Compare Evernote and Readwise Reader side by side on features, pricing, and the workflows each one is designed for.
Your second brain: capture notes, clip web pages, and find anything in seconds.
Free, paid from $8.25/mo
A read-later app for articles, PDFs, emails, tweets, and YouTube, with deep highlights and AI features.
Free, paid from $9.99/mo
Here's how Evernote and Readwise Reader compare across the features people actually look for. They share 13 core capabilities; the differences show up in what each tool focuses on.
| Feature | Evernote | Readwise Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Capture and save | ||
| Browser extension | Web Clipper (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) | Chrome, Firefox, Safari |
| Mobile apps | iOS, Android | iOS, Android |
| Save from email | Forwarding address | Per-user Reader address |
| Save tweets | Threads compiled as articles | |
| Save YouTube videos | With transcript highlighting | |
| Save GitHub stars | ||
| Save PDFs | ||
| Save files (docs, spreadsheets) | Attachments | PDFs, EPUBs, HTML |
| Save audio files | Voice memos | |
| Save via API | ||
| Auto-sync sources | ||
| RSS auto-sync | ||
| YouTube channel sync | Via RSS | |
| X bookmarks sync | ||
| GitHub stars sync | ||
| Newsletter inbox sync | Partial | |
| Library and reading | ||
| Reader view | Partial | |
| Offline reading | ||
| Full-text search | ||
| Semantic / AI search | Ghostreader Q&A | |
| Highlights | Partial | |
| Notes | ||
| Tags | ||
| Collections | Notebooks + Spaces | Folders |
| Public sharing | ||
| Full-text RSS extraction | Partial | |
| AI and agents | ||
| Markdown export for AI agents | ||
| Bulk markdown export | ||
| MCP server | ||
| CLI tool | ||
| Claude Code skill | ||
| AI summaries | AI Rewrite, AI Meeting Notes, Advanced+ | Ghostreader |
| Public API | ||
| Import and export | ||
| OPML import / export | ||
| Pocket import | ||
| Instapaper import | ||
| CSV / JSON export | ENEX | Via API |
| Send to Kindle |
Evernote is free, paid from $8.25/mo and Readwise Reader is free, paid from $9.99/mo. The tier that fits best usually comes down to how many items you save each month.
Free
50 notes, 1 notebook, 5 spaces, 20 tags, 1 device, 1 GB storage.
Starter
1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, 10 spaces, 100 tags, 3 devices, 5 GB storage.
Advanced
Unlimited notes, notebooks, spaces, tags, devices, and storage. All AI features.
Enterprise
Team collaboration, admin controls. Custom pricing.
Free
30-day trial of Readwise Full (includes Reader). No card required.
Readwise (Full)
$9.99/mo billed annually or $12.99/mo monthly. Includes Reader, highlights sync, and export to Notion/Obsidian.
Both tools do their category well, but the specifics differ. Here's what each one is good at and where it tends to fall short.
Evernote is the grandfather of note-taking apps and the inventor of the modern Web Clipper. After Bending Spoons acquired it in 2022, the product was rebuilt, repriced, and refocused on a more AI-forward direction. The current plans are Free (50 notes total), Starter ($8.25/mo or $99/yr), Advanced ($14.17/mo or $249.99/yr), and Enterprise. Advanced includes the full AI suite: AI Transcribe, AI Rewrite, AI Text-to-Speech, AI Meeting Notes, AI Diagrams, and AI Detector. The Web Clipper still saves full page context (not just links) and is the feature that pulls read-later workflows into Evernote's orbit.
Readwise Reader is the reading companion to Readwise's highlight sync service. It handles articles, PDFs, EPUBs, emails, tweets, and YouTube transcripts in one inbox, with a Ghostreader AI copilot for summaries, definitions, and Q&A. Highlights sync to Notion, Obsidian, Logseq, Roam, Evernote, and Airtable. It ships as web, iOS, Android, and browser extensions, with a public REST API for scripting. Pricing is $9.99/mo billed annually (or $12.99/mo monthly) as part of the Readwise Full plan, which includes the highlight sync service. A 30-day free trial is available.