Notes & knowledge · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Evernote?

KINDA· weekend project

A notes app for one person is a familiar build: notebooks and tags, a Markdown editor, attachments and full-text search in SQLite. Evernote's ENEX export keeps your archive portable, and Joplin and Obsidian already import it. A local web app with an importer is a weekend. What does not fit in one is what makes Evernote a daily driver: sync that never loses an edit between phone and laptop, the web clipper in every browser, search inside images and scanned PDFs, and mobile apps that work offline.

$14.99/moprice

$180you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeA weekend; the importer and the editor take the time

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
Your Evernote exportENEX files from the desktop app: export whole notebooks, since a selection is capped at 100 notes.
TesseractOptional, for OCR on images and scanned PDFs.
A way to reach it from your phoneOptional: a tunnel or small VPS with HTTPS.

Before you buildEvernote Free keeps 50 notes in one notebook on one device. If your archive is bigger, export it first: Joplin and Obsidian import ENEX files directly if you would rather not build anything.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a personal notes app to replace Evernote. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server and a React UI built with Vite. `npm start` serves
  http://localhost:4830.
- Import: `npm run import -- export.enex` reads Evernote ENEX files with `fast-xml-parser`, turns
  the ENML into Markdown with `turndown`, and keeps title, created and updated dates, tags, source
  URL and notebook (the file name). Decode each `<resource>` into ./data/files/<sha256>.<ext> and
  link it from the note. Importing the same file twice must not duplicate notes.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/notes.db with notes, notebooks, tags and attachments, and FTS5
  over title and body. Markdown is the source of truth and ./data/ is the only thing to back up.
- Editor: a CodeMirror 6 Markdown editor with live preview, paste or drop of images and files,
  task checkboxes, autosave every 2 seconds and the last 20 versions of each note.
- Browse: notebook and tag sidebar, search with notebook:, tag: and created: filters, pinned notes,
  and a trash that purges after 30 days.
- Web clipper: a bookmarklet that posts the page URL and selected text; the server fetches the page
  and saves a clean article with `@mozilla/readability`.
- OCR: an optional `tesseract` command from .env runs in the background on image attachments and
  PDFs and indexes the text in FTS5.
- Single user: one password in .env and a signed cookie. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first.
- Out of scope: mobile apps, offline sync, sharing, reminders, an email-in address.
- README: import steps (Evernote exports 100 notes at a time, or whole notebooks), a check that the
  note count matches the export, and a backup example.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

Share on X

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Evernote.

Extend the notes app in this folder. Requirements:

- A background job that extracts text from PDFs with `pdf-parse` and falls back to `tesseract` for
  scanned pages and images, storing the text per attachment.
- Index it in FTS5 with a column that marks the hit as coming from an attachment; show the file
  name and page with each result.
- Skip files over 50 MB, retry failures twice, and show a status list of queued, done and failed files.
- Update the README with the Tesseract install steps.

Make the notes app in this folder usable on a phone. Requirements:

- A responsive layout, a web app manifest and a service worker that caches the app shell and the
  last 50 opened notes for offline reading.
- A quick-capture page at /new that saves a text note or a photo, works offline, and uploads queued
  captures when the connection returns, without overwriting newer edits.
- Keep the password login and require HTTPS outside localhost.
- Update the README with Caddy or tunnel setup.

Add read-only sharing to the notes app in this folder. Requirements:

- From a note, create a link at /s/<token> with 32 random bytes, an optional expiry and a revoke button.
- The shared page renders the Markdown with attachments, sets noindex, and shows nothing else.
- Log opens per link (time only, no IP) and list active links in a settings page.
- Update the README with a warning that anyone with the link can read the note.

What you lose

Mobile apps with offline notes and sync that handles conflicts
The web clipper extension for every browser, and an email-in address
Search inside images and scanned documents on every device
Tasks and calendar linked to notes, and the AI Assistant, Transcribe and Edit tools
Sharing notes with other people and the Google, Outlook and Slack integrations

Why people still pay

Years of notes, scans and clippings already live there and sync everywhere, and the Free plan's 50-note cap makes a big archive unusable. A long-time user's 2026 forum thread calls the new tiers a shock, but moving a large archive is work, so many stay.

