What users complain about in Evernote: AI Notes & Notebook

Leaving after 10+ years

It’s remarkable how badly this app and company are run. Not only have they introduced tons of new, entirely useless features over the past years, they essentially hollowed out the apps most useful function. In addition they have massively increased their subscription and introduced an obscure tier system. I’ve used this app for close to 15 years and happily paid for the subscription when it was reasonable and useful - not anymore. Honestly think twice before you start using this.

Screwed editing

First of all - my old reviews disappeared despite I’ve been using this app since 2011 Second - you guys just screwed cursor management on iOS 26 - feels like back in 2009, in many instances I cannot change cursor position. Hire back your QA! Stop this AI slop

Would not recommend

Needlessly expensive and exploitative. This app is also buggy - especially on the mobile version, and they never fix any problems. Ever. App seems to be in free-fall, consistently getting worse and worse. Used to be great, now I am migrating away ASAP

Not worth it and they charge you more

After two years of paying $130(!!!!!) a year which already seemed ridiculously high for a notes app, that particular “plan” was eliminated and they automatically billed me at the new, more expensive plan which was NEARLY DOUBLE THE COST. There are absolutely ZERO features here to make this worth $250 a year.

this app SUCKS

evernote used to be an industry leader but not they’re just a textbook of example abject stupidity and mismanagement. with the new owners, Bending Spoons, a significant majority of useful key features are GONE, yet they ask $250 for their defunct platform. multiple notes open on iPad? No. Multiple instances of main grower window on Mac like years before? No. anyone’s worst nightmare is losing their notes. it’s like so bad compared to before that it looks like a conspiracy theory. how could anyone be so stupid? clearly not considering what users want; a blatant disregard. so sad cause was a exceptionally good app back in its day. one star still app works.

Great solution, but overpriced and Privacy Issues

As a long time user of Evernote, I really enjoy their product and they have done a great job with product enhancements. Their pricing has become obnoxious for their paid version. Their support also forces you to submit your activity logs which (may contain private information and they advise you to scrub your notes). Totally understand needing this if there is an escalation but not for first pass support. Now I get the fun of migrating away from Evernote…

Pushing on their paid subscription got too much

I understand there are useful features for paid subscription. But having messages and videos about the subscription every time I try to open my note is too intrusive and time wasting. I had to move on to use different note application. There are plenty others that is not so intrusive to user experience. I suggest to stop those intrusive ads and videos if you want people to be using the app at all.

used to be free - now a small fortune

this app used to be free. when they switched to paid we could still see the value and stuck with them. 13 years later and gradually increasing the price to where it makes ZERO sense to pay for this. and i’m sure the subscription price that over the last 13 years went from zero to $155 a year will only continue to increase in the future. we just migrated everything off of here and cancelled and we will never return to such a filthy money grubbing enterprise again. wake up. the subscription culture is dead and companies like this continue to beat a dead horse until they will beat themselves into a deserved grave with unjustifiable inflation and greed.

DON’T

I would give it no stars but you have choose one!!!!The worst app ever. Not very usable. Constantly want to charge you to use it. Seems great at first then useless!!

Lost trust in developers

I’ve completely lost all faith in Evernote now. Previously they gave a massive price hike due to the AI tools being added and forced us into moving into that so that we could continue to work. I started using the AI tool such as meeting transcripts and now they have changed it so it’s impossible to download or copy the meeting transcript so I’ve been conned into paying a huge subscription without even been able to use the functionality that I was benefitting from. Fundamentally it’s impossible to trust that paying any more money in the future will result in the service I expect so I’m going to look for alternatives.

Disappointment

I've been a user since 2012, and it is disappointing to see the monetization creep that forces users to pay to use Evernote across more than one device.

Too many ads

I’ve used this notes app for years and now everytime I go use it I get hit with ads. Super annoying do better

Used to be good

Now impossibly slow and with less features. And very intrusive.

Not really worth it

In my opinion, they keep adding things that slow the app down that I don’t even need just so they can significantly increase the price. Evernote was great when I started using it years ago and it is terrible now.

Too many ads

The ads are now loud. EVERY TIME YOU TRY AND MAKE A NOTE. Unusable.

Annoying

Terrible app makes it difficult to download pdf and send to laptop

Bugs in Evernote

Ever know has been going downhill rapidly over the last few weeks or months. It’s almost unusable on my phone at this point and it’s so slow and filled with bugs on the laptop that we’re ready to give up and shift to GROK4.7 and shift to using agents to manage the things we previously managed on Evernote and are now having to give up and just consider it our archive I understand you’ve bundled some type of integration with hugging face or something like that, but you need to get your code debug before you go live with it. This is very concerning that your company is letting down it users this way after all these years What is tell me about Evernote having use it for over a decade now this is dedication to being a Bake with respect to communication with his customers which would help in its product development The second thing that stunning over this decade is how bugs are systemic never fixed Certain features which are obvious such as nesting, are never integrated ever, despite valiant effort to get you to listen, but you don’t listen apparently, and I may as well be shouting into an empty dark room Possible, you can admit that these are systemic to your original architecture and you can’t fix them, but it would be nice if you would be more honest and transparent with your loyal users

Animated ads that you can't stop

They have added animated ads for their AI that you cannot x out of and it is loud with music. By the time I wait until I can x out of it, I have forgotten the important thing I needed to add to my note. You used to have to click through a couple of ads, including an "I'm sure" one to get to your note, but I cannot abide this assault on my ears and productivity! I've been wanting to switch to a different app for a while, but didn't want the hassle of copying and pasting all my notes to something new. To quote Arrested Development, today is: "I don't know why, but that's it."

