. It also doesn’t support tables, which could be a dealbreaker if you’re handling numerical data like financial or sales information.
Pricing
Notejoy offers several different pricing tiers. The free version allows up to three team “libraries,” each of which can accommodate up to five users, but you can only create five virtual notebooks. Storage is limited, too.
Their Solo plan offers a single user unlimited storage for $4/month, and they offer Team plans at $8 or $12/month per user, with varying levels of storage.
Zoho Notebook
Zoho Notebook is a free, flexible, and beautiful app that gives Evernote a run for its money. Here’s what makes it special.
Features
Where Zoho Notebook really shines is its agility. Plenty of apps can handle many different kinds of notes, from audio to photos and checklists. But in Zoho Notebook, each type of content is displayed on an optimized, color-coded card, which you can group into topic-relevant notebooks.
The notes sync across all your devices, and they’re easily shareable with friends and colleagues. Zoho’s “Smart Card” feature is especially useful. If you drop in some quick notes, the app will automatically format them. For example, it can detect if the content of your note is a recipe and rearrange the text so it’s easier to read.
Each notebook and individual notecard gets its own custom image. To sum up, this Evernote alternative is perfect if you find well-organized, aesthetically pleasing notes to be a good motivator!
Biggest Drawbacks
First of all, Zoho Notebook is a web-based application, so you won’t be able to use it offline. But beyond that, it doesn’t offer quite as many features as Evernote does. For example, it can’t forward your notes as emails, nor can it scan handwriting and convert it to text.
Also, you’re limited to the card-style view of your notes and notebooks. Compared to a list view, that can get a little clunky if you have dozens or hundreds of notes to scroll through.
Pricing
Zoho Notebook is completely free to use! There are no paid plans, storage limits, or locked features. That makes it a great choice if you’re looking for a simple, streamlined note-taking app with a beautiful design.
Notes for everyone
Evernote isn’t going anywhere — it’s a full-featured, powerful app, and many people rely on it every day.
But it’s no longer your only option for taking incredible virtual notes. With this many Evernote alternatives on the market, there’s no need to compromise when you’re looking for the perfect note-taking system.
Whether you’re looking for collaboration, integration, flexibility, or visual appeal, you’ll find a note-taking app to consider here.
Going with Notion?
Find out how Unito can help you get more out of Notion and the rest of your tool stack.