Evernote review 2026: pricing tiers, AI note-taking features, web clipper, pros and cons, and the best alternatives to this veteran productivity app.
Evernote is a note-taking and personal knowledge management application that lets users capture typed notes, web clippings, scanned documents, photos, and audio, then organize and retrieve them through notebooks, tags, and full-text and AI-assisted semantic search.
Originally launched in 2008 and now owned by Italian technology company Bending Spoons following a January 2023 acquisition, Evernote has been rebuilt with modern infrastructure and a new set of AI features aimed at competing with newer note-taking and second-brain tools.
Evernote's signature capability is capturing information in almost any format — typed text, handwriting, web pages, PDFs, images, and voice memos — and making all of it searchable, including handwritten and printed text inside photos via optical character recognition.
On its higher tiers, Evernote layers AI on top of this archive: an AI Assistant that can summarize and answer questions about your notes, semantic search that understands meaning rather than exact keywords, AI transcription for handwritten and spoken notes, and AI-assisted editing.
Evernote uses a four-tier freemium model: a capped Free plan, a Starter plan for individuals who need more storage and devices, an Advanced plan that removes all caps and unlocks full AI features, and a custom-quoted Enterprise plan with administration and security controls for teams.
Starter runs about $14.99 per month billed monthly or roughly $10.83 per month billed annually, while Advanced runs about $24 per month billed monthly or roughly $20.83 per month billed annually; Enterprise pricing is quote-based.
Evernote is owned by Bending Spoons, an Italian technology company headquartered in Milan that acquired Evernote Corporation in a deal announced in November 2022 and closed in January 2023.
Yes, Evernote offers a Free plan, but it is capped at 50 notes, 1 notebook, sync on a single device, and 1GB of monthly upload storage. Most regular users need a paid Starter or Advanced plan for practical daily use.
Starter raises limits to 1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, and 3-device sync with 5GB storage. Advanced removes all numeric caps entirely and unlocks the full AI feature set, including the AI Assistant, semantic search, AI transcription, and AI edit.
Yes. Since its relaunch under Bending Spoons, Evernote has added an AI Assistant, semantic (meaning-based) search, AI transcription for handwritten and audio notes, and AI-assisted editing, available on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers.
In July 2023, Evernote moved its center of operations from the United States to Europe to align with parent company Bending Spoons in Milan, which involved layoffs of much of its previous US-based staff and a rebuild of its backend infrastructure.
Common alternatives include Notion for teams wanting databases and wikis alongside notes, Microsoft OneNote for organizations standardized on Microsoft 365, Apple Notes and Google Keep for lightweight casual capture, and Obsidian or Craft for users who prefer local-first, networked note-taking.