Evernote

Evernote is one of the original cloud-based note-taking applications, founded in 2008 and once the dominant player in personal productivity. At its peak Evernote had over 225 million registered users and a reputation for being the 'external brain' for millions of knowledge workers. The app supports rich text notes, web clipping via browser extension, document scanning (with OCR for searchable text), handwriting recognition, audio recordings, and file attachments — all synced across devices. Evernote's organizational structure uses Notebooks and Tags. The web clipper remains best-in-class for saving full web pages, simplified articles, or screenshots directly to Evernote. In recent years Evernote has struggled: repeated price increases, the sale to Italian software company Bending Spoons in 2022, layoffs, and a drop in premium features on free accounts (now limited to 1 device) have frustrated longtime users. Current pricing is Personal ($14.99/month), Professional ($17.99/month), and Teams ($24.99/user/month). Despite the turbulence, Evernote's web clipper, OCR search, and mature document management remain strong selling points for users with large existing note archives. For new users, competitors like Notion, Obsidian, or Bear often offer better value.