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Evernote’s free plan is now 50 notes, one notebook, one device and 1 GB of monthly uploads. That is the whole free tier.
Understanding who owns it explains the rest, and it is the same company that just bought Airtable.
Free tiers and limits were checked against each vendor’s own pages on 6 September 2026.
The best Evernote alternatives at a glance
One you already own, one you can buy once, and one that encrypts everything.
Microsoft OneNote
Free, and already installed
FreeUpNote
Buy it, do not rent it
Free tier, one-off licenceNotesnook
Encrypted and open source
Free tier, paid ProMicrosoft OneNote
The obvious free swap
The closest thing to what Evernote used to be: unlimited notes, notebooks and devices, web clipper, handwriting, audio, and search inside images. Notes live in OneDrive, so storage counts against that quota rather than a note cap. The freeform page layout suits some people and annoys others, but nothing else on this list gives you this much for nothing.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, and it is the product. Free with a Microsoft account, on every platform, with no note or device limit.
UpNote
One payment, done
A fast, clean writing app that most Evernote refugees describe as what they wanted Evernote to be. Notebooks, nested notes, tags, links between notes, and sync across desktop and mobile. The reason it keeps winning these threads is the lifetime licence: pay once, and no acquisition can change your monthly bill.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, with a note limit. Premium is available as a subscription or a one-time purchase.
Notesnook
Encrypted by default
Open source and end-to-end encrypted, so the company hosting your notes cannot read them. That matters more than it used to: if ownership can change hands overnight, encryption is the only guarantee that survives it. Imports directly from Evernote, including notebooks and tags. Fast, actively developed, and honest about what the free plan includes.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, with unlimited notes and devices; Pro adds attachments and publishing.
Standard Notes
Built to outlast companies
The most conservative option here, in the good sense. Encrypted, open source, auditable, and deliberately plain: the free plan is unlimited notes in plain text, and paid tiers add rich text, markdown editors and file storage. If your priority is that your notes still open in ten years, this is the design that assumes companies do not last.
Free tier: Free tier: yes. Unlimited encrypted notes and unlimited devices on the free plan.
Google Keep
For quick capture only
Not an Evernote replacement, and worth saying so plainly. It is a very good capture tool: instant, searchable, syncs everywhere, handles voice notes and photos with OCR. It has no notebooks, no formatting to speak of and no structure. Many people end up pairing it with something heavier rather than choosing between them.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, and there is no paid tier. Storage counts against your Google account.
Amplenote
Notes that become tasks
Built on the idea that a note is usually a thing you have to do. Tasks written inside a note get scored and scheduled into your calendar, so the note and the follow-up stay in one place. Good for people whose Evernote was really a to-do list wearing a disguise.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, with limits on notes and features.
| # | Tool | Best for | Free tier | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Microsoft OneNote | The obvious free swap | Yes, genuinely free | Free |
| 02 | UpNote | One payment, done | Yes, limited notes | Free tier, one-off licence available |
| 03 | Notesnook | Encrypted by default | Yes, unlimited notes | Free tier, paid Pro |
| 04 | Standard Notes | Built to outlast companies | Yes, unlimited notes | Free tier, paid Pro |
| 05 | Google Keep | For quick capture only | Yes, fully free | Free |
| 06 | Amplenote | Notes that become tasks | Yes, limited | Free tier, paid plans |
What the free plan is now
Checked on Evernote’s own comparison page on 6 September 2026: the free plan allows 50 notes, one notebook, one connected device and 1 GB of monthly uploads.
For a product whose entire reputation was built on “remember everything”, 50 notes is the number to sit with. If you are reading this because you hit a wall, that is the wall.
What actually happened to Evernote
People search for the downfall, and the answer is mostly a change of owner.
Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons, an Italian software company. What followed is documented and not disputed: large layoffs, including 129 Evernote staff in one round, and substantial subscription price rises, alongside the tightening of the free tier described above.
That is a legitimate business model. Buy a product with loyal users, cut the cost base, raise the price to what the remaining users will pay. It is simply not a model that rewards being a loyal user.
