R
ROpen-source networked note-taking with daily notes, backlinks and local Markdown
Freemium
Evernote vs Microsoft Recall
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
E
Choose Evernote if…
- you want a free plan to start with
- you work on Web, iOS, Android
- you're in its core audience: students, knowledge workers
M
Choose Microsoft Recall if…
- you're in its core audience: windows 11 copilot+ pc owners, knowledge workers
Side by side
Feature Evernote Microsoft Recall
Pricing modelFreemiumPricing unknown
Starting price$14.99/mo—
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your content—No
Data retention—Oldest snapshots deleted when max storage reached; user chooses how long snapshots are kept
Security and complianceISO 27001, GDPR—
Meeting transcription—
AI Q&A over notes—
MCP connector—
Web clipper—
Shared workspaces—
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, ChromeWindows
CategoryNotes & KnowledgePersonal Assistants
CompanyBending Spoons US Inc.Microsoft
Based inUnited StatesUnited States
Founded——
Part ofBending Spoons—
Key features
E Evernote
- Notebooks, spaces and tags for organizing notes
- Tasks and built-in calendar with external calendar sync
- Web Clipper for Chrome, Firefox and Safari
- AI Assistant, semantic search and AI Transcribe
- Document scanning and offline notes
- Real-time collaboration with comments and task assignment
- Integrations with Gmail, Google Drive, Outlook and Slack
- MCP connection to external AI tools
M Microsoft Recall
- Automatic screen snapshots every few seconds and on content change
- Search by typed or spoken description
- Text and visual matches labeled close or related
- Timeline browsing and per-app result filtering
- Exclude specific apps and websites
- Sensitive information filtering for passwords and card numbers
- Local encrypted storage protected by Windows Hello
- Click to Do actions on text and images in snapshots
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
Evernote
FreeFree
Starter$14.99/mo
Advanced$24.99/mo
FlexiblePer seat
UnlimitedCustom
Microsoft Recall
Pricing unknown. Plan details aren't published.
Strengths and limitations
Evernote
- Free plan available
- Apps for web, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android
- Paid plans come with a 7-day free trial, and Enterprise gets 14 days
- Eligible college students get 40% off a year of Advanced
- Free plan is limited to 50 notes, 1 notebook and 1 device
- Starter syncs on only 3 devices
- AI Cleanup is mobile only
Microsoft Recall
- Snapshots are stored locally and encrypted, and the page says they are not shared with Microsoft
- Off by default, with app, website and sensitive-data filters
- Search works by text or voice and also matches images
- Admins can't secretly turn on snapshots on managed devices
- Requires a Copilot+ PC with a 40 TOPS NPU and 16 GB RAM
- Needs at least 50 GB of free storage to enable
- Optimized for only six languages
- Website filtering is limited in some Chromium browsers
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy