Without a doubt, Notion is one of the best productivity apps available today. Its all-in-one workspace concept has completely revolutionised the way we think about productivity, allowing us to combine our separate everyday tools into one giant super tool.

Just because Notion is a great tool doesn’t mean it’s the right tool for your job. Either it has weaknesses that can cause unnecessary problems in your workflow, or it’s just not fit for purpose. If this describes your Notion experience, the good news is that there are a myriad of Notion alternatives you can explore to increase your efficiency.

Today, we bring you the latest on the best alternatives to Notion, from dedicated knowledge/project/task management apps and note-taking apps to all-in-one apps like Notion. But before we get into the apps, we first need to understand Notion’s flaws so that we can choose the app that best fits our needs.

Why Use an Alternative?

Notion’s main appeal is its versatility. Create roadmaps, draft documents, create wikis, publish websites, and record meeting minutes with just one app. However, despite its usefulness, Notion has some serious flaws that make it a potential deal-breaker. Common complaints from Notion users include:

Steep learning curve: While Notion does a lot to make it look easy as there are a lot of Notion shortcuts, Notion’s sheer amount of features can make it difficult to learn, especially if you’re new to productivity tools. If so, it becomes very difficult to use. Other apps similar to Notion work, but are less complicated.

No local file management: All Notion files are stored in the cloud and can only be accessed via web services. On the other hand, some Notion alternatives give you full control and let you store files locally.

Poor offline support: Notion works offline, but without a strong internet connection you can only access preloaded pages.

The mobile app: Notion’s mobile app is slow, doesn’t support multitasking, and has a clunky user interface. Other Notion app alternatives such as Asana offers a better mobile experience.

Limited time tracking: Notion’s lack of time tracking capabilities can complicate Notion’s project management process, though you can use the Notion time tracking integration.

How To Choose a Alternative to Notion that matches your workflow

Notion is arguably the best all-in-one productivity app. So if you gave it up in favour of something else, it should work better for your purposes. Answering the following questions will help you know which Notion alternative to choose.

• Do you want something minimal and simple, or highly customisable and complex?
• Are the tools personal or business?
• Do you work alone or collaborate with others?
• How do you enter data? Text only? Or photos, sketches, videos, audio?
• Where do you mainly work? Your desk or mobile?

1. Nimbus Note

Nimbus Note is an award-winning note-taking and organization tool. It’s somewhat similar to Evernote and a viable alternative to Notion.

This tool allows you to organize information from multiple sources in one place. You can create knowledge bases, create documents, take notes, create tasks, and manage projects.

From creating checklists to designing spreadsheets and databases, you can do so much with Nimbus.

Additionally, Nimbus supports a variety of use cases including education, product development, human resources and recruitment, remote team management, and knowledge repository creation. Especially suitable for organizing and customizing multiple work-spaces.

Features

• Nimbus Note organises text in blocks and features a variety of formatting tools.
• Available for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Web.
• Access your notes without an internet connection.
• Nested folders, so you can create folders within folders.
• Label your notes to make them easier to find and organise.
• Nimbus Note allows you to search your notes according to all important criteria.

Pros

• It’s easy to learn and use
• Great customer support
• Amazing user interface

Cons

• Few integrations
• The migration tool is incomplete
• Web Clipper Slow and Inefficient

2. Nuclino

Nuclino is a great option for those looking for a lighter, faster, and more user-friendly alternative to Notion. It focuses on basic features like searching, organizing content, and co-authoring, and omits clunky menus and rarely used features.

The user interface is clean, intuitive, and distraction-free. Initial setup is quick and easy, with little learning curve for new users.

Features

• Instant search where you can find everything you need by using search and applying filters.
• View previous versions of the document and undo unwanted changes.
• Create and edit content with a simple drag-and-drop editor.
• Supports list, board and chart views that can be switched seamlessly.
• You can set permissions for users who can read, edit, or comment on documents.

Pros

• It’s quick
• Has multiple integrations
• Very Intuitive UI

Cons

• No simple formatting tools
• It can be hard to organise

3. ClickUp

ClickUp is a flexible solution with all features like Notion. Features a collaborative document builder for wikis, knowledge bases, and other rich media formats.

Includes built-in commenting and chat functionality to start conversations and see who is currently viewing content. You can also create public connections and control who can view, edit, and comment on your content.

It provides everything you need to manage your projects and tasks, including custom templates and various third-party connections.

Features

• ClickUp’s has a “Everything view” which gives you a bird’s eye view of all your tasks.
• You can customise ClickUp to fit your need by mixing and matching with it’s multiple ClickApps.
• ClickUp helps you organise things hierarchically. So, break complex projects into tasks, and subtasks, and create checklists within tasks.
• It has more than 15 different views including list, board, box, and calendar.
• It has over 50 actions, triggers, and conditions that you can use to automate routine work, You can use pre-built automation, or customise your own. You can also use a number of ClickUp integrations.

Pros

• Great Design
• Easy to Learn
• Multiple Features

Cons

• Not enough learning materials
• Adding additional users is sometimes difficult

4. Airtable

Airtable goes beyond standard spreadsheet tools. It can do a lot of what Excel and Google Sheets can do, but comes a little closer to Notion when it comes to complete customisability. Airtable’s database is powerful, customisable, and a great platform for sharing knowledge and storing data. But Airtable shines as the backbone of your workflow.

Airtable allows you to create custom workflows, Kanban boards, databases, and more with little technical knowledge. That’s the only major advantage over Notion. Its true power is revealed when used to support your workflow.

However with the onboarding Notion wins. Its block-building system is much easier to learn than Airtable’s more advanced features.

