AppFlowy vs Evernote

AppFlowy is an open-source collaborative workspace that covers notes, wikis, databases and project boards, positioned as a privacy-focused alternative to Notion. It is built with Flutter for the interface and Rust for the core, so it ships as native apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android rather than a web wrapper, and its source code is published on GitHub under the AGPL license.

The core product combines rich documents with databases that can be viewed as a grid, kanban board or calendar, plus templates, offline mode and an AI assistant for writing, summarising and asking questions about your content. You can use AppFlowy Cloud as a hosted service with a free tier and paid per-user plans, or self-host the backend with Docker so that every page and database stays on your own servers.

AppFlowy fits developers, privacy-conscious teams and organisations with data residency rules who want a Notion-style experience without handing their content to a third party. It is less mature than Notion in integrations, templates, permissions and the polish of real-time collaboration, and its plugin ecosystem is small. Anytype is the other well-known open-source, local-first option; AFFiNE combines docs with whiteboards; Notion remains the safer choice when a broad integration ecosystem matters more than data ownership.

Evernote is one of the original cross-platform note-taking apps, launched in 2008 and known for capturing everything from web pages and PDFs to scanned receipts in one searchable archive. Italian app maker Bending Spoons acquired it in early 2023, cut staff and reworked the product and pricing.

Notes live in notebooks and spaces with tags, and Evernote is still strong at capture: a Web Clipper for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, document scanning, email-to-Evernote, OCR search inside images and PDFs, and offline notes. Tasks and a calendar that connects to Google and Microsoft calendars sit next to notes. Evernote v11 adds AI features including an AI Assistant, semantic search, transcription, rewrite and a meeting note taker, plus an MCP connection for AI tools. The Free plan is now tight at 50 notes and one notebook, so most users need Starter or Advanced; team plans are quoted.

It fits long-time users with large archives and people who clip and scan heavily. Notion is more flexible for structured databases and team wikis, Obsidian keeps notes as local Markdown files for free, and Apple Notes or OneNote cost nothing on their platforms. Many users left after the 2023 price rises and free plan limits, and Evernote's collaboration is weaker than Notion's.

Buying tip: the 2026 plan reshuffle replaced Personal and Professional with Starter ($99 a year) and Advanced ($249.99 a year). Monthly billing costs much more, and prices can differ when bought through Apple or Google, so pay annually on the web.