Notion and Evernote are both popular note-taking apps, but they have a completely different philosophy. Notion is a flexible workspace where you build databases, projects and wikis. Evernote is a digital archive for quickly capturing and retrieving information. Which fits your way of working?
Notion in brief
Notion is an all-in-one workspace that combines notes, tasks, databases, and wikis. You build pages with blocks that you can structure as you see fit. The platform is popular with teams and individuals who want to organize their entire digital life in one system. The power lies in relational databases that allow you to create complex connections between projects, tasks, and notes. Notion recently received offline mode and AI functionality.
Evernote in brief
Evernote is a powerful note-taking app focused on quickly capturing and smartly retrieving information. The tool excels in text recognition: you can search in typed text, handwritten notes, PDFs, and even photos. With the Web Clipper you save articles, the scanner digitizes documents, and the task feature keeps track of your to-dos. Evernote organizes everything in notebooks with tags, a familiar structure for those accustomed to physical filing cabinets.
Notion vs Evernote: the differences
The fundamental difference lies in the approach. Evernote is built for quick notes and powerful search. You open the app, type or paste something, and done. Notion asks you to first think about structure: which database, which properties, which view? That flexibility makes Notion suitable for project management and knowledge management, but also more complex. Evernote remains a pure note-taking app where you quickly dump information and find it later.
The search functionality clearly shows this difference. Evernote’s OCR technology recognizes text in images and PDFs lightning fast. Photograph a business card or a handwritten recipe, and you can simply look up the text later. Notion does have search, but that’s basic: titles, typed text, and some metadata. For those who scan many documents or archive web content, Evernote is superior. For those who create connections between projects and visualize data, Notion offers more possibilities.
The free plan differs enormously. Notion gives individual users unlimited pages with only small limitations: 5MB file size per upload and 7 days page history. Enough for serious use. Evernote limits the free plan to 50 notes and 60MB uploads per month. That’s essentially an extended trial. Those who need more must quickly pay with Evernote.
Collaboration is another distinction. Notion has real-time collaboration built in: multiple people edit simultaneously, you see cursors moving, and comments appear immediately. The tool recently even adds email integration and forms. Evernote focuses primarily on individual use. You can share notebooks, but the collaboration features feel like an addition, not core functionality.
The learning curve is perhaps the biggest difference. Evernote works immediately: create a note, choose a notebook, done. The structure with notebooks and tags is intuitive. Notion has a steep learning curve. You need to understand what databases are, how properties work, and why you create relationships. That offers enormous power, but also requires time. Users speak of “Notion fatigue”: spending more time maintaining the system than doing the work itself.
Comparing prices
Notion uses a friendly pricing structure. The free plan is widely usable for individual users. The Plus subscription costs € 10 per month with annual payment, or € 12 per month. With that you get unlimited file size and complete page history. For teams there’s Business starting at € 20 per user per month.
Evernote is considerably more expensive. The free plan with 50 notes forces most users to a paid subscription. Personal costs € 10,83 per month with annual payment, but € 14,99 per month without annual subscription. Professional is at € 14,17 per month (annual) or € 17,99 (monthly). That means over € 130 per year for the Personal version, while with Notion you get more functionality for € 120 per year.
For budget-conscious users, Notion is clearly more attractive. The free plan is often sufficient, and the paid version offers more for less money. Evernote asks a premium price for what essentially remains a note-taking app, while Notion delivers a complete productivity platform for a lower price.
Conclusion
Notion wins this comparison for most users. The free plan is generous enough for serious use, the paid versions are cheaper, and the functionality goes beyond pure note-taking. The databases, collaboration tools, and recent additions like offline mode make it a complete platform. The learning curve is real, but the investment pays off for those who want structure and overview.
Evernote remains relevant for specific users: those who scan many documents, need to search text in images, or simply want a straightforward note-taking app without the hassle of databases. The Web Clipper and OCR functionality are unmatched. But the price is high and the free plan too limited. For teams, students, and those who want more than just notes, Notion is the better choice.
