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Evernote alternative

MacBH928 said:
Hmm...you give a bullet proof attempt at privacy. I wonder if one can do his emails like this too. But the NAS is expensive isn't it? Also how do you do backups? Can you do encrypted backups to a cloud service?

How does Bitwarden and NextCloud make money if its free to implement?
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scgf mentioned using a Raspberry Pi with Nextcloud. I haven't used it, but a RPi costs about $100 to set up, plus a nice 2, 3 or 4Gb USB 3 drive. I use mine, and it is as fast to distribute files around my 1Gb network as the network can handle (i.e. 100 GBytes / second transfer).
 
DaveFromCampbelltown said:
scgf mentioned using a Raspberry Pi with Nextcloud. I haven't used it, but a RPi costs about $100 to set up, plus a nice 2, 3 or 4Gb USB 3 drive. I use mine, and it is as fast to distribute files around my 1Gb network as the network can handle (i.e. 100 GBytes / second transfer).
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I think the RPi ethernet port is not 1Gbps, I am not sure though. I think the Pi Zero specifically is 300Mbps. Interesting setup, really interesting.
 
MacBH928 said:
I think the RPi ethernet port is not 1Gbps, I am not sure though. I think the Pi Zero specifically is 300Mbps. Interesting setup, really interesting.
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RPi 4 Ethernet is very definitely 1 Gbps.

Screen Shot 2021-02-09 at 10.26.32 pm.png


Copying a .zim file of the Project Gutenberg collection from a USB 3 HDD attached to my RPi 4 to a USB 3 SSD attached to my iMac. Maxing out at 96 ~ 100 MB/sec, ie. approx 1Gbps.
 

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Maybe overkill for most people but I love Devonthink 3. Best for taking/collecting notes , documents and all kind of information. But I am a researcher so I have thousands of annotated pdf files and have to constantly search through them which is one of Devonthinks strengths. Onenote is nice but I don't know how to get the information out again in case you want to switch to another program. Devonthink on the phone syncs with your MAC and you have everything in one place when you are on the go.
 
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GoodNotes 5

For sure! I LOVE it, it works on my iPhone, iPad, and iMac and merges great! Easy to take notes, sort things, and then when you're on the Mac you have the keyboard and can add details easily. Or on the iPad and make notations with the Apple Pencil.

I've tried nearly every one of the 15+ most popular paid solutions out there, and after Apple Notes it's the most handy note taking app I've ever used. I can't recommend it enough, and was surprised that it wasn't mentioned (that I noticed) before in this thread.

*also- works great with iCloud. This was the first app I ever dabbled with iCloud with and was impressed enough that I use it with more things now.
 
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No one has mentioned DEVONthink yet?? It's kind of pricey at $99 for the Standard version, but I use it heavily for my work files. MUCH better search, as in actually finding what you want to find, and better organization features. There's also a mobile version, DEVONthink To Go (DTTG), which at version 3 is far improved than the previous version.

Files are kept in Databases, which should not be stored in a sync location, and the files are stored in their original formats for easy export. If you use DTTG, then those databases on the Mac can be synced to DTTG using a variety of methods.

I use Apple Notes for the quick facts I need on my phone. I've tried Bear, Notion, Evernote, OneNote, etc. I really want inline formatting in my notes, and Markdown just won't do. But, for clipping web pages, Markdown (clutter-free) seems to work best in DEVONthink to get the content I want to keep. Then I Convert to PDF (multi-page) to save it permanently. Since the text is there originally, the PDF is searchable.
 
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DevonThink seems very similar to OneNote. They really have to give something to convince people to pay that $99 over OneNote's free price!
 
MacBH928 said:
DevonThink seems very similar to OneNote. They really have to give something to convince people to pay that $99 over OneNote's free price!
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It isn’t really similar; OneNote uses a canvas per note that you can put anything digital on that canvas. Extracting said data is very cumbersome - copy and paste into a new document. OneNote uses a digital notebook format; DEVONthink (DT) uses databases with groups (folders). DEVONthink on the other hand catalogs your files in their native formats and indexes all the text within them.

DT makes it a lot easier to find what you’re looking for and also discover new associations and connections in the documents you have imported. With DT, you can make Smart Rules to manage and classify your files. It’s more of a document management system than a digital notebook.
 
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Ok, I have just come across Joplin
  1. It's Free
  2. It's cross-platform
  3. Can be synchronised with Dropbox or other network folder like MEGA
  4. Uses Markdown, has Live Preview and can use (one) custom preview CSS
  5. Can export to PDF, HTML, Markdown and Joplin export format
  6. Can import web clippings via Google Chrome and/or Firefox
  7. It says it can import from Evernote, but I haven't tried that yet.
This one is pretty much what I want. YMMV
 
DaveFromCampbelltown said:
Ok, I have just come across Joplin
  1. It's Free
  2. It's cross-platform
  3. Can be synchronised with Dropbox or other network folder like MEGA
  4. Uses Markdown, has Live Preview and can use (one) custom preview CSS
  5. Can export to PDF, HTML, Markdown and Joplin export format
  6. Can import web clippings via Google Chrome and/or Firefox
  7. It says it can import from Evernote, but I haven't tried that yet.
This one is pretty much what I want. YMMV
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looks decent, does it encrypt the sync-backups?
 
