After significant staff reductions earlier this year, Bending Spoons, the Milan-based owner of Evernote, is now testing a new strategy to encourage more users to upgrade to the paid versions of its service. The company has confirmed that it is conducting a small-scale trial, imposing limits on the number of notes that free users can create. However, the details of this new plan have not been finalized.
TechCrunch learned about the test from an Evernote user who encountered a pop-up message upon logging in. The message informed them that unless they upgraded to a paid plan, they would now be restricted to just 1 notebook and 50 notes. This change could significantly impact long-time Evernote users who have amassed hundreds or thousands of notes over the years.
Despite this messaging within the app, the Evernote website’s pricing plans page did not indicate any such limit on free plans. This lack of transparency made the pricing adjustment appear as a hidden fee change that Evernote was not publicizing. The website currently explains that free users are limited to factors such as 60 MB of monthly uploads or a maximum note size of 25 MB. Other plans, including personal and professional plans at discounted rates of $10.83 and $14.17 per month, respectively, offer more substantial features like support for larger notes, increased uploads, and syncing to an unlimited number of devices.
Evernote clarified that its website had not been updated with the new information because the change is still under consideration. The company is currently testing the new plan with less than 1% of its free users to assess its viability. If the plan is adopted, Evernote will communicate the changes through “relevant customer touchpoints.”
The company emphasized that the limit would not hinder free users from managing, editing, viewing, exporting, or deleting their existing notes, even if they exceed the new limits. It would only impact the creation of new notes, unless the user upgrades to a paid plan.
This potential change poses a significant shift for long-time Evernote users who rely on the app for lightweight notetaking on a single device. Essentially, it could compel a majority of Evernote’s regular users on free plans to either become paying customers or discontinue using the app.
If implemented, this change might drive users towards competing products like Microsoft OneNote, which starts at $6.99 per month with up to 1TB of cloud storage syncing to five devices—surpassing Evernote’s Personal plan. Alternatively, users might explore Notion, a collaborative notes organizer that offers a free plan for individual users.
Evernote, once valued at nearly a billion dollars, faced challenges before its acquisition by Bending Spoons. The company underwent leadership changes, layoffs, and attempts to diversify its offerings. After the acquisition, Bending Spoons promptly laid off 129 staffers, citing Evernote’s years of unprofitability as an unsustainable situation.
The potential changes to Evernote’s free plan, if implemented, may reflect broader challenges in maintaining a sustainable business model for the note-taking service.
