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What happened to Evernote? Where to go next?

34 points by posharma ↗ HN
The app is slow as hell. Where to go next?

I’m using Evernote on my iPhone SE with software version 15.4.1. Evernote version 10.27. It’s extremely slow. I forget what I want to write by the time the app opens up, I click on new note, cancel the upgrade dialog box, click on the text area to type after accidentally clicking on the template icon and waiting for it to close. WTH Evernote!

Where to go next? I already use onenote at work and the stupid thing mixes my personal and work notes when I add my personal account.

I use a windows PC. So apple notes is out.

Google Keep is a fleeting product. The moment you feel settled in they’ll uproot it.

51 comments

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thebiblelover7
Have you checked out Logseq? Joplin? All good alternatives IMO.
rafael09ed
I've been using Notion for the last 2 years. It has more complexity but it's exactly what I had been looking for for years
quintes
OneNote. I use it everywhere
rg111
It is a little bit clunky and somewhat bloaty.

Also, not available on Linux.

ay
https://standardnotes.com/ - I use it for the past few years and am quite happy with it. Text-only, but I view this as more of a feature…
mikeodds
If you install their extra editors you can include images in your notes although I find they do load slowly
LilBytes
User and subscriber of Standard Notes too. Works great.

Open source so you can self host if you wish but I'm a happy subscriber to their SaaS model.

skruban
Yup, I use Standard Notes for its privacy features. Got the 5 year plan some time ago, looks like they discontinued it.
joshxyz
Obsidian.md is nice, i can auto push my notes to a github repository.
deepakness
Depends on what you want:

- Obsidian - all the notes are stored offline on your computer which you can sync using GDrive or Dropbox if you want (has app for Windows)

- Notion - it's an all-in-one note-taking and project management tool, free to use and runs directly in the browser (however, if you write a lot, you might not like it)

- Logseq - if you prefer to take notes in bulleted format, free to use and cross-platform

rg111
Obsidian has a super reliable app for Linux, as well.

And you can use Mega (also has native app for Linux) for free sync.

deepakness
Indeed! I am using exactly the same combination of Obsidian + Mega on my Linux machine.

And, if you're a bit worried about privacy, use Cryptomator to encrypt all your notes before syncing to Mega.

simondebbarma
I simply did `git init` inside my Obsidian vault(folder) and store it on my Github; which is a more familiar option for most HN users.
egberts1
Joplin note app works on ownCloud/nextCloud/DropBox/iCloud or Joplin cloud.

The app is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. A terminal app is also available!

E2EE and fast client app.

Using it across five different platforms using my ownCloud, I am.

https://joplinapp.org/

Oh, yeah; front-end PIN too for mobile apps.

rg111
I would use this, but I dislike the UI very much.
egberts1
yeah, I too was stymied by its UI, but the need to traverse multi-platform trumped my need for ease of use.

YMMV.

vr46
Joplin is great. +1 for this and cross platform support
banku_brougham
i have problems with Joplin on ios ( most recent release).
akshatmittal108
I use Simplenote. It is quite minimal and if all you require is to store some notes, then it will work great else you might be better off with some more feature rich product. It is owned by Automatic (owners of wordpress) so I have hope that they'll keep it working without much drastic changes or need to monetize it.
rg111
I use Simplenote as well. I find it to be a simple, no-nonsense product with everything I need.

The editor understands Markdown, and you can make a note into a webpage with a single click, for free. Notion, Obsidian charge money for this.

I use Simplenote when I attend talks to take notes. Or make small listicles.

Their support is fantastic, too. Despite it being a free product, support responded to me every time I reached out to them (thrice in last 4/5 years), and promptly solved my problem.

mvdwoord
I checked out the website but fail to understand the business model? Who is paying for this and how? Like the features, but worry about continuity of the service without some form of payment.
akshatmittal108
It's a valid concern. Reasons why I continue to use it is because I like the product and I have trust in Automatic. They have a long history of supporting open source and it's far from their only product. They are making money via other products. At the same time, my life wouldn't stop if the product disappears tomorrow from the face of the earth. It would be a minor inconvenience.
approxim8ion
my understanding is that Automattic pay for it because it doesn't cost them much and their income comes from other sources, mainly WordPress. That is a pretty stable stream of income, but you're right that they could be treating this as a vanity project unless it makes a difference to their bottom line.
mobilio
I’m also migrated to SimpleNote and I’m happy.
drakonka
I gave up on Evernote when I started getting seemingly endless popups with discounts and deals to try to get me to sign up for a paid version. Overall, it seemed to become ad-ridden and bloated for me, and I didn't really need the vast majority of its features anymore.

Right now I use Workflowy for most of my note-taking. For more long-form Markdown formatted notes I use Obsidian.

henryonsoftware
I moved from Evernote to Notion and it's a right decision.
hadrien01
Notion doesn't have a native mobile app; it's so slow it's unusable.
notreallyserio
It feels plenty fast for me, what have you found to be slow? I wouldn't have thought it was non-native. Is it React Native or something?
bestbuyer__
Try Bear Notes, it's cross-platform and very sleek
sumedh
Android is not supported.
approxim8ion
Bear Notes is not really cross platform. iPhone, iPad and Mac are one platform for all intents and purposes.
nylonstrung
I was in the exact same situation and Obsidian is 1000% the move.

