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Sunny Li / 10.18.2023Home / Encrypted notes
Evernote vs. Notion—comparing two popular platforms
Read this Evernote vs. Notion comparison to learn about their notable features. Discover a privacy-first alternative to both apps that will keep your data safe.
A solid note-taking app lets you do anything from quickly jotting down a random thought to creating comprehensive documents. When browsing different options, Notion and Evernote are among the first that come to mind because of their extensive features.In this Evernote vs. Notion breakdown, you’ll learn about those features and the primary use cases of both apps. You’ll also see where they fall short and discover another capable platform worth considering, whether you’re a casual user or an advanced one.
Source: EvernoteAs mentioned, Notion goes beyond note-taking, which calls for a more complex interface. Besides notes and documents, you can create an entire project workflow in the app, so it feels more like a collaborative workspace than a notes platform.When you open the app, you’ll see different project management features unavailable with Evernote (which will be discussed a bit later in this guide). As a result, getting the hang of Notion will almost certainly take longer than it would with Evernote. Still, the platform offers an eye-pleasing interface without too much clutter despite the broader feature availability.
Source: Notion
Overall, Evernote offers a better note-taking experience, which doesn’t come as a surprise—it’s the app’s main purpose.Notion leans toward project management and organization, which is why it comes with numerous related features you don’t get with Evernote, particularly in the collaboration area.
Source: NotionYou can also automate your workflow through IFTTT (If This Then That) relationships. For instance, you can automatically assign a task to someone when it is marked with a specific label (e.g., In progress).Evernote doesn’t come with such advanced features. You can create tasks and assign them to a user, but that’s about it. You get some useful features like alerts and task filters, but the platform is hardly suitable for comprehensive project management and collaboration.It might still do a decent job if you have a small team and use Evernote as a part of your workflow instead of relying on it fully. Again, this comes back to the fact that the app is mainly designed for individual note-taking, so you shouldn’t expect it to offer the features of a comprehensive team workspace like Notion.That said, here is a Notion versus Evernote collaboration features table overview:
Source: NotionDespite their differences in note structure, Evernote and Notion are equally effective at letting you stay organized—it all comes down to your preferences, so no option is universally better.
Evernote’s free plan is suitable for basic note-taking, and you also get unlimited notes. Still, storage is capped at 60 MB per month, and your entries can’t exceed 25 MB. You also don’t get any integrations or useful features like reminders, PDF annotations, and offline access.To overcome these limitations, you can upgrade to one of Evernote’s three plans:
Skiff Pages combines some of the most advanced features of popular note-taking tools with end-to-end encryption to give you a secure space for ideas and projects. Your notes’ contents and key metadata are encrypted using a symmetric key, and you get a pair of asymmetric keys consisting of:
Access advanced note-takingSkiff Pages combines rich editing features and real-time collaboration with robust data encryption
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Notion vs. Evernote—6 key differences
Evernote and Notion are competitors in a broad sense because there are notable crossovers between their features. Still, these apps don’t necessarily serve the same purpose. Evernote is more of a traditional note-taking app, while Notion is a robust productivity tool with note-taking features as one of its core offerings.With this in mind, these platforms serve different user groups—Evernote is suitable for individuals and small teams, while Notion might be excessive for personal use. To show you why this is the case and make an apples-to-apples comparison, we’ll review these platforms across six aspects:- Design and ease of use
- Note-taking features
- Collaboration
- Organization
- Pricing
- Security
Design and ease of use
Evernote offers a modern, well-designed interface that is intuitive enough for an average user. If you’re a complete beginner, though, it might take some time to get accustomed to it because of the feature variety. It’s more comprehensive than Google Keep and other simple note-taking tools like OneNote, so you’ll face a slight learning curve.The app still lays out basic features clearly, so you’ll have no trouble creating your first notes. You can do so from the home page, where you’ll find a rich text editor similar to common word processors like Google Docs and MS Word. You don’t get as many formatting options as you would with such apps, but you’ll see the most important ones, such as:- Font and size
- Bold/italic/underline
- Bullet points, lists, and checklists
Note-taking features
Evernote and Notion have numerous features that make it easy to build elaborate notes from scratch. As mentioned, both come with a rich text editor, so there aren’t significant differences in formatting. A slight advantage of Evernote is that it has more fonts than Notion, which only gives you three options:- Default
- Serif
- Mono
- Images and videos
- PDFs
