
Ask HN: Alternatives to Evernote? - eswat
Given the amount of people asking for alternatives in the Evernote thread making the waves right now and since I’ve been looking for one for a while now, figured I ask what others use.<p>OneNote, Simplenote, org-mode seem to be some popular ones.
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AH4oFVbPT4f8
I'm a long time Evernote user and honestly, it's great for record keeping but
I find it pretty awful for daily use.

A huge improvement could be made by Evernote if they would support markdown
within their notes. Currently the editor is very basic and can't handle
functions like tables very well (creating them sure, but then adding/removing
cells or sizing them is a chore)

OneNote has the best editor but it's also a lot heavier than evernote.

Google Keep can't be an option after what Google does with it's side projects
like iGoogle and Reader.

~~~
eswat
Yeah, Markdown support would be lovely for me since I write almost everything
else outside of Evernote in Markdown.

I’m leery of Keep because Google has already tried this realm before with
Google Notebook and shut that down.

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paulgb
It's not close to a full-blown Evernote alternative, but Google keep
([http://keep.google.com](http://keep.google.com)) is my alternative.

~~~
zabouti
I no longer trust Google to keep its own services - they've gotten rid of too
many projects. On the plus side, you usually have time to download your data
before the service dies.

~~~
paulgb
Startups have an even worse track record. I switched to Google Keep when
catch.com shut down.

------
davidjgraph
[http://alternativeto.net/software/evernote/](http://alternativeto.net/software/evernote/)

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kenrick95
By owning a Surface RT, I've used OneNote for almost a semester now. For me
the only minus side of OneNote is that the PDF slides from the lecturers can't
be editable inside OneNote. This is because the things that are "printed"
inside OneNote are images which makes the OneNote file big. But then, after
trying some alternatives, I cannot find any better one. Seems that I will
stick to OneNote for now.

~~~
manojlds
As a Windows Phone user, I have come to love OneNote as well.

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msluyter
I've been using nValt with synching via SimpleNote. nValt is pretty nice,
actually - the UI is optimized for fast searching or adding notes.

~~~
monkey_slap
Same here. Been loving nValt and saving my notes in Dropbox. Super simple, and
incredibly fast.

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zaqokm
My 2 cents :) The trouble is that there are little or no real alternatives.
There are plenty of hacks like dropbox, simple note, etc but nothing with the
complete functionality and cross platform capabilities which Evernote.

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YousefED
I use onenote. Its simplicity and multiplatform support resulted in a lot of
"is this really a Microsoft product?" reactions by people I showed it to.
Definitely recommend to give it a try

~~~
lucb1e
> multiplatform support

$ apt-cache search onenote

Yielded no results for me. What is the GNU/Linux client called?

~~~
YousefED
Sorry, I was referring to iOS and Android mobile support. There's a webversion
though accessible from [https://skydrive.live.com](https://skydrive.live.com),
but I've hardly used it (so can't recommend it. Also, I suppose a desktop
version is crucial for a good note taking app so I guess it's not worth trying
on linux / mac).

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mrteal
Although I may be an extreme case, I use Dokuwiki for notes/journals/logs. I
wanted something that was OSS, as I am somewhat uncomfortable providing brain
dumps to a corporate entity in exchange for a license. Wiki markup is great
for quick keyboard formatting, and all data is saved in flat files, so a rsync
via cron takes care of redundancy/backups. Revision control works, and I can
quickly create a new user with limited access if I need to share, or export to
PDF.

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acemtp
I created a project called [http://dok.io](http://dok.io) The goal is to
easily create and forget (like in gmail) small piece of info (dok). The
dynamic search helps to find them if needed later.

Of course it's collaborative (like a wiki) and everyone in the team can
add/edit just by typing in the dok (like in asana), no edit button or
whatever. Oh and behind, it's HTML5/JS with Meteor.

Feedback will be greatly appreciated.

~~~
enko
Since you asked for feedback... get a native speaker to review your copy.
"leverage on" \- you don't need the "on" (this is in 2 places). "Notes are
information that aimed at becoming knowledge" \- doesn't make sense, perhaps
say "aims" instead? hierarchizations - just say hierarchies.

