Harbor

In their own words

What people are saying about Evernote.

These are real, public posts from people who trusted Evernote for years. We did not write them, and we did not ask for them. We just think they explain why we built Harbor better than we can.

Free plan to start · No credit card

What happened, briefly

You are not imagining it, and you are very much not alone.

  1. 2023 Evernote is acquired by Bending Spoons. Within two weeks, most of the staff is let go.
  2. 2024 The personal annual plan climbs from roughly $70 to around $130 — an increase of about 86%.
  3. 2025 The free tier is cut to 50 notes, one notebook and two devices. In November, the Personal and Professional plans are retired and replaced, with storage caps introduced for the first time.
  4. 2026 Prices rise again. Long-time users report being moved to plans costing up to $249.99 a year. In July, Bending Spoons raises $1.68B in its IPO and states it intends to buy roughly 1,000 more companies.

Straight from X

18 people, one complaint.

Every quote below links to the original post. Nothing here is edited to change its meaning.

A

Alfie Jackson

@Alfie_Jackson

“I'm beyond disappointed with what Evernote is doing. Just took my 80 euros for my subscription and now the app won't let me access notes unless I upgrade to £155 a year.”
Aug 3, 2026 View post
S

Shamir Islam

@ShamirIslam

13 years
“I got too used to Evernote after using it for 13 years straight. Never thought I would have to cancel my subscription and stop using it. But yet, here we are. They priced their most loyal core users out.”
Jul 31, 2026 View post
M

mbaotao

@mbaotao

11 years
“These guys acquired Evernote and didn't even wait long before raising subscription prices from $129/yr to $249. After 11 years of using Evernote I had to find an alternative.”
Aug 5, 2026 View post

Where Harbor differs

The price is capped, in writing.

No increase for three years. After that, never more than 10% a year. Not a blog-post promise that evaporates after an acquisition — a commitment we publish and you can hold us to.

See the pricing
C

C. Frazier Jr.

@cfrazierjr

16 years
“Tonight Evernote and I had to part ways. 16 years, but the new price hike I just can't pay.”
Jul 16, 2026 View post
H

hiro

@hiro

“Goodbye, Evernote. Thank you for all these years. But $249/year is just too expensive for me.”
Jul 28, 2026 View post
A

Anna

@Annatngm

“After they acquired Evernote, I eventually lost access to my own notes behind a paywall.”
Aug 5, 2026 View post
I

irreligiousity

@irreligiousity

Since 2019
“I genuinely hate that Evernote is so expensive. I've been using it actively since 2019. Once subscriptions came in I started paying so I don't lose access to my stuff. But now, I can't keep up.”
Aug 3, 2026 View post

Where Harbor differs

You are never locked out of your own notes.

Stop paying and nothing disappears. Your notes stay, read-only and free, for as long as you want them. Export everything anytime through open formats, a real API, or the command line.

Read our commitments
R

R.C. Fernando

@rcfernando_

“It's frustrating how you have raised the price over the last year while delivering a terrible experience. A web clipper that don't capture LinkedIn pages, and a scanning feature in the app that doesn't add the image to the note.”
Aug 6, 2026 View post
B

Barrett J.

@BarrettJ

~10 years
“I used to be a huge fan of Evernote, used it for close to a decade. The last several years of constant price hikes led me to shift to Obsidian as well. Case study for running a business into the ground.”
Aug 2, 2026 View post
S

saywhat95

@saywhat95

20 years
“Used to love it. You've jacked up the price a ridiculous amount every yr. It's a shame how you've destroyed this product.”
Jul 11, 2026 View post
S

Sohan

@founder_sohan

“$70 to $250 is a hell of a retention funnel. They just waited long enough for the switching cost to feel higher than the price hike.”
Aug 2, 2026 View post

Where Harbor differs

The scanning and clipping actually work.

Real OCR across scans, photos, PDFs and handwriting, so a receipt from four years ago turns up by the word printed on it. The web clipper saves the page you were actually looking at.

How search works
A

Adam Long

@adamdavidlong

10+ years
“I used evernote and getharvest each for over a decade before bending spoons bought each of them and 10xd the subscription price. No thanks.”
Aug 4, 2026 View post
P

Pete

@PeteTweets12

“About double last year's price. When you try to cancel will you give in to their special discounted price still higher than last year?”
Jul 18, 2026 View post
G

gtmom

@gtmom

“Hanging on to my sub just because I didn't feel like dealing with it, but they 5x or more the price recently??”
Jul 8, 2026 View post
Y

Yuri Molodtsov

@y_molodtsov

“They hiked the price for Evernote to the point I don't get why would anyone use it.”
Jul 12, 2026 View post

Where Harbor differs

One Harbor, every device you own.

Native Mac and Windows apps, iPhone and iPad, Android, the web, a browser clipper and a CLI. The same app everywhere, not a web page wearing a costume.

Get the apps
A

Aqueduct

@AqueductCRE

“I downloaded obsidian so i could export an evernote archive and cancel it when they jacked up the prices.”
Aug 7, 2026 View post
L

Lorenzo

@lorenzo_madeit

“Evernote lost 85% of its staff within two weeks of the Bending Spoons acquisition.”
Aug 4, 2026 View post
P

PointWake

@PointWake25

“If your job tracker, client list and quotes live in Airtable, export a copy today and find out what actually breaks if the price does that again.”
Aug 4, 2026 View post

These posts are quoted from public accounts on X and link to the originals. Their authors are not Harbor customers and have not endorsed Harbor. If you posted one of these and would rather it not appear here, tell us and we will take it down.

The complaint is almost never the price.

Read enough of these and the pattern is hard to miss. People will pay for something they rely on. What they cannot forgive is being locked in first and then repriced — knowing that leaving means abandoning fifteen years of their own life.

That is the part we designed against. Not by promising to be nice about it, but by making leaving genuinely easy and putting the price ceiling in writing.

“That's not a second brain. That's a hostage situation.”

Free plan to start · No credit card

What they described

  • Price raised repeatedly after the acquisition
  • Locked out of notes already paid for
  • Free tier cut to 50 notes
  • Export painful, no API, no CLI
  • Broken clipper and scanning left unfixed

What Harbor commits to

  • No increase for 3 years, then capped at 10% a year
  • Stop paying and your notes stay, read-only and free
  • A genuinely usable free plan
  • Open export, a real API, and a CLI
  • OCR, clipping and scanning as core features

Own it for life

Never held hostage.

Bring fifteen years of notes across in one step, and keep the right to walk away with all of it whenever you like.

No price increase for 3 years, then capped at 10% a year.

Free plan to start · No credit card