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Ask HN: If Evernote goes out of business, what happens to all our notes?

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Re: Ask HN: If Evernote goes out of business, what happens to all our notes?

#21

if you're seriously concerned about this, then the answer is to backup your notes periodically. There are a number of ways to do this - the one I use involves installing Evernote locally and then periodically exporting the database into Dropbox. Of course, this doesn't guarantee that your notes won't fall into the wrong hands. To avoid that you'd need to either encrypt your notes or run something yourself.

There is probably a diff history, so if the notes get out, encrypting only protects you on new notes going forward.

Re: Ask HN: If Evernote goes out of business, what happens to all our notes?

#22
post #13

Is anyone aware of any good open alternatives to Evernote? I've been reluctant to try Evernote for that particular reason (and lock-in factors). Ideally something like: 1) open source format; 2) you host the files e.g. on Dropbox; 3) markdown; 4) searchable (and entries can be tagged). Happy to pay for the app but the files need to be self-hosted in an open format.

This was discussed on HN previously, with no GREAT alternatives, but a few workable alternatives[1] I'm actively looking for a replacement. I have tried Paperwork[2], Laverna[3], and DevonThink[4] If you're on OSX, and open to a fair amount of upfront work, DevonThink is the best alternative I've used, and can sync with webDAV against Owncloud-or-other-DAV-server for multi-client-access. That said, I've not yet found…

+1 for DEVONthink. Your description is fitting, too.
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