Self-Hosted Alternatives to Evernote
Why Replace Evernote?
Price increases. Evernote has raised prices repeatedly. The Personal plan is now $15/month ($180/year). The free tier was gutted — limited to 50 notes and one notebook.
Ownership changes. Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons in 2022, followed by layoffs, price hikes, and feature changes that eroded user trust. The product’s future direction is uncertain.
Privacy. Evernote stores your notes unencrypted on their servers. Their privacy policy allows access for “troubleshooting.” Self-hosted alternatives keep your notes on hardware you control.
Performance. Evernote’s apps have become bloated and slow over the years. Users report lag, sync delays, and excessive resource usage. Lighter alternatives exist.
Lock-in. Evernote’s proprietary format (.enex) makes migration painful. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to leave.
Best Alternatives
Joplin — Best Direct Replacement
Joplin is the closest self-hosted replacement for Evernote’s core workflow: notes organized in notebooks, tagged, and synced across devices. It uses Markdown, has native mobile apps (iOS + Android), and supports end-to-end encryption. Joplin Server provides self-hosted sync.
Joplin even has an Evernote import tool that handles .enex files, preserving tags, notebooks, and attachments.
Best for: Evernote users who want a familiar workflow with self-hosted sync.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Joplin Server]
Trilium Notes — Best for Power Users
Trilium offers hierarchical notes with features Evernote never had: note cloning (same note in multiple places), relation maps, built-in scripting, and a code editor. It’s a personal knowledge management powerhouse. Syncs between a self-hosted server and desktop client.
Best for: Users who outgrew Evernote and want a more powerful knowledge management tool.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Trilium Notes]
SiYuan — Best Block Editor
SiYuan provides a WYSIWYG block editor with bidirectional links, block references, database views, and a graph view. It’s more Notion-like than Evernote-like, but if you’re leaving Evernote and want to upgrade your note-taking workflow, SiYuan offers more organizational power.
Best for: Users who want to upgrade from Evernote’s basic editor to block-based editing with bidirectional links.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host SiYuan]
Obsidian + LiveSync — Best for Markdown Purists
Obsidian stores notes as plain Markdown files with a massive plugin ecosystem (1,500+). Self-hosted sync via CouchDB + the LiveSync plugin replaces Evernote’s sync without any subscription. Notes are plain text — the ultimate in portability and future-proofing.
Best for: Users who want plain Markdown files they own forever, with a great editor and plugin ecosystem.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Obsidian Sync]
Migration Guide
From Evernote to Joplin (Recommended)
- In Evernote, select notebooks to export → File → Export Notes → save as
.enexformat - In Joplin desktop, go to File → Import → Evernote Export File (.enex)
- Joplin converts notes to Markdown, preserving tags, notebooks, and attachments
- Set up Joplin Server sync (Tools → Options → Synchronization → Joplin Server)
- Enable E2EE if desired (Tools → Options → Encryption)
The Joplin import handles Evernote’s format well. Most formatting transfers cleanly. Images and attachments are preserved.
From Evernote to Trilium
- Export from Evernote as
.enex - Use a third-party converter (enex2md) to convert to Markdown
- Import Markdown files into Trilium
- Reorganize the note tree structure (Trilium’s hierarchy is more flexible than Evernote’s flat notebooks)
From Evernote to Obsidian
- Export from Evernote as
.enex - Use Obsidian’s built-in Evernote importer (Settings → Community Plugins → Importer)
- Notes convert to Markdown files in your vault
- Set up LiveSync + CouchDB for self-hosted sync
Cost Comparison
| Evernote Personal | Self-Hosted (Joplin) | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $15/month | $0 |
| Annual cost | $180/year | $0 |
| 3-year cost | $540 | $0 (or $60-150 for server hardware) |
| Note limit | Unlimited (paid) / 50 (free) | Unlimited |
| Upload limit | 10 GB/month | Your disk capacity |
| Sync devices | Unlimited (paid) / 2 (free) | Unlimited |
| Privacy | Evernote stores and can access notes | Fully private (E2EE available) |
| Data format | Proprietary (.enex) | Markdown (open standard) |
What You Give Up
- Web clipper quality. Evernote’s web clipper is excellent — it captures articles, simplified pages, bookmarks, and screenshots cleanly. Joplin’s web clipper works but is less polished. Trilium’s is basic.
- OCR in images. Evernote indexes text in images and PDFs for search. Self-hosted alternatives don’t have this built in.
- Shared notebooks. Evernote’s notebook sharing is simple. Joplin Server supports multi-user but sharing is less seamless.
- Email-to-note. Evernote’s email integration for clipping is unique. Self-hosted alternatives don’t offer this natively.
- Calendar integration. Evernote’s task and calendar features don’t have direct equivalents in most self-hosted tools.
Related
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