14th Jun, 2024
Looking for an alternative to Notion? We have gathered 12 of the best Notion alternatives for handling notes, databases, projects, collaborative work and much more. Check out our list for teams and personal use to find a new Notion.
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Notion is one of the most downloaded productivity apps in the world.
10 years ago, everyone was raving about Evernote. Now, all everyone talks about is Notion. But like all things people are considering leaving Notion as they look for different competitors and what they can offer that Notion might not be able to fulfill for them.
With the powers of AI and innovation, many Notion alternatives are popping up left right, and center as alternative ways to manage your life and coordinate projects and notes in one that Notion hasn't thought about.
Many people are considering alternatives to Notion for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common issues with Notion are the lack of offline mode, lack of focus on security, and the fact that Notion is a much larger company now. A lot of people are seeking out more structured Notion alternatives that allow less time spent managing how you use it.
Notion has a tremendous amount of features that allow you to customize how you plan, organize, and get things done as an individual and a team. Many people don't like how you have to learn a lot to adopt Notion and some people find that they spend too much time micro-managing how they use Notion that wastes productive time.
The best Notion alternatives are Craft, Anytype, and for teams Coda. Although these tools aren't like-for-like alternatives Notion, they are the closest competitive alternatives.
With Notion's acquisition of Skiff, there is a chance that they might add features that allow for secure note-taking and sharing within their platform.
Let's begin with recommendations for individuals and how they can replace Notion. We're going to seek tools that are best for their needs first.
Tool | Summary |
---|---|
1. Anytype | An offline, local-first, and open-source alternative to Notion for note-taking. |
2. Capacities | Good-looking Notion-like alternative for note-taking with object note-taking. |
3. Craft | A documents app that is popular with individuals and teams for workspaces. |
4. AFFiNE Pro | A whiteboard & documents app with open-source and offline abilities. |
5. Obsidian | A powerful PKM app for note-taking and networked thought. |
Anytype is an offline, open-source, and local-first note-taking app that comes with Notion-like features for databases and managing your notes.
Anytype is one of the growing Notion alternatives for many people.
If you're note-taking and you want something that resembles Notion but has offline powers, some light database abilities, and a more focused way to take notes using object types to define each note you take, then Anytype might be for you.
A lot of people are turning to Anytype thanks to the focus on local-first security and E2E encryption that protects your notes luring in many people who are aware that Notion doesn't offer that level of support. Anytype makes for a good alternative to Notion if note-taking is something you want to do.
Anytype is free with a 1GB storage limit. Anytype costs $99 per year for 128GB storage.
Capacities is a note-taking app that comes with object types like Anytype that allows you to organize your notes using objects. It comes on a range of devices and has a Notion-like attractive design.
Capacities is a good Notion alternative for note-taking.
If you're hunting for something that allows you to take notes uniquely, like Anytype, with the object focus, then Capacities is an interesting solution for your note-taking.
One of the things that Capacities doesn't do is a database, but they do have something called queries in premium, that allows you to track down types and collections of objects you create that will allow you to create more narrowed-down searches that you can add to over time. Capacities is one of the most similar apps to Notion visually too.
Capacities is free, but premium starts from $12 per month.
Craft is a document-editing application that can be your note-taking app and your team's knowledge base in one place. Craft offers access via the web, macOS, Windows, and iOS.
Craft is a good Notion alternative not just for individuals but teams too.
Craft allows you to create documents, build pages within them, and make a team knowledge base in one. Many people say this is like having Google Documents on steroids, but for those who aren't looking for the databases that Notion allows you to use, Craft is a good solution for managing documents, collaborating in real time, and building out pages from the knowledge that your team has.
Craft is also developing AI features, like Notion, and offers abilities like whiteboards and more. They also have an impressive team offering which makes it more approachable.
Craft is free for up to 10 documents free. Pricing starts at $10 per month, billed monthly.
AFFiNE Pro is a note-taking application that combines whiteboards and document management in one. It comes with offline modes and open-sourced, as well as real-time collaboration for teams.
As a Notion alternative, AFFiNE Pro is early days.
It offers some powerful features like whiteboards that are very collaborative and changing between a document and a whiteboard is very smooth. Many people like how AFFiNE is also open-sourced and available offline, which makes it much smoother for those visual thinkers who like to be offline. They are also invested in making more powerful AI abilities.
Obsidian is a note-taking application, commonly called a PKM note-taking app. Obsidian comes on all devices and offers a way to take notes & connect them.
Obsidian works as a good Notion alternative for note-taking and advanced notes.
Unlike Notion, Obsidian has a graph view and a way to connect notes more systematically. Focusing much more on notes and in particular doing a good job with PKM note-taking, Obsidian is more of an alternative to Notion if you're hunting for a note-based replacement only as Obsidian doesn't have much in the way of project management, calendar management, and only limited to checklists as task management.
Obsidian is free to use for unlimited notes on one device, with local storage. Pricing for syncing your notes across multiple devices is $4 per month.
Go to "Settings & members" > "My Account" and scroll down to "Delete Account". This is important to check what access you have to other team spaces and workspaces as if you are the administrator, these places will be deleted or accessed past to another owner.
Notion offers unlimited blocks in the free subscription. The free subscription allows members to get access to almost all features but is supported by premium features that allow the company, Notion, to make money and support the business.
Google has Google Documents for document management, Google Sheets for databases, and Google Keep for light note-taking. As a Notion alternative, Google Docs is the closest Google-made alternative to Notion and allows you to create blocks, share access & collaborate in real-time on documents, but cannot manage databases.