Well, you asked : P

~~~
acemtp
Thank you! You right, I'll have to find a native speaker. I'll fix that.

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jkupferman
After getting frustrated with Evernote being slow and buggy I switched to
Simplenote ([http://simplenote.com/](http://simplenote.com/)).

It's simple, fast and seamless. You start typing and it automatically syncs
your note for you. It does one thing that does it well. That being said it
doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Evernote does (audio notes, OCR,
etc).

~~~
sutterbomb
Second the vote for Simplenote. Super fast native Mac & iOS apps. Search is
lightening quick too. Decent web app as well if you need it.

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oinksoft
Zim is pretty decent if you like something on the desktop and like wikis. Its
strength is in quickly organizing a bunch of related ideas/notes (being a
wiki) but it is much faster to use than a browser-based wiki. [http://zim-
wiki.org/](http://zim-wiki.org/)

I tend to just scribble in Vim though, or use paper and pencil.

~~~
klint
+1 for Zim, even if you don't much like wikis. You don't actually have to use
wiki markup or anything with Zim if you don't want to. You can just organize
things with folders, subfolders and tags and never worry about creating links.

I find it to be sort of halfway between Notational Velocity and Evernote. Like
nv it stores everything as flat files, but like Evernote you can add some
structure to how your organize things.

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grimlck
Does anyone know of any note apps which support Linux, iOS, Windows, and OS X.
Starts up fast. For example, vi starts up fast. Works offline and online.
Always syncs without a manual step.

I don't care about pictures, or audio, or OCR, etc. I just want the basics to
work and work perfectly.

~~~
daGrevis
Use Vim and GitHub Gists.

[https://github.com/mattn/gist-vim](https://github.com/mattn/gist-vim)

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gum_ina_package
How about OneNote? They have a desktop version, tablet version, online
versions, and clients for iOS/Android/WP8 as well.
[http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/](http://office.microsoft.com/en-
us/onenote/)

~~~
HackyGeeky
I'm hooked to OneNote, started using it a year back. From what I've seen it's
extremely intuitive. Creating a table is a breeze and so is the indenting.

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salient
Keep:

[https://drive.google.com/keep/](https://drive.google.com/keep/)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.keep)

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dsirijus
Fair chance is that plethora of use-cases covered by Evernote are not covered
by any other alternative. OCR, Web Clipper (favorite bit of mine), audio
notes, location-aware notes, sharing, cross-platform support, awesome note
indexing and subsequent search, offline caching, 3rd (as well as 1st) party
app ecosystem integrated with their API... You name it. Even their free as
well as premium tier give you a lot of bang for buck.

Which is kind of explanation of why they can get away with some issues in
their service - they _own_ the space. Period.

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dmn757
Probably not nearly as feature packed or maintained, but Google Keep
([https://drive.google.com/keep/](https://drive.google.com/keep/)) is an
option.

~~~
jxf
Did everyone forget the lessons of Google Reader that quickly? I wouldn't use
Google Keep.

