Notion Evaluate – The Good and Unhealthy for 2023


Through the years, we’ve tried nearly each mission administration answer on the market. From Trello and Asana to ClickUp, Coda, Notion, and Airtable, we’ve managed our work at one time or one other in all of them. Whereas Notion is a superb instrument, there are dozens of others on the market, every with its personal quirks.

For those who’re questioning if Notion’s well worth the hype, you’re in the precise place. On this overview, we’ll cowl what it’s good at, the place it might enhance, and which plan it’s best to select—all primarily based on our hands-on expertise.

Notion logo for Crazy Egg Notion review.

Notion In comparison with the Greatest Challenge Administration Software program

Challenge administration software program is barely pretty much as good as its potential to suit your model of labor. Our objective isn’t to inform you which possibility is the most effective of the most effective, however as an alternative that will help you discover one which syncs with the way you already work. As such, it’s necessary to have a look at all your choices. A couple of of our favourite options to Notion embody:

Monday.com is much like Notion when it comes to flexibility and customization, however comes with extra visualizations, superior automations, and mission administration options. Get your first 30 days free.

ClickUp is a standard mission administration instrument that’s straightforward to get began with and centered on fostering collaboration amongst dispersed groups. Strive it free and improve to a paid plan whenever you’re prepared.

Smartsheet delivers superior work administration, automation, and no-code capabilities to construct streamlined methods throughout what you are promoting. Snag a free trial of any Smarthsheet plan.

Need to see extra choices? Try our full record of the finest mission administration software program to study extra about our favourite instruments, how we used them, and the standout qualities of every one. It’s also possible to take a look at our head-to-head comparisons of Notion vs. Monday, Airtable vs Notion, or Notion vs Asana to see how Notion stacks as much as its greatest opponents.

Because you’re nonetheless right here, let’s get straight into the overview.

Notion: The Good and the Unhealthy

Notion is customizable and insanely highly effective if you happen to’re keen to place within the time to study and configure it to match your workflows. Nevertheless, that energy and suppleness doesn’t come with out it’s downsides—it may be exhausting to get began and the platform can really feel disorganized and messy till you get it good.

We’ve used it to trace initiatives prior to now and we organized all of our analysis for this overview (plus wrote the whole draft in Notion) to assist us perceive extra about its execs and cons for enterprise customers.

Wiki page creation from Notion platform.

What Notion Is Good At

Versatile functionality: With Notion, you may consolidate the swarm of instruments you at present use into one versatile platform. Now not do you want separate options for activity administration, note-taking, documentation, and content material creation. Notion replaces all of those and combines them right into a tailor-made workspace.

Say you run a advertising and marketing company and also you juggle a number of shoppers and campaigns without delay. Notion may be your central hub to supervise all these initiatives in a single place. Create separate pages for every consumer to retailer particulars like aims, timelines, and key paperwork. Inside every consumer web page, construct activity lists, calendars, and content material libraries to maintain everybody on monitor and knowledgeable. And, with limitless storage and content material blocks on most plans, you could have the liberty so as to add extra data and options to your workspace with out constraints.

Content calendar with various hidden groups.

Asynchronous collaboration: Contained in the Notion platform, you and your staff can work collectively in real-time or by yourself time. You could have one place to retailer the whole lot from paperwork and spreadsheets to duties, notebooks, and mission boards. All of your staff’s data is centralized, making it straightforward for everybody to seek out what they want every time they want it. Updates occur in real-time, so that you’ll all the time be in sync with the newest adjustments.

Notion’s versatile infrastructure means you may assign house owners and collaborators to any web page or block of data. Crew members can work when it fits them, however progress will probably be seen to everybody immediately.  You possibly can monitor each change and customers can touch upon something to supply suggestions, ask questions, or transfer the dialogue alongside. Customizable notifications make sure that no replace, point out, or remark goes unseen, eliminating the necessity to chase down colleagues for solutions or enter.

Plus, it integrates with instruments you already use, like Slack and Google Calendar, for seamless communication and coordination throughout platforms. Notion provides you the most effective of each worlds—a shared workspace the place your staff can work collectively every time and nevertheless they need.

Tasks organized by due date and priority level.

Relational databases: Notion provides companies a simple but highly effective solution to join and handle data. You don’t want a level in laptop science to construct databases that serve up customized views of your knowledge. Create wealthy, multifaceted interfaces that carry collectively all varieties of content material—textual content, pictures, recordsdata, shoppers, initiatives, no matter you need—into one place.

