Google Keep vs Evernote (2026): Which Note App to Choose

Google Keep and Evernote are two of the oldest note apps still in wide use, and they solve different problems. Keep is a free, fast sticky-note board. Evernote is a structured library for long notes, clipped web pages and scanned documents. This comparison puts both side by side, with prices checked on each vendor's own page on 2026-10-19, and ends with the best Google Keep alternatives if neither fits.

TL;DR: Google Keep is free and best for quick notes, lists and reminders. Evernote is better for long notes, web clips and scanned documents, but its Free plan holds 50 notes and Starter costs $99 a year. If you outgrow both, see the Google Keep and Evernote alternatives below.

Google Keep vs Evernote at a Glance

Google Keep wins on price and speed: it is free, it opens in a second, and it syncs through your Google account. Evernote wins on depth: notebooks, tags, a full web clipper, document scanning and advanced search. The table below compares the two on the points most readers ask about.

Sources: Google Keep on the App Store, Google One plans and Evernote plans, checked on 2026-10-19.

CAPTURE vs RETRIEVE: WHERE EACH APP SPENDS ITS EFFORT
  Google Keep                              Evernote

  open app  ─▶ type ─▶ done                open app ─▶ pick notebook ─▶ write
│                                         │
▼                                         ▼
[ note card ] [ list ] [ voice memo ]    Notebook ─▶ Note ─▶ tags, PDF, scan, clip
│                                         │
▼                                         ▼
find by color, label, text               find by Boolean, filter, meaning
weeks later: archive or delete           years later: still searchable
  cost: free (15 GB shared)                cost: Free 50 notes, Starter $99/yr

Which Is Better: Google Keep or Evernote?

Google Keep is better if your notes are short and you act on them within days: groceries, reminders, quick ideas. Evernote is better if your notes keep their value for months and you need to find one detail inside them later. Keep costs nothing. Evernote's Free plan holds only 50 notes, so heavy users pay for Starter.

What Is Google Keep?

Google Keep is Google's free note app, launched in 2013. It shows notes as color-coded cards on a board, and it syncs across Android, iPhone, iPad and the web through your Google account. It is built for speed: open, type, close.

Google Keep has two real strengths. First, capture: Keep lets you add notes, lists, photos, drawings and audio, and it can record a voice memo and transcribe it on its own. Second, reminders: you can set a time reminder, or a location reminder that opens your grocery list when you reach the store. Google also says Keep works offline and syncs changes once you reconnect.

Other useful features:

• Labels and colors to sort notes, plus pins and filters to find them.
• Text from images, so a photo of a whiteboard is searchable later.
• Collaborators, so a shared list updates for everyone with a Google account.
• Workspace links, so you can add notes from inside other Google Workspace apps.

The trade-off is depth. Keep has no notebooks and no nested pages, and long documents feel cramped on a card. A Keep board with hundreds of notes gets hard to scan. Google sells storage through Google One (100 GB for $1.99 a month) and AI through Google AI Plus ($9.99 a month), not a paid Keep plan.

What Is Evernote?

Evernote is a note app built for a long-term archive, first released in 2008. It stores notes in notebooks and spaces, adds tags, and clips web pages, articles and PDFs with its Web Clipper. Read our history of Evernote for the full story of the app.

Evernote has two real strengths. First, capture of rich content: the Web Clipper saves full pages, articles, PDFs and screenshots, and document scanning turns paper into searchable notes. Second, search: Evernote supports Boolean, geographic and filtered searches, and Semantic Search finds related notes by their content.

Evernote's plan page also lists AI features: an AI Assistant that searches and organizes notes from a chat, AI Transcribe for meetings, AI Edit to summarize and translate, and a connection that lets outside AI tools read your notes. The page lists tasks, a calendar and integrations with Google, Microsoft Outlook and Slack. Check the Evernote plan page for which plan includes each feature.

The trade-off is price. Evernote Free holds 50 notes, 1 notebook and 1 device, which most people fill fast. If you leave Evernote, our Evernote alternatives list compares the main options with checked prices.

Key Differences in 2026

The biggest difference is purpose. Google Keep is for capture and Evernote is for retrieval. Keep has no notebooks and no paid plan of its own. Evernote has notebooks, spaces, tags, scanning, a full clipper and AI features, with paid plans from $99 a year. The table below compares five areas.

