Notion vs Evernote vs Obsidian: Pricing Compared

Obsidian is typically the cheapest note app long-term because the core app is free for personal use, with optional Sync and Publish add-ons. Notion is free for individuals but charges per seat for teams, while Evernote’s Personal and Professional plans usually run highest annually. For solo users on a budget, Obsidian and Notion’s free tiers win; for teams, Notion is generally the better value.

Choosing a note-taking app is rarely just about features. Over three or five years, the pricing model you pick can quietly add up to hundreds of dollars or stay close to zero. Notion, Evernote, and Obsidian represent three different philosophies: cloud-first freemium, traditional subscription, and local-first with optional paid services. This guide breaks down where each one charges, where each one stays free, and how to estimate your true lifetime cost.

We’ll walk through free-tier limits, paid plan pricing, the cost of Notion’s AI add-on, Evernote’s Personal vs Professional tiers, Obsidian’s Sync and Publish fees, and which app is best for students, teams, and long-term value. If you also want to maximize savings on the software and subscriptions you already use, our cashback index for 2026 tracks current rebate rates across hundreds of retailers.

Free Tier Limits Compared

All three apps offer a way to get started without paying, but the free tiers differ in important ways.

Notion’s free plan is generous for individuals. You typically get unlimited pages and blocks for personal use, a file upload size cap (usually around 5 MB per file), and limited version history. You can invite a small number of guests to collaborate, but team-style features like advanced permissions and unlimited file uploads usually require a paid plan. For solo writers, students, and side-project tinkerers, the free tier is often enough.

Evernote’s free plan has historically been more restrictive. In most cases, free users are limited to a small number of synced devices (typically two), a monthly upload cap, and a small number of notebooks and notes. The free tier has tightened over the years as Evernote shifted focus to its paid Personal and Professional plans, so heavy users often hit limits quickly.

Obsidian’s free plan is the most generous in one specific sense: the core app is free for personal use with no feature limits. There are no caps on notes, notebooks, file size, or attachments, because everything is stored locally on your device. The trade-off is that syncing across devices and publishing notes online are paid add-ons, not bundled features.

• Best free tier for solo brainstorming: typically Notion
• Best free tier for unlimited local notes: Obsidian
• Most restrictive free tier: usually Evernote

Paid Plan Pricing Side-by-Side

Paid plan pricing changes often, and exact numbers vary by region, billing cycle (monthly vs annual), and promotional offers. Rather than quoting specific dollar figures that may shift, here’s how the tiers typically stack up in relative terms.

In most cases, Notion’s per-seat pricing tends to undercut Evernote’s per-seat pricing at the entry tier, especially when billed annually. Obsidian’s add-ons are priced per user but only kick in if you opt into sync or publishing, so a single user who self-hosts files in iCloud, Dropbox, or OneDrive can avoid those fees entirely.

Annual billing typically saves 15-25% versus monthly billing across all three apps, which is consistent with industry norms documented by consumer-protection guidance from the FTC on subscription pricing transparency. Always check the renewal price after introductory discounts expire.

Notion AI Add-On Cost

Notion AI is a separate paid add-on layered on top of any Notion plan, including free. It enables AI writing, summarization, translation, and Q&A over your workspace.

The AI add-on is typically billed per user per month, with an annual discount available. If you’re a solo user on the free plan, adding Notion AI roughly doubles or triples your monthly Notion cost, depending on the current promotional pricing. For teams, the cost compounds quickly because every member who needs AI must have the add-on.

Practical considerations:

• Notion AI is optional. If you already pay for ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, you may not need it.
• Notion AI works inside your existing pages, so the convenience premium can be worth it for heavy writers.
• For teams, evaluate whether one shared AI workflow tool would be cheaper than per-seat add-ons.

For the official current pricing, check the Notion Help Center, since promotional pricing changes throughout the year.

Evernote Personal vs Professional

Evernote splits its individual paid offering into two main tiers: Personal and Professional. The difference matters because the price gap is meaningful and the feature gap is narrower than it looks.

Evernote Personal typically includes a higher monthly upload limit (usually around 10 GB), unlimited device sync, offline access on mobile, calendar integration, and a higher number of notebooks compared to free. For most solo users, Personal covers everything they need.

Evernote Professional usually adds a much higher monthly upload limit (often around 20 GB), more advanced search filters, the ability to export notes as PDF, integrations with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, and task management features with assignments.

Hedge-worded recommendation: in most cases, Personal is the better value unless you specifically need PDF export at scale, Slack integration, or larger monthly uploads. Many users overspend on Professional when Personal would have been enough. The annual billing discount is typically 30-40% versus monthly, so committing for a year is the cheaper path if you’re confident you’ll stick with Evernote.

Obsidian Sync and Publish Fees

Obsidian’s pricing model is unusual because the core app is free for personal use, and the company monetizes through optional services.

Obsidian Sync is the official end-to-end encrypted sync service. It’s typically billed per user per month, with an annual discount. It includes version history, conflict resolution, and selective sync. You can skip Sync entirely and use iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive to sync your vault — many users do, and it’s free aside from the cost of those storage services.

Obsidian Publish turns your vault into a public website with a custom domain, search, and graph view. It’s typically priced per site per month and is mainly useful for digital gardens, public knowledge bases, or course content. Most personal users never need it.

Obsidian Commercial License is required if you use Obsidian for business purposes at a company with more than two employees. It’s typically billed per user per year. Solo freelancers and personal users do not need it.