- Web snippets
- Sketches
| Feature | Evernote | Notion |
| Rich font variety | ✖ | |
| Content embedding | ||
| Audio recordings | ✖ | |
| OCR | ✖ |
Collaboration
Notion makes assigning, delegating, and monitoring tasks easy through a clear but comprehensive overview. You can create and share robust project descriptions with your team to ensure everyone stays on the same page when it comes to their part of the job.Once you create a task, you can tag the assignee to notify them and set dependencies to draw a clear project roadmap. You can view all tasks as a timeline or Kanban and use various filters to show specific tasks.| Feature | Evernote | Notion |
| Tagging assignees | ✖ | |
| Automation | ✖ | |
| Task views | ✖ | |
| Task filtering |
Organization
Evernote offers a simple hierarchy—notes are a part of notebooks, which belong to notebook stacks. This organizational style makes it easy to separate notes for different purposes (personal, work, school, etc.).The app’s home page offers a widget-style view of your recent or important notes alongside the calendar and tasks, giving you a clear overview of all important information. Widgets are customizable, so you can view specific notes, tags, shortcuts, or other information you need readily available.Notion approaches note organization slightly differently. It keeps all pages in the so-called database, and you can create subpages that will serve as dedicated categories of the parent page.The platform is highly customizable, so you can switch between different view options, such as:- Board
- Gallery
- List
- Calendar
Pricing
You can use Notion and Evernote for free, though the former offers a much more generous free plan. Notion provides enough features for an average user, most notably:- Unlimited pages and storage
- Up to 10 guest collaborators
- 7-day page history
- 5 MB upload limit per file
- Various integrations (Slack, Zapier, etc.)
| Plan | Cost |
| Plus | $10/user per month ($8 with annual billing) |
| Business | $18/user per month ($15 with annual billing) |
| Enterprise | Custom |
| Plan | Cost |
| Personal | $14.99/user per month ($10.83 with annual billing) |
| Professional | $17.99/user per month ($14.17 with annual billing) |
| Teams | $24.99/user per month ($20.83 with annual billing) |
Security
Notion and Evernote are cloud-based platforms, so proper security of user data is paramount. Unfortunately, neither platform goes beyond offering basic security measures typically seen in Big Tech apps (Google Keep, OneNote, etc.).The main security risk is the implementation of subpar encryption methods, as both apps rely on the following:- Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol—Used to encrypt data in transit
- AES-256 encryption algorithm—Used to encrypt data resting on servers
Upgrade your note-taking securitySkiff Pages provides unparalleled end-to-end encryption, ensuring your notes stay private and secure
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Skiff Pages—a robust note-taking tool for privacy-conscious users
- A public key that encrypts the symmetric key
- A private key that decrypts your notes
Work, create, and collaborate securely
Skiff Pages supports collaboration through Web Sockets, so all document changes are communicated in real-time within a secure end-to-end environment. You can invite users to contribute to your notes and unshare them as needed, so you’re always in control of document access.The platform combines a rich text editor with extensive support for content of all types—you can embed anything from images and PDF files to code snippets and videos. You can also add tables, lists, and various other elements to create robust notes.If you’re already using a note-taking app and don’t want to start fresh, you can migrate to Skiff Pages effortlessly by importing files from Word, Google Docs, and other platforms. When done, export your notes in the most common formats—.docx, .pdf, and .md.You will find these features in a clean, intuitive user interface that lets you navigate Skiff Pages seamlessly. There are no distractions or clutter, so you can stay productive.Skiff doesn’t keep important features behind a paywall—a free account gets you access to all of the above, plus a few other notable features:
- Clean organization through subpages
- Version history
- 10 GB of end-to-end encrypted storage
- Password protection of notes, files, and folders
- Various customization options
- Link sharing with permission controls
Expand your workflow beyond note-taking
When you sign up for Skiff, you’ll get access to three additional end-to-end encrypted platforms at no extra cost:- Skiff Mail—An E2EE email service that lets you send confidential information and documents more securely than with a typical Big Tech platform
- Skiff Drive—A secure cloud platform that supports files of all types and comes with optional InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) integration
- Skiff Calendar—A robust scheduling app that supports video conferencing and automatically syncs with Skiff Mail
The Skiff suite is available on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows through all major browsers. Visit the download page for more information on its compatibility.
Create a secure workflow with Skiff
To ensure your notes stay private and enjoy the rest of Skiff’s E2EE ecosystem, you can get started in three steps:- Go to the signup page
- Choose your username and password
- Explore Skiff Pages and other secure platforms
| Plan | Cost |
| Essential | From $3 per month |
| Pro | From $8 per month |
| Business | From $12 per month |
