Newsletter housekeeping: I totally missed the 1 year birthday of Taming The Trunk🎂 This Substack started on 14th October 2022 when I wrote a post grumbling about tags. Thank you to all the subscribers, I much appreciate you handing over your email address and I will continue to inform and entertain. Onwards march the herd!
So tired of the complaining online. I’ve stopped looking at the once useful forums because of all the negativity. EN is part of my daily workflow and has been since 2009). Thanks for another great perspective & get off my lawn. :)
Jon – Thanks for your post and thoughts on the change to EN’s “Free” plan.
I appreciate your clear explanation of the situation and your views on how things have evolved. I find myself in agreement with your views as they reflect the current state of the industry.
Your reference to the 2008 appearance of cloud services ties in with my start with using Evernote (v3?), as my account details show me as having an EN account since May 2008. Checking back over my files, I note it was 2015 that I moved to a paid plan. And also looking back through old files, I even found a copy of the User Guide to Evernote v2 that I dabbled with on a Windows XP Tablet Computer back in 2005! (IIRC that ran off a USB stick!!!) It didn’t have notebooks, but Categories back then 0 and it was able to search for words in handwritten notes!
So, I’m a long-time user of Evernote. It’s flexible for my needs and doesn’t prescribe the way I should organize things. It’s convenient and stops me amassing piles of paper/notebooks where finding things may be difficult. I can collect information in it via various means. It does the job and stores my 7000 Notes tidily. How much would I be paying Dropbox or Google or OneDrive to increase their storage to include my Evernote content? I sometimes wonder if some of the people complaining about EN’s price actually think about the storage aspect.
I think you’re right when you suggest Evernote’s “Free” plan has been too generous for too long.
I’m continuing with EN for the foreseeable future.
Thanks Allan. If I remember correctly the really old Evernote from before 2008 was like a roll or scroll on the screen. I think they called it the toilet roll :)
In my opinion, large companies such as Google, Microsoft or Facebook are financed by the data that their users are willing to provide. The money that these companies make from this could never be recouped through subscription plans.
As far as I know, Evernote has never been dependent on collecting and selling user data, which is why I have always been amazed at how long and how generously the company offered a free subscription.
The fact that users today almost furiously insist on getting everything for free is due to decades of education by the big players and the fact that they have managed to trick users into believing that they are customers and not users - even though that is exactly what they are.
Free plan means that other users are paying for that. Free plan should be more like a trial, but there could be a premium plan for users that are using Evernote occasionally. For example, I am heavy Evernote user and my family members just need to consume and contribute to my notes probably once in a month. It just doesn't make sense to pay full subscription price for that occasional use.
Dec 1, 2023·edited Dec 1, 2023Liked by Jon Tromans
For myself, have been using Evernote from very near the beginning. -- always free. But I had expected to pay at some point. Never had too, because the free was more than enough. H'ever, I will not buy now. Why? The price is too high. I would pay $5/mo ($60/yr) but not three times that. It's not worth it, for me. So, what'll I do, instead? Keep using it to take notes from the i'net, which is my primary use, but DL those notes as HTML to keep locally. I will need to find a cataloging solution, but that won't be especially difficult.
Thing is it was $6 a month a year ago and folks like yourself didn't pay. Not sure what the actual solution is but making some profit after 15 years of being in business should be a priority.
Didn't pay precisely because the free was more than enough (Indeed, I began to be frustrated with all the 'extras' the former owners threw at it and thought about going to an alternative, anyway) so I saw no benefit to paying, as I would get nothing I needed. The free will, very soon, not be enough to meet my needs. I would pay $5/mo to meet those needs but not more.
Yes, I agree with you. Free tier was just too good. Maybe they should make a plan with a lower price for those, who were on the free plan (30-40 $/year). With really only basic functionality. And then, they wouldn't have to raise the price on personal and pro plans so much.
1. ¿"The app is MUCH better than 12 months ago"? - Restoring functionality doesn't make an app better.
2. I wish I could turn off the inconvenient, frustrating, and time-wasting Real-time Editing. Toggling between notes only to be at the top of the next note and scrolling to find where I was is incredibly annoying and a downgrade that won't be fixed if I pay more. No, I'm not going to take my whole system offline to accommodate a feature I don't need or want. Let us opt out!
3. I have yet to get any better results with the AI search. Every time I try it, thinking, "Oh it may be better now," I get nearly useless results.
