Best Evernote alternatives in 2026
Evernote’s price increases and tighter free limits sent long-time users looking for a new home for their notes. Short answer: for a free, powerful replacement, Obsidian or Joplin; for the closest familiar feel, Microsoft OneNote; for simple and built-in, Apple Notes or Google Keep. This guide picks by what you valued in Evernote. Full breakdown below.
How we chose: an editor’s selection based on price versus Evernote, web clipping and search, offline support and platform coverage, plus a separate section for rising new productivity apps surfaced by real visit traffic from the Census ranking.
New productivity apps rising by real visit traffic on Census
Census runs a live count on real traffic and surfaces the newcomers drawing real visits now, focused tools rather than do-everything suites:
Tidyshot: Screenshot Organizertames the screenshots people once dumped into Evernote and never found again.- Your app hereFree, foreverList my app
Deferred: Decision Debt5★ App Storecaptures postponed decisions in one place instead of a sprawling notebook.
logcal5★ App Storea light daily journal, no heavy notebook system to maintain.
The closest free replacement for Evernote
Microsoft OneNote is the most natural landing spot: it is genuinely free, cross-platform, and offers the notebook-and-section structure plus web clipping that Evernote users are used to. If you want to move without relearning how you take notes, OneNote asks the least of you and costs nothing, which is exactly the complaint that pushed people off Evernote in the first place.
If you want to own your notes
A big Evernote lesson was lock-in: your notes lived in their format, behind their pricing. Obsidian and Joplin both fix that by storing notes as plain files you control, Obsidian in Markdown, Joplin open-source with a built-in web clipper. Both are free, work offline, and cannot raise a subscription on notes you already own. For anyone burned by Evernote’s changes, that independence is the point.
If Evernote was always more than you needed
Many people used Evernote as a glorified notepad. If that is you, Apple Notes or Google Keep cover jotting, lists and quick capture for free with zero setup and instant sync. Moving to a simpler built-in app is not a downgrade if you never used the heavy features, it is dropping a subscription for something you already have.
| App | Best as an Evernote alternative for | Platforms | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft OneNote | the closest familiar, free replacement | iOS, Android, Web, Desktop | free |
| Obsidian | own your files, offline, free | iOS, Android, Desktop | free (paid sync) |
| Joplin | open-source, private, web clipper | iOS, Android, Desktop | free / self-host |
| Apple Notes | simple and built-in | iOS, Mac | free |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free alternative to Evernote?
Microsoft OneNote is the closest free, familiar replacement, with notebooks and web clipping. For owning your notes as free, offline files, Obsidian and Joplin are the strongest. For simple capture, Apple Notes and Google Keep are free and built in.
Can I move my Evernote notes to another app?
Yes, most alternatives support importing Evernote exports, and OneNote and Joplin in particular are built to take Evernote notebooks. Exporting your notes first also protects you from future lock-in, which is a large part of why people are leaving.
Why are people leaving Evernote?
Mainly price and limits: repeated subscription increases and tighter free-tier restrictions made a once-generous free app expensive. That is why free and own-your-files options, OneNote, Obsidian, Joplin, are where most former users are heading.