Anytype vs Evernote: Which Note App Wins in 2026?

Anytype launched in 2021 with a radical premise: what if your notes weren't trapped in someone else's cloud? Everything lives on your device, encrypted end-to-end, synced peer-to-peer. It's open-source, which means you can actually verify they're not lying about the privacy claims. The interface borrows heavily from Notion - you work with 'objects' (notes, tasks, people, books) instead of just plain notes.

You can create database views, link notes together, build a graph of your knowledge. The r/privacy crowd loves it. The downside? It's still rough around the edges, missing features like calendar integration, and requires more technical know-how than Evernote.

Evernote is the OG note-taking app - been around since 2008. You clip stuff from the web, write notes, organize them in notebooks, search everything. Your notes sync to Evernote's servers and appear on all your devices. Recently they added tasks, calendar integration, and AI features.

The web clipper is still the gold standard - saves articles, PDFs, emails with perfect formatting. People on Reddit complain about the pricing ($15/month for Premium) and the fact that they've had data breaches, but it works reliably and has every feature you'd expect. If you just want notes that work without thinking about encryption protocols, this is it.

The editor is clean and supports Markdown natively, which is huge if you're used to typing `# heading` instead of clicking formatting buttons. You create different object types - a 'Book' object might have fields for author, rating, genre, while a 'Meeting' object has attendees, date, action items. This structure is powerful for organizing complex information, but overkill if you just want to jot down random thoughts.

Linking notes is easy - type `@` and search for another note to link. The graph view shows all your connections visually. Honestly reminds me of Obsidian but with cloud sync (optional) built-in.

You write in Evernote's rich text editor - bold, italic, lists, tables, all the usual stuff. No Markdown support, which drives some people nuts. The killer feature is the web clipper: you're reading an article, click the browser extension, and boom - it's saved with formatting intact. Works on emails too, which is clutch when someone sends you important info.

You can attach PDFs, images, audio recordings. The mobile app does document scanning with OCR, so you can photograph receipts and search them later. For everyday note-taking, it's stupidly convenient.

Instead of notebooks, you have object types and sets. A 'set' is basically a filtered view of objects - like 'all books I rated 5 stars' or 'all meetings with Sarah.' You can view these as lists, galleries, or tables. Tag stuff, create relations between objects, build hierarchies. The flexibility is awesome but it takes time to set up.

I spent my first week just designing my object structure. Once you've got it dialed in though, the organization is way more powerful than Evernote's notebooks. Just be ready for the learning curve.

You organize notes into notebooks, and stack notebooks together for organization. Tag notes for cross-cutting categories. Simple, familiar, works fine. Search is powerful - it indexes everything including text in images and PDFs.

Saved searches let you create smart collections like 'untagged notes from last month.' Honestly, the organization is pretty basic compared to Anytype's database approach, but that's kind of the point. Most people don't need complex structures; they just need to find notes quickly. Evernote nails that.

This is Anytype's entire selling point. Your notes are stored locally on your devices, encrypted. Syncing happens peer-to-peer or through their encrypted relay servers - but crucially, they can't read your notes. It's end-to-end encrypted with keys only you control.

Open-source code means security researchers can (and do) audit it. If Anytype the company shuts down tomorrow, your notes stay on your device and keep working. For people paranoid about cloud companies - or anyone who's had Evernote lock them out - this is peace of mind. The catch? No web app (kind of defeats the purpose of local-first), and syncing can be finicky.

Your notes live in Evernote's cloud. They're encrypted in transit and at rest, which means someone snooping your internet connection can't read them, and if Evernote's servers get hacked the data is encrypted. BUT - Evernote the company can decrypt your notes if they wanted to (for legal requests, for example).

They had a data breach back in 2013, though they've improved security since. If you trust Evernote (a big if for some people), the cloud storage is convenient - access from anywhere, web app works great. If you don't trust them, this is a dealbreaker.

Anytype doesn't have built-in task management or calendar features. You can build your own task system using objects - create a 'Task' type with due date, status, priority fields, then filter them into different views. Some people love this flexibility.

I find it annoying compared to apps with tasks just built-in. No calendar integration at all - can't connect to Google Calendar, can't create events, nothing. If you want calendar features, you're using a separate app alongside Anytype.

Tasks are built right in. Create a task, set due date and priority, get reminders. They show up in a dedicated Tasks panel and in your notes.

Google Calendar and Outlook integration means you can see your calendar alongside notes and create events. This is huge for planning - write meeting notes, check your calendar, add tasks, all in one app. The integration isn't perfect (you can't drag tasks onto calendar slots or anything fancy), but for seeing your schedule while planning, it works.

Zero. Anytype is completely free, no premium tier, no feature gates. They're funded by a grant and committed to staying free (they've said they might add paid features later for enterprise/team stuff, but personal use will stay free). Storage is limited only by your device - if you've got a 1TB hard drive, fill it with notes.

No monthly uploads caps, no device limits. The catch? Development is slower than a VC-backed company, and there's no guarantee they'll exist in 10 years. But since it's open-source and local-first, even if they vanish, your notes keep working.

Free tier gets you 60MB upload per month (about 60 average notes) and 2 devices. That's... barely usable honestly. Personal plan is $14.99/month or $129.99/year - gets you 10GB monthly uploads, unlimited devices, and AI features. Professional plan is $17.99/month with 20GB uploads and more AI.

So you're looking at $180/year for real use. After 20 years that's $3,600 spent on note storage. Some people are fine with that for the convenience. Others find it offensive when Anytype is free.