Evernote has introduced new pricing that limits free usage to two devices and generally raises the cost for paid users.

You can read the announcement here:

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2016/06/28/changes-to-evernotes-pricing-plans/

A comparative matrix for the new plans is at:

https://evernote.com/pricing/

Offline client is not available for the basic account. For me it's time to move to other software

I'd infer that the announcement implies that the internal economics of Evernote continue to be stressed, despite the corrective actions taken in the last few months. Hitherto, despite (to my mind) the weaknesses of the design of its UI, I've stayed with EN because of its platform-universality, and its low-cost integration-capability with other software, such as Omnifocus. But it seems to me that for cross-platform note-taking, filing and storage this announcement may make other applications such as OneNote and Notebooks more attractive for my purposes, despite the feature-gap between the Mac and Windows versions of the former, and the relatively staid UI design of the latter.

My interpretation of this announcement along with the fact that EN stressed their return to core functionality is that they've concluded they can't make money from selling other crap, so they need to recoup it with their service. If this is indeed what they are doing, I don't begrudge them the price hike. What I do begrudge them is creating such a slipshod UI... it's like a shape shifter depending upon which device or OS you're using. This frustrates me no end. That's the reason I continually look around for another option, but like you, Hugh, I've stuck with it due to the universality of EN.

Steve Z.

Woohoo, I paid for the renewal of my subscription a few weeks ago.
But it's really time to say goodbye. I'll take another look at Alfons Schmid's Notebooks. The only problem will be how to get the EN stuff into Notebooks (or a different multiplatform notetaker).

Glad I switched to OneNote over a year ago. No desire to go back to Evernote at all.

I've checked the alternatives to Evernote (Windows):

Alfons Schmid’s Notebooks (https://www.notebooksapp.com/ - crashes after trying to add a pdf file
Sorting Thoughts (http://www.sortingthoughts.de/blog/ - doesn't open at all

The only contenders left are Onenote and Nimbus Notes (https://nimbus.everhelper.me/note.php . There were some doubts expressed here about the security and transparency of the latter. Does anybody have thoughts to share?

Franz Grieser wrote:

Woohoo, I paid for the renewal of my subscription a few weeks ago.
But it's really time to say goodbye. I'll take another look at Alfons
Schmid's Notebooks. The only problem will be how to get the EN stuff
into Notebooks (or a different multiplatform notetaker).

As you may be aware, DevonThink Pro Office will import EN notes which can then be exported (although I haven't tried using it for this purpose and I don't know about the other flavours of DT). I'm currently testing out cloudHQ (https://www.cloudhq.net/google_apps to get my EN material into OneNote. It's very early days, but so far only my Penultimate scratchings seem to be failing to come across (which may be a OneNote for Mac issue, rather than a failing of cloudHQ). Does Notebooks have a web presence? I don't think it does, unlike OneNote, and that would be an issue with using cloudHQ.

Hugh wrote:

As you may be aware, DevonThink Pro Office will import EN notes which
can then be exported (although I haven't tried using it for this purpose
and I don't know about the other flavours of DT). I'm currently testing
out cloudHQ (https://www.cloudhq.net/google_apps to get my EN material
into OneNote. It's very early days, but so far only my Penultimate
scratchings seem to be failing to come across (which may be a OneNote
for Mac issue, rather than a failing of cloudHQ). Does Notebooks have a
web presence? I don't think it does, unlike OneNote, and that would be
an issue with using cloudHQ.

Yes, I know. What keeps me from using DT is that there is no Windows version. I actually have licenses for the Mac and iPad version but have used them only for one project.
I experimented with RightNote but and managed to import EN notebooks. But the layout of web clippings was lost in most cases. And there is no iPad app.

Alfons' Notebooks does have no web interface, which is no dealbreaker for me, as Notebooks does sync via Dropbox.

I probably ought to add that my experience only applies to the Mac.

I believe that Microsoft have released an Evernote importer for OneNote for Windows, but none yet for OneNote for macOS (although one has been promised).

I have had a love-hate relationship with Evernote for nearly a decade, but during the past year and a half I have been gradually shifting most of my notes into OneNote, using the OneNote Batch converter. I miss Evernote's tags (and rapid syncing) but not much else.

