I build a competing notes app, so read this knowing that. Egg gets one short section at the end and you can skip it without missing the comparison.
The short version: OneNote is free and shaped like a sheet of paper. Evernote costs money and is shaped like a filing cabinet. Nearly everything else follows from that one difference.
| Evernote | OneNote | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per year | $0 / $99 / $249.99 | Free with a Microsoft account |
| What runs out | Notes, notebooks, devices, tags | Your OneDrive storage |
| Structure | Notebooks, stacks, tags | Notebooks, sections, pages |
| A page is | A document, top to bottom | A canvas you click anywhere on |
| Getting out | ENEX, which most apps read | No portable equivalent |
Evernote plan prices are US list prices as published on evernote.com and checked August 6, 2026. OneNote is free with a Microsoft account; the limit that bites is the OneDrive allowance attached to it.
The structure is the whole decision
In OneNote a notebook holds sections and a section holds pages, and a page is an infinite canvas. You click anywhere and type there. A diagram can sit beside a paragraph beside a screenshot, at whatever angle you dropped it.
In Evernote a notebook holds notes, notebooks can sit in a stack, tags cut across all of it, and a note is a document that runs top to bottom like a page in a word processor.
If you think with a stylus, OneNote is not really replaceable and this comparison ends here. If you think in documents, the canvas will feel loose within a week and you will spend that week wondering why nothing lines up.
Search feels different because the page model is different
Both index the text you type and both have recognised text in images for years, so on raw capability they are closer than the arguments about them suggest.
What differs is what a result gives you. A document model hands you a list you can scan down. A canvas hands you a page that contains the match somewhere, and then you go hunting on the page. On a small library nobody notices. On a large one it is the difference between finding something and starting a search within your search.
Getting out, which is the expensive part later
Evernote exports ENEX, and most note apps read it. It is an imperfect format, and it drops your notebook names and your stacks on the way out, but it exists and it moves.
OneNote has no equivalent. Leaving means printing to PDF, exporting section by section into a format only OneNote reads, or running a conversion tool, and each route loses something different.
If there is any chance you will move again in five years, that asymmetry deserves more weight than any feature on the list above. The free product is the one that is harder to leave.
The thing neither of them does
Neither has an archive. In both apps a note you are finished with has exactly two destinations: a container you invented for the purpose, or the bin.
In Evernote that container is a notebook, and notebooks are metered, so filing your finished work costs you one of the twenty you are paying for. In OneNote it is a section, which is free, and which the canvas then makes marginally harder to search.
In both cases the workaround only half works, because the note you filed away still comes back in every search you run. Out of sight, still in the way.
Which one to pick
Take OneNote if you write with a stylus, if the canvas is the reason you take notes at all, or if your work already lives in Microsoft accounts. Free is a real advantage and the canvas has no serious rival.
Take Evernote if you think in documents, if you want tags and attachments and a search you trust on a large library, and if the export door mattering later is worth paying for now. Price it honestly against the plan you will actually need rather than the one on the left of the table.
Egg, and who should skip it
Egg is mine, so this is a disclosure and not a review. It sits on the Evernote side of the line: notebooks, tags, attachments that read and play inside the note, search that runs on your device, native apps on iPhone, iPad and Mac plus a web app, encrypted storage, and an archive for the finished work that neither of the two above has. It imports an Evernote library and checks every attachment byte for byte on the way in.
Skip it if the canvas is what you want, because it is a document app and always will be. Skip it if you need shared notebooks and collaborators, because there are none. Skip it if your notes are already where your team works.
Notebooks, tags, and files that live inside the note. Native on iPhone, iPad and Mac plus a full web app. Free for 100 notes, and the export door is never locked.
Start freeFrequently asked
Is OneNote better than Evernote?
Neither is better in general, because they are different shapes. OneNote is a freeform canvas and is unmatched if you write by hand or think spatially. Evernote is a document-and-notebook filing system and is better if you want structure, tags and search you can trust on a large library.
Is OneNote free and Evernote not?
Yes. OneNote is free with a Microsoft account, and what limits you is the OneDrive storage attached to that account rather than the app. Evernote has a free tier capped at 50 notes, one notebook and one device, with paid plans at $99 and $249.99 a year.
Can I move my notes from OneNote to Evernote?
Not cleanly. OneNote has no export format that other note apps read the way ENEX is read, so migrations go through PDF export, section-by-section export, or a conversion tool, and each loses some structure. Moving the other way, out of Evernote, is much easier.
Does Evernote or OneNote have an archive?
Neither has an archive state. In both, a note you are finished with either goes to the bin or into a notebook or section you created to hold it, and in both cases it still turns up in your search results.