Breaking Down How Evernote Generates Revenue in 2025

Evernote’s early years were defined by the freemium model, which helped it grow a massive user base. Guided by Stepan Pachikov's founding vision to help people remember everything, Evernote’s approach to product design and revenue relied on building trust before monetization. 

The belief was to make the free version so robust, you’d stick around for years before even considering paying a dime. For a while, it worked: Evernote’s conversion rates soared past typical freemium benchmarks. However, it left the company struggling to monetize effectively. 

By the mid-2010s, it became clear that depending on free users was unsustainable. Competitors like OneNote and Google Keep offered generous features at no cost, putting Evernote under pressure to prove its premium value. In response, the company gradually restricted free functionality, such as device sync limits and monthly upload caps, while reserving key features—offline access, advanced search, and integrations—for paying tiers.

Let’s break down how the freemium model evolved:

This shift marked a turning point. 

Instead of chasing growth through volume alone, Evernote refocused on quality of revenue, prioritizing recurring subscriptions over sheer user numbers. While the change drew criticism from long-time free users, it laid the foundation for Evernote’s current SaaS model, where revenue stability comes from loyal, paying subscribers.

The move to tiered pricing was a survival strategy.

After moving away from its freemium roots, Evernote’s revenue model now depends heavily on its subscription tiers. This shift reflects a broader SaaS trend: sustainable growth often comes from recurring revenue rather than ad-supported free users.

Evernote currently offers three main tiers: Free, Personal, and Professional, with an additional Teams plan designed for business use.

• Free provides basic note-taking and syncing across two devices, a limited entry point that acts as a funnel toward paid plans.
  
• Personal (around $14.99/month) expands capacity with more device syncs, larger upload limits, and offline access.
  
• Professional (about $17.99/month) adds collaboration features, integrations with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, and at the top end, AI-powered workflows plus Adobe Acrobat access.
  
• Evernote Teams is priced at $24.99 per user/month, offering shared workspaces, admin controls, and business-grade security.

The tiered approach ensures Evernote captures different segments of its user base—from casual note-takers to professionals and enterprises. 

Evernote smartly incentivizes annual subscriptions with discounts around 25–30%, and regional pricing keeps things fair globally. It also lifts average revenue per user (ARPU) by encouraging upgrades with features tied to productivity and collaboration. 

Competitors like Notion and Microsoft OneNote often compete on free features, which makes Evernote’s tier differentiation critical to sustaining its revenue stream.

This evolution from freemium to SaaS becomes clearer when looking at Evernote’s revenue milestones. Numbers rarely lie, and the company’s financial trajectory highlights how strategic pivots and stronger retention tactics reshaped its bottom line.

In its early years, Evernote leaned heavily on a freemium approach—offering the basics at no cost while nudging power users toward paid tiers. By 2011, paid subscribers doubled within just six months, even as millions continued using the free version. This pattern showed the challenge of freemium at scale: broad adoption but low monetization.

From there, the revenue climb was steady if modest. Annual income grew from about $6 million in 2017 to $10 million by 2021, despite downloads declining over that same period. The real breakthrough came in 2022, when revenue jumped to $16 million—up 60% year-over-year—a leap fueled by pricing adjustments and improved free-to-paid conversions. Momentum continued into 2023, with revenue reaching $18 million (a 13% increase) following the Bending Spoons acquisition.

Revenue Snapshot (2017–2023):

The lesson here is that Evernote’s growth was not about attracting more free users but about extracting more value from its most engaged customers. Even as downloads slowed, loyal subscribers powered revenue gains—proof that smart monetization and retention often outweigh raw user numbers.

The revenue rebound in 2022 and 2023 was no coincidence—it coincided with Evernote’s acquisition by Bending Spoons, an Italian software company known for building subscription-based apps. The new ownership quickly restructured pricing tiers and introduced experiments with plan differentiation, aligning costs more closely with user behavior.

Instead of simply raising prices, Bending Spoons focused on revenue optimization: refining which features belonged in each tier, testing user upgrade paths, and using data insights to maximize conversion. 

This shift is about making each plan align better with how you actually use Evernote.

Restructuring Pricing Tiers

One of the most visible shifts after the Bending Spoons acquisition came in Evernote’s subscription structure. While the app has always relied on subscriptions for revenue, the new ownership made those boundaries far clearer. 

