Evernote and OneNote are among the best note-taking apps on the market. With impressive features, user-friendly interfaces, and seamless integration into daily tasks, users have well-received both tools.
However, they’re primarily used for personal notes, which begs the question:
How do these apps perform professionally?
While Evernote and OneNote get many things right, they leave something to be desired when it comes to business use.
This article will compare Evernote vs. OneNote, analyzing their main features, strengths, and weaknesses to see how these apps perform professionally — and help you choose the right one.
Evernote vs. OneNote in a nutshell
OneNote and Evernote are far from newcomers. They’ve been around for a while — Microsoft’s OneNote was released in 2003, while the beta version of Evernote hit the market five years later, in 2008.
These days, Evernote is known for its user-friendly features, while OneNote holds the title of the more cost-effective solution. Overall, the two apps share quite a few similarities in terms of their core features — but there are some key differences, too.
There’s one thing that gives Lark an edge over these note-taking apps, making it a better option for professional use:
Evernote and OneNote are stand-alone products; they need to be integrated into your existing tech stack.
Lark, on the other hand, is an all-in-one solution. It already has all those features — and more — built in.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which has the best features?
Both apps have quite a few features in common — including support for several note formats, web clipping, advanced formatting, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and cross-platform functionality.
Here are Evernote’s key features:
Web Clipper for clipping, editing, and saving screen captures of articles, PDFs, and web pages, with the option to add tags, descriptions, and URLs
Basic collaboration features, including note sharing with real-time syncing and setting different permission levels
Annotation tools that allow you to add text, drawings, and highlights to screen captures (including images and PDF files)
Audio notes, including recording and playback
AI features, including AI-Powered Search, which filters your notes using natural language, and AI Note Cleanup, which automatically takes care of formatting, typos, and readability
Advanced search features with filters and Boolean terms; real-time suggestions, saved searches for things you look up frequently; geographic search, and the option to search for text in your images, PDFs, MS Office docs, handwritten notes, and presentations
Task management capabilities, including capturing to-do lists, adding reminders and due dates, assigning tasks, tracking progress, and creating recurring tasks
And now, for OneNote’s key features:
Digital Ink, which allows you to take handwritten notes with handwriting recognition and automatic ink-to-typed-text conversion
Web clipping feature available through the Web Clipper browser add-on
Real-time collaboration that allows multiple people to edit notes at the same time, with automatic syncing across all devices and accounts
OCR support for extracting text from pictures and file printouts
Audio and video recording — which allows you to record voice and video notes — and dictation tool that transcribes voice-to-text
Advanced formatting options, background colors, and other visual elements (tables, links, pictures, and emojis)
Immersive Reader mode, which switches to full-screen view with additional text and reading preferences and grammar options and is designed to improve readability
Tons of convenient keyboard shortcuts for checking spelling, creating Quick Notes, formatting, inserting new elements, applying or clearing tags, and more
Password-protected sections as an additional layer of security
Both are available across different desktop and mobile devices, including the desktop versions for Windows and Mac and mobile apps for Android and iOS.
The main difference is that, unlike Evernote, OneNote is unavailable on Linux.
Also, macOS, iOS, and Android versions of OneNote aren’t as robust as the desktop app for Windows.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which has the best integrations?
OneNote is part of Microsoft’s line of products; you can expect it to work well with other apps in the MS ecosystem — including Microsoft Word and email integration with Outlook.
Plus, it supports third-party integrations through Zapier — and if you add Copilot Pro or Copilot for Microsoft 365 to your subscription, it’ll automatically be integrated into OneNote, too.
While both apps integrate with other tools and services, Evernote offers more extensive integrations.
You can connect Evernote with Slack and Microsoft Teams for better collaboration, Google Drive — which makes it easier to attach Google Drive files to notes — and Google Calendar. In addition, it supports email integration with Outlook and Gmail, letting you save relevant emails in Evernote and attach your notes to emails.
Lastly, Evernote also integrates with automation platforms — Zapier and IFTTT (If This Then That) — further extending the list of supported integrations and workflow automations.
If you want to avoid adding more apps to your tech stack, try Lark.
Instead of relying on multiple third-party services, Lark is a centralized productivity app with natively built features — including video calls, messaging, project management, and document editing.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which has the best pricing?
Evernote has a free version but is limited to the most basic features — only 50 notes with a maximum note size of 25 MB and 60 MB uploads per month — making it practically unusable for anything but the occasional users taking quick notes.
You’ll have to upgrade to one of Evernote’s paid plans:
Personal plan, which starts at $10.83 per user per month, unlocks higher monthly upload and note size limits, customization options, and offline access and supports syncing across unlimited devices
Professional plan, which starts at $14.17 per user per month and includes advanced features for task management, sharing, and collaboration, and powerful search features
Teams plan, which starts at $20.83 per user per month and unlocks powerful features for account administration and user management
Evernote and OneNote have obvious differences in pricing — with OneNote being the more cost-effective solution.
On the plus side, Evernote offers a 30-day free trial of the Teams plan.
In comparison, OneNote is already covered by the Microsoft 365 subscription. More importantly, you can download the OneNote app even if you don’t use Microsoft 365 — and it’s completely free. All you need is a Microsoft account.
Compared to Evernote’s free plan, the free version of OneNote is pretty generous and includes practically all of OneNote’s features — with very few restrictions.
The only potential limitation is that you get only 5 GB of storage on the OneDrive Cloud storage service. So, if you need additional storage, upgrade to OneNote's premium version — or just try Lark.
Lark’s free plan offers 10 GB of Cloud storage space — twice as much as OneNote.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which has the best customer service?
