An Evernote alternative for iPhone

Evernote taught a generation to "remember everything". Reteum keeps that promise for the iPhone, without notebooks to manage, an account to make or a server that holds your notes.

Why people look for an Evernote alternative

Evernote is a capable, cross-platform notes service, with notebooks, tags, a web clipper and search inside images and PDFs. Many long-time users have moved on as plans and limits changed, or simply because years of notes became a pile that is hard to look through. If most of your notes start on your phone, a lighter tool can serve you better.

What Reteum does differently

• One box, no notebooks. Type a line, speak, or add photos, videos, links and PDFs. Nothing to file or tag.
• Search by meaning. An AI model on your iPhone finds a note from half a memory: "Seattle last month", "the lease", "nervous before speaking". The words inside PDFs count, and photos and videos are found by what they show.
• Sorted for you. The Atlas groups everything into subjects on its own and links the notes that belong together.
• Old notes come back. Up to three older notes return each time you open the app. Keep the ones that matter and clear the rest, so the pile never grows out of hand.
• Private. No account and no Reteum server. The AI runs on the phone, and iCloud sync, if you turn it on, is end-to-end encrypted so only your devices can read it.
• Portable. Export everything as one zip file with a Markdown copy you can open anywhere.

When to stay with Evernote

If you need notes on Windows, Android or the web, share notebooks with a team, or clip whole web pages for reading, Evernote does those things and Reteum does not. Reteum is for iPhone, and it is built for catching things quickly and finding them again.

Price

Reteum is $24.99 a year after a 7-day free trial, sold and managed by Apple. Without a subscription you can still read your notes, open the Atlas and export. See also a second brain that organizes itself and what to do about too many notes.

Compared in October 2026. Evernote is a trademark of its owner. Reteum is not affiliated with Evernote.

See how Reteum works For iPhone with iOS 26 · 7 days free