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dorfsmay
Text files on dropbox, using native editors is definitely the most portable
solution with no vendor lock in. Dropbox's web site even has an online text
editor.

~~~
mark_l_watson
+1, couldn't agree more.

I have dropbox aware editors on all of my devices, and have a good directory
layout for storing and working on ideas as text files. BTW, I use the same
setup so I can work on my book projects on any of my devices (using leanpub).

I use Dropbox a lot for clipping web articles, taking pictures of bills and
records, etc.

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urlwolf
Best multiplatform notetaker: wiznote.
[http://wiz.cn/index.html](http://wiz.cn/index.html)

Yes, it's a chinese product, so the servers will be in China. Hopefully the
NSA has a bit of a harder time, and the local gov. doesn't have that many
people reading English notes :)

Features are amazing, but more than anything I like the fact that everything
is html, with headings assigned to shortcuts. Proper outlining.

------
ncolor
Mac's TextEdit (a rich text editor) has been what I've ultimately chosen after
using Evernote, OneNote, SpringPad, Simplenote, Notational Velocity, and Mac's
Notes.app. Let me explain some of its benefits.

\- Notes are placed in Finder (the file system). This is the biggest benefit.
This means that I can store notes separately in folders, according to their
specific purposes. For example, I can categorize my notes by project, AND
store files of any type alongside them, since they're just placed in the
Finder. I generally don't like using specific notes apps, because what if you
want to attach a real file (not a shortcut to a file) which is of a type
that's incompatible with the notes app? You can't, because notes apps can only
categorize notes. That's very limited. With Finder, everything's categorized
according to your own purposes, and any file type can be moved into/out of
each purpose. The more I use Finder, the more I love it.

\- TextEdit is very simple, but also very powerful if you know how to use it.
It generally has all the features of a typical notes app. It has rich text
editing, and you can put in pictures as well. When you're searching for a note
or its content in Finder, it'll look through all the text within the notes,
not just the file names. If you want to quick look notes, just click on a note
in column view.

\- If you use a certain note more often than others, you can use Alfred (a
smart search app) to launch it really quickly just by typing its name, without
needing to load an entire notes app filled with notes you don't need, and then
find it yourself.

\- Unlike Evernote, you can easily password-protect as many notes as you like
by storing them in an encrypted DMG, since this feature comes with the Mac.

A downside for some people is that you can't edit your notes on a
phone/tablet. For me this hasn't been a problem because I'm ten times more
productive on a laptop. I can always view my files with the Dropbox app, and I
can always make some quick notes on my mobile device if I ever need to. For
most people, your laptop is almost always with you, and it doesn't take long
to pop it open.

If you're on Windows, I think WordPad would be the right way to go. Not too
sure about Linux though.

In conclusion, the TextEdit/Finder combo is the simplest, fastest, and most
functional, notes tool that I've ever used.

------
patrickmay
I use OmniFocus. It is relatively easy to customize it to support GTD, but it
is commercial software. I believe the price is around USD 80.

------
arvidjanson
Icebergs ([https://icebergs.com/](https://icebergs.com/)) is one of the
prettier ones I've seen. Not really an avid user myself, but then again I'm
not using Evernote either. Sublime+Dropbox does it for me at the moment, but
would love to find a better alternative.

------
biggilo
Bokemarks.com is a good alternative:
[http://www.bokemarks.com/](http://www.bokemarks.com/)

Here is an invitation link:
[http://www.bokemarks.com/#!invited?code=bHjj1KloPRx56W](http://www.bokemarks.com/#!invited?code=bHjj1KloPRx56W)

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Styrke
I use a folder in my Google Drive.

~~~
eliben
+1. I also find Google Drive very convenient for this. The great search within
my drive just lets me litter a large amount of new documents and not worry
about it. I usually either view the most recently edited or search.

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StuieK
Here is a crowdsourced list: [http://www.slant.co/topics/697/~what-is-the-
best-cross-platf...](http://www.slant.co/topics/697/~what-is-the-best-cross-
platform-note-taking-tool)

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mvkel
I use JustNotes on OS X, which is built on top of Simplenote. It syncs
wonderfully and is very, well, Simple. The reason I switched to Evernote: rich
text.

Google Keep can't do RTF either :(

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darcrossito
If you just want to organize ideas or simple notes,
[https://workflowy.com](https://workflowy.com) works well.

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ArekDymalski
I reccomend Diigo becauseit's also an excellent bookmark organizer. I switched
to it after using both Evernote and Springpad.

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contextual
Definitely check out Springpad:
[https://springpad.com/about](https://springpad.com/about)

For me, I've been using Basecamp for practically everything. It's so useful
and reliable, and the mobile site has the best most functional interface I've
ever used.

~~~
frossie
The problem with these (and all the other alternatives I've seen in this post
so far) is that they ignore the one thing that locks people into Evernote
despite the bugs, poor interface etc: scanner-support and OCR. Sure, if you
have your information in digital form already, there's a bunch of decent
solutions, but in terms of killing the paper mountain I am not aware of
anything that supports that workflow, certainly not that easily.

~~~
firefoxNX11
what do you mean by "killing the paper mountain"? The OCR feature of Evernote
Premium?

------
xname
It depends on what you need.

\- Serious note taking for study / research or whatever requires a lot of
editing: ms word or alike.

\- Quick saving of webpages: readability / instapaper / pocket etc.

\- Quick note taking for a few words: google keep

\- to do list: to do list apps

I have tried all kinds of things and I found I have to use different apps to
achieve different goals.

