This is almost exactly why a few weeks ago when I finally decided to look for a way to start mangling my mess of random things I jot down while working, or browsing the web, etc... Gave Evernote a look, because I had heard it was "the best note taking app", and was almost immediately unimpressed. Browsing through the site, and playing with the free version, I hardly found any of the features offered by the paid versions better than what I already had with my unorganized "note taking" process (essentially tons of notes in OS X's Notes app, various text files here and there, and plenty of forgotten to-do lists & kanban boards).
I was actually pretty blown away people are paying for the features Evernote offers, the only advantage from my disorganized workflow (aside from it being a little more organized) is looked prettier (albeit no dark mode kinda killed that too).
I just wanted something that was a bit more tailored to how my normal workflow, something a little closer to just using my text editor like when I'm programming. Something that supported Markdown, syntax highlighting, organizing into folders, tagging, and preferably with a dark theme (I won't stop using something if there isn't one, I'll just try to find an alternative with one if possible). Had Evernote offered these features, or a package with these features, that are a little more tailored to how I work, I probably would've bit the bullet and got a subscription.
Fortunately, thanks to some kind commenter here actually, a few weeks ago I found Boostnote[1]. And it was exactly what I was looking for, and didn't find in Evernote. First class markdown support, dark theme(s), syntax highlighting, the ability to setup cloud storage for syncing across devices, and it's even free and open source! But, that's not even the best feature (for me at least), Boostnote supports VIM keybindings! And honestly, that's one of the biggest reasons I never got around to getting one of these notetaking apps, because of the lack of VIM keys it's so jarring to break from my normal workflow where my editor is either vim or is using the keybindings, I used the vim Chrome/FF extensions, but until now I couldn't try to take notes without slamming esc a bunch and sighing because I just typed "kjkkkkhlkjlkjh" for the millionth time.
If you're a developer looking for an Evernote alternative, definitely give Boostnote a look. It fit right into my workflow instantly, no bugs, no ads, no bullshit, and it's got all the features you would get with Evernote, but with a touch of specialization for developers. If it weren't FOSS, I hands down would've almost immediately bought it/subscribed, because it literally had everything that I wanted out of Evernote. And, now I get that devs aren't the general public, and the basic note taking functionality
will likely be just fine for most. But, at first glance, I don't see a single thing it does in the free tier, or the first paid tier, that you couldn't accomplish with OSX's Notes & Preview app, so I don't see how offering just the most basic note taking feature set is a sustainable business model when so many free (and often even builtin) apps do exactly the same thing. It certainly wouldn't hurt for them to start offering something unique, more specialized, like one of your examples Bullet Journaling. I'm only semi-familiar with it, and have been meaning to look into more, however one of the reasons I haven't was I wasn't able to find the "Evernote of Bullet Journals" online. And for people like School Teachers, if they built out some functionality specific for them, like a first-class lesson planner, alongside their normal notes, and an idea board, etc... I'm sure teachers would flock to it (if it didn't suck that is), I know my mother would love a nice looking, easy to use app, that she can take notes, work out lessons plans throughout the day, and keep her to-do lists all in one place.
Unfortunately, given the OP, I'm not anticipating that Evernote is going to be jumping on building out specialized feature sets anytime soon.
Edit: I did just log into my Evernote account that was linked to an old gmail, and was able to stumble upon some notes I apparently "tried" taking during university, one of which is titled "Thread Safety" and it's contents are "It’s good to keep your threads safe." Maybe it's not Evernote I'm not a fan of, it could just be I'm just not a fan of taking coherent/useful notes.
> Fortunately, thanks to some kind commenter here actually, a few weeks ago I found Boostnote
And you've been that kind commenter today for me. Boostnote is the first suggestion here that actually seems feasible for me, properly cross-platform, the UI seems very well done, lots of customizations, and (if I understand correctly) plain Markdown storage, not yet another obscure unnecessary format that's unreadable without the app. I've been using Simplenote after Evernote started being too bulky and unreliable, but Simplenote is not quite polished and doesn't seem to be getting any love. I'll give this a try, it'll be really good if this pans out. Thanks!
For the reference of anyone reading this: unfortunately, it looks like Boostnote's mobile applications are currently "on hold", because they're known to be buggy and unreliable, and the old maintainer has left the project. That is a pretty major issue for me, though (hopefully) only temporary.
(Another issue is that it's not really "highly customizable" once you get into it - even though "customizable" is a proud part of their tagline - but at least that doesn't seem to be intentional, just some messy disconnected design of the Preferences page, according to an Issue comment on github.)
I was actually pretty blown away people are paying for the features Evernote offers, the only advantage from my disorganized workflow (aside from it being a little more organized) is looked prettier (albeit no dark mode kinda killed that too).
I just wanted something that was a bit more tailored to how my normal workflow, something a little closer to just using my text editor like when I'm programming. Something that supported Markdown, syntax highlighting, organizing into folders, tagging, and preferably with a dark theme (I won't stop using something if there isn't one, I'll just try to find an alternative with one if possible). Had Evernote offered these features, or a package with these features, that are a little more tailored to how I work, I probably would've bit the bullet and got a subscription.
Fortunately, thanks to some kind commenter here actually, a few weeks ago I found Boostnote[1]. And it was exactly what I was looking for, and didn't find in Evernote. First class markdown support, dark theme(s), syntax highlighting, the ability to setup cloud storage for syncing across devices, and it's even free and open source! But, that's not even the best feature (for me at least), Boostnote supports VIM keybindings! And honestly, that's one of the biggest reasons I never got around to getting one of these notetaking apps, because of the lack of VIM keys it's so jarring to break from my normal workflow where my editor is either vim or is using the keybindings, I used the vim Chrome/FF extensions, but until now I couldn't try to take notes without slamming esc a bunch and sighing because I just typed "kjkkkkhlkjlkjh" for the millionth time.
If you're a developer looking for an Evernote alternative, definitely give Boostnote a look. It fit right into my workflow instantly, no bugs, no ads, no bullshit, and it's got all the features you would get with Evernote, but with a touch of specialization for developers. If it weren't FOSS, I hands down would've almost immediately bought it/subscribed, because it literally had everything that I wanted out of Evernote. And, now I get that devs aren't the general public, and the basic note taking functionality will likely be just fine for most. But, at first glance, I don't see a single thing it does in the free tier, or the first paid tier, that you couldn't accomplish with OSX's Notes & Preview app, so I don't see how offering just the most basic note taking feature set is a sustainable business model when so many free (and often even builtin) apps do exactly the same thing. It certainly wouldn't hurt for them to start offering something unique, more specialized, like one of your examples Bullet Journaling. I'm only semi-familiar with it, and have been meaning to look into more, however one of the reasons I haven't was I wasn't able to find the "Evernote of Bullet Journals" online. And for people like School Teachers, if they built out some functionality specific for them, like a first-class lesson planner, alongside their normal notes, and an idea board, etc... I'm sure teachers would flock to it (if it didn't suck that is), I know my mother would love a nice looking, easy to use app, that she can take notes, work out lessons plans throughout the day, and keep her to-do lists all in one place.
Unfortunately, given the OP, I'm not anticipating that Evernote is going to be jumping on building out specialized feature sets anytime soon.
[1] https://boostnote.io/
Edit: I did just log into my Evernote account that was linked to an old gmail, and was able to stumble upon some notes I apparently "tried" taking during university, one of which is titled "Thread Safety" and it's contents are "It’s good to keep your threads safe." Maybe it's not Evernote I'm not a fan of, it could just be I'm just not a fan of taking coherent/useful notes.