Start with why you're leaving
Evernote's free tier holds 50 notes. Starter is $99 a year and caps at 1,000 notes and 1,000 attachments. The tier without caps is $249.99. The January 2026 v11 release added real AI — an OpenAI-built Assistant, Semantic Search, and Meeting Notes — but it runs on those same plans. So the question isn't whether to consider alternatives; it's which exit you're taking.
If you want to build systems and databases, that's Notion. If you want to own your files outright, that's Obsidian. If you want free without a catch, that's OneNote. If you want open source and encryption, that's Joplin. And if your archive is mostly documents — contracts, receipts, statements, scans — and you want to ask it questions, that's us, DocuStrata.
Notion — for building systems
Notion is a workspace, not a notes app: pages, databases, and views you assemble into whatever structure your work needs. Its free plan is generous for individuals, paid plans run around $10 per user per month, and Notion AI is a separate add-on (around $10/month) that answers across your workspace with a choice of underlying models. Migration is the most hands-off of any tool here — an official importer connects to your Evernote account directly — though the conversion is opinionated and tags become inline text.
Where it beats us: anything involving structure, collaboration, or replacing several tools at once. Where it doesn't: Notion has no OCR, so a scanned-document archive arrives as unsearchable images, and quick capture is slower because every note needs a destination.
Obsidian — for owning your files
Obsidian stores notes as plain Markdown files on your own disk — no company between you and your data, which is precisely the reassurance many people want after watching Evernote's ownership change. The app has been free for personal and commercial use since early 2026; the optional first-party Sync runs about $4/month billed annually. The official Importer plugin reads ENEX and converts notes to Markdown with attachments — tags and timestamps come through, internal note links don't.
Where it beats us: data ownership, longevity, linking, and a plugin ecosystem with years of depth. Where it doesn't: everything is manual — organization, mobile is thinner, and there's no built-in OCR or document-level Q&A.
OneNote — for free, genuinely
Microsoft OneNote is free with no note cap, includes OCR on images, and uses a familiar notebook → section → page structure with a freeform canvas that suits handwritten and mixed-media notes. If you live in Microsoft 365, it's already there. Migration from Evernote goes through Microsoft's importer or third-party tools rather than a native ENEX reader, and sync speed is a common complaint.
Where it beats us: price — it's free without an asterisk — and pen-first note-taking. Where it doesn't: it's a notebook, not an archive tool; there's no way to ask questions across thousands of documents and get cited answers.
Joplin — for open source and encryption
Joplin is the closest thing to an open-source Evernote: notebooks, tags, a web clipper, and the most battle-tested ENEX importer in the field (importing as Markdown gives the cleanest result). It's free, end-to-end encrypted, and syncs through your own cloud — Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, S3 — or Joplin Cloud from about $3/month. The trade is polish: the interface is functional rather than refined.
Where it beats us: cost, encryption model, and self-hosting — your data never has to touch a vendor you don't choose. Where it doesn't: no document intelligence; search is keyword search, and scans are only as useful as the text layer they arrive with — which ENEX strips.
DocuStrata — for a document archive you can ask
DocuStrata is our product, so weigh this section accordingly — and check the claims. It's built for the person whose Evernote was really a filing cabinet: thousands of PDFs, receipts, contracts, and scans. Import is one .enex drop; every document is re-OCR'd during migration, restoring the searchable layer Evernote's export strips. Then the archive answers questions — every answer cited to the page it came from, with Deep Analysis computing any math server-side rather than generating it. The free tier holds 250 documents with 25 questions a month; Personal is $120 a year for 25,000 documents.
Where the others beat us: Notion for systems, Obsidian for ownership, OneNote for price, Joplin for encryption and self-hosting — and Evernote itself still wins quick capture and web clipping. Where nothing else on this list competes: asking a 10,000-document archive a question and getting a cited, checkable answer.
Worth a look
Apple Notes is free on Apple devices, imports ENEX directly on a Mac, and keeps getting better — the right answer for all-Apple households with modest archives. UpNote (around $39.99 lifetime) is the closest one-to-one recreation of classic Evernote's feel, with ENEX import, for people who want the old workflow back without the subscription.
Side-by-side
| Tool | Best for | Price | ENEX import |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion | Systems, databases, teams | Free; ~$10/user/mo; AI add-on ~$10/mo | Official importer (OAuth); opinionated conversion |
| Obsidian | Local files you own | Free (incl. commercial); Sync ~$4/mo | Official Importer plugin → Markdown |
| OneNote | Free notebook, Microsoft ecosystem | Free | Via Microsoft/third-party importers |
| Joplin | Open source, E2E encryption | Free; Joplin Cloud from ~$3/mo | Native, battle-tested |
| Apple Notes | All-Apple, zero setup | Free | Native on Mac (File → Import) |
| UpNote | Classic Evernote feel | ~$39.99 lifetime | Native |
| DocuStrata | Document archives with cited AI answers | Free (250 docs); $120/yr (25,000 docs) | Native, with full re-OCR |
What ENEX migration actually loses
Whichever tool you choose, know what Evernote's export format does to your data before you rely on it. ENEX flattens notebook structure into a single file, breaks internal note links, collapses tag hierarchy to a flat list, and drops version history. Plain text, attachments, and images transfer cleanly.
The loss that matters most for document-heavy archives: ENEX strips the OCR text layer from scanned documents. We tested this directly while building our importer — the export contains the image data but not the searchable text Evernote's servers generated. Most tools inherit unsearchable images and don't tell you. Whatever you migrate to, confirm how it handles that, and test one notebook before you move everything.
Frequently asked
What's the best free Evernote alternative?
OneNote if you want no caps and OCR; Joplin if you want open source and encryption; Apple Notes if you're all-Apple. Our free tier holds 250 documents with 25 AI questions a month — enough to test whether cited answers change how you use an archive.
Does exporting from Evernote preserve everything?
No — see the section above. Structure flattens, note links break, history is dropped, and the OCR layer on scans is stripped.
Which alternative handles large document archives best?
For archives that are mostly PDFs and scans, that's the job DocuStrata was built for — but if your archive is mostly written notes, Notion or Obsidian will serve you better, and this page says so on purpose.
Test it on your own archive
Free migration, full re-OCR, 25 AI questions to start. No credit card required.
Try DocuStrata free →Where to go from here
Pick the exit that matches your reason for leaving, test it with one notebook, and keep Evernote read-only until you've confirmed your data survived the move. If your reason is a document archive that should answer questions, our full DocuStrata vs Evernote comparison covers the details this page compresses.