Evernote vs OneNote: Choose the Best Note-Taking App

Trying to choose the best note-taking app between OneNote vs Evernote is an absolute clash of the titans, except it isn’t for a woman this time; it’s for the crown of the best digital notebook.

Microsoft’s OneNote and Evernote are the Ronaldo and Messi of note-taking apps; they are both excellent at what they do (writing, organising your thoughts, etc), but there is always a passive-aggressive rivalry between them.

They are both available for downloads on mobile and desktop. There’s also a web version of both if you don’t want to download apps due to limited device storage or just for the simplicity of using your browser.

Selecting your preferred note-taking app should be based on what you need and what each app has to offer. As a result, we wrote this article to save you the trouble of “figuring it out” by highlighting the features and utility of each app.

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Evernote vs OneNote: Which is the Best?

Evernote vs OneNote Pricing

OneNote’s subscription is pretty straightforward, subscribe to any office365 plan and get access to all apps (including OneNote)  and their features. Office 365 subscription is $9.99/month.

OneNote pretty much gives you all the features you need on the free version, the main features excluded are recordings, version history, and offline storage. You can’t record voice notes or videos in your notebook, you also can’t download your notes to your device, but you can access them on your OneDrive account.

There are four plans on Evernote; free, personal, professional, and teams. Evernote Personal is $7.99/month.

Evernote on the other hand offers pretty basic features on its free version. If you want to see the elephant in all of its glory,  you have to drop bar💰.

Evernote’s free version allows you to take notes, clip web pages, and sync your notes across your devices. But you’re limited to two devices and limited storage space of 60MB per month.

Although you can attach files, pdfs, and images to your notebook, you should know there’s a limit to what you can save to your notebook; 25MB max. There’s also no offline access on the free plan; the Lord be with you if your network decides to take a sabbatical or your data subscription is precariously hanging on a thread.

Benefits of OneNote

Notebook

You can use this feature to make notes on your device. The notebook is divided into sections, just like any other physical notebook; it has pages and subpages.  You can write in it as well as attach images, files (PDF), and recordings; recordings are only available if you have an office365 subscription.

 Web clipper

The web clipper feature in Onenote allows you to extract information from websites and save it to your notebook.

Imagine you’re browsing and come across some really nice and informative content, but you’re too busy to read it right then; clip it with the web clipper. Perhaps you came across a webpage that gave you a eureka moment and would like to return to it for inspiration; just clip it.

 Sticky Notes

Let’s face it, we all forget things; after all, we are only human 🤷‍♀️. Onenote helps you remember the important stuff by putting sticky notes where you’ll most likely see it; your device.

 Templates

Tired of plain backgrounds and having your notes all over the place? Just use OneNote’s predesigned templates. It’s fun and organized, and if the default templates are not to your taste, simply design yours😁.

Text Search

Trying to find an important note can be so scary, from frantically flipping pages to restlessly trying to remember where you wrote it😟. Well, you don’t have to do this at all with OneNote; simply press Ctrl + E, and boom, your precious is found.

 Custom Tags

So you wrote down some pretty awesome things and want to distinguish them from other notes; all you have to do is tag them as awesome ideas. The last thing you want to do is to keep your Albert Einstein notes in the same category as your grocery list.

 Internal Links to other Pages

So you wrote a note and you’re feeling inspired, the logical thing is to write part 2. But you don’t want to cram all of these great ideas onto one page; just use the link page feature to link your current note to the other page. 

You’ll probably love this feature as much as I do.

 Translate Notes

If distance isn’t a barrier why should language be? OneNote’s translate feature allows you to seamlessly translate your notes to other languages. 

It’s pretty cool, right? Yeah, I know🙃

Recording

Imagine thinking of something great while driving or in the shower; you obviously can’t type it, there’s also a high chance of you forgetting it if you don’t write it down. 

OneNote’s recording feature solves this problem for you by allowing you to create and save recordings. Although only paid users have access to this feature.

Password

You wrote your pretty personal notes and a nosy neighbour is trying to snoop because you dropped your device out of the kindness of your heart so he/she can make a quick call.

And how did they decide to repay you?  By diving deep into your personal/confidential notes. Fear not, OneNote passwords got your back: you can lock specific notebooks with this feature. 

Evernote Features

Notebook

You’re probably thinking, duh, other digital notebooks have notebooks🙄; after all, it’s called a digital notebook! That’s probably because you haven’t used Evernote’s notebook; it’s so easy to navigate that it will melt your heart. All you have to do is log in to your Evernote account and start scribbling away. 

Taking notes with Evernote is just effortless.

Checklists

Are you going grocery shopping and don’t want to forget anything? Make a grocery checklist in Evernote and cross it off when you’re done 👌 

If you also want to create a to-do list, this is also perfect for you, you can even set reminders with this feature.

Pictures into Notes

So you like scribbling on paper, or maybe you don’t 🤷‍♂️. You can simply take a picture of your note and upload it to your notebook for safekeeping. There’s also an ink-to-text feature that converts handwritten notes into text. 

Yeah, I know right? Evernote is just awesome😊

Voice notes

Going somewhere fast and need to make a quick note? use the voice note feature, it helps you make recordings anywhere and at any time. 

Maybe you are in a rush and you are pretty sure your notes may not give too much clarity, all you have to do is click on the record audio icon and create a voice note.

Card View

This feature is pretty cool; it gives you a preview of your notes. You don’t need to search for notes or go through their titles, just look at your cards, and boom, you get a mini description of the notes.

Search Feature

Here we go again🙄, I already know about the search feature 🤷‍♂️

Yes, but did you know that everything on Evernote is searchable? You can even search for videos and PDFs😏.

To top it off, there’s even a search suggestion that makes your search easier by suggesting words from your notebook.

Share Feature

You’re working on something and want to share it with someone else in real-time, or you simply want to hear other people’s ideas and suggestions; all you have to do is use the Evernote’s share feature. 

Collaborating with others is really easy with this feature; you don’t even have to send notes via email as long as they are also Evernote users.

You are also notified when changes are made to your notes.

Atlas Feature

If you’re trying to figure out where you’re most inspired and relaxed, you should probably try the atlas feature. This feature organizes your notes based on where you were when you wrote them.

Offline Access

So there was a power outage, you forgot your charger, or the network was terrible. Write your notes; whenever you are back online and log into your account, your notes will be automatically synced to your cloud storage.

Evernote Vs OneNote: Which is the best?

Evernote is so user-friendly and organized in a way that’s just casual and easy to navigate. I know OneNote is very organized too, but the platform is so prim and proper that you can’t help wonder, why so uptight? 

If all you want to do is take notes and have fun while at it, just go for Evernote.

If you want a highly functional and organized notebook, you’ll probably love OneNote.

Let’s not forget about the pricing, Office365 is $9.99 per month, which includes OneNote and other essential apps, which is great tbh.  Evernote on the other hand is $6.99 monthly for pro.

If you already have an Office365 subscription, you should probably use OneNote to cut costs; money doesn’t go trees after all.

If you’re not interested in Office365 and just want a great digital notebook, Evernote is the way to go.

Are Evernote and OneNote the only digital notebooks vying for supremacy? No way

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