Evernote Alternatives for Mac in 2026: 8 Apps and How to Move

On a Mac, the Evernote alternative that suits most people is Apple Notes: it's free, it comes with macOS, and it imports Evernote's .enex export files directly. Pick Obsidian if you want plain files you own, Notion if your notes are really projects, and Bear or UpNote if you want a polished writing app that costs a few dollars.

Leaving a notes app you've used for years is less about features and more about trust. Everything you clipped, scanned and typed is in there, and the worry is losing some of it on the way out. This guide covers why people are leaving Evernote, how to get your notes out cleanly on a Mac, and eight apps that can take them in, with the import steps from each app's own help pages.

The 8 Evernote alternatives side by side

All eight apps below run on the Mac and can bring in Evernote notes. The prices and import routes are taken from the help and pricing pages each company publishes, linked in every section.

Why people are leaving Evernote in 2026

The main reason people leave Evernote is the plan limits. According to Evernote's plan comparison page, the Free plan holds 50 notes in one notebook and syncs to one device, and the Starter plan stops at 1,000 notes, 20 notebooks and 3 devices. Advanced and the top business plan, Unlimited, remove those caps.

Evernote's compare page doesn't print the prices for each plan; they appear once you choose one, so check the current figure there before deciding whether to stay. The page also notes that the "unlimited" notebooks and devices on Advanced are subject to safeguard limits.

For anyone with an archive of a few thousand notes, those numbers force a choice: pay for Advanced, or move. If you only ever used Evernote as a place to drop notes on one Mac, the move is easy, because every app on this list has a free way to start and most of them import the same file.

How to export your notes from Evernote on a Mac

You export Evernote notes as .enex files from the Evernote desktop app on your Mac; Evernote's help center says export isn't available in Evernote Web. An .enex file is Evernote's own XML format, and it's the file every app below (except Notion) asks for. Evernote's export help article lists ENEX and HTML as the two formats, and says you can export up to 100 notes at a time or entire notebooks.

Export one notebook as an .enex file

1. Open the Evernote app for Mac (the desktop app, not the website) and sign in.
2. Go to the Notebooks screen.
3. Click More actions (•••) beside the notebook and choose Export Notebook…
4. Choose ENEX as the file format.
5. Tick the attributes you want to keep, such as Tags and created dates.
6. Click Export, then pick a folder and save the file.

That route comes from the Evernote export steps in Obsidian's import guide and Notesnook's. To export a handful of loose notes instead, select them in the note list, right-click and choose Export, as Craft's import guide describes. Remember the cap of 100 notes per export.

Five things to sort out before you export

• Export one notebook per file. Bear's FAQ says the .enex format doesn't include notebook names, and UpNote, Joplin and Craft can each turn one file into one notebook or folder. Separate files keep your structure.
• Empty Evernote's trash first. Bear's migration FAQ warns that an .enex file includes notes you trashed in Evernote.
• Tick every attribute you care about. Craft's guide points out that attributes left unchecked at export (tags, tasks, reminders) don't come across, and the only fix is exporting again.
• Expect nested tags to flatten. Obsidian's guide says Evernote's export doesn't keep tag hierarchy, so parent and child tags arrive as separate tags.
• Keep the .enex files. They're a full backup you can import again into a different app if your first choice doesn't stick.

When I cleared out an old Evernote account, I named each export file after its notebook and kept the whole folder of files in my Documents folder. It made the import tidier, and it meant I could try a second app later without opening Evernote again.

The 8 best Evernote alternatives for Mac

Each app below includes what it costs, how to import your Evernote notes, and what its own help pages say doesn't come across cleanly.

1. Apple Notes: the free default on a Mac

Apple Notes is the simplest Evernote alternative on a Mac because it's built in and reads .enex files directly. According to Apple's import guide, Notes on the Mac imports Markdown, TXT, RTF, RTFD, HTML and Evernote XML (ENEX) files, and on macOS 13 or later it also brings in tags from Evernote files.

1. Open Notes on your Mac.
2. In the sidebar, click a folder in your iCloud or On My Mac account.
3. Choose File > Import to Notes.
4. Select one or more .enex files, or a folder of them. For a folder, click Options if needed and turn on Preserve folder structure on import.
5. Click Import.

