# Free Alternative to Evernote Published January 1, 2026 · Updated August 10, 2026 The best free alternative to Evernote ($15/mo) is Joplin, which is open source. Install it with: `brew install --cask joplin`. ## Why It Is Finally Time to Leave Evernote I remember when Evernote was the default recommendation for anyone buying a new Mac. You got your new MacBook Air, installed 1Password, downloaded Evernote, and got to work. That was a decade ago. Today, Evernote is a textbook example of subscription fatigue and private equity extraction. After Bending Spoons bought the company in late 2022, the writing was on the wall. They fired most of the original staff. They jacked the price up to an eye-watering $15 per month or $130 a year. Worst of all, they effectively killed the legendary free tier late last year. Non-paying users are now restricted to a measly 50 notes and one notebook. You cannot even manage a weekly grocery list with 50 notes. Beyond the hostile pricing changes, the Mac app itself has become a sluggish Electron mess. I tested the latest version on an M3 Max MacBook Pro. It still takes three bounces in the dock to open. Sync conflicts happen regularly if you dare to edit the same note on your iPhone and Mac within ten minutes of each other. The interface is cluttered with upsells for AI cleanup tools and task management features that frankly belong in dedicated apps. People just want a reliable place to dump text, PDFs, and web clippings without being asked for a credit card every time they log in. I spent the last three weeks testing every major free note-taking app on macOS. I imported my 4,000-note Evernote archive into each one to see how they handled the load. Some choked on the ENEX export files. Others handled the text perfectly but lost my image attachments. A few actually impressed me. You do not need to pay Bending Spoons $130 a year to remember things. This guide covers the best free options available right now, how they handle formatting, and exactly what breaks when you move your data over. Pricing re-verified August 2026: Evernote’s current consumer paid plans are Starter (~$99/year) and Advanced (~$249.99/year). Personal and Professional are gone. The free tier is intentionally tiny (about 50 notes / 1 notebook / 1 device), so most long-time users either pay Advanced money or migrate to Joplin, Obsidian, Apple Notes, or Logseq. ## Free alternatives 1. [Joplin](https://bundl.run/apps/joplin) — Open source note-taking and to-do application `brew install --cask joplin` ## Verdict Leaving Evernote felt daunting at first. I had a decade of receipts, ideas, and bad writing locked in their proprietary database. But testing these apps proved that you do not have to pay subscription fees for basic digital memory. Obsidian surprised me with its incredible speed. Joplin surprised me by actually importing a 2GB file without crashing. The biggest lesson here is data ownership. Moving to another proprietary cloud app like Notion just resets the clock until the next price hike. Sticking to apps that use local markdown files guarantees you will never have to write another migration guide. Verified against current vendor pricing and project status in August 2026. ## FAQ ### Can I export my Evernote data for free? Yes. The Evernote desktop app still allows ENEX file exports on the free tier. You just have to do it notebook by notebook. Right-click on a notebook in the sidebar and select 'Export notebook'. Do not try to export your entire account at once, as the app frequently crashes when handling files larger than a few gigabytes. ### Why did Evernote limit the free plan? Bending Spoons bought the company in 2022 and shifted the business model. They want users to pay or leave. The 50-note limit is explicitly designed to force a decision. Maintaining server space for millions of non-paying users was bleeding the company dry, so they gutted the free tier to push users toward the $15 monthly subscription. ### Does Apple Notes lock you into the Apple ecosystem? Yes. There is no native export button for moving your entire library to another service. You can export individual notes as PDFs, but you have to rely on third-party scripts or apps like Exporter to pull your raw text out. If you think you might switch to Windows or Android in the future, avoid Apple Notes. ### Can I use Obsidian across multiple devices without paying? Yes, but you have to configure it yourself. Obsidian stores notes as local files. If you put your Obsidian vault inside an iCloud Drive folder, it will sync to the Obsidian app on your iPhone for free. You can also use services like Syncthing to sync between a Mac and an Android phone without paying for Obsidian Sync. ### What happens to my web clippings if I leave Evernote? It depends on the app you move to. Evernote saves web clippings as complex HTML inside the ENEX file. Apps like Joplin handle this HTML well. Apps like Notion or Logseq often turn complex clippings into unreadable blocks of text. I recommend saving your most important web clippings as PDFs before you close your Evernote account. ### Is Notion a good direct replacement for Evernote? Not exactly. Notion is a block-based workspace. It requires more setup to just take a quick note. It excels at structured data, project management, and databases. If you just want a digital filing cabinet for receipts, PDFs, and random thoughts, Notion feels heavy and slow compared to a dedicated note app. ### How do I open ENEX files on a Mac? You need an app that specifically supports the format. ENEX is an XML-based format created by Evernote. Joplin, Obsidian, and Apple Notes have built-in tools to read and import these files. Do not try to open them in a standard text editor like TextEdit, as you will just see thousands of lines of raw code. ### Can Joplin handle thousands of notes without slowing down? I tested it with 4,000 notes and the interface remained responsive. The initial sync process takes a while, especially if you have large PDF attachments. Once the files are downloaded locally, searching and typing feels fast. The app uses a SQLite database locally, which handles large data sets efficiently. ### What is the best way to sync markdown files for free? iCloud Drive works perfectly for Mac and iOS users. Just save your markdown folder in iCloud. If you work across Mac and Windows, Dropbox or Google Drive will sync the files. For Mac and Android combinations, Syncthing is a fantastic free tool that syncs files directly between devices without using a cloud server. ### Are local-first note apps actually safer? Yes. If the data lives on your hard drive, a company going out of business cannot delete your notes. You control the backups. If you use Time Machine on your Mac, you always have a copy of your data. Cloud-only apps like Notion hold your data hostage if their servers go down. ## Sources - [Evernote Pricing Page](https://evernote.com/compare-plans) - [Evernote Help Center](https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209005157-Evernote-Free-limits) - [Bending Spoons Press Release](https://bendingspoons.com/press/evernote-acquisition) - [Joplin GitHub Repository](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin) - [Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md/Import/Evernote) - [Notion Pricing](https://www.notion.so/pricing) - [Simplenote Features](https://simplenote.com/) - [FSNotes GitHub](https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes) - [Evernote Starter/Advanced FAQ](https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/46317642175763-Discontinuing-Evernote-Personal-Professional-Introducing-Starter-Advanced-FAQ) - [Joplin](https://joplinapp.org/) - [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) - [Logseq](https://logseq.com/) - [Standard Notes](https://standardnotes.com/) - [Evernote Pricing 2026 Explained](https://www.eesel.ai/blog/evernote-pricing) ## Related - [Joplin vs Obsidian](https://bundl.run/compare/joplin-vs-obsidian) - [Joplin vs Notion](https://bundl.run/compare/joplin-vs-notion) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://bundl.run/#organization", "name": "Bundl.run", "url": "https://bundl.run", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://bundl.run/og-image.png", "width": 1200, "height": 630 }, "description": "The Ninite for Mac. 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