Evernote used to be the king of notes — what went wrong?

Evernote was one of the best — if not the best — note-taking apps from around 2011 through 2017. According to TAdviser, its user base surged to over 150 million by 2015, and it reached its peak in downloads in 2017, with around 9.6 million yearly downloads.

However, this growth began to taper in the following years, prompting many to seek better note-taking apps. It didn't happen all of a sudden, though; a series of events unfolded over the years, leading to a sharp decline in Evernote's popularity.

Restricting free plan device sync to two devices

A small but significant change

The earliest major move that frustrated Evernote users came in June 2016, when the company announced its plan to limit the free plan from unlimited device sync to just two devices. This was a significant downgrade for free Evernote users, who were previously able to keep their notes synced across all their devices at no extra cost. Following this change, many users fled away, while others decided to upgrade to the paid version.

User distrust of privacy policy

Early AI adoption came with privacy concerns

Evernote was one of the early note-taking apps to adopt machine learning. The idea was to feed user data through machine learning algorithms to improve speech-to-text translation, contextual search within notes, and other related features. But it didn't stop there.

In December 2016, Evernote announced its plans to roll out a new privacy policy that would allow some of its employees to read user notes. The company said having employees in oversight helps "ensure everything is working exactly as it should," and users had the option to encrypt their personal notes to prevent them from being read.

However, this announcement wasn't received well by Evernote users, and many threatened to abandon the service. Subsequently, the company walked back the change to its privacy policy and made machine learning training an opt-in feature. Despite this, however, mistrust still lingered around Evernote's privacy policy, prompting many to switch away.

The v10 debacle

A major update that lacked features and stability

V10 was a major update in Evernote's lifecycle. It was first released in late 2020, a time when legacy apps were nearing the end of their life cycle, with no new developments or updates. The update involved a major rewrite of the app in the Electron framework to unify the user experience across all desktop and mobile platforms, like Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and web.

While users could continue to use legacy apps in subsequent years, they were eventually forced to make the switch at the beginning of 2023. Evernote had its reasons for this. For one, the new syncing method that was released to eliminate note conflicts required users to be on the latest version.

Secondly, the release of a new syncing method meant they had to maintain two versions of the server backend—one for the legacy version and the other for the latest version—which was inefficient and costly. However, this forceful behavior had further damaged Evernote's credibility.

Performance issues, problematic updates, and declining user experience

v10 issues continued to trouble Evernote

Forcing users to migrate to v10 wouldn't have been such a major issue had the update been polished and stable. Instead, it was plagued by many problems, which led to considerable user frustration.

For starters, it was released with fewer features than the legacy versions. Lack of tabs, presentation mode, and customizable preferences are some features that users mourned the loss of in the new update. Then, the UI and UX were reportedly cluttered and less intuitive, causing disruption of usage habits for many.

Similarly, stability and performance issues were widespread. Users often expressed frustration about random bugs and unresolved issues even after updates. This included problems such as slow loading speeds, frequent crashes, and syncing errors.

Although Evernote addressed some of the issues in subsequent updates, many persisted and recurred with newer updates going into 2024. Evernote's help forums and subreddit were filled with discussions about people experiencing problems on their devices and seeking fixes. Things have improved slightly since, though the experience is still far from perfect.

Increased competition and lack of innovation

Competitors' offerings got users to switch

In recent years, there's been a surge in the number of note-taking apps emerging. Many apps, such as Notion and Obsidian, have gained traction and become popular with their modern-looking interfaces and feature sets.

While Evernote set out to achieve something similar with the v10 update, it fell short of the mark. The performance issues were just one part of the story; the update didn't introduce any meaningful new features either to entice new users or provide existing users with sufficient reasons to stick.

To this day, there's very little in Evernote's offerings that you can't find on other apps. In fact, it's the other way around, which makes Evernote less appealing to anyone looking for a new note-taking app. For instance, it falls short of Notion in terms of project and task management, due to a lack of features such as kanban boards and database views.

Similarly, the collaboration features on Evernote are quite basic. Notion, on the other hand, excels at it. Then there's the lack of customizability and extensibility that apps like Obsidian and Notion provide using plugins and integrations.

In all fairness, though, Evernote didn't deliberately avoid innovation. Rather, it found itself among a series of challenges: initially focusing on maintaining and patching its legacy versions in the initial days, then grappling with corporate challenges due to leadership changes, and finally dealing with an overambitious v10 that suffered from numerous issues.

Leadership changes and uncertainty

Frequent focus shifting and strategic pivots deterred innovation

Evernote witnessed multiple leadership changes in its lifecycle. It all started in 2015, when founder Phil Libin stepped down as CEO, and Chris O'Neill took over. This was followed by the departure of senior executives between 2016 and 2018. In late 2018, Ian Small replaced Chris O'Neill as CEO.

However, the biggest change came in 2024 when Bending Spoons acquired Evernote and got Francesco Patarnello as the new CEO. Soon after, the company's focus shifted to simplifying the product and addressing performance issues. This ultimately led to several layoffs and operational restructuring.

These constant leadership changes and strategic pivots disrupted the company's focus, crippled decision-making, and deterred innovation. Not to mention, this lack of vision instilled uncertainty in users' minds and, ultimately, led them to quit.

Feature restrictions and aggressive monetization

Devaluing the free plan and charging more for paid plans

By the end of 2023, Evernote significantly devalued its free plan, limiting users to just one notebook and 50 notes. The worst part? Deleted notes, i.e., the ones in the trash, also counted toward the 50-note limit. Then, in the following year, it further restricted the free plan to allow only one connected device at a time.

As if that wasn't enough, Evernote also increased the pricing of its paid plans. It lured users with new features, such as large note sizes, higher upload limits, support for unlimited devices, and more. This significant devaluation of the free plan was the last straw. Not only did it render Evernote practically unusable on the free plan, but it also prompted many users to switch to its competitors, which offered more value and had fewer restrictions.

Ultimately, this led to a sharp decline in the user base. According to Electro IQ, Evernote's yearly downloads plummeted from 9.6 million in 2017 to just 1.7 million in 2023.

Evernote’s revenue is steadily growing despite a decline in the overall user base

Loyal users prefer to stick around out of habit

Despite various issues, many users still prefer Evernote for their note-taking needs. This is partly because Evernote has a loyal user base—long-time customers who have gotten comfortable with the interface and features and prefer sticking to it rather than switching to a new platform and familiarizing themselves with it from scratch.

Likewise, despite the challenges it has faced over the years, Evernote's revenue is growing—albeit steadily—primarily due to higher subscription prices, as per the Electro IQ report. However, these factors can't offset the fact that Evernote is no longer the king of note-taking it once was.