My personal system relies heavily on Evernote. When I first heard of Springpad, my heart dropped. At first glance, they seem to be very similar services. However, as I play around more with Springpad, they are different but not necessarily complimentary services. First, both Evernote and Springpad requires an input point. They all use mobile devices to snap pictures, upload ideas and notes. If you plan on using both systems, you’ll have to enter data twice. As of now, there’s no integration points.
Below is an example of my Springpad. The “All My Stuff” notebook contains everything. There’s a “Friends Stuff” notebook for sharing things. Finally, I created two notebooks to test the service.
From a notebook, you can do three things:
- Add  a Note
- Add a Task
- Look it up
In the notebook, it looks like a typical notebook style page with filters and search.
This is where Springpad differs from Evernote. Springpad is designed to be your personal assistant. As you input notes, documents, images, information, Springpad scans it, and develops updates customized to your data. They’re looking for good deals, price drops, news, useful links, etc. It also can integrate with your Google calendar and update your data as well. I haven’t put enough data into Springpad to see these types of results yet so I can vouch on the quality of the recommendations. Evernote seems to be a better document management system and designed to store your documents.
I don’t think I’ll be able to do a full blown comparison of Springpad vs Evernote (Google it). Instead, I’m going to keep trying it out, duel entry some info and see which product provides. In the end, I think I’ll need to commit to just one service.
Daniel – Thanks for this post. When Springpad updated – we messed around with it for a day and didn't really see the benefit. What you're saying about recommendations is interesting. Would love to get an update after your trial. After Evenote failed on us (http://digipim.com/blog/pim/evernotes-mess/) – we decided to program our own. Thought Springpad came close but still missing something. But your insight is definitely causing some new convo's over here.
I use Evernote almost exclusively as a document management system, scanning and uploading paper documents. I like the ability to OCR and search PDF scans. My understanding is that Springpad pulls all the event reminders, dates, etc. and produces a one stop shop report.
What I find missing is the document management piece from Evernote. So I'm currently sending my documents to Evernote and ideas/scribbles to Springpad.