Say you wish to hyperlink your mission administration duties to key shoppers and recordsdata. In Notion, it’s a breeze. Join your duties database to your consumer and file databases with a number of clicks. Now you could have a holistic view of the whole lot for every mission. Must see all of the duties due this week for Shopper X? Filter for that consumer and date vary. Questioning if you happen to’re nonetheless ready on suggestions for Process Y? Test the relation to see if the file has been uploaded but. With roll-ups, you may even show complete activity counts for every consumer or mission.

The chances are huge. Arrange a content material calendar that connects to weblog publish manufacturing, social media updates, and the imagery or recordsdata related to every. Construct an worker database that hyperlinks to particular person duties, objectives, schedules, and extra. Sync your Notion databases to exterior instruments like Asana, Jira, or GitHub for automated two-way updating. The intuitive interface means you may visualize and handle advanced knowledge in no matter method is sensible to your wants.

Whereas Notion received’t exchange a full-scale database answer, its easy but highly effective solution to construct relational databases make it the proper platform for anybody trying to set up data in a versatile, user-friendly method.

All stories view in Notion showing a list of Coverage and Press Contacts.

Every part’s a web page: This idea is the key behind Notion’s unparalleled flexibility. A web page in Notion may be as simple as a doc with some textual content and pictures. Nevertheless it can be a doorway to a completely interconnected wiki or a database housing duties, occasions, contacts, and extra. Every web page is a clean canvas so that you can customise as wanted.

Need to preserve all mission particulars in a single house? Make a major mission web page and nest subpages for duties, conferences, recordsdata, and sources beneath it. Want an data base? Begin a major wiki web page and hyperlink out to subject pages from there. Utilizing a database? Each entry within the database will get its personal web page the place you may add further fields, embed recordsdata, or create nested pages.

The “the whole lot’s a web page” philosophy permits you to construct a digital workspace tailor-made to your wants. You possibly can join and organize pages in no matter method is sensible and use templates to swiftly create pages for assembly notes, mission plans, or different widespread actions. The facility is available in how simply you may hyperlink pages collectively right into a cohesive, navigable complete.

Screenshot showing how you can link pages in Notion with an example of a press contact page.

50+ block varieties: Blocks in Notion function distinctive components inside a web page, serving to you construct out pages that may do an entire lot greater than retailer content material. Notion comes with over 50 completely different block varieties you could place wherever with a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Need to embed a Google Map visualization or a social media publish? Drop in an Embed block. Operating equations and computations? Deploy the Math block and Notion’s LaTeX syntax. AI blocks, buttons that set off automations, synced blocks that replace in every single place—with a fast slash command, you may implement it right into a web page. Whether or not your wants are simple or advanced, the number of responsive and embeddable blocks enables you to construct customized options to perform any objective.

Getting started informational page with Toggle Lists and Callout Blocks.

Granular sharing permissions: Notion provides companies full management over sharing their workspaces, pages and content material. With customizable permissions, you’re in full management of who sees what. Create permission teams to mechanically present the precise stage of entry to sure staff members—all it’s a must to do is add somebody to a gaggle they usually’ll have entry to precisely what you’d desire. It’s also possible to invite visitors and outdoors collaborators to particular pages with out sharing your complete workspace.

On Notion’s Enterprise plan, admins have superior controls like overriding settings for sure teams, limiting web page sharing, disabling visitors for choose pages, or making use of guidelines throughout the whole workspace. They’ll additionally designate particular admin customers who could make adjustments however not view billing particulars. Your staff’s digital workspace may be an open e-book, locked down tight, or something in between. The permissions are in your fingers.

Screenshot showing how to edit permissions in Notion.

Notion AI: Notion’s synthetic intelligence-powered options can take your productiveness to the following stage. There’s a free trial interval so you may do that paid add-on (an additional $8 to $10 per consumer monthly) earlier than upgrading. Needless to say this add-on applies to everybody in your plan, not simply the customers you choose. Whereas it’s cheaper than another AI writing assistants on the market, it may get expensive you probably have a number of customers.

Notion’s AI may also help automate thought-intensive, repetitive duties like assembly summaries, evaluation of analysis, and brainstorming subsequent steps. It could possibly additionally act as a private editor to enhance your writing in only a few seconds by fixing grammar and reorganizing your ideas. It could possibly even clarify a technical idea in easy phrases or change the tone of your writing from optimistic to cautious with the clicking of a button.