4. I love that all the offers and deals are for new customers only. /s
I really love EN and have been paying only to feel the thumb pushing down. I always have my eye on a replacement.
*I expect to be the next tier to get the boot. Increasing the cost by a $100/year is not insignificant.
I'm also with the idea of replacing free by time-boxed trial accounts because we (paying) users pay for the frees.
And we Legacy users should get an (even payed) option to use this BEST app as long as EN10 has not reached its functionality. In really productive environments the new app cannot solve sooo many needs...
From what I know there's no date set for legacy being switched off yet but it will come. Around 95% of the team are working on this giant monolithic Java programme thing that has run Evernote since the days of yore! They're rewriting the lot and creating more microservices to run the various areas of EN. In the New Year they'll be setting up a small team to work on more itty bitty stuff around the V10 client so I think you'll see it getting closer to legacy but I doubt if every function will make it over. The goal is to make it much better, they're not done yet.
I've been paying but they've pushed it too far for me. I have been on the personal plan for ten years and just got the email telling me that my price was nearly doubling. I don't use EN as much as I used to and found a suitable alternative.
Not old and grumpy enough! It's a glorified notebook company - and I mean the paper kind. I'll happily pay, once - as I would for a box of notebooks at the store. Then, instead of being on the hook for the rest of my life, I'd like to be left alone - please and thank you.
So EN can sell editions. You purchase the current edition and get the features and bugs that come with it. Sometime later EN releases a new and improved edition. If you like the new features, you buy it. Kinda like with cars, and phones, and other things. What do you think?
I wouldn't be surprised if the subscription model for software eventually changes. I seem to be gathering more and more as time goes on and need to have an audit every now and then. Maybe we'll go back to the days of buying how we used it. Get Office 97 then upgrade to Office 2003 but if you don't want to '97 still works fine!
So tired of the complaining online. I’ve stopped looking at the once useful forums because of all the negativity. EN is part of my daily workflow and has been since 2009). Thanks for another great perspective & get off my lawn. :)
Thanks. The Ai picture tool excelled itself this week :)
Thanks for another great post, Jon. As a paying Evernote user for over a decade, I have the perspective of a "grumpy old man" too!
Thanks.
Jon – Thanks for your post and thoughts on the change to EN’s “Free” plan.
I appreciate your clear explanation of the situation and your views on how things have evolved. I find myself in agreement with your views as they reflect the current state of the industry.
Your reference to the 2008 appearance of cloud services ties in with my start with using Evernote (v3?), as my account details show me as having an EN account since May 2008. Checking back over my files, I note it was 2015 that I moved to a paid plan. And also looking back through old files, I even found a copy of the User Guide to Evernote v2 that I dabbled with on a Windows XP Tablet Computer back in 2005! (IIRC that ran off a USB stick!!!) It didn’t have notebooks, but Categories back then 0 and it was able to search for words in handwritten notes!
So, I’m a long-time user of Evernote. It’s flexible for my needs and doesn’t prescribe the way I should organize things. It’s convenient and stops me amassing piles of paper/notebooks where finding things may be difficult. I can collect information in it via various means. It does the job and stores my 7000 Notes tidily. How much would I be paying Dropbox or Google or OneDrive to increase their storage to include my Evernote content? I sometimes wonder if some of the people complaining about EN’s price actually think about the storage aspect.
I think you’re right when you suggest Evernote’s “Free” plan has been too generous for too long.
I’m continuing with EN for the foreseeable future.
Keep helping us Tame That Trunk!
Thanks Allan. If I remember correctly the really old Evernote from before 2008 was like a roll or scroll on the screen. I think they called it the toilet roll :)
That's right, although I think the list of notes might have been referred to as a "piano roll".
In case anyone's wondering what us oldies are talking about here's an extract from the 2005 Quick Start Guide:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/5fbaa029-b774-a79f-8841-12e23d5e8f94/vNpp4mGmGSZsdwwalmBKu5rvvGBQATOHEiw_T4sbb7zQoC3fy5mqh4BLeQ
I love that and vaguely remember it. Some recent tech history there!
In my opinion, large companies such as Google, Microsoft or Facebook are financed by the data that their users are willing to provide. The money that these companies make from this could never be recouped through subscription plans.
As far as I know, Evernote has never been dependent on collecting and selling user data, which is why I have always been amazed at how long and how generously the company offered a free subscription.
