Notion review

In the sea of productivity tools, does Notion stand out in 2024? This Notion review will help you cut to the chase. With a focus on features, usability, and pricing, you’ll get the insights necessary to determine if Notion is the solution to your project management needs—without the fluff.

Key Takeaways

• Notion is a collaborative project management tool offering a range of features like databases, Kanban boards, and note-taking capabilities with different pricing plans catering to individual users and organizations.

• The platform provides extensive customization options and supports real-time collaboration, including advanced project management tools like timeline views, Gantt charts, and seamless integration of media and data.

• Despite a steep learning curve, Notion offers comprehensive customer support with a help center, tutorials, structured lessons, and multiple support channels, and stands out in the market when compared with alternatives like Trello and ClickUp.

Notion Overview

Notion is more than just a note-taking app. It’s a dynamic project management software built with a keen focus on collaboration, catering to a diverse range of users from professionals to small teams. Notion’s free plan offers a clean workspace designed for thinking, planning, writing, and team collaboration, organizing essential information in one place.

The versatility of Notion manifests in its broad array of features, including:

• An intuitive interface

• A wiki

• Database capabilities

• Kanban boards

• Note-taking capabilities

These features provide efficient workflows and document creation, making it a favorite among Notion users.

Pricing and Plans

Notion offers a variety of pricing plans to cater to different user needs and budgets. From Notion’s free plan with basic features to its Enterprise Plan laden with advanced features, Notion’s pricing plans are designed to accommodate everyone from individual users to large organizations. Each plan comes with its unique set of features and limitations, offering the flexibility to choose the one that aligns best with your requirements.

Let’s explore each of these plans more thoroughly.

Free Plan

Notion’s Free Plan, also known as the free version, is a boon for individual users and freelancers. With unlimited pages and blocks, it provides a platform to manage personal or freelance projects efficiently on a single notion page or multiple ones. But what if you want to collaborate with others? Worry not! You can invite up to 10 guests to collaborate on individual pages, making it easy to get feedback or work together on a shared task.

However, the Free Plan does come with certain limitations. File uploads are capped at 5MB, and as soon as a second member is added to the workspace, it transitions to a trial of a higher plan. But if you are looking for basic functionalities like basic analytics for managing your projects, then Notion’s Free Plan could be a perfect fit for you.

Plus Plan

For those who need more from Notion, the Plus Plan steps in with expanded features. It provides users with:

• Unlimited blocks

• Unlimited pages

• Unlimited file uploads

• 30-day version history

This means no more worrying about file size restrictions or losing track of changes made to your documents over time.

In addition to these enhanced features, the Plus plan extends the page history retention to 30 days, a significant increase from the Free plan. Looking to invite more collaborators? The Plus plan enables you to invite up to 100 guests, facilitating better collaboration opportunities.

Business Plan

For companies aiming to unify multiple teams and tools within one platform, Notion’s Business Plan is the go-to solution. It provides private team spaces ensuring confidentiality for sensitive discussions, while single sign-on (SSO) adds a layer of security for accessing these spaces.

The Business Plan offers advanced page analytics, providing organizations with insights for data-driven decision-making, enhancing strategic planning and performance tracking. With the capability to invite up to 250 guest collaborators, it supports extended teamwork and project engagement within and beyond the organization.

Moreover, users have the facility to export workspaces and pages as bulk PDF documents, facilitating the sharing and archiving of content.

Enterprise Plan

The Enterprise Plan is the epitome of what Notion offers, providing advanced security measures and customizable features for large-scale organizations. Organizations with over 100 users benefit from the support of a dedicated customer success manager, ensuring personalized assistance and strategic planning.

The Enterprise Plan includes:

• Unlimited page history, catering to the needs of large-scale organizations for thorough documentation and adherence to compliance standards

• Adaptable to businesses of various sizes

• Additional features such as SSO (Single Sign-On) or a dedicated success manager are available, but come with significant cost considerations.

Customization and Collaboration

Notion stands out with its extensive customization and collaboration features. The platform allows users to set up their workspace based on their intended use case, be it for teams, personal, or educational purposes. Additionally, it offers real-time editing capabilities, allowing multiple users to work on a document simultaneously.

Now, let’s examine these advanced security features in greater detail.