By late 2023, free users encountered a 50-note limit—a dramatic departure from Evernote’s historically generous free tier. The restriction wasn’t accidental; it was a deliberate nudge toward paid plans. To maintain even basic productivity, free users now had to consider upgrading.

This strategy follows a classic SaaS playbook: limit free functionality, increase perceived value in paid tiers, and maximize recurring revenue.

The approach, while controversial, aligns with Evernote’s need to stabilize and grow revenue after years of flat adoption. The acquisition also coincided with operational restructuring. Bending Spoons shifted much of Evernote’s workforce from the U.S. to Europe, consolidating resources to streamline costs while unifying its monetization approach across regions.

Timeline of Key Changes

Revenue Optimization Strategies

Following the subscription overhaul, Bending Spoons doubled down on making Evernote a leaner, more profitable operation. 

Costly U.S. offices and overlapping teams were phased out, with management centralized in Milan. By trimming experimental projects and sunsetting low-margin collaborations—such as its earlier tie-ins with Moleskine—the company reallocated focus toward features that generated real revenue.

This pivot was part of a broader playbook: Bending Spoons specializes in acquiring distressed, subscription-based software with untapped potential, then streamlining operations to unlock profits. For Evernote, that meant faster product cycles, sharper AI enhancements, and a renewed focus on platform stability—exactly what frustrated loyal users had been demanding for years.

Instead of chasing raw user growth, the strategy zeroed in on extracting more value from Evernote’s 250+ million existing accounts, particularly in business and professional segments. Cross-promotion within Bending Spoons’ wider app portfolio also created new monetization streams, further improving margins. The result: annual revenue ticked upward by 13%, even as downloads slowed. 

A practical lesson for app makers watching from LA.

When Evernote raised subscription prices, you probably noticed a sharper focus on premium feature upgrades and value-driven perks.

To keep you on board, they rolled out retention strategies—think bigger upload limits, Adobe discounts, and early access to new tools. Incorporating security measures to prevent online threats has also become a notable part of the service, aiming to enhance trust and justify the increasing subscription costs.

Let’s look at how these shifts help justify higher costs while encouraging users like you to stick around.

Enhanced Premium Feature Justification

Behind every subscription price hike, there’s an unspoken question: what’s new, and is it worth the extra dollars?

Evernote’s answer is sharper premium segmentation—unlocking serious power for paid users. You’ll see the basics—offline access, note history, and PDF markup—still available for free, but the essential workflows and collaboration upgrades now live behind paywalls. This approach aligns well with proven tiered subscription models that deepen engagement by offering clear value differentiation.

Unlimited devices, huge quotas for notes and notebooks, plus AI-driven editing and transcription make Personal and Professional tiers genuinely valuable for users with heavier demands.

Professional accounts pile on premium tools: business card scanning, advanced PDF exports, calendar integration, and multi-layered note management. Many users find added value in Boolean Search, which lets them fine-tune their content retrieval with logical operators.

For teams, custom workspace sharing and AI-powered workflow tools really move the needle. They’re justifying higher costs by delivering more—something we often help clients model into their own SaaS platforms at AppMakers USA.

User Retention Strategies Implemented

Upping the ante on premium features only works if users stick around to notice the difference. That’s why Evernote doubled its pace of improvements, pushing out 110 updates in just six months—everything from a revamped Templates tool to real-time performance boosts. These rapid updates reflect a user-centric approach that drives continuous engagement.

Many of these improvements were driven directly by collecting user feedback, with regular surveys and in-app prompts helping Evernote quickly spot what users value most and where pain points emerge. This approach aligns with continuous feedback practices that are vital for refining app concepts and ensuring relevance.

You’ll see these changes instantly, with onboarding checklists, personalized feature tips, and reliable cross-platform syncing making daily use easier. Evernote also rolled out visible roadmaps and crystal-clear release notes, so you’re never left guessing about what’s new or what’s coming next. These polished UI/UX enhancements ensure a seamless experience across all devices.

Through quick in-app surveys and behavioral nudges, the team pinpoints when users are at risk of drifting away, then targets those moments with useful reminders or win-back campaigns. It’s tailored retention, backed by transparent, actionable feedback.

After restructuring its subscription strategy, Evernote also sharpened the balance between free access and premium value. Free tiers are essential for drawing users in, but sustainable revenue depends on carefully defining where the free experience ends and the paid journey begins.

