Changes to Evernote's note-taking service raised a storm of controversy on Twitter on Wednesday, as the company is trying to shift users away from the free Basic tier while generating more revenue from paid subscribers.
In "coming weeks," Evernote will start limiting Basic accounts to two devices, the company said in an email notification to customers. People already over this limit will have a 30-day window to adjust, but will otherwise have to upgrade to a Plus or Premium account to continue with unlimited device support.
The price of a Plus subscription is being hiked from $2.99 per month to $3.99 per month, although annually the cost is cheaper at $34.99. Premium is seeing a stepper increase, from $4.99 to $7.99 per month -- a 12-month version of the plan is $69.99.
In a blog post, Evernote CEO Chris O'Neil linked the changes to a "significant investment of energy, time, and money" needed to continue developing and expanding Evernote's features.
Public response has so far been highly negative, with some people threatening to switch to other apps, like Apple's Notes built into iOS and macOS. Evernote works on Windows and Android devices as well however, and exporting large collections of notes can be cumbersome.