Evernote was the note-taking app to use back in the day. It was a pioneer in the digital note-taking field, with the service being an indispensable part of the everyday life of its users. But over the years, Evernote lost its way with a bloated app, unreliable syncing, and the lack of new features to keep it ahead of the competition. In November 2022, the productivity app got a new owner, with Bending Spoons promising to keep the service unchanged and regularly add new features. But now, the company has announced a controversial change that will affect long-time free users of the app.

Starting December 4, Evernote is significantly restricting the capabilities of free account holders. They will be limited to a maximum of 50 notes and one notebook per account. This is down from 100,000 notes and 250 notebooks, which free users are currently entitled to.

These limitations were first spotted by some Evernote users earlier this week. But back then, the company said this was an experiment, affecting less than 1% of its user base. Sadly, that's no longer the case, with the heavily restricted free plan going into effect from early next week.

What about existing Evernote users on the free plan with more than 50 notes and multiple notebooks? The company says such users can still view, edit, export, share, or delete their existing notes and notebooks. What's missing is the ability to create new notes or notebooks. You will have to delete your current notes to ensure you are not hitting the 50-note threshold before you can take another note. All these limitations will show up on Evernote's plan comparison page starting December 4, when the quota of 50 notes goes into effect.

In its announcement, Evernote says most of its users on the free plan are below the 50-note quota, so these restrictions will not affect how they use the service. But if you are not paying for the note-taking service and have more than 50 notes you are unwilling to delete, you have two options: jump ship to one of the other best note-taking apps or start paying for Evernote. With a subscription, you will gain access to several features, like real-time syncing and AI-powered search, while also helping the note-taking service to improve its infrastructure for further enhancements.

This is not the first time Evernote has made such a contentious move. A few years ago, it restricted device syncing for non-paying users to only two devices. Evernote is no longer the best note-taking service out there, and its popularity has also declined over the years due to its slow syncing and poor feature set. And such controversial limitations for non-paying users will not do the company any favor.