Business
Google Keep vs. Evernote: Choosing the Best Note-Taking Tool for Your Business
Unless you’re fond of carrying a note and pen in your pocket, chances are, you rely on devices to take notes and keep track of everything happening in your business. If you’re looking for the best tool to organize your professional life, you’ve probably already heard of Google Keep and Evernote.
Google Keep and Evernote offer tons of unique features to help you organize notes, which is why they’re two of the most popular choices among businesses. They share many similarities: from browsing extensions for saving articles and images to capturing select web pages and more!
But if you need a note-taking tool for your business, which should you choose — Google Keep or Evernote? Making a decision is tough, but we’re here to help. This article will break down the main features of Google Keep and Evernote to help you reach a sound decision.
Google Keep vs. Evernote: At a Glance
Google Keep is a note-taking app free with your Google account. It lets you add images to notes, capture notes as text, and organize your to-do lists while syncing all your devices.
One of the best features of Google Keep is its voice-to-text, which allows you to record your ideas on the go and save them as notes in text format. Using Google Keep, you can also organize various notes using colors, labels, and pins.
On the other hand, Evernote is a powerful note-taking tool that enables you to capture voice notes, texts, PDFs, web clippings, YouTube videos, and images. With Evernote, you can share notes with anyone — even with individuals who don’t have Evernote. The tool also offers different collaboration and task management features ideal for teams of all sizes.
Google Keep vs. Evernote: What Tool Wins?
Undeniably, Google Keep and Evernote provide solutions for note-taking without interrupting your tasks. To determine which of the two is the best option, we’ll compare the tools based on the following features:
- Additional features
- Collaboration
- Ease of Use
- Integration
- Pricing
Additional Features
Google Keep and Evernote offer impressive features in terms of making notes and customization. But each tool has features that competitors lack or don’t have.
Google Keep
Let’s start with Google Keep first. It has all the essential tools anyone can need and want in a note-taking tool.
- Copy to Google Docs: With this feature, you can copy an extremely long note into Google Docs without closing the app. This feature helps streamline your processes and maintain your workflow using Google.
- Location-based reminders: Set location-based reminders if you need to check specific documents or make notes once you arrive at a specific destination.
- Color coding: Google Keep lets you organize your notes using colors, making it easier to identify them.
Evernote
Evernote has features you can enjoy regardless of whether you use its web version or download it on your device. It’s designed to provide speed as you take and edit your notes across all devices.
- Web Clipper: Web Clipper is one of the best tools if you often take notes from online resources. This feature allows you to capture an entire web page or parts of it and add them to your notes.
- Build-in chat: Chatting with your colleagues is possible when using Evernote. This feature guarantees seamless communication within teams.
- Notebook stacks: Organizing and sorting notes is a breeze with Evernote when you use the Notebook Stacks. Notes with similar subjects can be included in the same Notebook for easy access and search.
The winner: Evernote wins this round because it offers better features that allow you to take notes seamlessly. The Web Clipper is a useful feature that tips the scales in favor of Evernote.
Collaboration
At their core, Google Keep and Evernote are note-taking tools — that’s their primary function. But one has more functionalities than the other.
Google Keep supports collaborations with different apps. You can share your notes through WhatsApp, Gmail, and other tools. Simply click the plus (+) icon to share your note with your colleagues or friends. After they receive the invitation, they can edit the note from their preferred devices.
In Evernote, sharing notes isn’t as easy as in Google Keep. You must create shareable links first to send notes to your contacts and allow them to edit your notes. Another option is adding the recipients’ names or their email addresses in the sharing section.
The winner: Google Keep wins this round because collaborating with others is easier and requires lesser steps.
Ease of Use
Google Keep is designed with a clean, simple, and intuitive interface. To add a new note, simply click the “take a note” option at the top of the screen and start typing. To edit notes, click the note you want to change to see options. Want to find something from your notes? Use the filter and search function to look for notes sorted by color or different types of notes, like audio notes or shared notes.
With Google Keep, you can use labels to keep track of your notes. Labels come in their own tabs found in your navigation bar, so you can view everything that has to do with your work project or task that you’re working on.
Evernote’s goal is simple — it’s a note-taking app, and all you do is take notes. Click on “add new notes” to make a new note, start typing or talking, and you’re good to go. The tool has a navigation bar at the bottom, which allows you to make checklists or templates to get you started, but the processes are all very intuitive.
Evernote recently rebranded its dashboard, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look good. It now looks a bit cluttered with a random background picture and all your notes squished into one place. Other items, such as a scratchpad, also take up too much space on the screen.
The winner: Although both tools are incredibly easy to use, Google Keep wins this round. Its single-column view is more streamlined than Evernote, and its color-coding feature makes tracking all your tasks on a single screen easier.
Integration
Google Keep can integrate seamlessly with the other applications in the Google ecosystem. This means you can open Google Keep to make notes within any of Google’s applications seamlessly.
Evernote also integrates with third-party apps like Slack, Outlook, Google, ClickUp, and more. Because of this, Evernote is an excellent option for businesses relying on a handful of third-party apps other than Google to maintain their workflow.
The winner: We declare this round a tie because both platforms serve different purposes for different users. If you need constant integration with different third-party apps, Evernote wins on your list. But if you rely on Google Suite to a massive extent, using Google Keep is the better option.
Pricing
Similar to its famous cousins, Google Keep is 100% free. You don’t need to pay to use it or maximize all of its features — it’s not even attached to your Google Drive memory.
Evernote also offers a free plan, which allows you to use the tool on two devices with a 60 MB monthly upload limit. Evernote’s Premium Plan costs $7.99 a month and allows you to access your notes offline, use custom templates, and annotate PDFs, and gives you a 10 GB monthly upload limit.
Under Evernote’s Business Plan, which costs $14.99 per user per month, you can enjoy shared spaces, activity history, and business data ownership.
The winner: We love anything free, and we’re sure you do too. There’s no question here — Google Keep wins this round because it offers a better deal than Evernote, even though it’s free.
Summary
Note-taking tools should save you time — you don’t want to use one that’s clunky or more trouble than it’s worth. We did all the research for you and investigated Google Keep and Evernote. Here are the results:
Feature | Google Keep | Evernote |
Additional features | 🏆 | |
Collaboration | 🏆 | |
Ease of Use | 🏆 | |
Integration | 🏆 | 🏆 |
Pricing | 🏆 |
Google Keep vs. Evernote: Is There Really a Winner?
Comparing Google Keep and Evernote often sparks a debate among users when the question of the best note-taking tool arises. Both tools are available on various devices and can be used to take notes on the go and offer many features ideal for all types and sizes of businesses.
To be more specific, Google Keep has features every standard note-taking app should have. It’s the perfect option for businesses looking for something free, simple, and easy to collaborate with Google apps. For businesses that focus on privacy, want top-notch features, and are willing to spend money, Evernote is the better option.
But irrespective of the comparison above, you should choose a note-taking tool that meets your business’s unique needs and requirements.