Has anyone tested Notes under MacOS 12 (Monterey) as an alternative to Evernote? I understand Notes now works with tags, do these capture the Evernote labels seamlessly?
 
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srbNYC said:
The last few formatting and organization enhancements of Apple Notes have brought it up to par for me. I also have an Alfred shortcut that allows me to search Notes from any other activity and directly open just the one I want.

[Sorry to keep shilling for Alfred here, but I keep exploring more.]
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Ooh, I'd be interested in that! Can you link to it? I use Alfred and Notes constantly...
 
DaveFromCampbelltown said:
Ok, I have just come across Joplin
  1. It's Free
  2. It's cross-platform
  3. Can be synchronised with Dropbox or other network folder like MEGA
  4. Uses Markdown, has Live Preview and can use (one) custom preview CSS
  5. Can export to PDF, HTML, Markdown and Joplin export format
  6. Can import web clippings via Google Chrome and/or Firefox
  7. It says it can import from Evernote, but I haven't tried that yet.
This one is pretty much what I want. YMMV
Click to expand...
Joplin has a good feature set, but it doesn’t feel like a native Mac app. That’s a deal-breaker for me. I went with Craft (craft.do) and have loved it so far.
 
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After considering every single note app I could find, I’ve been considering a switch to either Craft notes app or Nimbus notes app, and am having a hard time deciding which to make at least a year-long comittment to (and hopefully for many years to come).

Curious if there are any long-time users of those apps who would like to share their thoughts on the day-to-day usability - stable? syncing works reliably? anything you find super annoying? Hidden gem features?

I mostly write in the note app on my Mac, so that's where my focus is, but I'll occasionally access from my iPhone (grocery lists, that sort of thing). I have 500+ notes accumulated over 10+ years of Evernote. It's for personal use - keeping lists and records of things, recipes, journals, etc.
 
I don't think Apple Notes can handle Evernote-sized data sets. Neither can Keep It, either (I've tried, and failed). But, apparently DEVONthink, can.
 
sgtaylor5 said:
I don't think Apple Notes can handle Evernote-sized data sets. Neither can Keep It, either (I've tried, and failed). But, apparently DEVONthink, can.
Click to expand...

Devonthink is an overkill, its more of a research project tool that simple notes app. Its more on the MS OneNote side of things. I was looking for something closer to Apple Notes. I think Joplin is the answer for me.
 
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sgtaylor5 said:
I don't think Apple Notes can handle Evernote-sized data sets. Neither can Keep It, either (I've tried, and failed). But, apparently DEVONthink, can.
Click to expand...
I have not seen anything about Apple Notes not handling large numbers of notes. I have around 1200 notes (some just text; many with .pdf or photos) and the only slowness I have observed is during initial sync. I read (different forum) of one person who imported 22,000 Evernote notes. I too frequently change my mind between these two apps and then waste a day switching. 😖. And, while I share your sense that Evernote is more robust, I can't point at data confirming that (if you can, maybe I will switch one more time and be done with it!).

And, now I have to check out UpNote...
 
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As a way to get familiar with UpNote, I decided to start porting over my notes from OneNote. So far the process is going very smoothly and I'm really appreciating the clean and clear UI of UpNote.

The ease of creating internal hyperlinks from one note to another is very reminiscent of Obsidian, and allows UpNote to be a great wiki tool.

I have a multi-tiered approach to notes...
Google Keep - for short, quick notes, easy access. Longer notes later get migrated to the next level.
Joplin / SimpleNote - for longer notes where basic formatting helps readability.
OneNote - More extensive notes.

After a few short hours spent with UpNote, I can see that this is going to replace Joplin, SimpleNote, AND OneNote!
(I've transferred a few of my Joplin and SimpleNote notes as well)

I'm very excited about that. I've installed UpNote on my iMac, Windows notebooks, vintage ThinkPad, iPhone, iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab S6... super easy to set up and notes look terrific on all of those platforms.

I installed the Android version on my Lenovo Chromebook 3 and it looks and works great there too.

Was it mentioned that it is $19.99 for a perpetual license that covers all platforms!? 😂

Screen Shot 2022-05-19 at 7.29.57 AM.png
 
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I absolutely love Craft. It can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. It is a great "quick note" app and it's great for something more complicated with embedded files, link backs, attachments, etc. Formatting has a bit of a learning curve if you need it but once you get the hang of it, it's simple.

There are apps for MacOS, iOS & iPadOS.

This is a good beginner explainer video:
 
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