The reason to mention it here rather than as gossip: in August 2026 the same company acquired Airtable for $1.28 billion, and the reaction from Airtable teams was immediate for exactly this reason. If you want the fuller picture, our Airtable alternatives guide covers that side.
Evernote alternatives compared
Cheapest paid tier and what the free tier really allows, checked against each vendor’s own page on 6 September 2026.
Getting your notes out
Do this first, before you choose anything. Export is the step people postpone and then regret.
Evernote exports notebooks as ENEX files, which carry note content, tags, timestamps and attachments. Most alternatives import them directly: Notesnook, UpNote, Standard Notes, Joplin and Obsidian all read ENEX, with varying success on nested tags and formatting.
Two things to check on the other side. Whether attachments come across as files or as broken links, and whether your notebook structure survives or flattens into tags. Test with your largest notebook, not your smallest.
If you are on the free plan, note that the export still works, but the one-device limit can make it fiddly. Do it from a desktop.
Choose on ownership, not features
The lesson of the last three years in this category is not about features. Every app here writes and syncs notes competently.
What differs is what happens when the company changes. There are three defences, and they are worth ranking.
Buy once. A lifetime licence, as UpNote offers, means a new owner cannot raise your monthly bill because there isn’t one.
Encrypt. With Notesnook or Standard Notes, whoever ends up owning the servers cannot read your notes. Ownership stops being a privacy question.
Own the files. Plain files in a folder you control are the strongest form of this. If that appeals, our Obsidian alternatives guide covers the Markdown-file approach in depth.
Free is the weakest defence, because free products are the ones most likely to change. OneNote is the exception mainly because Microsoft is selling you Microsoft 365 rather than the notes app.
How we test and price these tools
Free tiers and limits on this page were read from each vendor’s own pages in a browser on 6 September 2026. Where we do not quote a paid price, it is because the vendor’s page did not display a reliable figure in our region, and we would rather leave a gap than publish a converted guess.
For note apps we record three things: what the free plan actually caps, whether the export produces something another app can read, and whether the notes are encrypted so that the host cannot read them. Feature lists come last, because every app here handles the basics.
We read current Reddit threads for each tool, so the picks reflect what people are moving to this year. No vendor pays for a place on this list.
Evernote alternatives FAQs
Taken from Google’s results and current threads on Reddit.
How we test01 Is there a free version of Evernote anymore?
Yes, but it is small: 50 notes, one notebook, one device and 1 GB of monthly uploads. That is enough to try the app and not enough to use it. OneNote, Google Keep, Notesnook and Standard Notes all offer genuinely unlimited free notes.
02 What was the downfall of Evernote?
Years of feature drift, then a change of owner. Bending Spoons acquired it, made large layoffs including 129 Evernote staff, raised subscription prices and cut the free tier to 50 notes. Users did not leave because a competitor got better. They left because the deal changed.
03 What is the best free Evernote replacement?
OneNote if you want the closest match at no cost: unlimited notes, notebooks and devices, plus a web clipper and handwriting. Notesnook if you want unlimited free notes that are also end-to-end encrypted. Google Keep only if you are really just capturing quick thoughts.
04 Can I move my notes out of Evernote?
Yes. Export notebooks as ENEX files, which carry content, tags, timestamps and attachments. Notesnook, UpNote, Standard Notes, Joplin and Obsidian all import them. Test with your largest notebook first, and check whether attachments arrive as real files rather than broken links.
05 Which alternative can I buy once instead of subscribing?
UpNote offers a one-time purchase alongside its subscription, which is the main reason it keeps coming up in these threads. Buying outright is the simplest protection against a future owner changing the pricing.
06 Which note app is most private?
Notesnook and Standard Notes, both open source and end-to-end encrypted, so the company hosting the notes cannot read them. That matters when ownership can change overnight: encryption is the only guarantee that survives an acquisition.
07 Is OneNote as good as Evernote was?
Close, and free. It matches Evernote on unlimited notes, devices, web clipping, handwriting and search inside images. It differs on layout: OneNote pages are a freeform canvas rather than a document, which some people prefer and others find messy. Try one notebook before you move everything.
Browse every alternatives guide, or start with the productivity category.