Evernote has enjoyed its status as one of the most popular note-taking apps for a decade. However, with its unique style of note-taking, templates, and clean design, Notion quickly becomes choice for those looking for Evernote alternatives. In this post, I’ll make a detailed comparison of Evernote vs. Notion to see if Notion can be a possible candidate for note taking.
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Contents
- 1. Evernote vs Notion: Pros and Cons
1. Evernote vs Notion: Pros and Cons
Notion and Evernote are quite powerful note-taking apps. But when it comes in matters of better value for money, Notion wins. Notion is cheaply priced at only $4 per month, which is half the price of Evernote premium. Additionally, Evernote’s $4 plan is free for students and educators. Information organizer that recognizes text in images. Record, edit and render waveform audio. A project management tool.
Evernote Review: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Scanner for mobile. You can use Evernote as a scanner to take photos of pages of books that when you don’t want to pay for photocopying.
- Web clipper for browsers. Evernote Web Clipper is the best on the web.
Cons
- Limited Free Version + Costly Evernote Pricing Plans
- The Evernote client doesn’t support real-time collaboration on notes with other users.
- Unlike other productivity apps that come with built-in features that you can use for task-management features, Evernote can only create notes.
Notion Review: Pros and Cons
Evernote Notion Roam
Pros:
- Flexible pages. Notion has a template engine that allows you to turn pretty much anything into an easily-duplicated template.
- Nested hierarchical organization. You can even turn a set of text into a dropdown so you can roll them up when you want non-immediate information out of the way.
- Hybrid editor. Notion lets you write in Markdown or use normal keyboard shortcuts and UI elements to format your text.
Cons:
- Free account is really just a demo. A free account gives you 1,000 free blocks but they go FAST.
- Quirks in the editor due to the block system. Unfortunately, Notion falters heavily in the formatting department, and it’s all thanks to their block system.
Winner – Both can be preferred, depending on the type of usage.
2. Evernote vs Notion: Taking Notes
Note-taking capabilities are the prime aspect of any Notes app.
Evernote has included every possible way to add new notes. You can write notes, add images, recordings, tag files, and even draw with the available options. In addition, you can use Evernote as a scanner to take photos of pages of books that when you don’t want to pay for photocopying.
It also lets you choose from the available templates. The selection is undoubtedly rich, and I’m sure you will find the relevant template to start the note.
On Notion, you can add a list, plain text, videos, sound, code snippets – it’s up to you. To cut setup time, the Notion program also allows you to create templates for your notes. For example, you can easily create a standardized template for writing all your blog posts. The next time your content team needs to create a new article, they can use that template to get started.
Winner – Both can be preferred, depending on the type of usage.
3. Evernote vs Notion: Cross-Platform Availability
Evernote is available on Android, iOS, Apple Watch, Mac and Windows.
Notion is also available on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
In addition, Evernote extension is available on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and every other Chromium-based browser. Notion recently added extension support for Chrome browser.
Winner – Evernote
4. Evernote vs Notion: Pricing
Evernote offers three pricing tiers—a free Basic plan, a Premium plan for $7.99 a month, and a Business plan for $14.99 per user per month. Notion has four pricing tiers—a Free plan, a Personal plan for $4 a month, a Team plan at $8 per member per month, and an Enterprise plan at $20 per member per month.
Evernote’s free and premium subscription options
- Basic: Free. Access notes on only 2 devices.
- Premium: $7.99/month (for 10 GB of new storage monthly uploads)
- Business: $14.99/user per month. 20 GB of new uploads/month + 2 GB/user
Notion’s free and premium subscription options
- Free plan: Supports unlimited members and the first 1000 blocks.
- Personal ($4/month): For solo users with unlimited storage and file uploads.
- Team ($8/month per user): Supports unlimited members, unlimited storage and unlimited file uploads.
- Enterprise ($20/month per user): This pricing plan is aimed at enterprise teams with additional features.
Winner: Notion
5. Evernote vs Notion: Our Recommendation
Evernote is commonly used as the best filing cabinet tool. It’s a great way to store documents, handy notes, important files, project notes, and even tend to your daily reminders. Then, should you switch to Notion?
What Notion does better:
- Long-form, structured notes
- Tables. They can be even switched to “Trello” or calendar view. It’s literally a simple spreadsheet/database mixed with project management tool – all inbuilt inside the note-taking app
- Code highlighting for all major programming languages
- Limited markdown support
- Distraction-free UI
- Comments inside note
What Evernote does better:
- Quick notes
- Web clipper (Notion doesn’t have it, but authors claim that it’s on their to-do list)
- Document scanner (straightening, contrast, OCR)
- Can draw (Notion can’t)
Evernote vs Notion, which is better? It all depends on your needs.
I intentionally titled this post and, because I realized when choosing between Evernote, Roam, and Notion it’s not an or decision. Like many other productivity practitioners, I am also on the constant lookout for the one tool to rule them all, one to build my Life OS in it. But there is no one tool, there are different tools for different things.
And my search terms were the same as yours — what’s better Evernote vs. Roam Research vs. Notion. But I like how Anne Laure framed it — Evernote for librarians, Roam Research for the gardeners, and Notion for the Architects.