Let's observe the best choices for team members seeking out the best Notion alternatives to better help you find the correct one for team access and use:
Notion Alternative | Popular For |
---|---|
1. Coda | Building no-code workspaces |
Connecting your Microsoft 365 apps | |
3. Almanac | Building a wiki base for your team |
4. Confluence | Collaborating on documentation |
5. ClickUp | Managing projects & documents |
6. Slite | Crafting a team wiki with AI abilities |
Coda is one of the underrated tools for no-code workspace management. Coda allows you to build databases much like Notion that can be used in a team capacity to shape projects, documents, files, and building tools for the work at hand.
Coda is a good Notion alternative and one of the closest on the market.
It works by allowing teams and individuals to build databases, much like Notion, to their liking. You can manage documents like you would in Google Docs and Notion in Coda and many people say it is like having a documents app on steroids.
Features that are similar to Notion include database building, integrations with databases for consolidating information from apps like Jira, spreadsheets, and Gantt-like abilities for managing timelines and workload together. For teams, this is one of the most similar Notion alternatives on the market.
Coda is free for unlimited documents. Doc makers who created Coda documents are paid users and are charged $12 per user, per month.
Microsoft Loop is a software used with teams that allows you to build a wiki for your team's documents, project management, and light task management. It also connects with Microsoft 365 apps for seamless use without the need for Loop itself.
Microsoft Loop has been called a Notion killer, but what does it do? And does it make for a good alternative for your team to move towards?
Loop allows you to create documents, databases (albeit much less powerful than Notion), and something called components. These Loop components are used to create tools, spreadsheets, databases, and even text that can be edited in real-time inside apps like Microsoft Teams, Microsoft OneNote, and other tools in Microsoft 365 simply by pasting them.
These components then are live and interactive without the need to jump to the application for editing meaning they live and breathe across the framework of Microsoft business tools something that Notion doesn't and likely cannot offer.
Microsoft Loop is part of the Microsoft 365 business plans.
Almanac is an advanced wiki application that can be used to bring together a team's documentation and use flow management to manage the progression of this.
Almanac claims to be the fastest wiki application on the market.
It wants to be your team's knowledge base and comes with feature views that allow you to see the progression of documentation from draft to reviewed and stored. This means that teams can better collaborate on documents in a more structured manner. Many people credit Almanac for being a more robust, less open-plan way to manage documents.
Almanac is free for up to 3 seats. Team plans start from $49 per month.
Confluence is owned and managed by Atlassian who also owns Trello & Jira. Confluence is designed to manage documentation for your team and connect to popular apps like Jira to allow for seamless development documentation and can be used a wide use case.
Confluence is a good Notion replacement as a more all-round experience.
Confluence is free, with adaptive pricing depending on team size. Prices can start from $6 per month.
ClickUp is a project management software designed for all-around use.
ClickUp focuses more on project management, whereas Notion can do project management, just in a very build-your-own way.
Notion does have project management templates that you can implement however, when it comes to using it, it takes more education and more onboarding on how to use it than other apps like monday.com or ClickUp with their more structured approach to project management.
ClickUp is free. Pricing starts from $10 per user, per month.
Slite is a wiki application for knowledge management in your team.
Slite has a lot more structure than Notion with features like Q&A that allow you to search across documents in a way that allows for a forum-type approach to questions and answers that team members have left. Those Q&A items are then indexed into a Slite AI chat that allows you to ask questions about things entered within them.
Slite also has abilities like documentation process management allowing you to see what documents are drafted and what documents need your attention. It also has light project management abilities from bringing document-specific project work together.
Slite has no free plan and costs $10 per user, per month on the basic pricing.
Notion doesn't have a formal offline mode. The best alternative to Notion that offers access offline and local-first is Anytype. Apps like Obsidian, Capacities & Craft all have offline modes that are formal to making offline changes without internet connection.
Microsoft has a Notion alternative called Microsoft Loop. It can be accessed as part of Microsoft 365 and comes with the ability to create Loop Components which can be shared across Microsoft Teams, OneNote, and many more 365 apps for better team collaboration.
The best team alternative to Notion would have to be Coda. Coda allows you to collaborate, build workspaces, and use power features like formulas. Coda also invests more in AI elements for enterprise search, building pages, and searching across your account. Coda is much more suitable for medium-to-large teams.
The best-looking alternative to Notion has to be Capacities. It resembles Notion but comes with a focus on notes that brings a beautiful-looking calendar and a way to manage your notes in a very visual way with galleries for notes you add and objects to organize with.
Let's narrow down your choices for your specific scenarios for best results:
Handling projects in the same way as Notion might be hard to do as Notion is more database-focused. The best alternative to Notion for project-based work is ClickUp, as it is more structured and allows your team to collaborate fixedly.
The best free alternative to Notion is between Anytype and Obsidian which both have great free subscriptions with unlimited access to adding notes and documents.
The best no-code Notion alternatives are Airtable and Coda. Both are powerful no-code apps that can be used with apps like Zapier to enhance the no-code functionality.
Coda is one of the best and leading alternatives to Notion for collaborating in the same capacity as Notion. Many people say Coda is the more advanced version of Notion.
Slite is one of the best wiki-based apps and focuses on helping your team create a knowledge base. There are few other tools like Slite, but when it comes to a Notion alternative that focuses on wiki management for your team's knowledge, Slite is the best we've seen on the market.
The best open-source alternatives to Notion are Anytype and AFFiNE Pro. For teams, an open-source alternative is AppFlowy which has real-time collaboration but lacks power features like databases.
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It's free. No credit card required.
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