As a digital technology expert with over a decade of experience testing and comparing productivity tools, I‘ve seen the note-taking app landscape evolve significantly. What started as simple digital notebooks have grown into feature-rich, cloud-powered platforms that help millions capture, organize, and share their ideas across devices. Two of the most prominent players in this space are Evernote and Microsoft OneNote, each with its own approach to note-taking and unique strengths.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll dive deep into the key differences, features, and target users of Evernote and OneNote. Through hands-on testing, user feedback analysis, and side-by-side comparisons, I‘ll help you determine which app is the best fit for your specific needs and workflows. Let‘s start by examining the history and background of these two note-taking giants.
The Origins of Evernote and OneNote
Evernote was founded in 2000 by Russian-American entrepreneur Stepan Pachikov, who envisioned a tool to help people remember everything. The first public beta of Evernote launched in 2008, and the app quickly gained popularity for its intuitive interface, web clipping capabilities, and seamless syncing across devices. As of 2021, Evernote has over 225 million registered users worldwide^1.
OneNote, on the other hand, was created by Microsoft and first released as part of the Office 2003 suite. Initially designed as a digital replacement for physical notebooks, OneNote has evolved over the years to include collaboration features, integration with other Microsoft apps, and support for a wide range of devices. While Microsoft doesn‘t disclose exact user numbers, OneNote is widely used in educational and business settings due to its inclusion in Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
User Interface and Customization
One of the most striking differences between Evernote and OneNote is their user interface design. Evernote opts for a clean, minimalist look with a default three-column layout (notebooks/tags, note list, and editor). This layout is highly customizable, allowing you to resize, rearrange, or hide columns to suit your preferences. You can also switch between light and dark themes, adjust font sizes, and choose from a variety of note templates.
OneNote, in contrast, closely resembles a physical notebook with its tabbed interface and freeform canvas. The app is divided into notebooks, sections, and pages, with a ribbon-style toolbar at the top for formatting and inserting content. While OneNote offers fewer customization options compared to Evernote, you can still change the page color, apply templates, and rearrange the sidebar tabs.
In terms of user interface flexibility and customization, Evernote has the edge. However, OneNote‘s familiar notebook-style layout may be more intuitive for users coming from a paper-based note-taking background.
Pricing and Features
Evernote offers a free Basic plan with limited features and a 60MB monthly upload limit. Paid plans start at $7.99/month for Premium, which includes a 10GB monthly upload limit, offline access, PDF annotation, and more. The Business plan, at $14.99/user/month, adds team collaboration features and administrative controls^2.
OneNote is completely free to use with no feature limitations. However, the free version includes only 5GB of OneDrive storage, shared across all your Microsoft apps. To get more storage and unlock additional Microsoft 365 features, you can upgrade to a Personal ($6.99/month) or Family ($9.99/month) subscription, which include 1TB of OneDrive storage per user^3.
For users with basic note-taking needs, OneNote‘s free version is hard to beat. But if you need advanced features like PDF annotation and team collaboration, Evernote‘s paid plans offer a more comprehensive solution.
Web Clipping
Both Evernote and OneNote offer web clipping capabilities, but Evernote‘s Web Clipper is more versatile and feature-rich. Available as a browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, Evernote‘s clipper allows you to save entire web pages, simplified articles, screenshots, or selected portions of a page. You can also annotate clipped content, assign tags and notebooks, and highlight text.
OneNote‘s Web Clipper, while functional, is more limited in scope. It supports clipping entire pages, articles, or regions, but lacks annotation and tagging features. One unique aspect of OneNote‘s clipper is the "Bookmark" option, which saves a link to the page along with a thumbnail screenshot.
For heavy web clippers and researchers, Evernote‘s advanced clipping options and annotation tools make it the superior choice.
Search and Organization
Evernote and OneNote both excel at making your notes easily searchable and organized. Evernote supports searching within text, tags, notebooks, and even attached PDFs and images (using OCR technology). The app also offers advanced search syntax for fine-tuned results, such as "tag:meeting" to find all notes tagged with "meeting" or "created:week-1" to surface notes created in the last week.
OneNote‘s search is equally powerful, with support for searching handwritten notes, images, and text across all notebooks. You can also search for specific tags, section titles, and page titles. One unique OneNote feature is the ability to search for text within embedded Excel spreadsheets and other Office files.
When it comes to organization, both apps allow you to create notebooks/sections and tag notes for easy categorization. Evernote takes this a step further with its "stacks" feature, which lets you nest notebooks within each other for a hierarchical structure. OneNote, on the other hand, offers more flexibility in terms of page layout and formatting, with the ability to place elements anywhere on the canvas.
Ultimately, both Evernote and OneNote have robust search and organization capabilities. The best choice depends on your preferred workflow and the type of content you typically store in your notes.
Collaboration and Sharing
In today‘s connected world, collaboration is key. Both Evernote and OneNote offer sharing and co-authoring features, but OneNote pulls ahead due to its seamless integration with Microsoft 365.
With Evernote, you can share individual notes via public links or by inviting specific users. Collaborators can view or edit the note, depending on the permissions you set, but they‘ll need an Evernote account to access it. Evernote Business introduces additional team collaboration features, such as shared notebook spaces and team-wide search.