I have also been experimenting lately with CintaNotes, which seems to work admirably for purely textual material such as my numerous lists of bibliographical references. CintaNotes has the best tagging system I've ever encountered.

Ghacks has posted a tutorial for moving from Evernote to OneNote, including for Mac:

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/06/29/migrate-evernote-onenote/

A lifehacks article, too: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-jump-ship-from-evernote-and-take-your-data-with-1782841075

I moved everything out to html files this morning. Most of the content I already moved to either SimpleNote or Notecase, but not a bad idea to have a backup. I can just load it into Chrome and search.

OneNote is different on every OS too -- isn't that unavoidable? It's a very complicated and expensive proposition to try to deploy, maintain, and enhance a common set of features across multiple OS and succeed at every one. The concept of a "universal" app is a pipe dream.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

My interpretation of this announcement along with the fact that EN
stressed their return to core functionality is that they've concluded
they can't make money from selling other crap, so they need to recoup it
with their service. If this is indeed what they are doing, I don't
begrudge them the price hike. What I do begrudge them is creating such a
slipshod UI... it's like a shape shifter depending upon which device or
OS you're using. This frustrates me no end. That's the reason I
continually look around for another option, but like you, Hugh, I've
stuck with it due to the universality of EN.

Steve Z.

Can't entirely agree with you, Paul. Look at DayOne for iOS and Mac... almost identical interface. Look at Scrivener for Mac and PC (and soon iOS). Look at Notebooks for iOS, Mac and PC. Look at TheBrain.

There are naturally going to be some differences, but with Evernote its like using different apps altogether. At least that's how it feels to me.

Steve Z.

Paul Korm wrote:

OneNote is different on every OS too -- isn't that unavoidable? It's a
very complicated and expensive proposition to try to deploy, maintain,
and enhance a common set of features across multiple OS and succeed at
every one. The concept of a "universal" app is a pipe dream.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
My interpretation of this announcement along with the fact that EN
>stressed their return to core functionality is that they've concluded
>they can't make money from selling other crap, so they need to recoup
it
>with their service. If this is indeed what they are doing, I don't
>begrudge them the price hike. What I do begrudge them is creating such
a
>slipshod UI... it's like a shape shifter depending upon which device or
>OS you're using. This frustrates me no end. That's the reason I
>continually look around for another option, but like you, Hugh, I've
>stuck with it due to the universality of EN.
>
>Steve Z.

Interesting and troubling for Evernote that no one seems to be chiming up and saying the service is worth the money. Doesn't bode well for EN's future viability. Does anyone on this forum think EN is a good service worth paying $70 a year for?

Steve Z.

Evernote Premium currently costs £44.99 p.a. in the UK (possibly more when the consequences of our very recent upheavals work their way through!). I imagine that's what you get for your $70 in the United States, Steve. Evernote Plus is £29.99 p.a., more affordable, and possibly justifiable - because, to adapt Joe Evans Brown in Some Like It Hot, "No app is perfect".

Steve, I have paid for Evernote for some time, and will not switch to the higher of the two paid sub options.

As readers here may be aware, I have long sought an alternative to EN, because the UI and information handling options are second rate IMO.

I clip a lot from the web, and of all the programs I have tried/used for that purpose, including OneNote and Pocket, EN is the best. OneNote is great when it works, but too often I find if messes up on full page clips.

The other plus with EN is that it works on my android phone the same as it does on my laptop in terms saving; ON will only save a url on my phone.

If ON clipped as well as EN, and worked on my phone as well as EN, I would likely be done with EN, and switch to ON.

One other concern with ON is whether it will function well with 10,000 plus items.

Daly

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Interesting and troubling for Evernote that no one seems to be chiming
up and saying the service is worth the money. Doesn't bode well for EN's
future viability. Does anyone on this forum think EN is a good service
worth paying $70 a year for?

Steve Z.

I've moved nearly all my various notes into OneNote, but I am still using Evernote for one digital project: a catalogue of William Morris's library (https://williammorrislibrary.wordpress.com/ done in collaboration with my wife. Here EN offers three advantages.

First, its syncing is quick and reliable. Though OneNote offers some intriguing possibilities in this area -- even allowing two persons to revise a note at the same time -- in practice the syncing seems quirky and slow to me.