Imported notes land in a folder called Imported Notes, and you can move or rename them from there. Apple says the import needs upgraded iCloud notes or notes stored on your Mac.

Evernote's saved searches have a close cousin in Apple's Smart Folders, which Apple's Notes guide describes as folders that hold references to notes matching rules such as tags or dates. For web clipping, Safari's Share button has Add to Quick Note, and selecting text and Control-clicking it offers the same, per Apple's Safari guide. It saves the link and the selected text rather than a full copy of the page, which is the biggest gap if you clipped whole articles in Evernote.

Choose Apple Notes if an iPhone sits next to your Mac and you want your notes in the app you already open. Look elsewhere if you need your notes in a Windows or Android app.

2. Obsidian: plain Markdown files you own

Obsidian stores notes as Markdown files in a folder on your Mac, so your notes stay readable by any text editor. Obsidian's pricing page lists the core app as free, for personal and work use alike, with optional Sync at $4 a month billed yearly ($5 monthly) and Publish at $8 a month billed yearly.

1. Open Settings > Community plugins in Obsidian and install Importer.
2. Enable the Importer plugin.
3. Open Importer from the command palette or the ribbon icon.
4. Under File format, choose Evernote (.enex).
5. Select your .enex file and click Import to preview the template.
6. Click Import again and wait for it to finish.

Obsidian's Evernote guide has a tidy trick for notebook stacks: rename the export file to `Stack@@@Notebook` and the notes land in a matching folder pair. Child tags need renaming by hand to `Parent/Child`. The free Obsidian Web Clipper works in Safari on macOS as well as Chrome, Firefox and Edge, which covers the clipping habit.

Obsidian suits people who want to own their files and don't mind a few settings. If you want everything to just sync with no setup, Apple Notes or Bear will feel calmer.

3. Notion: when your notes are really projects

Notion is a workspace of pages and databases, and it's the one app here that imports straight from your Evernote account instead of from an .enex file. Notion's pricing page lists a Free plan, Plus at $10 a seat a month and Business at $20; the Free plan caps file uploads at 5 MB each, and full Notion AI is on Business.

1. In Notion, open Settings, go to Import and choose Evernote under third-party imports. Typing `/evernote` on a page also works.
2. Sign in to your Evernote account and allow the connection.
3. Tick the notebooks you want to bring over.
4. Choose where each notebook goes: a teamspace, your private space or an existing database.
5. Click Import.

Each notebook becomes a page, and its notes become entries in a list database. Notion's import help page says the importer is reliable up to about 5,000 notes, has no progress bar, may need image cleanup afterward and doesn't support Evernote Teams or Evernote Business. With a big archive, import a few notebooks at a time.

Choose Notion if your Evernote was full of meeting notes, plans and checklists that you now want to sort, filter and share. If you mostly kept receipts and clippings, Notion's structure is more than you need.

4. Bear: a writing app for Apple devices

Bear is a Markdown notes app for Mac, iPhone and iPad that organizes with tags instead of folders. According to Bear's Pro FAQ, Bear Pro costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Pro unlocks iCloud sync across devices, note encryption, export to PDF, HTML and DOCX, and search inside images and PDFs.

1. Export your Evernote notebooks as .enex files.
2. In Bear on your Mac, choose File > Import From > Evernote.
3. Select a file and let it import.

Because the .enex format doesn't carry notebook names, Bear's migration FAQ suggests creating a tag for each notebook, importing one notebook file at a time, and dragging the new notes onto the matching tag after each import. A search like `-#notebook1 -#notebook2` then finds anything you missed, meaning notes that carry none of your notebook tags.

Bear is the pick for people who write in their notes, not just store things. Bear's Pro FAQ only mentions iPhone, iPad and Mac, so it isn't for anyone who needs a Windows machine.

5. UpNote: the most Evernote-like move

UpNote keeps notebooks, tags and a familiar layout, and runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android. UpNote's site says UpNote is free for your first 50 notes, with Premium at $1.99 a month or $39.99 once for lifetime access.

1. In UpNote on your Mac, choose File > Import Notes > Evernote.
2. Click Select .enex files and pick one or more files.
3. Turn on Use file name as notebook to rebuild one notebook per file.
4. Choose whether Evernote tags become hashtags or notebooks.
5. Click Import Notes.

