Microsoft helps Mac users ditch Evernote for OneNote with new tool

Microsoft is making it easier for Mac users to ditch Evernote in favor of OneNote, its rival note-taking app, and a part of the Microsoft Office suite. The company has today released a new app called the OneNote Importer tool, which allows Mac users to move all their saved items from the Evernote for Mac application into OneNote automatically.

This is not the first time Microsoft targeted Evernote’s dissatisfied customers by making it easier to switch to Microsoft’s own software. In March, it debuted a similar version of the Importer tool for Windows users, reminding potential OneNote customers that its app is free on all devices. Meanwhile, Evernote Premium was (then) $50 per year, the company pointed out.

hummingbird screenshot

However, Evernote has since raised its prices even further. The Premium product is now $69.99 per year, while Plus is $34.99 per year. There’s a Basic plan, too, which is free, but it lacks a number of features, including customer support, search for text across PDFs and Office files, annotation support for PDFs, business card scanning, and more. It also only offers 60 MB of new uploads per month and will sync to just two devices.

Evernote has been under some turmoil in recent months, have lost notable VPs last December, which followed last year’s shifting of co-founder and CEO Phil Libin to Executive Chairman. In 2015, it also restructured its staff and killed off Evernote Food, Skitch (except Skitch for Mac), Clearly, its Pebble Watch apps, and it shut down its e-commerce efforts.

Aiming to strike Evernote when it’s struggling, Microsoft goes for the hard sell today, again pushing the advantage that comes with switching to Office. Evernote Premium’s $69.99 per year pricing is now the exact same price as Office 365 Personal,  the company says. Office 365 comes with OneNote, as well as all the other Office apps, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access. And it ships with 1TB of cloud storage, and 60 Skype minutes of calls to mobile phones or landlines.

Plus, Microsoft points out that OneNote also has a web clipper like Evernote’s, which works across all major browsers. The software also supports typing, inking, embedding videos, recording audio, and digital scans, too.

To use the new Mac OneNote Importer tool, you’ll need to have a Mac running OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher, and it’s best if Evernote for Mac is installed and signed in. When your Evernote notes are imported, they’ll automatically sync across your devices, including your PC, iOS, Android and the web browser.

Since the launch of the Windows version of the Importer tool, Microsoft has moved 71 million Evernote pages to OneNote, it says.