Ask HN: What Happened to Evernote?

I have depended on Evernote for a long time without even realizing how much of a daily utility it is. It has been so seamless that I had forgotten I was rolling with the free version, until recently. I noticed a few UI changes which seemed a little unintuitive and some of my notes didn't seem to sync as reliably between my phone and laptop. No biggie, I have gotten used to updates.

Then this week I was working through a new project on a customer's site taking notes in Evernote as I normally do. I spent a good chunk of time going through the project onsite and making a comprehensive list of everything that would need to be done. I noticed the header on my note was grey but assumed it was a UI change. I had 4G reception on my phone and figured, even if something's not quite right I can sync it up back at the office like I normally do as the note would be on my phone. So I proceeded like normal.

The whole note is gone as if it never existed.

Is this some sort of effort to onboard me to the paid version? Have I inadvertently clicked a "yes I accept that the free version is going to become unreliable" button?

I appreciate I am not a great customer - I have been using a free version for years without even thinking about it. But thats kind of the point, Evernote worked so well I never gave it a second thought.

Now I am not 100% sure on the safety of my notes...

What is other people's experience? Have I just been caught napping because I mindlessly clicked an updated terms of use without reading it (as I do)?

If I go paid am I getting something as good as what the old Evernote was like?

Why don't you try Notion.

Seriously, it feels so much better IMHO, with atomic rollback and you can export your data out in a non-proprietary format (MD, HTML, PDF) if it comes to difficult choices someday.

I tried getting into Notion a while ago (~ 6 months) and ultimately stopped using it, due to general UI responsiveness issues and their lack of a full offline mode.

Really liked the product, though. I think they're working on offline support so i'm planning to check it out again when that is added.

Edit: looked into this a bit more and they promised offline support "soon" as far back as 2018 so maybe it'd be a good idea not to be too enthusiastic about this...

What gives you that Notion?

I am an independent developer based currently in Japan. I work in business intelligence with a gratis role in a national environmental conservation organization. I have no affiliation to Notion. I have used their product for last two years and generally enjoy the productivity boost. I used to be a premium Evernote customer a few years ago.

Hope that clears the matter with you. Please understand that regular HN contributors do not generally engage being paid shill or voting ring members. Some of us happily choose the dignity here over the chaos in paid social media.