Evernote vs Notion: Old Guard Meets New Generation

Evernote launched in 2008 and basically invented the 'digital filing cabinet' category. The idea was simple: capture everything (notes, web pages, emails, images), organize it with notebooks and tags, search it later. It solved a real problem when smartphones were new and people needed a place for random information. For years it was the default recommendation.

But the company stumbled - pricing changes, feature bloat, leadership turnover. Evernote in #year# is stable but feels like it's from another era. Still millions of users, but mostly longtime fans who built workflows around it.

Notion launched in 2016 into a different world. By then, people wanted more than note storage - they wanted workspaces. Notion lets you build pages, nest them into hierarchies, embed databases alongside text, and collaborate in real-time. It's less about capturing random notes and more about building knowledge systems.

The aesthetic is clean and modern, almost Apple-like. It caught on with students, then startups, now enterprises. The vibe is 'all-in-one workspace' rather than 'digital notebook.' Different problem, different solution.

This is where Evernote still dominates. The web clipper browser extension saves entire articles, simplified articles, or just selections with one click. It preserves formatting, images, links - the whole thing. You can clip to specific notebooks, add tags immediately.

Email-to-Evernote lets you forward stuff straight into your account. Document scanning via mobile is solid, with automatic edge detection and OCR. If your workflow involves collecting information from everywhere, Evernote's capture tools are hard to beat. It's designed for inbox-zero people who file everything.

Notion's capture is more manual. You can use the web clipper, but it's not as polished - sometimes formatting breaks, images don't save right. Most people copy-paste into Notion pages or use Save to Notion browser extension. The mobile quick note feature works fine, but it's not Evernote-level seamless.

Where Notion wins is what you do after capture. Instead of just dumping notes into notebooks, you're building interconnected pages, linking to databases, creating context. Capture is slower, but organization is better.

Evernote uses notebooks and tags. Create notebooks (or stacks of notebooks), tag notes with keywords, search when needed. It's a flat hierarchy - notes live in one notebook, though tags add dimensions. The system works but gets messy with scale.

Once you have 1,000+ notes, finding stuff relies heavily on search. Some people love the flexibility ('tag everything, search later'), others find it overwhelming. The lack of structure beyond folders and tags is limiting if you want relational organization.

Notion's organization is pages all the way down. Create a page, nest sub-pages, keep nesting. It's like building a folder structure, but each folder is also a document. Databases add another dimension - you can create a table of projects, and each row links to its own page with notes, files, sub-tasks.

Everything connects. Backlinks show what pages reference each other. It's more structured than Evernote, which is great if you like systems, annoying if you just want to dump notes randomly. The flexibility lets you build wikis, docs, and databases together.

Evernote's search is its secret weapon. Full-text search across everything, including text inside PDFs and images (OCR). Search operators let you filter by date, notebook, tags, attachment type. It's fast even with years of notes.

The 'related notes' feature suggests similar content. If you capture tons of information and rely on search to find it later, Evernote nails this. I've watched people search through 10,000+ notes instantly. It just works.

Notion's search works but isn't as powerful. It finds text in pages and databases, but no OCR for images. With huge workspaces, search gets slower. The UI is clean though - search results show context, you can quick-jump to pages.

Backlinks and mentions help discover connections search might miss. For structured workspaces where you navigate via page hierarchies, search matters less. For pile-of-notes workflows, it's not as good as Evernote.

Evernote's collaboration feels tacked on. You can share notebooks with people, they can edit or view, that's about it. No real-time editing - changes sync eventually but it's not Google Docs smooth. Comments exist but they're clunky.

For personal use, fine. For teams, it's limiting. Evernote Business tried to address this years ago but never really caught on. Honestly, if collaboration is key, Evernote isn't the right tool.

Notion is built for teams. Multiple people edit simultaneously, you see cursors moving, changes appear instantly. Comments thread on blocks, @mentions notify people, permissions control who sees what.

Workspaces separate personal and team content. The collaboration feels modern - more like Google Docs or Figma than old-school note apps. For distributed teams building shared knowledge, Notion's collaboration is a huge advantage over Evernote.

Evernote users tend to be individuals with capture-heavy workflows. Researchers clipping articles, writers saving ideas, students collecting course materials, professionals archiving meeting notes. The pattern is 'save everything now, organize later, search when needed.' People with years invested in Evernote stay because their entire knowledge base lives there.

Migrating that much content is daunting. Also popular with people who want a simple, proven tool without learning new paradigms.

Notion attracts people building systems. Students organizing class notes by semester, freelancers managing client projects, teams building wikis and documentation. It's popular with people who enjoy customizing workflows and trying new organization methods.

Startups love it because one tool handles multiple needs - docs, project management, wikis. The learning curve is steeper, but people who click with Notion tend to go deep. It's less about storage, more about creating a second brain or team knowledge base.