The fact that users today almost furiously insist on getting everything for free is due to decades of education by the big players and the fact that they have managed to trick users into believing that they are customers and not users - even though that is exactly what they are.
Yup. There's a few Ai tools starting to offer the free thing as we don't really need them so the only way to get folk on board is cheap or free.
Free plan means that other users are paying for that. Free plan should be more like a trial, but there could be a premium plan for users that are using Evernote occasionally. For example, I am heavy Evernote user and my family members just need to consume and contribute to my notes probably once in a month. It just doesn't make sense to pay full subscription price for that occasional use.
I've always thought a family plan would be a good idea with some features of the Teams plan built in like spaces.
For myself, have been using Evernote from very near the beginning. -- always free. But I had expected to pay at some point. Never had too, because the free was more than enough. H'ever, I will not buy now. Why? The price is too high. I would pay $5/mo ($60/yr) but not three times that. It's not worth it, for me. So, what'll I do, instead? Keep using it to take notes from the i'net, which is my primary use, but DL those notes as HTML to keep locally. I will need to find a cataloging solution, but that won't be especially difficult.
Thing is it was $6 a month a year ago and folks like yourself didn't pay. Not sure what the actual solution is but making some profit after 15 years of being in business should be a priority.
Didn't pay precisely because the free was more than enough (Indeed, I began to be frustrated with all the 'extras' the former owners threw at it and thought about going to an alternative, anyway) so I saw no benefit to paying, as I would get nothing I needed. The free will, very soon, not be enough to meet my needs. I would pay $5/mo to meet those needs but not more.
Yes, I agree with you. Free tier was just too good. Maybe they should make a plan with a lower price for those, who were on the free plan (30-40 $/year). With really only basic functionality. And then, they wouldn't have to raise the price on personal and pro plans so much.
It could be worth trying again. The last time Evernote was around that price was 2016 and there was more money around in those days.
Legacy Plus user*
1. ¿"The app is MUCH better than 12 months ago"? - Restoring functionality doesn't make an app better.
2. I wish I could turn off the inconvenient, frustrating, and time-wasting Real-time Editing. Toggling between notes only to be at the top of the next note and scrolling to find where I was is incredibly annoying and a downgrade that won't be fixed if I pay more. No, I'm not going to take my whole system offline to accommodate a feature I don't need or want. Let us opt out!
3. I have yet to get any better results with the AI search. Every time I try it, thinking, "Oh it may be better now," I get nearly useless results.
4. I love that all the offers and deals are for new customers only. /s
I really love EN and have been paying only to feel the thumb pushing down. I always have my eye on a replacement.
*I expect to be the next tier to get the boot. Increasing the cost by a $100/year is not insignificant.
I'm also with the idea of replacing free by time-boxed trial accounts because we (paying) users pay for the frees.
And we Legacy users should get an (even payed) option to use this BEST app as long as EN10 has not reached its functionality. In really productive environments the new app cannot solve sooo many needs...
From what I know there's no date set for legacy being switched off yet but it will come. Around 95% of the team are working on this giant monolithic Java programme thing that has run Evernote since the days of yore! They're rewriting the lot and creating more microservices to run the various areas of EN. In the New Year they'll be setting up a small team to work on more itty bitty stuff around the V10 client so I think you'll see it getting closer to legacy but I doubt if every function will make it over. The goal is to make it much better, they're not done yet.
I've been paying but they've pushed it too far for me. I have been on the personal plan for ten years and just got the email telling me that my price was nearly doubling. I don't use EN as much as I used to and found a suitable alternative.
Not old and grumpy enough! It's a glorified notebook company - and I mean the paper kind. I'll happily pay, once - as I would for a box of notebooks at the store. Then, instead of being on the hook for the rest of my life, I'd like to be left alone - please and thank you.
Traditional notebooks are recurring revenue model as when you fill one you have to buy another one.
So EN can sell editions. You purchase the current edition and get the features and bugs that come with it. Sometime later EN releases a new and improved edition. If you like the new features, you buy it. Kinda like with cars, and phones, and other things. What do you think?
I wouldn't be surprised if the subscription model for software eventually changes. I seem to be gathering more and more as time goes on and need to have an audit every now and then. Maybe we'll go back to the days of buying how we used it. Get Office 97 then upgrade to Office 2003 but if you don't want to '97 still works fine!