As with many of Evernote’s functional features that seem limited to premium plans, customer support options depend on your subscription level.
Free users are limited to the Evernote forum, where they can discuss issues with others, report bugs, find solutions — and even leave feature requests. You’ll also have access to additional resources, including the Help & Learning Center, with how-to guides and troubleshooting tips.
However, there’s no way to contact customer support. Additional customer service options, like submitting a support ticket, are reserved for paid users — and live chat is only available to Evernote Teams users.
As for OneNote, users can access a comprehensive knowledge base that combines a help center and additional learning resources — including video training and free-to-download ebooks for Microsoft OneNote. Plus, you can sign up for the Microsoft Community — a forum where you can ask questions and get advice from other OneNote users.
Besides the self-help resources, you can contact Microsoft Support through email, live chat, or phone, depending on your location.
If access to customer support is a priority — and it should be for business users — Lark would be a much better option.
Besides the extensive knowledge base and Lark Academy with video courses, Lark users get 24/7 online customer support, technical support, and customer success management (CSM) — with professional services and consulting available as an add-on.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which is the easiest to use?
Whether you’re an occasional or a professional user, regarding digital note-taking apps, ease of use, simple navigation, and quick access to key features should be a priority.
Now, both apps are considered easy to use. However, there’s a difference in the overall user experience — for that reason, Evernote might come out on top as the more user-friendly option.
When you open the app, you’re greeted by a highly functional and fully customizable home screen with widgets and quick access to notes and recently captured images. Plus, Evernote offers dozens of templates that can be customized; you don’t have to start note creation from scratch every time, which contributes to the ease of use.
That’s not to say that OneNote isn’t intuitive.
If you have previous experience with Microsoft Office 365 tools, OneNote’s user interface will look and feel familiar — and you shouldn’t have any trouble navigating it.
The top of the window is reserved for Microsoft’s signature Ribbon menu featuring Home, Insert, Draw, View, Help, and File tabs, each one opening up more features.
One minor complaint regarding the user experience is that there’s no tutorial or quick introduction that would walk first-time users through the tool’s key features.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which is the most secure and compliant?
Both Evernote and OneNote follow best practices for security and include common features such as two-factor authentication (2FA), Single Sign-On (SSO), and in-transit and at-rest data encryption.
Evernote relies on GCM-AES-128 in-transit encryption and AES-256 at rest, which gives OneNote a slight advantage. It employs Transport Layer Security (TLS) with AES-256 for in-transit encryption and uses Microsoft’s BitLocker 256-bit encryption at rest. Unfortunately, neither Evernote or OneNote offers zero-knowledge encryption.
On the plus side, OneNote allows you to protect individual notebooks and specific sections within the notebook with a password.
Regarding data ownership, Evernote appears to be the more privacy-oriented option, with three laws of data protection that essentially guarantee that your data is protected and accessible and won’t be shared with third parties for advertising purposes.
Conversely, Microsoft collects users’ personal data and may share it with third-party vendors and law enforcement agencies.
However, OneNote is covered by Microsoft’s Compliance Framework for Online Services.
Evernote vs. OneNote: What are other users saying?
An overview of features can help you compare these two apps. However, seeing how users feel about these functional features and their real-life use and effectiveness can give you a better idea of what to expect.
So, here’s what other users have to say about their experience with Evernote and OneNote:
Most users agree that OneNote is the more cost-effective option, especially considering the free version offers plenty of features. Evernote’s free, basic version is extremely limited, with many advanced features behind a paywall. Plus, OneNote lets you organize your information into browsable notebooks, making it ideal for more complex notes.
Then again, Evernote is usually praised for its sleek and intuitive interface, ease of use, and versatility. It makes note-taking — from work-related projects and research to recipes and grocery lists — more enjoyable and helps them stay organized.
Unfortunately, Evernote and OneNote can’t deliver an all-in-one experience for smooth project management and collaboration — making Lark the superior choice for businesses, with a 4.5 out of 5 rating on the G2 platform.
Evernote vs. OneNote: Which is right for you?
Evernote and OneNote are among the leading digital note-taking apps designed to help users take detailed notes, gather information from the web, and keep everything organized.
Both apps have tons of amazing features and unique strengths, too.
Evernote shines when it comes to user-friendly options and web clipping — while OneNote boasts advanced features like video recording and dictation and excels at organizing individual notes with a logical structure.
Here’s something to keep in mind:
Neither Evernote or OneNote were specifically developed for business professionals.
Plus, some downsides shouldn’t be overlooked — including Evernote’s pricing and OneNote’s relative lack of note versatility.
Lark is an alternative worth looking into. It packs the advanced features of note-creation tools like Evernote and OneNote — along with other productivity and collaboration features:
Base, Lark’s comprehensive project planning and management solution with customized workflows and automation
Meetings, Lark’s video conferencing tool with screen sharing and real-time collaboration
Messenger, Lark’s tool for one-on-one and team chat with threads, auto-translation, and rich text formatting
Lark Mail, Lark’s mailbox tool that integrates with chat for multi-channel communication and allows syncing across multiple devices
Calendar, Lark’s tool for scheduling meetings and setting reminders within chat
Conclusion
Evernote and OneNote are two major names in the note-taking software market — but while they boast some amazing features and support various note formats, they might not be the best choice for businesses.
If you want to go beyond basic note-creation tools and boost your team’s productivity and collaboration, consider an all-in-one solution like Lark.
Keep reading:
What Is a Superapp, and Does Your Business Need One?
Master the Art of Writing Meeting Minutes (with Free Templates)
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