Second, tags are just indispensable for a project like this. We need to be able to do queries such as "Give me a list of all the Morris books in the British Library that we have already seen but have not yet been posted on our website." In theory I suppose we could do that in OneNote, but it would be rather complicated. (In fact, I've done various experiments with tag-substitutes in ON.) It's incredibly simple in Evernote.

Third, from Evernote we can drag and drop illustrations directly onto our website (which is built on a WordPress foundation). We can't do that in OneNote or any other note-taking program I've tested so far.

Of these three considerations, the tagging is most crucial. If OneNote were ever to introduce a seriously improved tagging system, I suspect we would shift over to Onenote immediately.

__________________________

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Interesting and troubling for Evernote that no one seems to be chiming
up and saying the service is worth the money. Doesn't bode well for EN's
future viability. Does anyone on this forum think EN is a good service
worth paying $70 a year for?

Steve Z.

Evernote is not worth $70/year. Personally, I pay $45 (EN just auto-renewed it) because the $70 is for new subscriptions, not mine. $45 is probably too much, but I'm neutral on Evernote at that level or below. When I retire I'll kill it.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Interesting and troubling for Evernote that no one seems to be chiming
up and saying the service is worth the money. Doesn't bode well for EN's
future viability. Does anyone on this forum think EN is a good service
worth paying $70 a year for?

Steve Z.

Agree. $45 is tops.

Paul Korm wrote:

Evernote is not worth $70/year. Personally, I pay $45 (EN just
auto-renewed it) because the $70 is for new subscriptions, not mine.
$45 is probably too much, but I'm neutral on Evernote at that level or
below. When I retire I'll kill it.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Interesting and troubling for Evernote that no one seems to be chiming
>up and saying the service is worth the money. Doesn't bode well for
EN's
>future viability. Does anyone on this forum think EN is a good service
>worth paying $70 a year for?
>
>Steve Z.

xtabber wrote:

Ghacks has posted a tutorial for moving from Evernote to OneNote,
including for Mac:

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/06/29/migrate-evernote-onenote/

jaslar wrote:

A lifehacks article, too:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-jump-ship-from-evernote-and-take-your-data-with-1782841075

I moved everything out to html files this morning. Most of the content I
already moved to either SimpleNote or Notecase, but not a bad idea to
have a backup. I can just load it into Chrome and search.

Thanks for these suggestions. Unfortunately for Mac-users both sources propose either manual conversion, notebook by notebook, or installing a Windows virtual machine in order to use the Windows Evernote/OneNote converter. If you're moving everything to OneNote on a Mac (or indeed any other cloud storage that it serves), I still think that cloudHQ either on a trial or in its free version, or signed-up to its cheapest subscription version if you're currently using Evernote Plus or Premium, may be a low-cost efficient route (at least until the promised Evernote/OneNote converter for the Mac sees the light of day).

Today I learnt (credit DocumentSnap: http://www.documentsnap.com/pdo-spuhq/ of an application called ExportNote that promises to do what its name says, for the PC and Mac. Its website states: "ExportNote is the only application for Mac and PC that can export all your notes (including local, synchronized, shared and business notebooks) into a free and standard format while preserving the organization in stacks, notebooks, and notes." I haven't tried it yet - details here: http://www.exportnote.com

P.S. According to Brooks Duncan at DocumentSnap, searchable (i.e. OCR'd) PDFs are exported by ExportNote as searchable.

Sounded interesting so I bought it. Does the job - v e r y slowly -- takes about 15 seconds to export a note; so if someone wanted to export the whole Evernote data set it would be best to set ExportNote to go and come back the next day to check progress. Not the most professional app I've ever used -- interfaces look like what AppleScript produces. But it's not the kind of thing someone needs to be doing frequently, so clunky doesn't matter.

Hugh wrote:

Today I learnt (credit DocumentSnap:
http://www.documentsnap.com/pdo-spuhq/ of an application called
ExportNote that promises to do what its name says, for the PC and Mac.
Its website states: "ExportNote is the only application for Mac and PC
that can export all your notes (including local, synchronized, shared
and business notebooks) into a free and standard format while preserving
the organization in stacks, notebooks, and notes." I haven't tried it
yet - details here: http://www.exportnote.com