Evernote → Google Drive: I Tried the 3 Main Migration Routes So You Don't Have To

Once you’ve decided to move your Evernote notes to Google Drive, you have three realistic routes: a sync service, manual conversion, or a dedicated migration tool. I tried all three before moving my 1,640 notes. Here’s the honest comparison — including the option I ended up building myself, so calibrate for bias accordingly.

The criteria that matter

After the false starts, four questions turned out to decide everything:

1. Do notes become editable Google Docs — or dead HTML files in a folder?
2. Is pricing sane for what is fundamentally a one-time job?
3. Does it survive large accounts (silent failures, interruptions, memory)?
4. Do attachments — PDFs, images, audio memos — arrive intact and organized?

Route 1: Sync services (cloudHQ)

cloudHQ continuously syncs Evernote to Google Drive. Setup is easy and it does move your notes.

The problems: notes arrive as HTML files, not Google Docs — you can store them but not edit them, and Drive’s search indexes them poorly. And the pricing is subscription-based (~$49/month) for what you need exactly once. Continuous sync is the wrong shape for a migration: you’re not building a bridge to Evernote, you’re leaving it.

Verdict: fine for ongoing backup of an account you’re keeping. Wrong tool for an exit.

Route 2: Manual (HTML export + Google Docs import)

The free route: export from Evernote as HTML, then upload each note through Google Docs’ importer.

It works, and for under ~100 notes I’d genuinely recommend it — no tools, no cost. The conversion quality is decent for text and tables.

At scale it collapses: roughly a minute per note (1,000 notes ≈ 17 hours of clicking), attachments must be re-uploaded and re-linked by hand, notebook structure rebuilt folder by folder, and there’s no resume — your browser tab is the process state.

Verdict: right answer for small accounts, a trap for big ones.

Route 3: Dedicated migration tool

This category barely existed — which is why, facing 27 hours of Route 2, I built one: Evernote Migration Tool (macOS). Full disclosure again: what follows is the maker describing his own product.

What it does, mapped to the four criteria:

1. Real Google Docs — formatting preserved (tables, checklists), editable anywhere. To my knowledge no other tool converts to native Docs.
2. One-time $19.99 — it’s a migration, not a subscription. Free tier migrates 20 notes first so you judge output quality before paying.
3. Built for scale — HTML-export based (no ENEX silent failures), resumable after any interruption, memory-bounded parsing, multi-account switching when a Drive fills up.
4. Attachments handled — kept beside their notes in YYYY-MM-DD_title folders; audio memos get their stripped extensions restored by magic-byte detection.

Limits, honestly: macOS only (Apple Silicon + Intel builds), and Evernote’s internal note-to-note links don’t survive as clickable links — true of every route here, but worth knowing.

→ Evernote Migration Tool on Gumroad

Decision table

Your situation	Take
< 100 notes	Manual route. Free, an afternoon.
Keeping Evernote, want a mirror	cloudHQ-style sync
100s–1000s of notes, leaving for good	Dedicated tool
Windows/Linux	Manual route (batched), for now

Whichever route: export as HTML (not ENEX), count your notes before and after, and spot-check ten random notes at the destination. The route determines your afternoon; those three habits determine whether everything actually arrived.