Notion isn't a proper project management tool, so if you're looking for that, the clear winner is Motion.
The most common outreach we get is actually from teams who have tried using Notion as their all-in-one tool (covering project/task management), and in every single case, they are overwhelmed and struggling with team adoption.
Notion is a team knowledge base, not a project management tool.
Don't let Notion's marketing and template community convince you otherwise—believe us, we understand the temptation.
We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
If you're wondering what is the difference between Motion and Notion then you're likely looking at it from the project management standpoint, since Motion is actually quite different from Notion (which was initially created as a team knowledge base).
That said, since Notion has recently started advertising itself as having full project management capabilities, people have started looking into if the claim holds water.
So while both Motion and Notion technically provide task management and project management capabilities, Notion is not proper project management software. After reading this article, you will know exactly which tool better suits your needs! ⤵
The main difference between Motion and Notion is that Motion is for individuals and teams who are looking for more of an "assistant" to help manage their time. It's a full blown project manager with AI capabilities, that automatically re-arranges your tasks on your calendar based on priority and schedule. Didn't complete a task? No worries! Motion will automatically reschedule missed tasks for you during your next available timeslot.
Start your 7 day free trial of Motion here.
Notion on the other hand is becoming more and more an all-in-one tool which is first-and-foremost a note taking and team knowledge base tool, but since it has an unstructured database functionality baked in like that of Airtable vs Notion, it often gets used for more than what it was initially built for.
The truth of the matter is if you're deep into the world of Notion for internal documentation and note taking (like many are), and you're thinking about expanding it to managing your team's tasks as well, we'd recommend you instead use the Motion API (or Motion Zapier integration) and integrate Notion with Motion if absolutely critical. Or rather, ask yourself if your project management tool really needs to be that deeply integrated with Notion at all.
Start your free trial of Notion here.
You're probably getting a sense of where these two tools stack up, so let's get into standalone categories to explore how they stack up with one another. ⤵
Winner: Motion
When looking at Motion vs Notion solely from the best project management software standpoint, they are night-and-day differences. Motion was built from the ground-up as task and project management tool that has deep integration with your calendar, time blocking capabilities, and AI scheduling functionality.
With Motion, you can manage full-fledged projects that are months in duration with a series of sub-tasks. You can assign tasks to different team members and indicate if there are blockers in the way of task completion and so forth. If you have large projects that you like to schedule way in advance, Motion would definitely be a better fit for you.
Start your 7 day free trial of Motion here.
If it's a smaller task or project, simply set the priority, duration, and any dependencies, and watch it build the perfect schedule for you and your team to ensure all of your work is done at the most optimal time. It's the closest thing we've seen to an AI assistant. Miss your work for the day? It's all rescheduled to tomorrow, don't even need to lift a finger.
Notion on the other hand, just because it has an underlying database structure and templating functionality, does not give it any of the innovative functionality that Motion brings with it. When using Notion, it very much feels like you're using a note taking app to manage tasks and projects.
So while it may be nice to have one of the most powerful note taking tools on the market live alongside your projects, you're going to feel frustrated in the day-to-day scheduling your tasks in Notion, and lose out on the knowledge that is gained by having such deep calendar integration and time blocking capabilities, like that of a proper project management tool like Motion.
The truth of the matter is that we find ourselves constantly scratching our heads when we see people try to use Notion as a project manager. Maybe if you're the only one using it? But even then, just because you can, should you? We'd say no.
Start your 7 day free trial of Motion here.
Winner: Notion
Motion is not trying to be your team knowledge management tool, they are clearly focused on the project management functionality more than anything. So while it has note taking and documentation functionality within projects and tasks (similar to that of Motion vs Asana), they aren't trying to be a team knowledge base, whereas Notion is (and we actually believe that this is where Notion specifically excels).
So if team notes is important to you, you're going to want to pick from the best knowledge base software. It's not uncommon to use that along with a proper project manager. Now if you're set on having your team knowledge base deeply intertwined with your project management tool, you're going to want to compare ClickUp vs Notion (although we don't recommend this path).
So point-blank, when comparing Motion and Notion for note taking functionality, you'd be better off using Notion.
Start your free trial of Notion here.
Winner: Motion
If you're looking for something new and innovative in the project management space that takes into account more than just the tasks you have in your project manager (e.g. team meetings, workload, team dependencies, time blocking, and more), Motion delivers.
We believe that Motion is actually redefining the entire project management space as a whole, which has otherwise been trending toward the all-in-one category (a vicious trap which brings with it a myriad of problems for which we are overall quite skeptical of).
This is made especially clear when comparing Motion vs Notion, Motion vs ClickUp, and Motion vs Monday. As instead of focusing purely on project management (similar to that of Asana), the rest are getting sidetracked in other categories like team knowledge base and even CRM. 🤦
The task/project management space is due for some innovation, especially with the rise of AI, and only thing we know for sure is that it's not going to happen from the software we just mentioned as they think they've already "won" project management...
That said, we can't help but think that Motion has a genuine shot at actually evolving the space as a whole, as they've been quietly building in the background and have the right team and foundation to completely disrupt what we currently think of when we hear the term "Project Management". If you use Motion, I think you might see the glimpse into the future like we have.
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Throughout our article below, we'll use the words overwhelming and overly complex a lot.
Many of the most popular project management tools are designed for large teams and organizations, and they can be overwhelming and complex to set up and use for smaller teams. Here's what to keep in mind:
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Use AI to plan your work, automatically. Be 137% more productive. Use the AI assistant for busy people and work teams.
