What is Notion?
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.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Good for knowledge bases and documentation.
- Strong ecosystem of templates, integrations, and third-party tools built around Notion.
- Good API and database structure, which makes it appealing for more technical teams.
- Free tier makes it easy to experiment and test ideas.
Cons
- Steep learning curve. Most teams underestimate how much setup is required.
- Requires building systems from scratch, which takes significant time and ongoing maintenance.
- Poor team adoption in many cases because the structure only makes sense to the person who built it.
- Easy to turn into a productivity distraction, where teams spend more time designing workflows than doing work.
Key Features
All-in-One
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.
We regularly get emails like this.
If you want to use Notion, use it as a knowledge base/company wiki. For specific business functions like project and task management or CRM, it's usually better to opt for dedicated tools built for the job. You can find what we've listed as the best project management software and best CRM software instead.
Notion Mail & Calendar
Notion is expanding into these core parts of your workflow, but the reality is they didn’t actually build either of these products from scratch. Notion Calendar comes from Cron, and Notion Mail comes from Skiff, so instead of being deeply integrated into one system, they are more so separate tools with light Notion integrations.
While we listed Notion Mail as one of the best email clients, it's not a replacement if you're using something like Superhuman Mail which is much more powerful for professional use (we've heard people say they used Notion Mail for 6 hours before switching back to Superhuman Mail).
On the other hand, Notion Calendar is our top pick for the best calendar apps category since they've maintained a lot of the integrity from Cron, which was a calendar we loved (just don't use it as a daily planner app).
Pricing
- Free: $0 per user per month. Best for individuals organizing personal projects and life.
- Plus: $10/mo per user ($96/yr with annual billing). Best for small teams and professionals who want unlimited blocks, file uploads, and collaboration features.
- Business: $20/mo per user ($192/yr with annual billing). Best for growing teams that need advanced collaboration, permissions, and AI-powered workspace tools.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Includes advanced security, compliance, admin controls, and dedicated support for large organizations.