Evernote
Evernote was my first real tool for note-taking and storing information. Around 2010 I realized that I can digitize my life by storing all the data in it. I purchased a Fujitsu scanner and started scanning all my paperwork — contracts, legal documents, everything. A premium Evernote subscription came with the scanner, and I’ve never looked back. Everything went through the scanner and into a PDF, which Evernote’s dwarfs indexed and made it searchable. Even the handwritten text. It became a habit that any document which entered my life went through that scanner. It used to be a weekly errand, and after a couple of years, the iPhone replaced the scanner, which made the whole process even smoother.
Nowadays, whenever a paper document crosses my path, I scan it, including any forms I’d sign anywhere, receipts, stubs, whatever. And whatever digital document I receive in an email, I make sure to forward it to Evernote’s email address. —Send by e-mail is another awesome feature of Evernote.
Evernote is also great for capturing handwrittennotes with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil. The interface is nice, but it has one major flaw: it doesn’t auto-save. You have to make sure to click Done frequently, otherwise, you may lose whatever you’ve written from the last save, in case iPad’s screen locks. It’s stupid, and a big resentment towards Evernote.
On the other hand, Evernote will index everything you throw into it — including my terrible handwriting — and make it searchable. This is its killer feature than no other tool has mastered yet. Not on this level. So while Anne-Laure refers to Evernote as a tool for librarians, I call it my digital dumpster and just keep throwing stuff in there.
Roam Research
If Evernote is for storing, Roam Research is for thinking. With its bi-directional links and a simple interface, it’s just madeforwriting. I tried pasting images and data and YouTube videos in it, but I find that insulting for the tool. You have to start using it to realize why it gained cult-like following.
I jumped on the Roaman wagon back in the beta days, so I do have my forever-free account. And I keep filling it. The beauty of Roam is that you don’t need to organizeanything. The system builds itself as you write and add to the tool. And I love how I get greeted by an empty Daily Notes screen every day.
I’ve been using Roam Research to plan my days (kanban combined with To–Dos!), type meeting notes, organize my book notes, but mostly for my [[Thoughts on]] writing. I’d start a random topic that’s on my mind, and I’ll add a Word Counter to it, then start the built-in Pomodorotimer. I open that on a full page, and I type away.
But if you try comparing Roam Research to Evernote, you don’t understand its beauty. Evernote can’t do what Roam can do, and vice-versa. Also, for some reason, Roam feels pretty unreliable to me. It gives me an impression of something that is just going to lose all my data one day. So I do exportall my notes every week (or after any longer-form writing). I simply download everything onto my Google Drive.
Notion
I came across Notion after trying to find an alternative for the Evernote. But I didn’t like the new tool, so I never made the switch. Now I realize my mistake — Notion isn’t a replacement for Evernote. It’s not a digital dumpster (or a library, if you prefer), it’s a tool to build other tools. I don’t have any plans to store all my digital data in it, just like I’m not trying to build a content planner in Evernote.
The beauty of Notion is that it’s like a box of Legos — it offers endless possibilities, but you need to build stuff yourself. That can be intimidating at first, but they do offer plenty of nice templates to get you started. That’s how I went along. Then you watch their intro videos, and you play with things. Break stuff. Make mistakes. I built myself a whole page that serves as my lab. In it, I’ll play with copies of my databases and tools to figure out how to best build what serves me.
Nowadays I’m keeping everything related to this blog in it — it’s my idea box, content planner, task list, connected to the OKRs, and my research lab. I’ll even draft most of the posts in it, although I don’t find it most suitable for that. Plus, the blocks in Notionlimit the functionality of Grammarly.
Use cases.
So these are my recommendations — use Evernote to store all your documents and digital data, including handwritten notes. Use Roam Research for taking notes and as a thinking tool — and export your writing to Evernote for safe-keeping and long-term archival. Use Notion to build your systems, which help keep you productive and on track.
Alternatives.
Surely, I tried out all kinds of alternatives. Microsoft OneNote, Bear app, Ulysses, … but none of them stuck. OneNote is quite unreliable, not good at searching, and I lost some handwritten notes. It does integrate well with other Microsoft apps, but Evernote can do the same.
Bear is a beautiful Mac- and iOs-only writing app, and I instantly fell in love with its simplicity and elegance. But I also had some syncing issues, and I wasn’t ready to commit my digital data to it. Evernote won me back.
Apple Notes is the one tool I keep coming back to, and the only reason is that it’s so well integrated with the iPad. It’s the only app that will instantly pop up when touching the iPad’s lockedscreen with the ApplePencil. And it autosaves. But it’s still clunkier than Evernote, and I don’t see it as a replacement. So I do use it for taking occasional handwritten notes, but I export them to Evernote afterward.
In summary, I think I’ve found my perfect toolkit. It’s not one tool for everything, it’s separate tools for separate use cases. Writing, note-taking, and personal knowledge management systems are different activities where one tool doesn’t serve all purposes, just like we use e-mail, Slack, or text for different things.
I believe that the most important is the writing and thinking that’s done in our heads, not in the tools. Make sure to back up your data and keep it safe. On your computer, on the external drives, and across different clouds. Anybody can go down.
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