Evernote’s Free Plan still offers note-taking, web clipping, and basic attachments, but it now comes with stricter limits: a 60 MB monthly upload cap and syncing across just two devices. These boundaries allow casual users to stay engaged while gently nudging active users toward an upgrade.

The Premium Tiers, by contrast, remove those barriers and introduce power features—larger uploads, unlimited device syncing, offline access, PDF annotation, and advanced search inside scanned documents. By strategically reserving these capabilities, Evernote ensures the free plan remains useful but clearly incomplete for professionals or heavy users.

Free vs. Premium Comparison

This balance keeps the funnel healthy: free users experience Evernote’s core value, while the most engaged quickly realize that premium features are essential for serious productivity. For SaaS founders, it’s a reminder that smart feature gating is less about restriction and more about creating a natural upgrade path.

While the free and premium tiers attract individual users, Evernote’s true revenue engine lies in its Professional and Teams plans. This is where the platform transitions from a personal productivity tool into a business-grade solution that scales with organizations.

The Professional Plan builds on personal productivity with integrations into Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace—appealing to freelancers and independent professionals who need more than basic note-taking. The Teams Plan, priced at $24.99 per user/month, goes further with centralized admin controls, shared workspaces, and enhanced security. Larger accounts also receive dedicated customer success support, making the product sticky for growing organizations.

Bending Spoons’ acquisition accelerated this focus on enterprise value. By restructuring pricing and emphasizing collaboration features, Evernote has been able to capture higher average revenue per user (ARPU) while minimizing the impact of churn. The message is clear: while millions may try Evernote for free, sustainable profits come from businesses willing to pay for security, control, and scalability.

For founders, this illustrates how aligning monetization with enterprise needs can stabilize revenue even in competitive markets. 

And for organizations considering their own platforms, AppMakers USA helps design custom business solutions with advanced security, scalable architectures, and enterprise-focused features ensuring your app isn’t just adopted, but trusted.

If you’re paying for Evernote through iTunes or Google Play, you’re probably aware that the app stores keep a percentage as their fee, usually between 15% and 30%.

This means Evernote’s actual earnings from those subscriptions are lower than the price you see. Free plan users do not contribute direct revenue, but they can help drive growth through word-of-mouth and eventually upgrade to paid plans. 

Apple and Google typically keep 15–30% of each subscription, which seriously shrinks the amount Evernote actually gets from your payment. For example, if you pick up Personal at $11.99 a month on Apple, Evernote may receive less than $8.39 after platform fees. These third-party deductions mean Evernote receives notably less revenue compared to direct website subscriptions.

Regional pricing adds another twist. Evernote adjusts prices for different currencies like AUD 17.99/month or EUR 12.99/month but Apple and Google each use their own conversions. That makes things unpredictable on both sides. 

Unsurprisingly, Evernote encourages subscriptions through their own website to avoid third-party deductions and keep more revenue in-house.

Ultimately, gross subscription revenue is only part of the story. Net retained earnings—the money left after marketplace fees and operating expenses—are what sustain growth. By tracking fees closely and reinvesting retained earnings, Evernote ensures its revenue translates into long-term stability and shareholder equity.

That net revenue flows onto the income statement, hits operational expenses, and produces net income for the period. One key aspect is that retained earnings represent profits not distributed as dividends, instead being reinvested into the business to support growth or cover future expenses.

Get this process right, and you maintain a clear connection from sales figures to sustainable shareholder equity—just like leading app teams do.

Chances are, if you’re building an app—especially one aiming for productivity or business adoption—you’ve seen how unforgiving the market can be. 

Heavyweights like Microsoft Office 365 (holding over 28% market share) and Google Docs attract users with powerful free offerings. Niche tools such as JIRA or Excel further split potential audiences, while newer players like Notion have surged in popularity with flexible workflows and AI-driven features.

To stay relevant, Evernote has doubled down on differentiation. Incorporating modular architecture can improve scalability and resilience, helping Evernote adapt quickly to changing demands. Its latest updates emphasize AI-powered search, context-aware note linking, and deeper integrations with tools like Google Calendar—all aimed at retaining professionals and business users.

If you want to create something lasting, you’ll need to continually differentiate—optimize for privacy, invest in scalable infrastructure, or target specific user needs. Leveraging AI’s ability to analyze customer interactions can provide valuable insights that drive smarter product improvements and customer retention strategies. 

AppMakers USA helps startups and enterprises apply these principles.