For a long reference library, Evernote's notebooks and search go much further. For shared to-do lists, Keep is faster to set up. Neither app gives you real-time co-editing of a long document with task assignment. For that, see our guide to collaborative note-taking for teams.

Pricing Compared

Google Keep is free, and you pay only if you need more Google storage: Google One Basic costs $1.99 a month for 100 GB. Evernote has a small Free plan, then Starter at $99 a year or $14.99 monthly, and Advanced at $249.99 a year or $24.99 monthly.

All prices checked on one.google.com/about/plans and evernote.com/compare-plans on 2026-10-19. A heavy Evernote user who pays monthly spends $179.88 a year on Starter. Paying yearly saves $80.88.

Best Google Keep Alternatives

The best Google Keep alternatives are Apple Notes for iPhone and Mac users, Microsoft OneNote for a free notebook layout, Notion for structured notes, Obsidian for private local notes, and Joplin for open source. Each one below has a free plan. Prices were checked on each vendor's page on 2026-10-19.

• Apple Notes comes with every Apple device and syncs through iCloud, which starts with 5 GB free.
• Microsoft OneNote is free on the web and on mobile, with pages inside sections inside notebooks. Microsoft 365 Basic adds storage for $19.99 a year.
• Notion suits notes that sit next to databases and team wikis. Compare it with Obsidian in our Notion vs Obsidian guide.
• Obsidian stores each note as a Markdown file on your device and is free without limits. See the Obsidian alternatives list for similar apps.
• Joplin is open source and free, and Joplin Cloud sync costs 2.99 EUR a month or 2.40 EUR a month billed yearly.

For a longer list, see our best note-taking apps, the AI note-taking apps list and the Evernote alternatives list.

Where Taskade Fits

Taskade fits when your notes must turn into work. It keeps notes, tasks, AI agents and automations in one shared workspace, so a meeting note becomes assigned tasks, an agent answers questions from your notes, and an automation sends updates to another app. Taskade's Free plan has unlimited projects, 2 members, 3 apps and 1 agent, with no starting AI credits.

In plain terms, Taskade adds:

• A live app from one prompt. Taskade Genesis builds a dashboard, tracker or client portal with its own database. See the Taskade Genesis wiki.
• AI agents with knowledge and tools. Agents use your projects as knowledge and work inside an app or on their own.
• Automations with 100+ integrations. Automations use triggers to pull events in and actions to push data out.
• Ready-made kits. Clone an app from the app gallery and share it with a link. A custom domain needs Pro and up.
• Taskade EVE. Ask Taskade EVE in chat to build or change an app.

Projects are the memory, agents are the intelligence, and automations are the execution. That loop is what Taskade calls Workspace DNA. Pro costs $10 per month billed annually. See the Free plan limits and all plans.

How to Move Your Notes

Moving out of Evernote takes one export and one conversion. Moving out of Google Keep is a copy job for most people, because Keep notes are short. Taskade imports both through the Import dialog.

1. Export from Evernote. Open a notebook, choose File, then Export, and save the .enex file.
2. Convert to Markdown. Run the open-source Yarle converter on the .enex file. Taskade does not maintain Yarle.
3. Import into Taskade. Click the arrow next to New Project, choose Import, and drag the .md files in. Full steps: Import from Evernote.
4. Copy from Google Keep. Open a note, select the text, and paste it into a Taskade project or the Paste Text & Markdown option.
5. Sort the result. Use tags to rebuild notebooks, and @ backlinks to connect related notes.

Images and attachments stored inside Evernote do not come across in a Markdown move, so re-upload the files you still need. Moving from OneNote instead? See Import from OneNote.

Limitations: When Taskade Is Not the Right Fit

Taskade is not the right fit if you want a free sticky-note app for quick lists: Google Keep is faster for that. It is also not the right fit if you depend on Evernote's Web Clipper and document scanning, which save full pages, PDFs and paper into one archive.

Taskade needs a live internet connection and has no offline editing mode, while Keep and Evernote both list offline notes. Taskade's Free plan also starts with no AI credits, so AI use on Free needs free AI credits that you earn, or a paid plan. If none of these points apply, and your notes turn into tasks for a team, Taskade is worth a try. Read our personal knowledge management guide to plan the system first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Free Google Keep alternative: Taskade vs Google Keep
• Free Evernote alternative: Taskade vs Evernote
• Best AI second brain tools

Notes are worth more when they lead to action: projects hold what you know, agents reason over it, and automations move the work ▲ ■ ●. Start in Taskade.