Evernote Replacement

🍱 Features & apps App ideas
40

thanks, i will have a look…

41

Couple quick questions for you (or anyone reading this thread).

Are you currently using Evernote?
Have you tried any FOSS alternatives to Evernote?
What app features are you looking for in an Evernote replacement besides editing Markdown?

42
  1. Yes
  2. Many. Name one.
  3. I’m most definitely not looking for a markdown note manager. The original post states what I think needs to be there at a minimum but I’m probably going to add more to this as everyone has differing ideas on what an evernote replacement is.

Edit:
On pojnt 2 I’ll just cut and past what I wrote on reddit a few years ago:

All of the functionality I have listed above, I have seen (partially) in other opensource applications:

  • Laverna - the new kid on the block, provides the user with the ability to encrypt notes and sync to dropbox or other cloud storage. The problem with Laverna, is that it simply isn’t stable at all. It’s very easy to lose your notes. It also doesn’t support WYSIWYG editing… instead it relies on a confusing dual pane markup and preview interface. No support for non-image attachments. One thing I love about this application is the progress bar for tasks in a note - simple and brilliant!
  • Everpad - hooks into the Evernote infrastructure. Good for a low volume of notes but when you have thousands of notes, it becomes alomost unusable. Doesn’t Encrypt your data.
  • NixNote - Like everpad, uses the EN api to provide Linux uses with a Native client. Encryption not fully supported. In my personal experience I’ve had issues ranging from performance issues to synchronization issues.
  • Basket - Probably the most mature of what I have seen so far. However, one of the reason I was never happy with Onenote was because of the use of contaiiners for text and other types of document content. EN uses a traditional (and familar) word processing method of editing notes. As far as I can tell, it provides no synchronzation with other devices as well as no encryption. For users not running KDE (esp., Gnome or unity), the dependencies are many.
  • Wiki (pick your own here) - No synchronization - Markup only - Typically doesn’t support storing of external files, depends on links to the files.
  • Springseed - this is arguably the best looking of the note taking applications. However, it’s simply not stable enough to trust my notes to (I lost all my notes when I upgraded my OS despite the fact that the notes were stored in my dropbox folder). No encryption and relies on dropbox to sync. Any application will need to be stable. If a user loses data he’ll not be back.
  • Keepnote - This is a nice note taking application that can be used locally. It doesn’t support encryption. There’s no synchronization.
43

Getting other perspectives would be great! @aproposnix has been very
clear, and it would be awesome for others to chime in.

1 Are you currently using Evernote? If so, what features are the most helpful?
2 Have you tried any FOSS alternatives to Evernote?
3 What app features are you looking for in a FOSS Evernote replacement?

44

I want to add, that with the current business strategy of focusing on health care professionals (based on the current social media posts by NC) an Evernote replcement would make a valubale sales proposition.

As Nextcloud is primarily a document store, having an application that allows the user to work with static files in a more dynmic way would be very valueable.

For example, let’s say a doctor want to keep track of a specific patient, she would likely create a folder for that patient and add the patirents medical records there. However, many of those documents will need to be referenced in different scenarios. With an Evernote like system, the doctor could create a single report referencing multiple documents. By clicking on the links within the report she opens the latest version (instead of having to navigate to the folder and find the document). Additionaly, if the doctor would like to share the information with her colleagues, she could send the report via email which would also include the linked files or simply share it with other colleagues using the same system (without exposing all of the documents related to the patient).

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45

Basically, you want somebody to do the work for you, while you do some directing? Ideas are not the problem here. Probably half of the nextcloud used base has had this idea before. And I bet, many of them have a pretty good understanding of “how things should work”.

Translation: you’re not interested in helping anyone but yourself?

Good luck with that.

Also, regarding “creating a new one”, I believe this applies more or less:

2 Likes
46

Hey, appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

I’m concerned about this thread devolving or getting too tense. Let’s please continue this discussion, but stay respectful to all participating. :heart:

edit: @amenthes, I cannot find any previous comments or suggestions from you regarding an Evernote Replacement in Nextcloud. Could you please some add comments or thoughts regarding it.

47

I would like to throw in another note app Turtl

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48

None of the suggested replacements do the only thing that they need to do… sync with NC. I don’t want to set up another server (rules out Tagspaces). I don’t want to have to run the NC desktop client just to sync (rules out half a dozen of those people suggest most). Notebooksapp used to sync, but stopped a few versions ago.

There are about 40 note-taking applications based on Electron. At least a hundred more retail ones in Apple’s appstore or whatever. I’ve been going through them one by one, hoping to find something that will keep my notes synced across two computers and a phone (with web access!), and nothing’s even close.

I keep all my calendars in NC. I keep all my contacts. I keep all my bookmarks (check out that NC app if you haven’t, it’s awesome). There is virtually nothing I want to keep that can’t be kept well in NC, except notes.

Honestly folks, if I have to use the file sync client to sync my notes, Sublime Text can be my notes app.

49

Can you expand on what you actually mean by sync with Nextcloud. Are you referring to the Nextcloud Notes app? Depending on your intent, you could be a bit off in your assumption.