Caught dealing with a clean web page? Notion AI supplies weblog publish matters and different prompts to get your creativity flowing. It would even proceed writing for you when you’ve gotten began. The chances are infinite, from asking questions on doc content material to translating textual content, itemizing execs and cons, and extra.

Whereas Notion AI turbocharges productiveness, it does have its limits. It received’t write full weblog posts or memos from scratch—quite than making one thing out of nothing, it’s meant to boost and assist human considering, not exchange it.

Screenshot showing how to add code blocks to Notion.

What Notion Is Missing

Out-of-the-box readiness: Navigating the maze of Notion’s choices can really feel overwhelming, time consuming, and annoying if you happen to’re on the lookout for a hit-the-ground-running form of answer. Its customizability can depart customers not sure of the place or tips on how to begin.

To get essentially the most out of Notion, you’ll want to take a position time considering by tips on how to finest construction workspaces, pages, initiatives, duties, and tables to your staff. And understanding Notion’s superior options like relational databases entails a steep studying curve that not everybody needs to decide to climbing.

It took us weeks of constructing, testing, and tweaking to get issues proper for us. However, as a result of Notion is so versatile, there’s additionally no consensus on the “proper” method to make use of it. Notion presents templates to get you began, however in the end you’re by yourself to determine what works for you. For those who’re keen to take a position the time to actually make Notion your individual, it may be a strong instrument for enhancing productiveness, collaboration, and office group.  

Blank page for a new teamspace in Notion.

Straightforward textual content formatting: While you first begin utilizing Notion, constructing paperwork and formatting content material could really feel unfamiliar in comparison with instruments like Google Docs. Lists, particularly, work in another way in Notion and may be irritating till you’ve mastered the nuances. Determining tips on how to change between numbered lists and bullets, add and rearrange gadgets, and format lists the best way you need requires persistence and observe.

Pasting content material into Notion from different sources typically doesn’t translate properly and can lead to points like further areas, undefined bullet factors, and misplaced formatting. Notion follows its personal algorithm for bringing in and displaying content material, so that you’ll typically have to scrub up pasted textual content. That being mentioned, Notion presents some components of customization not present in conventional doc instruments, like layouts with as much as 5 columns and the flexibility to embed something.

Docs screen in Notion with 4 docs shown.

Key mission administration options: Notion presents strong mission administration capabilities, however is lacking a number of nice-to-have options present in different instruments. Notion lacks built-in time monitoring instruments, although you may add time manually utilizing customized fields. Notion doesn’t present the timers and time capturing different instruments supply.

Notion additionally doesn’t have Gantt charts for mapping advanced initiatives with dependencies and milestones. Surprisingly, there’s additionally no straightforward solution to create charts and graphs out of your knowledge. To research productiveness, workload, or different metrics, you’ll need to export knowledge or pay for an add-on service. For some, Notion’s lacking reviews received’t matter, however data-driven groups might want higher built-in reporting.

Final, the software program can also be lacking built-in staff chat that so many different PM platforms ship. You possibly can touch upon duties and initiatives, however Notion isn’t meant to switch chat apps like Slack. Notion’s Slack integration helps fill this hole to an extent, thankfully.

Kanban view of tasks with three different statuses.

Suitability for big databases: Whereas Notion presents helpful database options and instruments for small-scale group and easy data administration, it isn’t meant to switch full-fledged database instruments. It has important limitations for big, advanced knowledge units or intense calculations.

For instance, pasting in massive quantities of knowledge to a Notion database typically causes the app to crash or freeze. In our expertise, including round 1,000 rows of data or extra overwhelmed Notion, forcing us to shut the app and begin over. Notion’s efficiency additionally suffers as your databases develop greater otherwise you add extra superior formulation. At a sure level, it merely can’t sustain.

Notion additionally fails to supply knowledge visualization choices for interactive evaluation or reporting. You could have entry solely to uncooked numbers, textual content, and primary sorting. To visualise knowledge in charts, graphs, or dashboards, you’ll have to export Notion data to different instruments.

Notion Plans and Pricing

Notion doesn’t have completely different merchandise, but it surely does have 4 completely different plans and a separate AI add-on. These plans embody:

  • Free – limitless for solo customers and a usage-based free trial for groups
  • Plus – $8 to $10 per consumer monthly for small, scrappy groups
  • Enterprise – $15 to $18 per consumer monthly to be used throughout a number of features
  • Enterprise – customized pricing
Four pricing plans from Notion including Free, Plus, Business, and Enterprise.