OneNote, being part of the Microsoft ecosystem, makes collaboration a breeze. You can share entire notebooks with edit or view permissions, and collaborators can access them with their Microsoft accounts (no OneNote-specific account required). Co-authoring is supported in real-time, with colorful presence markers indicating who‘s editing what. OneNote also integrates with Microsoft Teams for chat-based collaboration.
For teams already using Microsoft 365, OneNote is the natural choice for its native integrations and co-authoring capabilities. However, Evernote Business remains a solid option for organizations seeking a standalone collaboration solution.
Integrations and Automation
Both Evernote and OneNote play well with a variety of third-party apps and services. Evernote boasts a wide range of integrations, including Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, and Zapier. The app also supports IFTTT (If This Then That) applets for automating tasks like saving email attachments or social media posts to your notes.
OneNote, unsurprisingly, integrates most deeply with other Microsoft apps. You can easily embed Excel spreadsheets, Visio diagrams, and other Office files right in your notes. The "Meeting Notes" feature automatically pulls in details from Outlook calendar events, and you can even use Cortana to dictate notes hands-free.
Both apps offer a solid selection of third-party integrations and automation options. The best choice depends on which tools you already use and want to connect with your note-taking system.
Mobile and Offline Access
Evernote and OneNote both offer mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well as offline access to your notes. However, there are some differences in implementation.
With Evernote, you can access your notes offline on mobile devices and desktop apps, but not in the web version. To enable offline access, you‘ll need to manually download the notebooks you want to access offline. Evernote‘s mobile apps offer a full-featured experience, with support for creating, editing, and organizing notes on the go.
OneNote, on the other hand, automatically syncs your notebooks for offline access on all devices, including the web version. As long as you‘ve opened a notebook recently, it will be available offline. OneNote‘s mobile apps are also feature-rich, with support for handwriting, audio recording, and OCR scanning of photos.
Both apps excel at mobile note-taking and offline access, but OneNote offers a slightly more seamless experience with its automatic syncing and consistent feature set across platforms.
Security and Privacy
When it comes to protecting your sensitive information, both Evernote and OneNote take security seriously. Evernote encrypts all notes in transit and at rest using industry-standard encryption protocols. The company also offers two-factor authentication and the ability to encrypt individual notes with a password. However, Evernote does store your data on its servers in plaintext, which means that employees could theoretically access your notes if required to do so by law^4.
OneNote, as part of the Microsoft 365 suite, benefits from Microsoft‘s robust security measures. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and Microsoft uses both physical and logical access controls to protect customer data. OneNote also supports two-factor authentication and the ability to password-protect individual sections. One advantage of OneNote is that you can choose to store your notebooks locally on your device, giving you full control over your data^5.
For most users, both Evernote and OneNote provide adequate security and privacy protections. However, if you‘re dealing with highly sensitive information, OneNote‘s local storage option and Microsoft‘s enterprise-grade security may be preferable.
Unique Features
While Evernote and OneNote share many core features, each app has its own unique strengths and tools. Here are a few standout features for each:
Evernote:
- Templates: Evernote offers a wide variety of customizable templates for everything from meeting notes to expense tracking.
- Context: This AI-powered feature surfaces relevant notes, articles, and people based on what you‘re currently working on.
- Presentation Mode: Easily turn your notes into full-screen presentations, complete with transitions and formatting options.
- Geofencing: Get reminders to view specific notes when you arrive at a particular location (e.g., pull up your shopping list when you reach the grocery store).
OneNote:
- Math Assistant: This feature can solve equations, plot graphs, and even explain mathematical concepts using natural language input.
- Researcher: Powered by Bing, this tool lets you search for and cite sources without ever leaving OneNote.
- Stickers and Animations: Add a touch of whimsy to your notes with a built-in library of stickers, animated graphics, and backgrounds.
- Class Notebook: This education-focused feature lets teachers create and distribute assignments, give feedback, and collaborate with students in real-time.
These unique features showcase the different target audiences and use cases for each app. Evernote‘s templates and Context feature cater to business and research-oriented users, while OneNote‘s Math Assistant and Class Notebook are designed with students and educators in mind.
Final Verdict
Evernote and OneNote are both powerful, feature-rich note-taking apps that cater to a wide range of users and use cases. Evernote excels at web clipping, organization, and cross-platform integrations, making it a top choice for researchers, marketers, and anyone who needs to capture and organize information from a variety of sources. OneNote, on the other hand, shines in the education and collaboration spaces, with its freeform canvas, Microsoft integrations, and real-time co-authoring capabilities.
Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs, budget, and existing tool stack. If you‘re already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, OneNote is a natural fit. But if you‘re looking for a more specialized note-taking solution with advanced features and a wide range of integrations, Evernote is hard to beat.
Regardless of which app you choose, both Evernote and OneNote are powerful tools for capturing, organizing, and sharing your ideas in the digital age. By taking the time to explore their features and customization options, you‘ll be well on your way to boosting your productivity and making your best ideas a reality.
About the Author: As a seasoned digital technology expert and productivity enthusiast, I‘ve spent countless hours testing, comparing, and writing about the latest tools and trends in the note-taking space. With a background in software development and a passion for helping people work smarter, I strive to provide actionable insights and unbiased analysis to help readers make informed decisions about the apps and services they use every day.
