Apple Notes vs. Evernote Compared: Which Note-Taking Apps is Better?

Ever feel like your brain is an overflowing filing cabinet, with ideas, to-do lists, and random bits of information crammed in haphazardly?

You're not alone!

In today's information age, the ability to capture and organize ideas effectively is crucial. For many, this need translates to finding the perfect note-taking application.

Two titans in this space are Apple Notes and Evernote. Both offer robust features but cater to slightly different user preferences.

In this post, we'll delve into the core functionalities of Apple Notes vs. Evernote, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to decide which app best suits your needs.

1. Interface design

Apple Notes boasts a clean, minimalist interface that aligns perfectly with Apple's overall design philosophy. Notes are displayed in a list format, and taking notes feels intuitive. There are easy text formatting options and the ability to embed images, checklists, and even drawings.

While it lacks Evernote's visual flair, Apple Notes excels in its straightforwardness, making it ideal for quick note-taking and basic organization.

Evernote, on the other hand, offers a more robust interface focused on power users. While it can initially feel cluttered compared to Apple Notes, the organization options it provides are extensive.

It also has a three-panel layout, allowing you to view notebooks, notes, and note content simultaneously. This layout is excellent for organizing complex projects and in-depth research.

2. Organization capabilities

Apple Notes excels in basic organization and relies on folders for organization. You can create folders to group related notes and subfolders to categorize them, pin important ones for quick access, and utilize tags.

Smart folders, however, are the real game-changers. They automatically populate with notes based on specific tags. They act like dynamic filters, transcending the boundaries of folders and surfacing relevant notes across your entire collection. This lets you see your notes across categories, creating a robust and adaptable organization system.

Evernote takes a structured approach to organization. It utilizes notebooks like physical binders to group related notes together for in-depth categorization – think a recipe notebook, a project notebook, or a travel planning notebook.

Additionally, Evernote's powerful tagging system lets you assign multiple tags to each note, enabling you to find information across different notebooks effortlessly. Its advanced search functionalities let you filter notes by creation date, tags, and even keywords within the note itself.

3. Cross-platform synchronization

Apple Notes offers seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem. Notes sync flawlessly between iPhones, iPads, and Macs via iCloud. This tight integration ensures your notes are always accessible on your preferred Apple device.

However, accessibility is limited for users outside the Apple world. There is no native app for Windows or Android users, but a web version is available.

Evernote thrives in cross-platform compatibility. It offers dedicated apps for various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

The web app is also feature-rich, allowing you to access your notes from any device with an internet connection. This makes Evernote a strong contender for users who require platform-agnostic accessibility.

4. Collaboration features

Apple Notes offers basic sharing functionality. You can share individual notes or entire folders with others, granting them view-only or edit access. You can set these permissions for collaborators, and they can see everyone's changes in real-time. While convenient for simple collaboration, Apple Notes lacks dedicated workspace features for managing shared projects.

Evernote takes collaboration a step further with its Spaces feature that allows you to create shared workspaces, add team members, and collaborate on notes and projects in real-time. Spaces also include the What's New feature that allows you to track tasks and activities, making it ideal for team-based projects.

5. Integrations with other tools

Apple Notes offers integrations with other Apple products, such as Reminders and Siri. However, third-party integration options are scarce.

Evernote boasts a vast library of integrations with popular productivity and communication tools like Slack, Trello, and Google Drive. This lets you connect your notes with your existing workflow and streamline your productivity.

6. Pricing

Apple Notes is completely free to use with any Apple device. This makes it an attractive option for budget-conscious users or those who are already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem.

Evernote offers a free tier with limited storage and features. However, to unlock its full potential, you must subscribe to a paid plan, which can range from Personal to Team plans depending on your storage and collaboration needs.

For reference, Evernote plans are priced at:

Personal plan - $10.83 per user/month billed annually
Professional plan - $14.17 per user/month billed annually
Teams plan - $20.83 per user/month billed annually

Smarter note-taking with Fireflies.ai

While note-taking applications like Apple Notes and Evernote are valuable tools, capturing every detail during a meeting, lecture, or interview can be challenging. Fireflies.ai steps in as a powerful companion, leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to supercharge your note-taking and information retrieval.

Imagine effortlessly converting spoken content into clear, written notes with 90%+ accuracy in over 60 languages, including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, Dutch, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Hindi, and Italian. Fireflies transcribes your meetings, interviews, lectures, and more, ensuring you never miss a critical detail.

But Fireflies doesn't stop at transcription. It delivers comprehensive summaries, highlighting key points and action items, allowing you to quickly grasp the essence of the discussion. Additionally, it offers a suite of features to enhance your note-taking experience:

• Smart Search: Effortlessly review meetings by using Fireflies' robust search functionality. Filter by date, time, questions, metrics, or simply type keywords to pinpoint specific information.
• Topic Trackers: Customize topic trackers to automatically highlight key phrases or words throughout the conversation, making it easy to follow specific themes.
• Conversation Intelligence: Gain valuable insights into the call's sentiment, longest monologue, your talk-to-listen ratio, silence duration, and more.
• Soundbites: Fireflies' unique Soundbites feature allows you to create short, impactful audio clips from your recordings. Share these Soundbites to highlight key moments, insights, or discussions in a more engaging format. You can also organize multiple sound bites from different meetings into playlists.
• Seamless Integrations: Fireflies integrates seamlessly with over 40 popular applications, including CRM, dialers, and project management platforms, streamlining your workflow and ensuring captured information flows effortlessly into your existing ecosystem.
• AskFred: Leverage the power of GPT-4 with AskFred, Fireflies's AI meeting assistant. AskFred can answer questions based on your recordings and even generate post-meeting emails, saving you valuable time.
• Notebook Channels: Build a central repository of information by categorizing meetings using Channels. This allows your team to access a searchable knowledge base of past discussions and insights.

Apple Notes vs. Evernote: Who wins?

There's no single winner in the Apple Notes vs. Evernote battle. The ideal choice depends on your specific needs.

Choose Apple Notes if:

• You're heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem and prioritize simplicity.
• You need a basic note-taking app for everyday tasks and to-dos.

Choose Evernote if:

• You need a powerful note-taking app with advanced features and tools.
• You collaborate extensively with others on projects and require real-time editing features.
• You value cross-platform availability and integration with a wider range of tools.

Ultimately, the best way to decide is to try both Apple Notes and Evernote. Explore their features, see which interface resonates with you, and determine how well they fit into your existing workflow.