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. ⤵
The team knowledge base/documentation category is an interesting one. Particularly because it seems that time-and-time again, the most successful apps in this space (e.g. Notion + Coda) have a hard time... Well, staying settled in this specific category.
This is also what makes it so interesting for an incumbent to come in and take it over by, well... simply focusing on shared team knowledge management 😅 like that of Slite.
Collaborative task manager and note taking tool for personal and small team use.
We'll be honest, when we first got a chance to check out and use Superlist, we were a bit thrown off—while it was one of the most beautiful productivity apps we've seen, we didn't quite know what it was trying to be, to that's where we reviewed it to compete in the best project management software space.
After reviewing it longer, seeing their feature roadmap a bit, and talking with the team, we realize now that Superlist is not trying to compete with Motion, Asana, Monday, or ClickUp, but rather, they're looking to compete in the more personal and small team task and note taking space.
So for those of you who are using Notion, Obsidian, Google Keep, Apple Notes, or even Bear, as your personal note taking tool, and a personal task management tool like Todoist, TickTick, Google Tasks, Superlist might be able to consolidate all of those tools for you in one place. Now that is something I can connect on the pain-point with.
If you're looking for a full-fledged team project management tool like Motion or Asana, you won't get what you're looking for here with Superlist.
The same goes if you're looking for one of the best daily planner apps or best calendar app like that of Motion, Amie, Sunsama, Akiflow, Vimcal, and others, you're going to left a bit disappointed using Superlist for those things.
I have been extremely excited to check this tool out. I've been on the waitlist for 2–3 years, checking in with them monthly about getting access and it's finally available to the public.
The largest appeal is that it was created by the team behind Wunderlist (which is a task manager that was sold to Microsoft in 2015 for between $100–200m). So if there's a team that understands task management deeply, it's this team.
They've even teased Superlist at Google I/O 2022 on stage, as an example of a tool built in Flutter (an open source framework by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled, multi-platform applications from a single codebase). This is important because this means everyone gets a native app—imagine having native MacOS + iOS + Android + Windows apps all generated from the same codebase.
This was the largest appeal, alongside the sheer beauty of their marketing site and in-app teaser screenshots:
What's cool is that with Superlist, you can assign to-dos to one another and due dates, which let's be honest, there are endless personal tasks any married couple needs to collaborate on.
Superlist is probably one the of most thoughtful/beautiful personal task managers out there. It has amazing UI/UX interactions. Heck, even marking a task as "complete" and "incomplete" plays the most relaxing noise (and it changes each time!). I was using TickTick for years and I'm seeing Superlist as a great alternative.
I think we're seeing what happens when you get tens of millions of dollars in venture backing and some of the best designers in the world to focus in the UI/UX. I mean heck, just go visit their website, it's incredibly beautiful.
Being able to also take notes and assign tasks to different individuals is also super cool as there aren't really a ton of good personal collaboration tools out there.
While Superlist is marketing itself for both personal and professional, we're more open to recommending it for personal use. Perhaps Soloprenuers and super small teams may be able to collaborate in a barebones way with Superlist, but we're still apt to recommend professional project management tools instead like Motion (what we use).
Keeping this in mind, we do want to point out that the Superlist team is has built the tool in a way that encourages you to use it for both work and personal. So much so that you can toggle on/off your "work" or "personal" notes/to-dos so that you can disconnect from work for example on the weekend.
Check out our full Superlist review here.
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.
Curious how this app compares to others?