Moatswitching costs execution polish integrations

Do the math

Evernote or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Evernote, 1 yr$180

Your own copy, 1 yr$46running + build session

You keep$134pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · Runs on your laptop for free, or on a $5 VPS for phone access. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Evernote

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Evernote

1Exporting works only in the Evernote desktop app for Mac or Windows, not on the web.
2Select a notebook or notes, right-click, choose Export, then pick ENEX, single-page HTML or multi-page HTML and tick the attributes you want (tags, created date, author).
3Evernote exports up to 100 notes at a time or whole notebooks; ENEX files can be split between 300 MB and 2 GB each.
4Free accounts can export too: no subscription is needed.

2 · Cancel Evernote

1In Evernote Web open Account Settings, choose Billing, and next to Your plan select Manage.
2At the bottom select Cancel plan, then Cancel and lose all benefits. With several devices connected you must disconnect all but one first.
3If there is no Manage plan page, use Cancel subscription at the bottom of Billing, continue, give a reason and confirm.
4Subscribed through Apple or Google Play? Cancel in that store instead.

The paid plan stays active to the end of the billing cycle, then the account reverts to Free and your notes stay.
On Free you can still view, edit, export and delete notes, but you cannot create new ones if the account has more than 50 notes or more than one notebook.
Refunds: a monthly payment within 20 days, an annual payment within 60 days, nothing prorated after that; store purchases may not be refundable.
Export first and test the ENEX file in your new app before you cancel: Joplin, Obsidian and Notesnook all import it.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Evernote's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

JoplinOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 note app that imports Evernote exports with formatting and attachments; syncs through Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive or Joplin Cloud.★ 57k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOSVisit ↗NotesnookOpen sourceGPL-3.0 end-to-end encrypted notes with a built-in importer for Evernote and other apps; hosted sync with a free tier.★ 15k · active Oct 2026 · they host it
Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOSVisit ↗Trilium NotesOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 hierarchical note base you self-host, with scripting and web clipping.★ 38k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
Web, Windows, macOS, LinuxVisit ↗

All 5 free alternatives to Evernote ›

The numbers

Evernote pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Free	$0	$0	50 notes, 1 notebook, 5 spaces, 1 connected device, 1 GB of uploads a month, tasks, calendar and the web clipper.
Starter	$14.99	$8.25	1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, 1,000 attachments, 3 synced devices, 5 GB storage, 5 external calendars and the AI features.
Advanced	$24.99	$20.83	Unlimited notes, notebooks, attachments, devices and storage, subject to safeguard limits, plus the AI features.
Flexible	custom	—	Team plan priced by use: notes from 500 up, devices from 4 per seat, storage from 250 MB per seat, shared spaces and an admin console.
Enterprise	custom	—	For 10 or more seats: company ownership of data, SSO and SCIM, activity logs, a success manager.

Free tier: 50 notes, 1 notebook, 1 device, 1 GB of uploads a month.
Billing: Monthly or yearly by card or PayPal, with a 7-day trial on paid plans. Store purchases are managed through Apple or Google. Refunds: a monthly payment within 20 days, an annual one within 60 days, none after that. The USD prices come from the pricing page's embedded data, which matches a Bending Spoons notice quoted on a TidBITS forum; the page itself showed zloty to a visitor in Poland.
Hidden costs: Plan names, limits and prices have changed several times since Bending Spoons bought Evernote, so check before paying for a year. Starter caps at 1,000 notes and 3 devices, which pushes heavy users to Advanced. Students get 40% off a year of Advanced.
Source: evernote.com

Also on the list

Notion$12/mo · Notes & knowledgeKINDA

Craft$8/mo · Notes & knowledgeKINDA

Obsidian Sync$5/mo · Notes & knowledgeKINDA

Questions

Evernote, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Free keeps 50 notes, one notebook and one synced device.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Mobile apps with offline notes and sync that handles conflicts, The web clipper extension for every browser, and an email-in address.

About $14.99 a month on the Starter plan, $179.88 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

Mobile apps with offline notes and sync that handles conflicts; The web clipper extension for every browser, and an email-in address; Search inside images and scanned documents on every device; Tasks and calendar linked to notes, and the AI Assistant, Transcribe and Edit tools; Sharing notes with other people and the Google, Outlook and Slack integrations. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.