From a excessive stage, Notion is comparatively inexpensive in comparison with most different mission administration instruments available on the market. Now, let’s discover every plan, what you are able to do with them, and who ought to use which one.

Free

Notion’s free plan presents people and small groups a recent strategy to organizing work. With limitless blocks, you could have the flexibleness to construct any web page for any goal. Though if two or extra of you collaborate, you may solely take a look at out completely different blocks quickly.

A shared workspace brings your staff collectively to work on paperwork, initiatives, or no matter is necessary to your staff. And, by integrating with instruments like Slack and GitHub that you just already use, Notion ensures a seamless expertise. Few different PM platforms supply integrations on their free-forever plans.

Notion’s free plan additionally provides you seven-day web page historical past so you may overview adjustments or revert again if wanted. You possibly can invite as much as 10 visitors to collaborate in your workspace. For file uploads, the restrict is 5 MB per file. Synced databases are supported with 100 rows per database.

Whereas the free plan has restrictions, it provides people and small groups greater than sufficient to assist how you’re employed. Notion’s free plan presents a easy solution to entry a better house to jot down, plan, and get issues finished.

Plus

Notion’s Plus plan, previously the Crew plan, provides small teams and groups entry to the software program with fewer limitations. For $8 to $10 per consumer monthly, you get limitless content material blocks, storage, and performance to handle initiatives and day by day duties.

With limitless blocks, you could have the flexibleness to construct any web page for any goal with out restriction. And by lifting the file add restrict, you may add content material or belongings of any dimension to carry your concepts to life. Notion extends the web page historical past to 30 days so you may overview and restore earlier variations as wanted. You’re additionally in a position to invite as much as 100 visitors to collaborate in your workspace.

The Plus plan is the most affordable to supply entry to limitless synced databases from instruments like Jira, GitHub, and Asana. You’re additionally in a position to export your complete workspace as HTML, Markdown, or CSV recordsdata, providing you with extra methods to make use of and share content material along with your staff.

The Plus plan maintains the identical integrations, workspace, and web page analytics because the Free plan however with better capability and performance for groups. With extra visitors, limitless blocks and recordsdata, prolonged web page historical past, and exported workspaces, the Plus plan supplies groups a complete answer to streamline how they work collectively.

In case your small group or staff has outgrown the restrictions of Notion’s Free plan, the Plus tier presents superior capabilities to raised plan, set up, and handle the work you do every single day.

Enterprise

Notion’s Enterprise is a superb selection for bigger firms on the lookout for an intuitive solution to carry a number of groups and instruments collectively into one platform with out sacrificing safety for $15 to $18 per consumer monthly.

With SAML single sign-on, your staff will get safe and simplified entry to Notion. Personal teamspaces provide you with higher management over workspace and knowledge entry.

Notion extends saved web page historical past to 90 days so you could have ample time to overview variations and rewind to outdated ones. You’re in a position to invite as much as 250 visitors to collaborate in your workspace. And with superior web page analytics, you acquire detailed insights into how your staff interacts with and views the content material in your Notion workspaces.

Enterprise

Notion Enterprise is the answer for bigger companies that demand extra. Get strong customization, tight safety controls, and devoted assist to construct a hub that’s able to centralizing the whole lot.

This prime tier enables you to tailor practically each function to match your wants. Set customized limits for visitors, create as many workspaces as you’d like, and revel in limitless doc historical past so that you by no means have to fret about outgrowing the plan or shedding entry to stuff you may want later.

By way of safety, you get detailed audit logs that supply unparalleled oversight into each exercise taking place on the platform. The Enterprise plan additionally comes with extra granular permission controls to maintain the whole lot safe, plus an admin search function that makes it straightforward to make sure everybody has the precise entry—or repair it in the event that they don’t.

You possibly can even automate consumer provisioning to reduce threat of human error whereas getting new staff members in control as quick as potential.

For firms needing over 100 seats, a devoted success supervisor may also help you get arrange, be sure that the whole lot’s configured in the easiest way potential, and assist information you thru new options so that you’re all the time forward of upcoming adjustments.

Last Ideas

Notion is a dynamic digital workspace and collaboration answer for groups keen to place within the work to construct it out for his or her wants. It takes time to get it proper, however whenever you do, you’ll marvel the way you ever labored with out it.

Nevertheless, options like Monday.com, ClickUp, or Smartsheet could be higher for you if you need extra superior mission administration options, visualizations and charts, or extra highly effective automations.



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