Evernote was, for a long time, the default answer to “how do I get my notes out of my head and into something searchable.” Since its acquisition by Bending Spoons, the product has gone through a significant pricing overhaul — the old Personal and Professional plans are gone, replaced by Starter and Advanced, and the free plan has been cut down sharply. This review covers exactly what changed and whether it’s still worth paying for.
Core Features
- OCR search — Evernote’s ability to find text inside scanned PDFs, photos of whiteboards, and handwritten notes is still genuinely strong and remains a real differentiator.
- Web Clipper — a mature browser extension for saving articles, receipts, and pages directly into notes.
- AI features (Advanced plan) — AI Edit and Semantic Search, plus Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations.
- Cross-device sync — historically Evernote’s core value proposition, now gated by plan (device count is limited below the Advanced tier).
Evernote Pricing in 2026 (Post-Overhaul)
| Plan | Price | Key limits/features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Just 50 notes, 1 notebook, and 1 device — effectively a short trial rather than a usable free tier |
| Starter | $99.99/year (≈$8.25/month) or $14.99/month billed monthly | 1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, sync across roughly 3 devices, offline access |
| Advanced | $249.99/year (≈$20.83/month) or roughly $24/month billed monthly | Unlimited notes, notebooks, and device sync; AI Edit and Semantic Search; larger monthly upload allowance |
| Enterprise / Teams | Custom pricing | Shared team workspaces, admin console, centralized data ownership |
Important context: This is a genuinely large price increase from Evernote’s older Personal/Professional plans — some long-time users report their effective annual cost roughly tripling. If you’re an existing subscriber, check your renewal date, since the new pricing applies going forward rather than retroactively.
Pros
- OCR and handwriting search are still best-in-class — if your archive includes a lot of scanned documents or photographed whiteboards, nothing else in this roundup matches it.
- The Web Clipper remains one of the most reliable “save this for later” tools available.
- Mobile apps, especially on iOS, are polished and mature.
- Advanced plan usage limits (notes, notebooks, devices) are genuinely unlimited once you’re past Starter.
Cons
- The Free plan’s 50-note, 1-notebook, 1-device limit makes it impractical for any real ongoing use — it functions as a trial, not a tier.
- At $249.99/year, Advanced costs noticeably more than Notion’s comparable tier while offering a narrower feature set (no databases, no lightweight project management).
- The Starter tier’s 1,000-note and 20-notebook caps feel restrictive to long-time users who are used to Evernote’s older “unlimited” positioning.
- Multiple user reports describe being renewed automatically at the new, higher price without clear advance warning.
Who Should Still Use Evernote
If OCR search across scanned documents and handwritten notes is central to your workflow, and you’re a heavy multi-device user, Evernote’s Advanced plan still delivers a capability few competitors match. For general note-taking without that specific need, Notion’s free or Plus tier, or Obsidian’s local-first free plan, will cover most use cases for less money.
Verdict: 3/5
Evernote’s core technology — OCR, search, the Web Clipper — hasn’t gotten worse. What’s changed is the value equation: the free plan is no longer usable long-term, and the paid tiers now cost meaningfully more than similarly capable alternatives. It’s a reasonable pick for a specific type of heavy, document-scanning user, and a harder sell for everyone else in 2026.
Pricing verified against Evernote’s official plan-change announcement and current pricing communications, July 2026. Given the scale of this year’s overhaul, double-check evernote.com/pricing before subscribing or renewing.
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