Don’t get it unless you plan to pay

The free version is flooded with incessant ads. Including several pop ups every single time you open the app, and now the latest “update” delivers ad videos with loud audio starting to play half way as you’re mid-sentence writing a note. Don’t bother getting this app.

Free Free was simple

Free version simple, years ago. Missed the multi device sync. my go to app. I appreciate them keeping my notes for years but ADS slow me down when i need to simply jot something quickly. Would subscribe but way way way way way way too expensive. Will phase out and take my notes somewhere…

It’s finally happened

Looks like they’ve finally caught on that their app is a commodity that provides no value. Evernote has gone from barely used to completely unusable due to the constant begging for money they don’t deserve.

Popups make it useless

I can’t use it because of the endless stream of notifications and feature announcements. Here’s what happens. I have an idea to write down. I open Evernote. I clear 1-5 popups, which destroy the thought in brain -RAM, so then I have no idea what I wanted to write down and I leave. Why use a mind eraser note app? As soon as I can migrate away, I’ll unsubscribe. Ulysses doesn’t do this to me. Ulysses is set up as if it cares to remain useful more than it cares about forcing me to interact with it.

Unacceptable ads now

Do not blast me with a noisy video ad after I’ve already declined upgrading multiple times. In fact, you never play a noisy ad like that. You don’t know where I’m at or what I’m doing. Just very bad.

Deleting after daily use since 2015

As it says in the title I’m deleting your app. I’ve used it since 2015 but now every time I open the app you force me to watch an ad before I can access my notes in which you want me to pay $25/month or $125/year for a fricking note app. Your app DOES NOT offer that level of service.

Ads are Brutal

There’s no world in which I should need to watch a video to any time I try to open a note. I should have switched to Apple Notes years ago

Extreme downgrade in quality over years

Not only has this app turned into one giant self-advertisement, the free version is borderline useless.

Too many ads, now worse

This used to be a great app. It’s had an increasing amount of annoying pop-ups over the years, but now plays full screen video ads when you try to access your files. Time to migrate to a different platform.

Love the tool. Hate the price.

I’ve used Evernote for years. At least every other year the price has continued to go up and up. I just use it as a really good note taking app but at $250 a year, I’d rather use pen and paper. I moved over to UpNote. Much less expensive. Does everything I needed Evernote for and there is an easy migration from Evernote to UpNote. I’m sad to go but just can’t justify the price anymore.

Quality has tanked

Used to be amazing. Since bought by bending spoons, search has become trash, ui design tanked, oversold non-functional “ai search” which didn’t even perform a fraction as well as their search from 2011! Laughable. Been subscriber since 2011; today they kicked me off auto-renewal and firewalled until chose higher plan. Can’t wait to leave them for both personal and our business.

Not what it used to be

Been with Evernote since the beginning. Been fine. Though, the Last several years I pay for subscription, and then get a notice to upgrade and get kicked out each time I log in. Madness . Stay away

Latest update buggy

Latest update makes the app crash more. Freezes. Unusable almost

Really frustrating

I’ve used Evernote for years. The recent AI trailer is annoying in its interruption and annoying to my family and friends who hear it several times a day. Who decided to introduce such a truly disruptive advert which has basically stopped me from using your product? I don’t want to pay just so that an advert doesn’t play. Instead of making me want to pay for a service, you’ve just made me want to stop using the app.

Getting worse each year

I started using Evernote over a decade ago when it was still a cute young startup app. I created a big database of school and personal notes. Then they changed it into this bloated, overpriced, corporate subscription model. They gradually throttled back all free functionality so that I can now only access my notes on one device. And now… these horrendous audio-visual adds randomly interrupt my note reading. Screw you Evernote for hating your early users so much. Even if I was the type of user who would pay that much for an annual app subscription I wouldn’t choose Evernote based on the terrible user experience they’ve created for those of us who found it and liked it and talked it up to all our friends when it was free.

Useful, but not robust

Evernotes is not cheap, but still has way too many glitches, synchronization errors, app freezing incidents, etc. Sometime an important note doesn’t show, and then I find out it says I have missed a manual sync. Not all that happy.

Adverts!!!!

Again the Adverts make this app pointless, you can’t quickly make or even read a note anymore as the adverts start after seconds and last long enough to become intrusive and they just make using this too annoying! Yes you can pay to remove them I suppose but I bought this app years ago outright, no subscription back then so I refuse to pay for what I already paid for!!! This makes me angry!!! Do not waste your time with this…

Evernote

This was my favorite notes app but the free version is now impossible to use. It shows an ad every time you open it. I would pay a fee for premium but it’s way overpriced so I’m in the process of transferring all of my notes to a different app. Very disappointing since I loved this app.

Was great til new owners

Used it all the time til new owners created videos that won’t turn off and increasingly expensive. Looking fot good alternative.

Too many ads

Used this app for many years. Now they show an unskippable AI ad and even after closing that ANOTHER popup trying to get you to buy the paid subscription. Deleting this app and finding a better option.

New Owners Ruined It

The price was increased and they turned it from a notes app to an AI infused piece of junk. It takes 60 seconds to open on a modern and fast Mac. It pops up information all the time. It has features no notes app needs. Total Junk!

Not happy with latest version(s) of app

I’ve been happy with Evernote for years, but lately the app has become frustrating to use. When trying to correct a word, the editing option is sometimes grayed out, so I can’t even select the word to fix it. Even worse, the back button (<) that returns you to the notes list is right next to Undo. It’s far too easy to accidentally hit Undo when you’re simply trying to go back, and I keep doing it. These are basic editing and UI issues that shouldn’t exist in a mature note-taking app. Evernote really needs to fix them.