UpNote's Evernote import guide lists the catches: notes with attachments over 20 MB or over 300,000 characters may fail, links between Evernote notes still open Evernote, and text and highlight colors are removed unless you choose to keep them. If an import would push your account past 20,000 notes or 10 GB of attachments, UpNote limits it to 50 notes at a time.

UpNote fits someone who liked Evernote's shape and wants it on every device for a small price, including a Windows PC at work.

6. Craft: polished documents and shared spaces

Craft builds notes as blocks you can rearrange, and its documents look finished enough to share. Craft's pricing page limits Free accounts to 1,500 blocks with 1 GB of space, and offers a Plus plan with unlimited content from $6.40 a month.

1. In Craft on the Mac or web, click Import low in the left sidebar and choose Import from Evernote.
2. Drag your .enex files onto the upload area.
3. Pick a Space and, if you like, a folder.
4. Turn on Include comments if you want them.
5. Click Import and keep the page open until the upload finishes.

Craft's Evernote guide says each import takes up to 50 .enex files, processing carries on in the background, and Craft emails you when it's done. The 1,500-block free limit fills fast with a real archive, so plan on Plus if you move everything.

7. Joplin: open source with end-to-end encryption

Joplin is an open source notes app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, with end-to-end encryption and a web clipper for Chrome and Firefox, according to Joplin's site. It syncs through Joplin Cloud, Dropbox or OneDrive; Joplin Cloud plans start at €2.99 a month.

1. Export each Evernote notebook as an .enex file.
2. In Joplin, choose File > Import > ENEX.
3. Select a single file to create one notebook, or a folder to create one notebook per file.

Joplin's import guide says notes, tags, attachments, tables and most links between notes come across, with notes converted to Markdown by default. Colors and fonts from complex notes may not survive, though the text is always imported in full. Links are matched by note title, so duplicate titles can break them.

8. Notesnook: encrypted notes that keep your web clips

Notesnook is an end-to-end encrypted notes app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android and the web. Notesnook's pricing page puts the free plan at 50 MB of storage a month, 10 MB files and 50 notebooks, with paid plans above it.

1. Export your Evernote notebooks as .enex files.
2. In Notesnook, go to Settings > Import & export > Notesnook Importer.
3. Choose Evernote and drop in your .enex files.
4. Start the import.

Notesnook's Evernote guide says attachments, web clips, tasks, images, formatting, reminders, notebooks and tags come across. Tasks arrive without their extra details, and links between notes only work when the link text matches the target note's title. With 50 MB of storage a month on the free plan, an archive heavy with PDFs will need a paid plan or a few months of patience.

What about Microsoft OneNote?

Microsoft OneNote has a Mac app, but there's no longer an official way to move Evernote notes into it. A Microsoft community moderator confirmed on Microsoft's Q&A site in December 2022 that the Evernote to OneNote importer had been retired. Without it you'd be copying notes across by hand, so OneNote only makes sense if your team already lives there and your Evernote archive is small.

Which Evernote alternative should you choose?

The right Evernote alternative depends on what your notes are for and which devices you use. A quick way to decide:

My own test before committing is simple: I import one busy notebook first, then open the notes most likely to break, the one with a scanned PDF and the one with a table. If both look right, I move the rest. If they don't, I've only lost one notebook's worth of effort before trying the next app.

After the move: a short checklist

Once the import finishes, a few checks catch the problems that only show up weeks later, when you go looking for a note.

1. Compare note counts for one or two notebooks in Evernote and in the new app.
2. Open notes with attachments, scans and tables, the content most import guides warn about.
3. Search for a word inside a PDF to see whether the new app searches attachments.
4. Click a few links between notes. UpNote and Joplin both say some internal links won't convert.
5. Set up web clipping in the new app before you need it, so you don't reach for Evernote out of habit.
6. Keep your .enex files somewhere backed up, then cancel or downgrade Evernote.

After my own switch, the thing I missed first wasn't a feature but the shortcut: my hands still reached for the Evernote clipper. Installing the new app's clipper on day one fixed that faster than any setting.

If your Evernote was mostly meeting notes, a dedicated meeting note taker may serve you better than a general notes app, and this comparison of seven AI note takers sets out their free plans. And if you're weighing Notion mainly for its AI, our Notion AI alternatives page covers the plan you'd need.