Almost nobody searches for an Evernote alternative because Evernote stopped working. They search because the bill went up, the free plan shrank to fifty notes on one device, and they opened the app one morning and realised they had been using it as a place to paste things.
BrainSack is a smaller product at a smaller price: $4.99 a month, one plan, everything included. It does not have a web clipper, it does not search inside your PDFs, and it will not import your notebooks. What it has is a phone number you can text, encrypted notes, and no tier above the one you are on. Whether that is a good trade depends entirely on how much of Evernote you were actually using.
Evernote details verified 20 August 2026. Prices change - check theirs before you decide.
The short answer
Side by side
| Evernote | BrainSack | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (50 notes, 1 notebook, 1 device) · Personal ~$14.99/mo · Professional ~$17.99/mo | $4.99/month, one plan, 10-day trial |
| Plan tiers | Three, with features held back for the higher ones | One. Nothing is gated. |
| Capture by text message | No - email-in only, at a per-account address | Your own number. Text it and the note lands, tagged. |
| Web clipper | Yes, and it is the best in the category | No |
| Search inside PDFs and images | Yes, on paid plans | No |
| Encrypted notes | Passphrase encryption on selected text only; notes are otherwise readable by Evernote | Whole notes, AES-GCM under a key of your own, wrapped in Azure Key Vault |
| File attachments | Yes, with per-plan size and monthly upload limits | Any file type - 10 per item, 10 MB each, no monthly cap |
| Mobile apps | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | Web, plus texting |
| Works offline | Yes, on paid plans | No |
| Share with someone who has no account | Public note link, no expiry | Read-only link that stops working after 24 hours |
| Batch capture | One note at a time | Dump mode - a blank line between thoughts, each lands as its own note |
The case for switching
Evernote’s shape is three tiers with features distributed across them, so the answer to "can it do X" is really "can your plan do X". BrainSack has one plan at $4.99 a month. The texting number, the encrypted notes, the file storage, the sharing and everything shipped after you signed up are all in it. There is no upgrade path because there is nothing above you.
Evernote’s version of this is an email address you can forward to, which works and is slow - you open a mail client, compose, send, wait. BrainSack gives every account a phone number. Text it and the note is on the board a second later, with any hashtags in the message turned into tags on the card and stripped out of the text. It works from the lock screen, which the app-based version never will.
Evernote can encrypt a selection of text inside a note with a passphrase - a feature from a different era, and one that leaves the note itself, its title and everything around it readable by Evernote. A BrainSack encrypted note is sealed whole with AES-GCM under a key belonging to your account, wrapped by Azure Key Vault, and the body is never included in a board load or a search result. It comes back when you open that one note and at no other time.
Migration
Evernote exports notebooks as .enex files, one per notebook, from the desktop app. Export before you cancel - a lapsed account is a slower conversation.
There is no importer on this end. .enex is not something BrainSack reads, and there is no plan date for one. This is the sharpest limitation on this page and it disqualifies anyone with a large archive.
The realistic move, if you make it, is a clean break: leave the archive in an exported .enex on disk or in the free Evernote tier, and start new capture in BrainSack. That costs nothing and is reversible for the ten days of the trial.
The trial takes a card up front. Cancel inside it and you pay nothing. Cancel later and access ends when the period you paid for does - the board isn’t deleted, so it’s still there if you come back.
FAQ
BrainSack is $4.99 a month on one plan. Evernote Personal is around $14.99 a month and Professional around $17.99, with an annual discount on both. So roughly a third of Personal - but Evernote Personal includes a web clipper, OCR search and offline apps that BrainSack does not have, so it is not a like-for-like price cut. Check Evernote’s current pricing page before deciding; it has changed several times.
No. Evernote exports to .enex and BrainSack has no importer for it, or for anything else. If you have more than a few hundred notes, that is a genuine reason to stay.
No, and there is no browser extension of any kind. If clipping is central to how you work, Evernote is the better product for you and this page is not trying to argue otherwise.
No. There is a 10-day trial with a card taken up front, and then one plan at $4.99 a month. Evernote’s free tier is limited to 50 notes, one notebook and one device, so the practical comparison is against a paid Evernote plan rather than the free one.
Access stops at the end of the period you have already paid for. The board is not deleted, so if you come back later it is all still there. Encrypted notes stay encrypted throughout.
Up to ten per item at 10 MB each, any type, with no monthly upload cap. Evernote allows larger individual files on paid plans but meters your uploads by month, so which is more generous depends on whether your files are big or numerous.
Cancel inside the trial and you pay nothing. $4.99/month after that, one plan, everything in it.
