The Cloud vs Evernote (2025): Modern Creator Workspace vs Legacy Note-Taking

Evernote was once the undisputed king of digital note-taking. Founded in 2004 and acquired by Bending Spoons in 2023, it pioneered the idea of capturing everything in one place. But the productivity landscape has changed dramatically, and creators today need far more than a notes app.

The Cloud is a new breed of workspace built specifically for creators. This comparison breaks down how these two tools stack up in 2025 so you can decide which one fits your workflow.

Quick Overview

The Cloud is a creator-first workspace that combines notes, blog publishing, habit tracking, mood tracking, task management, AI agents, and a CLI inside a desktop-like browser interface. It is designed for people who create, publish, and want to stay organized without juggling a dozen apps.

Evernote is a veteran note-taking and web clipping tool with powerful search capabilities, including OCR across images and PDFs. It excels at capturing and retrieving information but has narrowed its focus significantly since the Bending Spoons acquisition, with aggressive free-tier limitations and a heavier app experience compared to modern alternatives.

Feature Comparison

Where The Cloud Stands Out

1. Built-in Blog Publishing

Evernote has never offered native blog publishing. If you want to turn your notes into published content, you need to copy your text into a separate platform like WordPress, Ghost, or Medium. This introduces friction at every step: formatting breaks, images need re-uploading, and you lose the connection between your draft and your published piece.

The Cloud lets you write, format, and publish blog posts directly from your workspace with custom domain support. Your writing environment and your publishing platform are the same tool. No export steps, no third-party integrations, no context-switching.

2. A Complete Creator Toolkit

The Cloud goes well beyond note-taking. Habit tracking, mood tracking, and task management are built into the same workspace where you write. You can set daily habits, log your mood over time, and manage tasks with dedicated views -- all without leaving the app.

Evernote added a basic Tasks feature in recent years, but it remains a checkbox layer on top of notes rather than a full task management system. There are no boards, no priority levels, no recurring tasks. Habit and mood tracking are not part of Evernote at all, meaning you would need separate apps like Habitica or Daylio to cover those workflows.

3. Desktop-Like Browser Experience

The Cloud provides a macOS-like window-based interface directly in the browser. You can open multiple windows, drag and resize them, and multitask naturally -- reviewing your notes in one window while editing a blog post in another and checking your habit streaks in a third.

Evernote uses a more traditional sidebar-plus-editor layout. You can only view one note at a time (or use a split view on some platforms), which limits how many things you can work on simultaneously. For creators who juggle multiple projects, this single-pane approach can feel restrictive.

4. AI Agents and CLI

Both tools now have AI features, but they differ significantly in scope. Evernote's AI additions -- AI Note Cleanup and AI Search -- focus on tidying up existing notes and making search results more relevant. These are useful but incremental improvements to the core note-taking experience.

The Cloud offers dedicated AI agents that can automate workflows, help you draft and edit content, and integrate into your creative process. It also provides a command-line interface for developers and power users who prefer terminal-based interactions, something Evernote has never offered.

5. Flat, Predictable Pricing

The Cloud uses flat pricing tiers: Free, Pro at $15/month, and Ultra at $40/month. The price does not increase per user, which makes it far more predictable for growing teams. Evernote's pricing is per individual account, and the free tier has been severely restricted.

Where Evernote Stands Out

1. Best-in-Class Web Clipper

Evernote's web clipper remains one of the best tools for capturing content from the internet. The browser extension lets you clip full pages, simplified articles, bookmarks, or screenshots and have them instantly searchable in your notebook. You can annotate clips, tag them on save, and choose which notebook they land in.

For researchers, journalists, and anyone who spends significant time collecting information from the web, Evernote's clipper is genuinely hard to beat. No competitor has matched its reliability and polish in this specific area.

2. OCR and Powerful Search

Evernote can search text inside images, scanned documents, and PDFs using optical character recognition. This is a standout feature for anyone who photographs whiteboards, scans receipts, or archives paper documents. The search is fast and accurate, and it works across your entire library without any manual tagging.

