Notion
The all-in-one workspace that swallowed the note app category.
By Notion Labs · since 2016 · notion.com
A · out of 10
Notion is a block editor sitting on top of a database engine. Every page can be a document, a table, a board or a wiki, and in 2025 it grew a set of AI agents that can act on that workspace instead of just chatting about it. The flexibility is the whole pitch, and it is also the reason a blank Notion is intimidating.
How it scores
Features25% of score
9.5Depth and breadth of what the app can do.
Ease of use20% of score
7.4Speed, polish and how long it takes to feel at home.
AI15% of score
9.0Quality and usefulness of the built-in AI, not just its presence.
Sync & reliability15% of score
8.0How dependably notes move between devices.
Value15% of score
8.0What you get for what you pay.
Platform coverage10% of score
8.5How many places you can actually use it.
Pricing
$12/month · $120/year
Free tier: Unlimited pages for personal use, with a 5 MB file upload cap and 7-day page history.
Plus is $12/month monthly or $10/month billed yearly. Business ($20/user/month) is where the heavier AI limits live.
Platforms
- Windows
- macOS
- iOS
- Android
- Linux
- Web
57 tracked features supported
What it does well
- Databases turn notes into something you can query, sort and reuse
- Best-in-class templates and a huge community around them
- AI agents can now create and edit pages across the workspace
- Comments, mentions and permissions make it work for a team
Where it falls short
- Offline is still the weakest part of the product
- Pages load slowly once a workspace gets large
- No handwriting, no canvas, no real drawing
- Export gives you markdown, but the databases do not survive the trip
Our take
If your notes are really a small internal wiki, Notion is hard to beat. If you just want to write things down quickly, it asks for more setup than it gives back.
Best for: Teams and organisers who want documents, tasks and databases under one roof.
Feature by feature
Capture & input
How notes get into the app in the first place.
- Voice recording
- Audio transcription
- Speaker identificationPartly
- Meeting recording
- Handwriting / stylus
- Drawing canvas
- OCR / handwriting search
- Web clipper
- Share extension
- Quick capturePartly
- Images
- PDF & documents
- Document scanning
Organization
How notes are structured, linked and found again.
- Tags
- Folders / notebooks
- Multi-level folders
- Internal links
- Backlinks
- Graph view
- Databases / boards
- Daily notes / journalPartly
- Note templates
- Saved searches
- Pins / favorites
- Merge notes
AI
Assistants, generators and meaning-based search.
- AI chat / writing assistant
- AI agent with tools
- Custom AI agents
- Semantic search
- AI web search
- Connected apps for AI
- Prompt templatesPartly
- Custom AI instructions
- AI memoryPartly
- Scheduled AI tasks
- Flashcard generator
- Spaced repetition
- Quiz generator
- Fill in the blank
- Mind maps
- AI image generation
- Infographic generator
- Slide deck generator
- AI mini apps
- Brainrot video generator
- AI audio overview
- Bring your own model
- AI job notifications
Writing & editing
What the editor itself can actually do.
- MarkdownPartly
- Rich text
- Code blocks
- Math / LaTeX
- Tables
- Find and replace
- Version history
- Note infoPartly
Sync & data ownership
Where your notes live and how easily they leave.
- Cloud sync
- Sync through your own cloud
- Offline supportPartly
- Offline-first / own your data
- Self-hosting
- End-to-end encryption
- Locked notes
- Daily backupPartly
- Import
- Export
- Public API
- Command line tool
- Remote MCP server
- Plugins / extensionsPartly
Sharing & collaboration
Working with other people inside your notes.
- Share with people
- Real-time collaboration
- Comments
- Public sharing
Experience
The everyday polish around the writing surface.
- Dark mode
- Custom themes
- Multi-language
- Command palette
- Split viewPartly
- Focus mode
- Home screen widgets
- Apple Shortcuts