Motion (also often referred to as Use Motion and Motion App) is in a category of it's own that we've been referring to as time management…
Let me explain:
Motion's main goal is to take care of all of your team's needs revolving around time. If you're someone that wakes up in the morning and looks at their calendar app to see what you have on for the day, Motion App will fit in like a glove.
It connects in deeply with your Google Calendar, Microsoft Calendar, and even Apple Calendar, allowing you to build out project management and task management for yourself and team members. The best part is that all of these tasks automatically organize themselves based on priority right onto your calendar (and your team's) to ensure the most important (and blocking) tasks get done.
If you've heard of the productivity app terminology of "time blocking", well Motion does that automatically using AI, no manual time blocking needed.
It even goes to the degree of allowing you to share meeting scheduler links with others, all while respecting your existing events across all of your calendars (and even your team's calendars), along with automatically inviting team members into the appointment once booked.
With your entire team using Motion, it's like you have a full-time personal assistant shared across the company, ensuring that everyone is getting deep work done all while focusing on what is most important (at the most ideal time), all while making sure that no one is ever double-booked.
All of this makes for an incredibly powerful tool for individuals, but exponentially more valuable with every additional team member you add. No other project management or daily planner tool on the market seems to go to this degree.
As compared to some of the best project management software on the market often mentioned like Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Motion has taken their sights on slightly smaller teams of between 1–50 people.
This team size target is based on their current feature-set, from what we've seen. For example, the larger teams that we work with who have many layers of management often require reporting capabilities over everything else. And with Motion, that's not something you're going to get, because they are currently focused on giving the only AI project management tool on the market focused on helping the individual and teams, over the needs of upper-management.
So if you and your team are used to spending a lot of time planning deadlines, and rearranging your "My Task" view in the existing tools on the market, Motion flips this on it's head with the use of AI. Something to consider if you're fed up with the manual work involved with traditional project management tools.
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Compared to the best daily planner apps on the market like Sunsama and Akiflow, Motion is the only daily planner we've seen that actually leverages AI to plan your day for you. With all of the other apps in the category, you need to manually drag in tasks to time block and plan each day. This is an incredibly time consuming process, that some justify as being "more mindful", but once you actually have AI schedule your day for you, you realize how much time is actually wasted "mindfully planning your day".
Compared to the best calendar schedulers on the market like Calendly and Chili Piper, Motion bakes in the core functionality of these tools, with the added visibility of team tasks and urgent deadlines, actually booking off availability for you and your team if high priority work needs to get done by a quickly approaching deadline.
Large teams (100–500) with other enterprise software implemented will find integrating Motion more involved than other enterprise tools. When using an enterprise software stack like that of Salesforce, it's common for other project management tools to have native integrations.
With Motion, it will require a custom integration approach (something that we actually help teams do). But while it's possible, one might ask if it's worth making the large investment in a custom integration when you might be able to get something more native out of the box with the other tools focused on larger teams.
(This of course depends on the actual integration needs of your team, as native doesn't always do exactly what you'd like it to do).
Motion currently lacks advanced reporting and dashboard functionality. So while you can see at a top-level the status of projects and tasks in Kanban and Listviews, even a team workload view, that's about where reporting dashboards end, making it less suitable for large teams requiring extensive project analytics.
Note: If you need 2 seats, you're pretty much better off getting the discount by purchasing 3 seats, as you're effectively getting a 3rd seat for free.
If all of that connects with you and you think it might fit your needs, they have a 7 day free trial that you can use along with your team to see what it's like having a personalized AI assistant.
A shared documentation and note taking tool that tip-toes the line of a flexible no-code platform (for teams of all sizes).
Notion positions itself as an "all-in-one" workspace tool, but that doesn't mean it's ideal for "everything."
At its core, Notion is a knowledge base or wiki, designed for documenting company processes and notes. Over time, Notion has expanded its capabilities, allowing users to link notes, create databases with formulas, and more.
Notion's versatility allows you to customize it into almost anything you need. This flexibility has led teams to use Notion as a CRM, project management tool, task manager, knowledge base, and more. However, just because Notion can be adapted for various purposes doesn't always mean it should be. We often receive feedback from teams who've tried using "Notion for everything", only to find it becoming overwhelming and messy.
If you want to use Notion, use it as a knowledge base/company wiki (or use Slite, our top pick and what we use 😉). For specific business functions like project and task management or CRM, it's usually better to opt for dedicated tools built for the job.
A huge drawback of using Notion for CRM or project management is that you're now building your system from scratch. Even with available templates, you'll find yourself investing a lot of time in learning to configure Notion and tailoring it to your processes.
In contrast, a project management tool that is developed by a team focused solely on creating the best product in that niche, will much more quickly set you up for success.
Just think about it: when you're using a project manager that was built for that function, this means that their entire team focused on building the best project manager out there. So you're already getting a tool with project management features that are useful to thousands of other businesses. While with Notion... well guess who is going to be building said features? YOU 😅
The reality is, we often hear people say "but my business is unique so I need a custom solution, which is why Notion is appealing".
After helping teams of all sizes and in many industries for over a decade, we promise you that business processes are not that unique and 95% of the time can be (and should be) mapped to the structure of existing tools.
Oh and if you're considering using Notion as a CRM, make sure to read this dedicated article as to why we don't recommend that either.
Notion offers a free tier for up to 10 guests, making it accessible if you're curious about its capabilities. Notion has a free tier for up to 10 guests, so if you're curious as to what the hype is about, you can easily sign up and start playing with it yourself. If after a day you start feeling overwhelmed, you're not alone, it's more or less a blank slate after all.
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