3. Offline Support Across All Plans

Evernote provides offline access on all plans, including mobile. You can download notebooks to your device and work without an internet connection. This is essential for users who travel frequently or work in areas with unreliable connectivity.

4. Native Desktop and Mobile Apps

Evernote offers dedicated native applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. While these apps have been criticized for performance, they provide deep OS integration -- system-level shortcuts, menu bar quick notes, and share sheet extensions. For users who prefer native apps over browser-based tools, this is an advantage.

5. Two Decades of History

Evernote has been around since 2004 and has maintained a large user base through multiple ownership changes. Some users have over a decade of accumulated notes in their accounts. The platform's longevity means there is an extensive library of tutorials, templates, and community resources available. For users who value a long track record, this history carries weight.

Pricing Comparison

Performance and User Experience

One of the most common criticisms of Evernote in recent years has been performance. The desktop and mobile apps have grown heavier over time, with noticeable lag when opening notes, syncing, or searching large libraries. Users with thousands of notes often report slow startup times and delayed search results. The Bending Spoons team has been working on performance improvements since the acquisition, but Evernote still carries the weight of a legacy codebase built over two decades.

The Cloud is built with modern web technologies and designed to feel fast from the start. The desktop-like browser interface is responsive, and because it runs entirely in the browser, there is nothing to install or update. You always get the latest version when you open it. There are no sync conflicts, no waiting for updates to download, and no storage consumed on your local machine.

Collaboration

Evernote's collaboration features are limited. You can share individual notes and notebooks with other Evernote users, but real-time co-editing has been inconsistent, and there is no robust team workspace model. Evernote was designed primarily as a personal tool, and collaboration has always felt like an afterthought rather than a core feature.

The Cloud is built with collaboration in mind from the ground up. Real-time editing, team workspaces, and shared task management make it a stronger fit for creators who work with others. Whether you are co-authoring blog posts, sharing task boards, or brainstorming in shared notes, the collaboration experience is seamless and responsive.

Who Should Choose The Cloud?

Choose The Cloud if you:

• Publish blog content and want a built-in publishing workflow
• Want habit tracking and mood tracking alongside your notes
• Prefer a modern, desktop-like interface in the browser
• Need AI agents that go beyond search and cleanup
• Want flat pricing that stays predictable as your team grows
• Value a CLI for power-user workflows

Who Should Choose Evernote?

Choose Evernote if you:

• Rely heavily on web clipping to save articles and research
• Need OCR search across images, scanned documents, and PDFs
• Require robust offline access on mobile devices
• Have years of existing notes in Evernote and prefer not to migrate
• Primarily need a personal note archive rather than a creative workspace

Migrating from Evernote

If you are considering switching from Evernote to The Cloud, the process does not have to be all-or-nothing. You can start by using The Cloud for new projects -- blog posts, habit tracking, task management -- while keeping your existing Evernote archive accessible. Over time, you can migrate notes at your own pace.

Evernote supports exporting notes as .enex files, which preserves your content, tags, and basic formatting. Many users find that the best approach is to migrate active projects first and leave archived notes in Evernote until they are needed.

The Bottom Line

Evernote and The Cloud serve fundamentally different visions of productivity.

Evernote is a capture-and-retrieve tool that excels at saving, searching, and organizing information you collect from the web and the real world. Its web clipper and OCR search remain best-in-class, and its offline support is solid. If you have been an Evernote user for years and your workflow centers on clipping, archiving, and searching, it continues to serve that purpose.

The Cloud is a create-and-publish workspace built for people who produce content, track their habits, manage tasks, and want everything in one modern, cohesive interface. It is designed for the way creators work today -- not two decades ago. The flat pricing model, AI agents, CLI access, and desktop-like browser experience reflect a fundamentally different philosophy: your workspace should help you create, not just collect.

If your workflow is about capturing and archiving, Evernote still does that well. If your workflow is about creating, publishing, and building productive routines, The Cloud is the more complete and forward-looking choice.

It is free to get started, and you can bring your notes with you at your own pace.