I've long espoused the beauty and simplicity of Evernote. Having been a heavy user for 8 years I've accumulated almost a decade's worth (over 2100) of notes, receipts, PDFs, links, screenshots, etc. all happily syncing among multiple devices and easily searchable from anywhere.

The last year or so though the apps have become increasingly bloated with new features added and removed regularly, increased sync times and generally poor performance issues across the entire platform.

About 6 months ago I began worrying about the future of Evernote. After a shakeup at CEO, massive layoffs, not living up to it's previous funding goals and the above mentioned decline in quality it didn't seem the company was long for this world. I slowly began exporting all of my written notes to plain text files, downloaded all of my receipts and PDFs to a structured file system on Dropbox and saved the links that were worth keeping to Pinboard. I didn't stop using the service, but I prepared myself for the worst: complete migration.

First and foremost, I don't begrudge software companies for trying to make a living and have no problems paying for a service I use many times daily. It's only when an increase in price is concurrent with a decrease in service I have to cry foul.

I'm not sure which direction I'm going to go in yet. I like the portability and long term storage of plain text, but the ability to add images and attachments was what first drew me to Evernote. Apple Notes looks like my best bet, but being forced to use a Windows PC at work means having to log in to the dreadful iCloud.com interface. Microsoft One Note has similar functionality and is cross platform, but I've been a Mac user so long that anything MS still makes my skin crawl. Luckily there are enough options I can give them all a go and see what sticks.

I'd hoped I could stay with Evernote, but I'm not going to pay more for something that only seems to be getting worse.