Best Evernote alternative apps for Mac

No matter what pushes you into looking for Evernote alternatives — its pricing or lack of specific features — let's see what options you have out there.

What is Evernote?

Evernote is an app for your computer or phone where you can take notes of meetings, lectures, web pages you visit, and books you read. You can create lists, tasks, plan meals, reflect on your day, and develop project plans with the app’s themed templates.

Evernote is suitable both for Mac and Windows devices. You don’t need to be confined to desktop with Evernote though – you can sync devices and use it on your iOS or Android, as well as access your notes and work on them on the web. 

Pros of the Evernote app

The app offers a collection of handy features to make your note-taking smooth and organized.

Evernote’s top advantages are:

• User-friendly design
• Accessible on multiple devices
• Works across platforms (macOS, iOS, Android, Windows)
• Ready-to-go templates for to-do lists, project plans, meeting and lecture notes, and even meal planning and daily reflection
• Tags for notes for easier search and grouping
• App homepage customization to better manage your notes
• Sharing via email (edit and view access) and link (only view)
• Offline access
• Search in handwritten notes, PDFs, DOCs 

And if you feel nostalgic for the physical note-taking and highlighting, the app even has a colored highlighter option in its text formatting toolbar. 

Cons of Evernote app

Nothing is perfect, so depending on your needs and preferences, you might find some needed features lacking in your Evernote experience. Some of the complaints I’ve heard about this popular note-taking app include:

• Cost — the best features, like Home customization, offline access, notes on PDFs, and others, are under Personal or Professional plans (from $10.83/mo)
• No tags within text available to make it easier to manage larger documents
• Limited note organization tools — only two layers of folders can be created (Notebooks and Stacks)
• Notes cannot be exported as TXT and DOCX, only as PDF, HTML, and ENEX files

Evernote’s Teams plan is especially pricey (from $20.83 per user per month), and users have shared online that the cost can become prohibitive for smaller businesses.

Evernote download options

Evernote can be a great solution both for individual note-taking and task-tracking and for groups. Whether you are looking to download and use Evernote for just your own musings and planning or share them with friends or your team, let’s look at how you can get the app on your computer or phone. 

For your Mac, you can get Evernote in the App Store or on the Evernote website, evernote.com. The app’s install file will be saved in Downloads, and you can install it from there.

To download Evernote on your phone, go to Google Play or App Store on your phone and search “evernote”. Click Install and your app will be automatically downloaded and installed onto your handset.

Evernote pricing

The app has five plans – Free, Personal, Professional, Teams, and Enterprise. The Free plan allows individual users to create notes, track tasks, set reminders, and organize their day on the web, their desktops, and phones. The Free plan has limits on note size, the number of devices that can be synced (up to two devices), does not have the offline access feature, and a few others.

The Personal plan for a paid Evernote subscription is $14.99/mo (or $10.83 with an annual subscription), and the Professional plan is $17.99/month. There’s also the Teams plan for businesses at $24.99 per user per month (yes, if you are a business with smaller margins and have a larger team, you might feel the price is getting a little steep). Prices may vary across regions, though, so check the prices on the Evernote website to be sure!

3 best Evernote alternative apps for Mac

Whether it’s Evernote pricing, lack of features you need in your daily flow, or simple desire for a change, I'm not going to hold it against you if you feel like going for an Evernote alternative. In fact, you don’t have to stick to one app with your notes at all!

Explore all the Evernote alternative options I’ve hand-picked for you below.

1. NotePlan

The first alternative that I can confidently recommend is NotePlan. It’s my top choice when it comes to planning and organizing notes.

NotePlan provides a tool to create notes, tasks, and reminders and sync them with the app’s built-in calendar, as well as iCal or Google Calendar. If you need a clear system for your notes and tasks, NotePlan is your solution. 

The app’s comprehensive note management system allows you to create folders within folders within folders within folders, manage your notes, add tasks to your calendar, and get a bird’s eye view of all your agenda.

NotePlan’s responsive calendar is a lifesaver for keeping you organized, on task, and on schedule.

To create a new note in the app, click the +Note/Folder in the bottom left corner of the app and hit New Note: 

You can also create a note or new folder by double-finger clicking on one of the folders where you want to place your item or, even more conveniently – using direct keyboard shortcuts (as shown in the screen above).

Pros: 

• Simple tool to organize your notes and tasks and track project progress
• The app saves your notes as TXT automatically
• You can easily export notes or email them as TXT to your loved ones or team members

Cons:

• Rich text formatting is pretty limited to italicizing, choosing among a few heading options, adding bullet points and quotes
• It might take you a few tries to figure out how to use some of the menu options and features
• The app is also not available for Android and Windows devices.

Price: $9.99/mo on Setapp together with 250+ other apps.

2. Google Keep

Google Keep is a free note-taking option from Google. It’s available as a web version and apps for iOS and Android.

Its simple interface and the option to color code the notes makes everyday note-taking fun and instantaneous. Pinning items and rich link previews make the experience even more smooth and enjoyable.

On your phone, you can also record audio notes and take hand-written notes with Google Keep. 

Pros:

• All Google Keep reminders are automatically added to your Google Calendar
• Syncs across devices via Google account
• Allows to add reminders, labels, voice memos, and images

Cons:

• Handling large notes is not easy — it lacks advanced formatting options
• No folders
• Search functionality is less advanced than competitors'

Price: Free

3. Ulysses

When it comes to Evernote alternatives, Ulysses is excellent at handling larger documents. Marketed as a writing app, Ulysses has a clean interface that fits right in with your Mac experience and provides convenient tools to manage larger notes, texts, and projects. 

Pros:

• Designed for creating texts, Ulysses provides a clean interface and comprehensive organization for longer notes and texts
• Each item has a dashboard to the right of the text where you can find your outline to quickly browse through various parts of your text easily
• You can add comments, edits, links, footnotes, images, and attached files to your text
• Various sharing options: export notes as TXT, PDF, HTML, ePUB, DOCX, or publish to Medium or WordPress.

Cons:

• Lacks calendars or reminders to manage your day-to-day tasks
• Available for Macs and on iOS only

Price: $9.99/mo on Setapp together with 250+ other apps.

Try all Evernote alternatives for free

Keeping track of your notes, thoughts, ideas, and projects can be a little challenging. To make the experience fun and convenient, pick a note-taking app that fits your workflow and lifestyle.

Evernote is a staple for creating notes for both personal and professional use. But if you are looking for Evernote alternatives, NotePlan, Google Keep, and Ulysses are great options that each provide tools for taking notes, collecting ideas, and structuring them.

While Google Keep is a completely free app from Google, NotePlan, and Ulysses are part of the Setapp app collection, meaning your subscription will cover these and 250+ more apps to choose from! To try NotePlan and Ulysses for free for a 7-day trial period, subscribe to Setapp.