Opposing Notes: Evernote Vs. OneNote (2016 Edition)

Posted on March 20, 2016 by resourcefulman

Evernote and OneNote are two of our favorite tools, but both have changed dramatically since the last time we compared the two – not for the better in some ways. That’s where these two stand today.

What’s new in Evernote

Last year, Evernote has introduced a new tariff plan, redesigned its web application and added new features to its applications for Android and iOS .

The free plan is losing function, but there is now a more affordable paid plan

Let’s talk about pricing with Evernote first, as this is the biggest change in over a year . The free plan no longer allows you to send notes to Evernote by email, which most users liked and used a lot before this change. While you can get around this limitation with an IFTTT recipe , you won’t get the full flexibility of Evernote’s email-sending feature, such as specifying the target notebook in the email subject line. So it’s a bummer.

On the other hand, Evernote has introduced a new, more affordable paid plan called Evernote Plus . For $ 25 a year, you get standalone notebooks for Evernote mobile apps and the ability to lock the app on your phone with a PIN. Previously, both required Evernote Premium, which cost $ 45 per year.

Finally, Evernote Premium is now priced at $ 50 per year. But for those extra five dollars, you get higher download limits: 10GB per month instead of the previous 4GB of data. With Evernote Premium, you can search for attachments, scan business cards, view previous versions of notes, annotate PDFs, and use the new note presentation mode .

Evernote’s user interface continues to evolve

Last year, Evernote stopped beta testing its redesigned minimalist web client . While the web application has become more pleasing and pleasing to the eye, it has also made it less functional. You cannot organize your notes by tags or select multiple tags at once, like in the desktop application.

In terms of the desktop app, nothing has changed in the Windows version, but the Mac app has received several updates, including an improved note editor , split view, and new keyboard shortcuts .

My favorite change is the web clipper, which has added more options for quickly collecting web articles . I use Evernote mainly for saving information, not for taking notes, so this was a good step forward.

Evernote’s new features are mostly mobile apps

Evernote is not added many new features to their applications for Windows the Mac or , but for mobile applications have been some significant updates. Evernote has added handwriting support for Android and iOS. The new Android widget is more customizable and allows you to quickly take notes with two taps, called “simple notes”. Evernote for iOS gets an improved web clipper, 3D Touch support, note viewer, and note search from Spotlight.

Evernote: the company seems to be stumbling

Despite these improvements, the app is not faster or more stable. In fact, it seems more glitchy and cumbersome, takes longer to sync notes, and sometimes I find that notes are duplicated. Additionally, a quick look at the Evernote forums and other sources reveals that paying users are complaining that customer support is getting worse .

The company also had warning signs . Evernote co-founder Phil Libin stepped down as CEO in July last year , two months later the company laid off 13% of its employees and also closed its three global offices. Maybe Evernote is just moving into a leaner, more focused company, but with their closure of Evernote Food and the end of support for Skitch and Clearly , it’s wise to worry about the future of one of our favorite note-taking apps.

What’s new in OneNote

For its part, OneNote has grown rapidly over the past couple of years to become the best free cross-platform app. It’s still best for Windows in a desktop app, but Microsoft is focusing more on the web version of OneNote, as well as Mac, iOS, and Android apps, so non-Windows users can better use the note. take the tool regardless of platform preference.

Microsoft has removed all limitations of OneNote Premium

Previously, you had to buy a Microsoft Office suite (either as a 365 subscription or as standalone software) to get the full version of OneNote. This included password protection, the ability to see previous versions of your notes, audio and video recordings, audio search, and file attachments and insertions into your notebooks. Microsoft lifted those restrictions last February, so OneNote is now completely free.

There is still a paid version of OneNote 2016 that lets you store your notebooks outside of OneDrive. However, we like 100% free, so we are happy with the OneDrive requirement.

OneNote has improved its non-Windows web and non-Windows apps

Continuing to strive for cross-platform compatibility, Microsoft has updated OneNote Online , as well as OneNote apps for iOS , Android, and Mac .

On the web, you can now hide notebooks and crop images, but the biggest recent addition is the ability to insert audio, video, and other files into your notes. This is great for recording meetings or lectures. The Web Clipper is now also available for Safari and Firefox.

Mac users got better shape insertion (the app converts your messy drawn shapes into more standard, straighter shapes) and improved search, including search through Spotlight. Meanwhile, OneNote for iOS has added audio annotation, split view, Force Touch and Apple Pencil support.

The most useful new update to OneNote is in the Android app: the OneNote icon. Like the chat heads of Facebook Messenger, the icon hovers above the screen, so you can create a new note with a tap.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, adding notes to OneNote has become much easier across all apps and versions. You can email yourself notes or use the new Microsoft Office Lens app to insert documents, photos, or notes from the whiteboard into OneNote. The web clipper is also much more functional . Previously, you had to switch to another window to select the notepad or section to save the cut web page. Now you can choose the section you want to save the note to, or even save only a portion of the web page without leaving your browser.

Some editions of OneNote are still limited

Despite helpful updates, OneNote still performs better on Windows than it does on Mac. For example, in the Mac version, you cannot collapse nested notes. OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote Online have yet to catch up to match the desktop version of Windows. So, while Microsoft seems to be targeting more non-Windows OneNote users, the app is still best suited for Windows desktops.

Evernote vs OneNote: What Hasn’t Changed

The main differences between Evernote and OneNote remain the same. If you’ve tried Evernote and OneNote before (or read our previous comparison), you already know the main differences between the two.

User interface: OneNote looks and feels like a digital version of a paper notebook with tags and notebook sections. Evernote is more like a filing cabinet with a simpler interface for taking notes but powerful tagging capabilities.
Formatting Notes : Evernote offers great features for rich text notes, including highlighting, checklists, and other formatting. Some people use it to write fiction . However, OneNote is even more reliable because you can use and create page templates and place elements anywhere on the page (for example, next to images and text). However, it has a lot of menu items crammed into the Ribbon, so if you want a simpler and simplified note editor, you will probably prefer Evernote.
Mobile Apps: Evernote’s mobile interface and features are still much better than OneNote, although OneNote for mobile is making some headway. In Evernote, you have more formatting tools for your notes, reminders, and a quick link to post your notes. On the other hand, on a mobile device, you can access your OneNote notebooks even without a data connection – something you can’t do with Evernote unless you’re a paid subscriber. However, both OneNote and Evernote have apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
Web Clipping and Browser Integration: Evernote’s clipping tool is still the best, and your Google searches may include your Evernote notes. This makes Evernote the best option for quickly capturing web pages and retrieving your information, such as a personal database .
Windows and Office integration: OneNote, on the other hand, works great with other Office applications, as you’d expect, and you can use dedicated Windows keyboard shortcuts to quickly create a note in OneNote or send a screenshot to an app.

Bottom line: Evernote is still the best web clipping tool, OneNote becomes the best digital notepad for everyone

As similar in purpose as the two apps are, they are different enough that you can use both together, otherwise one will speak to you more. Evernote is better for collecting and organizing information and mobile notes (although you will need to pay to access your notes offline). OneNote is better suited for creative notes and includes many of the Evernote Premium features for free, such as offline access to notes on a mobile device, attachment search, and PDF annotation. You also get more storage (15GB free storage that is shared with other Office apps) versus the free 60MB of Evernote per month.

If you’re still struggling, here are some additional reading materials:

Are you an Evernote user and thinking about switching to OneNote? This week Microsoft introduced the new Evernote import tool for OneNote . Perhaps Evernote will someday introduce the OneNote importer.

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