Much consternation on the interwebs about Evernote's new pricing policy that limits the free version to only two devices. Frankly, I think the reaction is a bit ridiculous. If you want the service to continue to be available, you have got to be willing to pay for it. Evernote is a critical part of my workflow and therefore I think it important to pay for the service to do my part to keep the service in existence. Why should you be entitled to a free service? 

Some, like Paul Thurrott, will suggest Evernote users switch to OneNote, which is free. Frankly, I am skeptical that if a lot of users switched to OneNote that it will continue to be free. The changes made with OneDrive come to mind. 

I use OneNote and Evernote. In fact, I have been using OneNote more now that I have a Surface 3. The two apps have different UI approaches, and I personally find OneNote's mobile UIs less appealing than Evernote's. Evernote's tagging and search functions are in my opinion easier and more powerful to use.

Microsoft does provide a free tool to import notes from Evernote to OneNote, and I have considered using it to make a backup copy of my Evernote data. My fear, however, is that the import process will not work for me due to the amount of data I have and how much encryption I use in notes. 

One alternative to Evernote that I have been keeping my eye on is an app called Turtl because it by default encrypts its entire note database. The app is still in development and in beta and the developer has indicated plans to provide a premium service to cover its hosting costs. One benefit, however, is that there is a way to host your own Turtl server, which provides you complete control of your data but also adds responsibility to maintain that server and any backups.

If a service is not important to you, meaning that if it went away or your data was lost that would not be a big deal, then I see no problem using it for free. However, in my opinion, making a decision based on a service being free or not is the wrong approach if the service is important to you. Instead, you should determine the impact of losing your data and the features and functionality you want, and then consider what is a fair price of balancing that risk and value.