Sure we can note obvious problems with a FOSS evernote alternative, but remember to request the lacking features in each app so the dev knows we tried. If you want Tagspaces to be released as a Nextcloud app, just tell the developer… no one else has actually requested this yet, so he probably has no idea.

50

I am unfamiliar with Joplin, I will try it out tonight. Tagspaces looks very interesting… but the Webdav only works if you host it on apache/nginx. I checked that out briefly. I want integration with NC, not a side-by-side webapp.

I have not tried the PicoCMS app yet, not sure I’m interested in it by itself. I might try it for Zimwiki. Even then, I couldn’t expect a native app on mobile devices…

Thank you, more to check out. Will also take a look at Nextnote to see if anything’s new.

51

Hi, what I recommend is you directly submit these feature requests and enhancements to the devs, as I just did here for Tagspaces WebDav Edition issue #674 to fully integrate as an official Nextcloud app.

52

I am using QOwnnotes on Linux and Windows, Epsilon notes on Android and Markdown Editor inside the Webinterface.
Its a bit clunky but as far it’s yet the best combination for me.

53

Joplin’s really close guys. It syncs (and well) to arbitrary directories. It uses markdown even (I was prepared to accept proprietary file formats even if they ended up locking me in).

However, it creates randomly named files in the directory, and appends syncing metadata to the end. So you can’t use NC’s markdown app for notes… sometimes I still need notes and I’m at some random computer.

Still, this would be migratable (with work) if Joplin ever died, and if you don’t need to use the webapp…

I could actually recommend this one to people.

54

However, it creates randomly named files in the directory, and appends syncing metadata to the end. So you can’t use NC’s markdown app for notes… sometimes I still need notes and I’m at some random computer.

Here is an issue posted on allowing Joplin Markdown files to be fully integrated with Nextcloud, the Markdown Editor and QownnotesAPI app. Feel free to give it a thumbs up response so the dev knows we want this.

Here is another issue that just opened on syncing Nextcloud metadata.

As OP of this thread mentions, finding an evernote replacement requires a lot more than just editing markdown, but submitting these requests on Github can help get us there eventually. Be sure to look on the relevant Github issues and report bugs / feature requests as you can.

55

After a few days of evaluation, I do not believe Joplin suits my needs. It’s very close to what I want, but the author has no intention of ever fixing its deficiencies.

When it saves/syncs files to Nextcloud, the filesystem is used as a slop bucket of randomly named files. Though they use the md extension and are nominally markdown, every one of them is contaminated with strange metadata tags. Given that Nextcloud makes a database available for such things, and given that the filesystem can map to Joplins “many notes in many notebooks” nesting hierarchy, this shouldn’t be strictly necessary.

The end result is that though my notes might be recoverable if I was ever forced to use another application, it would be non-trivial and require great effort. The suggestion that someday there might be an Joplin NC app doesn’t fix this… I’d prefer for the files stored on the filesystem be arranged in such a way that they make sense in and of themselves.

I will continue to keep my fingers crossed that the Tagspaces author makes the desktop client WebDAV-capable, and that he makes an NC app version of it.

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56

Good news, the author of Joplin re-opened the integrate Nextcloud Notes issue just a few hours ago and added the enhancement tag.

More good news, main Tagspaces dev wrote that once Tagspaces re-write is complete in the coming months, he will then consider releasing as a Nextcloud app.

57

It is indeed good news that the Tagspaces author is considering making it an NC app. But I still need to be able to sync with the mobile app… it’s only part of the puzzle. I’d really like the desktop app to do webdav as well. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

As for Joplin, I’m not sure that the NC Notes API is the correct implementation. If this happens I’ll check it out, but it doesn’t seem promising to me.

58

Sorry for the late reply… I’ve been a bit busy lately.

First and foremost, you are very aggressive. Please read the rules of conduct.

Basically, you want somebody to do the work for you, while you do some directing? Ideas are not the problem here. Probably half of the nextcloud used >base has had this idea before. And I bet, many of them have a pretty good understanding of “how things should work”.

Nope. What I would like to do is push the discussion away from MD editors as a replacement for Evernote (which they are not - alternatives to evernote, sure). I would most definitely like to have a true replacement for Evernote - it’s the one proprietary thing I have to work with because no FOSS solution can replace it. I see value (a lot of value) in having a true FOSS replacement for Evernote.

Translation: you’re not interested in helping anyone but yourself?
Good luck with that.

Color be baffled because I simply don’t understand your logic. You are actually saying that because it’s open source I must provide feedback (esp., through bug reporting) even though I am not using it? Huh? I have already invested a lot of time in looking for an evernote replacement, including filing bug reports for projects which “maybe” might be a replacement (sadly, they never are).

With regards to the comic… I never once said anything about creating new standards.

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59

My post is very direct but I doubt it is in contradiction to the rules of conduct.

I believe, the sections I quoted are valuable information for anyone considering taking up this task.

If you’re looking for someone to write the perfect nextcloud app for you, the easiest solution would be to pay a developer for 2-3 months. This will probably give you a basic version of what you’re looking for with no strings attached.