If you're an Evernote user, you may have considered looking for an alternative to this note management app, especially considering that free users are now limited to fifty notes and one notebook, in addition to only being able to sync between two devices. Evernote is a very popular and useful tool, but paying to overcome such limitations is not for me. Therefore, in this article I am going to present you some options that can replace Evernote and offer you advantages in different aspects..
What features should a good alternative to Evernote have?
Before going into detail about the different alternatives to Evernote, it is important to be clear about what features a good note management application should have. These are some of the most important ones:
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- Ease of use: A notes app should be intuitive, simple and quick to use. We don't want to waste time learning how to use it or looking for hidden functions.
- Synchronization: a notes application must allow us to access our notes from different devices, whether computers, mobile phones or tablets. In addition, it must guarantee the security and privacy of our data.
- Organization: It should also offer us options to organize our notes efficiently, whether through labels, folders, colors or any other system that helps us find what we are looking for.
- Format: We should be able to create notes with different formats, such as text, images, audio, video or attachments. In addition, it must make it easier for us to edit and format the notes so that they are more readable and attractive.
- Features: a notes application must have features that help us improve our productivity and creativity, such as reminders, to-do lists, templates, integrations with other applications or collaboration tools.
What alternatives to Evernote exist?
Taking these characteristics into account, we are going to see some of the most popular alternatives to Evernote and their main advantages and disadvantages.
Joplin
Joplin is a free and open source application that is very similar to Evernote in its design and operation, although in my opinion it works faster and is minimalist. It is the app that I currently use and that is why I will expand a little more on it. It allows you to create notes with rich text and images, organize them in notebooks and label them..
This Evernote alternative can sync with services like Dropbox or One Drive to access notes from multiple devices. In fact, this is what you must necessarily do to sync your notes for free between all the devices you want and avoid paying for the Joplin cloud. And it is recommended that you activate password encryption to protect yourself when you do that synchronization.
Syncing notes through OneDrive or Dropbox requires that you have an account with these services, which will act as the intermediary hosting between your devices, from which notes will be downloaded and uploaded. When you use Joplin on your PC, turning on sync logs you in with your OneDrive or Dropbox account. You will be prompted for access through the Firewall to complete this configuration. Once you sign in to your OneDrive or Dropbox account, the authorization is done. On Android you also choose the synchronization destination to one of these services and that's it. In my case, here the option to log in with my account took a couple of minutes to appear..
To migrate your notes, you must export them from Evernote as a Markdown file (it can be multiple files if you have multiple notebooks or notes) and then import into Joplin. I wouldn't recommend exporting from Evernote as HTML unless you know what you're doing.
Download on Google Play
OneNote, Microsoft's alternative to Evernote
Microsoft's OneNote is another alternative to Evernote that is part of the Office package. It is a very complete and powerful tool that allows you to create notes with all types of formats and integrate them with other Microsoft applications such as Word or Excel. In addition, it offers very flexible and customizable organization options through sections, pages and subpages.
This is exactly what I didn't like about OneNote. Everything is fine on the mobile, but on the computer I have the feeling of being in a shortened version of Word . Also, when trying to install it on my PC it asked me to first uninstall my Office , Visio and Project, probably because it was a 2021 version. I didn't bother find a solution to this.
Download on Google Play
Google Keep
Google Keep is an alternative application to Evernote that is mainly characterized by its simplicity and speed. It allows you to create notes with text, images, audio or lists and organize them using colors or labels. In addition, it synchronizes with our Google account and integrates with other applications such as Gmail or Google Calendar. The big problem with Google Keep is that you cannot import notes from Evernote and the lack of formatting or editing options.
Download on Google Play
Notion, innovative option to Evernote
Notion is perhaps one of the most innovative Evernote alternatives, as it combines the functions of a notes application with those of a database. It allows you to create all types of content, from texts and images to tables, graphs or calendars. In addition, it offers a very flexible organization system through blocks that can be nested and reordered. Notion is designed for a particular niche of users. If you are only looking for a notes app, it is too complex and even confusing, considering for example that in the notes what stands out the least is its content.
What I did like about Notion is that you can migrate your notes just by logging in with your Evernote account.
Download on Google Play
Conclusion
Although Joplin does not have the extensive integration with other apps, as Evernote does, I consider it to be the best alternative to Evernote and the rest of the applications mentioned. I have the feeling of being in SimpleNote , but covered by all the features it offers. I haven't even felt that way in Google Keep, despite it being a simple app as well. I think Evernote has done me a favor by limiting the number of notes to fifty and forcing me to find an alternative. There are plenty of other note apps out there, but I don't want to and don't recommend using software that's just hitting the market because there's no telling how long it will last. Personally I prefer to use consolidated services.