Features

• Airtable has a feature that lets you create custom applications from existing data with a simple drag and drop builder.
• This tool lets you view the same information from different angles using Timeline, Gantt, Kanban, Gallery, Form, Calendar, and Grid views.
• Airtable allows you to create simple or complex automations.
• It makes it easy to create dashboards, charts and graphs with your data.

Pros

• It’s very customisable
• Supports integrations with many apps

Cons

• Basic data visualisation
• Limited in the free version

5. Confluence

Confluence is designed as a remote team workspace that supports communication, collaboration and culture within your team. It’s more of a knowledge sharing and collaboration platform than a project management tool.

It works well with Trello, a full fledged project and task management tool from the same company Atlassian. Confluence is great for creating and storing documents. If that’s what you’re looking for, you should definitely consider Confluence!

The Confluence tool has templates for every industry and every department. It is a big advantage as it saves a lot of time when creating documents. Confluence’s suite of templates inspire industry best practices and save hours of tedious writing.

It is an easy-to-use app with powerful communication features that improve the flow of information between teams for an efficient and collaborative remote work environment. Overall, using this app is a pleasant experience.

Features

• You can create an unlimited amount of pages and spaces.
• Integrate third-party work tools with Confluence.
• Confluence has an intuitive page hierarchy, and you can organise your pages with tags.
• Confluence has a feature which lets you view the history of a document and undo changes.
• Explore heaps of templates for different purposes, so you don’t have to start afresh.

Pros

• You can use links to draw connections
• Many useful plugins
• Excellent document sync

Cons

• Weak sharing capabilities
• Insufficient text formatting
• Can be confusing for new users

6. Quip

Quip is a great team collaboration tool that allows you to combine all information related to an entire project or project development process in the form of documents and spreadsheets.

This information will help your team easily achieve company goals and milestones. The application also allows users to create and edit documents directly in the interface, as well as use the search feature to quickly find text in the interface.

Features

• Quip doesn’t need an internet connection to run.
• Control who has access to documents.
• Has a version history, you can track and revert any changes made to a document.
• Also, chats are built into every document, so you can chat with individuals or the entire team.
• Pick a template, and customise it to meet your needs.

Pros

• Free version
• Works with Zapier
• Easy to set up and use

Cons

• Minimal integrations
• Restricted text formatting options
• No offline capability

7. nTask

nTask is task management software that helps businesses run smooth projects, stay on schedule, and manage routine tasks in one centralised platform.

After creating tasks and task lists, you can add descriptions to tasks and assign them to team members. Team members are notified of tasks in real time.

You can also add comments, videos, documents, and other files to your task board, and link issues, comments, meeting agendas, and bugs to tasks and projects to keep everyone on track .

Features

• Creates Gantt charts that can monitor projects in real-time.
• Also, create Kanban boards and custom statuses for each stage of work done.
• Has automated web timer, manual timesheets, and timesheet approvals.
• This feature lets you resolve issues faster. And you can assign issue severity, and priority, and send issue updates.
• A feature which helps you assess risk likelihood and impact, and plot a mitigation strategy.  

Pros

• Simple and easy to use
• Value for money
• Time management features

Cons

• Not intuitive interface
• Minimal integrations
• Minor calendar

8. Coda

Coda takes something as familiar as documents and enhances it, making it a powerful document/project management solution that rivals any app. At its core, it’s a simple document, but what sets it apart is its ability to evolve by building blocks.

The building blocks can be tables that communicate with each other, views that display the same data in different ways, or buttons that perform actions. Coda allows you to mix and match them to create a tool that fits your unique needs.

Features

• Lets you evolve your document as you need with it building blocks.
• Connect Coda with all your favourite tools through Zapier.
• Use Packs (plugins) to give your document more functionality.
• It has templates you can use to get started.
• Use Tables to talk to each other so that edits reflect throughout your doc.

Pros

• Integrates well with other tools
• Brilliant customer support
• Build whatever you want

Cons

• Some features aren’t intuitive
• Minimal document formatting
• Under-performs with a large amount of data

9. Joplin

Joplin is an open-source alternative to Notion that lets you store text, multimedia, and even math diagrams as notes. You can also save web pages and screenshots by installing the Web Clipper extension. Joplin stores your notes in an open file format, so you can import notes from other apps without the risk of losing access to them.

Features

• Available on Android, iOS/Mac, Windows, and Linux.
• Your data is yours. As Joplin secures your notes via end-to-end encryption.
• Option to sync with cloud services such as its own cloud service, Dropbox, and OneDrive.
• Stores files in Markdown
• It’s software is open-source so you can mod it to suit your fit your needs. 

Pros

• Open-source
• Available on multiple platform
• Offline support

Cons

• There’s no tools for collaboration
• Sluggish search

10. Evernote

Evernote is one of the first and best when it comes to taking notes. It can be accessed from any device and can capture and save anything: images, text, sketches, videos, web snippets.

Evernote’s OCR-powered search feature makes it easy to retrieve this information. Just type your search query and Evernote will return accurate results, whether the words are in a photo, document, or handwritten note.

Features

• It has a feature that lets you capture web pages, articles, or PDFs, and even customise them with highlights, text, and annotations.
• Features pre-designed templates that you can install and customise to get a running start on your notes.
• You can use search to find words in handwritten notes, photos, and documents.
• Your notes are automatically synced online so you can access them wherever you are.
• Create tasks within your notes, set due dates, recurrences and reminders.

Pros

• Syncing across devices
• It’s OCR-powered search
• Easy to use

Cons

• Cost is a bit higher than other options.
• No offline capabilities
• Free accounts are limited amount of storage per month