It is far more performant but also orders of magnitude more powerful thanks to the wealth of plugins available, and one of the best communities I've seen for any software product.

Teletio
I started using it but the plugin system is frightening.

No way for me to verify trust and apparently not a proper sandbox is provided.

I would love to use that semantic data plugin but I would prefer if it would be built in.

I'm still not running with any plugins.

NylaTheWolf
I'm pretty sure the vast majority of these plugins are open source, no?
Teletio
Yepp! And I started reading the code but gave up after a while because it's just that much to read and you would need to track changes.

First thing I did was forking it though

Cenk
I’ve switched to using Supernotes (https://supernotes.app) and I’ve been very happy with the features and especially the speed.
ceresone
I’ve been using Walling for all my notes. Its fast and fairly flexible, and allows you to arrange your notes in visual blocks and grids, if you wish.
8fingerlouie
I switched to simply using clear text notes, synchronized with standard cloud sync. You can then pile emacs, VS Code or even Obsidian on top of that, but the actual notes are in a directory structure consisting of clear text.

I already pay for cloud services, so no reason to add another subscription to the pile, with yet another login/password that may expose my information.

melbourne_au
I love notion. Evernote keeps renewing my subcription and keeps charnging me for it. I send them email to cancel it after my cancellation didnt work but no one responds. I'm not sure if any humans work at Evernote.
matt_s
All these notes people take - what percentage of them do you ever go back to reference? I suspect some peoples notes are like my bookmarks/favorites - long lists of things that "I might need" at some point and then just end up cleaning up years later.

I'm most always in front of a computer so I don't need mobile. I use sublime for code and whatever minimal notes I do take end up using the PlainTasks plugin. It lets you do todo's and has other features.

If its work related and needs sharing and isn't code (that belongs as comments) then I use whatever work doc sharing tool is there, typically a wiki. These suffer from same issue above - docs, notes, diagrams end up there and theres a ton of stuff, some useful, some severely outdated. I wish you could put a time bound self destruct (like mission impossible) on notes and they clean themselves up - move to an Archive folder or something.

banku_brougham
Lets just proceed with the premise that note taking is useful and answer the question.
matt_s
I did answer the question. Part of useful discussions is questioning everything - I was merely commenting that maybe taking all those notes isn't as useful as one might think. This could influence someone to look beyond "note taking software" into other types of solutions that might also fit. Who knows, it might spark an idea for someone to create a new note taking app.

Lets not restrict the discussions to a Q&A format.

Vibgyor5
I was looking for a note-taking application that is cross- platform, does not cost an arm and a leg, has sleek and minimal interface, with offline capabilities.

After checking all the options, I ended up opting for UpNote.

STRONGLY recommended!

sumedh
Do they have version history. I cant see it on their site.
lenova
A similar post was made last week, and I recommend Upnote as a replacement to Evernote:

https://getupnote.com/

Cross-platform, and it feels like what Evernote was back in the day: a simple note-taking app with a beautiful UI.

I replaced Evernote with it a few months ago, and it's been a daily driver since. It was first recommended to me on /r/evernote, a subreddit that has basically been echoing the OP's concerns about Evernote for the last two years it looks like.

approxim8ion
Looks good, and I really like their pricing model. Would use it but I'm mostly local-only right now.
pdwittig
You might want to check out Reflect [1]. Some things I like about them:

* End-to-end encryption (this was a big one for me)

* Native apps for macOS + iOS

* Networked notes (Roam style)

* Long term vision - founders are second (or more) time founders, don't have plans to raise VC, and instead want to build a long-term business [2]

[1] - https://reflect.app/ [2] - https://reflect.academy/our-values

NylaTheWolf
This thread gave me flashbacks to the Evernote 10 controversy that happened nearly two years ago.

I didn't use Evernote that much prior to the fallout, but when that happened I was hesitant to continue using it. I fell into a rabbit hole of searching for note apps, and I decided to use OneNote for that (as well as Apple Notes). Then I ran into Obsidian[0] and after looking at its features on noteapps.info[1], I decided to bite the bullet and use it. And wow, I don't regret it one bit.

I did use it a good amount in the past, but with the release of its mobile app and the amount of plugins we have now, I've been using it as my daily knowledge management app for several months now. It's also completely based on local markdown files, so you're not as locked in compared to other apps. It's completely free as well. You do have to pay if you want to use their own syncing service, but again, it's based on local files so you can easily sync by making your vault a Google Drive folder or some other method (some even use Git to sync their files!)

And I cannot stress how fantastic the community is enough. There are so many amazing plugins and people have done so much crazy shit with their notes. The community is also extremely helpful and welcoming.

Eleanor Konik runs a newsletter called Obsidian Roundup[2], which basically summarizes any recent plugins, discussions, shared workflows, events, etc. that happened in the week. She also has a page for Obsidian resources[3].

Wow this turned out longer than I expected.

[0] https://obsidian.md/

[1] https://www.noteapps.info/

[2] https://www.obsidianroundup.org

[3] https://www.obsidianroundup.org/resources/

ETA: Also you can have different vaults (basically folders) if you want to separate your personal notes and your work notes.