Net long-term cost: a personal Obsidian user who self-syncs through iCloud or Dropbox typically pays nothing for Obsidian itself. Add Sync and you’re paying roughly the same as a low-tier Notion subscription. Add Publish and your costs rise meaningfully but remain under most paid Evernote tiers.

Best Value for Students

Students typically have three priorities: low cost, fast capture, and easy citation management. Here’s how each app handles the student use case.

Notion for students: Notion has historically offered free upgrades for students and educators with a verified .edu email address. This usually unlocks features similar to the Plus plan at no cost, which is one of the most generous education offers in the category. Students writing long papers benefit from the database features for tracking sources.

Evernote for students: Evernote periodically runs student discounts, typically offering a percentage off the Personal plan. The discount is meaningful but rarely matches Notion’s free-for-students offer.

Obsidian for students: Obsidian is already free for personal use, which includes student use. Add the optional academic plugins (community-built) for citation management with Zotero, and you have a powerful research workflow at zero cost. Many graduate students prefer Obsidian for thesis work because of the backlink graph and local-first reliability.

Hedge-worded verdict: for most undergraduates, Notion’s free student upgrade is the easiest win. For graduate research, Obsidian’s local-first model and Zotero integration typically pull ahead.

Best Value for Teams

Team pricing is where the three apps diverge most. A team of ten can pay anywhere from near-zero to several thousand dollars per year depending on which app they choose.

Notion for teams: Notion’s Business and Enterprise plans are per-seat, but they include shared databases, advanced permissions, and SAML SSO at the higher tier. Most growing teams in the 5-50 person range find Notion’s Business plan competitive with Evernote Teams while offering more workspace flexibility.

Evernote for teams: Evernote Teams is per-seat with shared notebooks, central admin, and team-wide search. It’s typically priced in the same band as Notion Business, but the collaboration model is notes-first rather than database-first, which suits some teams better.

Obsidian for teams: Obsidian requires a Commercial License for business use, plus Sync if you want real-time collaboration. The per-user cost is typically lower than Notion or Evernote at the team tier, but you lose the rich shared-database features Notion offers. Obsidian for teams works best when each person owns their own knowledge vault and shares selectively.

For SaaS comparison shopping in general, our brand kit pricing page tracks how various productivity tools price their team tiers across the industry.

Which Has the Best Lifetime Cost

Lifetime cost depends on whether you’re a solo user, a student, or a team buyer. Here’s the typical breakdown over a five-year horizon.

Solo personal user (lightest spend): Obsidian usually wins. If you sync via iCloud or Dropbox, you can use Obsidian for five years at zero cost. Notion’s free tier is also a strong contender at zero cost, though file size limits may push heavy users to upgrade.

Solo power user (moderate spend): Notion Plus or Obsidian Sync are typically comparable in annual cost. Evernote Personal usually costs more per year than either. Over five years, Notion or Obsidian typically save 30-50% versus Evernote Personal.

Team of 10 (highest spend category): Notion Business and Evernote Teams are typically close in per-seat cost, with Notion edging out for most growing teams thanks to more flexible workspace structure. Obsidian Commercial + Sync is typically the cheapest if your team can work in independent vaults rather than shared databases.

Hedge-worded conclusion: in most cases, Obsidian is cheapest long-term for solo users, Notion is cheapest for teams that need shared databases, and Evernote rarely wins on pure price but may justify its cost for users who specifically need its OCR, web clipper polish, or Slack integration.

To keep recurring software costs in check, our guide to how cashback works explains how to stack rebates on annual subscription payments through credit-card portals and shopping extensions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Notion really free forever?

Notion’s free plan for personal use has been available since launch and is typically expected to remain free. It includes unlimited pages and blocks for individuals, with caps on file upload size and version history. Notion has historically expanded the free tier rather than restricting it, but as with any free SaaS product, the terms can change. Always check the current pricing page before committing your workflow to a free tier.

Does Evernote offer annual discounts?

Yes, in most cases Evernote offers a meaningful discount for paying annually rather than monthly, typically in the 30-40% range. The discount applies to Personal, Professional, and Teams plans. Evernote also runs periodic promotional pricing for new users and occasional Black Friday or back-to-school deals. The annual discount usually only applies to the first year at the promotional rate, so check the renewal price.

Is Obsidian completely free?

The Obsidian app itself is free for personal use, including all core features and community plugins. You only pay if you opt into Obsidian Sync, Obsidian Publish, or a Commercial License for business use. Many users run Obsidian for years without paying anything by syncing their vault through free cloud storage they already have, such as iCloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox.

Which has a student discount?

Notion has historically offered the most generous student offer, typically a free Plus plan upgrade with a verified .edu email. Evernote periodically offers a percentage discount on Personal for students. Obsidian does not need a student discount because the core app is already free for personal use, which covers student use. For most students, Notion’s free-for-students offer is the easiest win, with Obsidian a close second for research-heavy workflows.

Can I import from one to another?

Yes, all three apps support importing from each other to varying degrees. Notion has a built-in importer for Evernote that brings in notes, notebooks, and attachments. Obsidian has community-built importers for both Notion and Evernote that convert notes to Markdown files. Evernote can import from various formats but is generally less flexible for outbound migration. Before switching, export a backup of your existing notes in the most portable format available, typically Markdown or HTML.

Whichever note app you pick, the bigger long-term savings often come from how you pay for it. Browse our 2026 cashback index to find current rebate rates on software subscriptions, or visit /book/ for personalized advice on cutting your recurring software and subscription spend.