Page Customization

The beauty of Notion lies in its ability to let users tailor their pages. Notion pages consist of modular blocks like:

• text

• headings

• lists

• media

• databases

These blocks can be quickly added with a slash command and organized by dragging and dropping on the page. You can transform a blank page into a visually appealing workspace by adding personalized images and highlighting text in different colors for emphasis.

Moreover, permissions on Notion pages can be finely tuned, allowing users to decide who can view, comment, or edit each page. This flexibility extends to creating secret pages with restricted visibility. Notion’s Public Pages feature allows users to share information externally by creating web pages, with control over viewer interactions and permissions.

Real-Time Collaboration

Real-time collaboration is the heart of successful team projects, and Notion has it down to a science. Notion allows multiple users to edit documents simultaneously in a collaborative workspace, with visible avatars/profile photos informing users who else has access to a page. Sharing pages within the workspace is facilitated by share menu and request access features, providing an overview of everyone who has access and allowing ease of managing permissions and inviting external partners.

To streamline in-line collaboration further, Notion enables users to:

• Mention teammates directly within page blocks for reminders or context

• Utilize databases in-line to keep relevant information accessible

• Embed external resources like Google Maps and Typeform

• Use a variety of media blocks to support a versatile and informative collaborative environment.

Project Management Features

Project management is at the core of Notion’s functionality, allowing users to manage projects effectively and handle project management tasks with ease. Notion’s timeline view functions as a Gantt chart, providing a visualization of project timelines, resource management, and the ability to track progress while syncing with other platform databases.

Gantt charts in Notion can:

• Display tasks and dependencies

• Adapt to project changes

• Filter tasks

• Assign tasks to team members

• Customize display properties

With these advanced project management features, Notion offers a comprehensive project management solution.

Furthermore, Kanban boards in Notion present a clear view of project and task progress, allowing straightforward tracking of work and ensuring team awareness. Notion’s project management is streamlined with Boards that allow users to visually organize tasks into stages, using cards that can be grouped by properties and enhanced with images.

Beyond this, time can be logged and tracked for tasks or projects in Notion, with added flexibility to integrate external time-tracking tools for a more comprehensive management experience.

Ease of Use and Learning Curve

Notion’s features include:

• Basic design that receives mixed reviews, as seen in various notion app review articles

• Ease of use rating of 3.7 out of 5

• Accessibility across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows

• Mobile apps characterized by fast performance and reduced need for multi-clicking function requests

Yet, the powerful features of Notion come with a steep learning curve. With its abundance of features, new users may take some time to master Notion. Some users report taking up to a year to effectively learn to utilize all of Notion’s features. But don’t fret! Notion’s Help Center offers introductory content and articles that walk through the basic capabilities of the platform, providing a comprehensive guide to help you get started.

Customer Support and Resources

When it comes to customer support, Notion has you covered. The platform offers comprehensive support resources, including:

• A help center

• Tutorials

• Written documentation

• An API reference for learning and troubleshooting

The Notion Academy provides structured lessons and specialized pathways for various team types, with topics ranging from basic introductions to scaling teams and effective data use.

Notion users can reach out for assistance through multiple support channels, including email at [email protected], a chat box, and dedicated Discord groups. While the chat box does not offer immediate responses, users can typically expect a reply within an hour. Aside from on-demand resources, Notion provides live training sessions and the possibility of hiring trained consultants for more personalized guidance. With a rating of 4.3 out of 5, Notion’s customer service and support features are highly regarded.

Comparing Notion to Alternatives

Wondering how Notion fares against other project management tools in the market? Let’s juxtapose it with Trello and ClickUp. Trello is known for its simplicity and minimal configuration, making it easily accessible for new users. However, some may find Notion’s modern interface more visually appealing. Trello offers a more extensive range of Power-Ups and integrations compared to Notion, including popular services like Gmail, Calendar, and Zapier, and provides various organizational views like Dashboard, Timeline, table, Calendar, and Map.

Despite these differences, Notion users report higher satisfaction regarding ease of use and setup, as evidenced by a 4.8/5 rating on Capterra versus Trello’s 4.5/5.

ClickUp, on the other hand, stands out as a project management tool among project management tools and project management apps for its visual boards and tracking features, suitable for larger teams handling multiple projects.

Real-Life Use Cases and Success Stories

Stories of real-life success can vividly illustrate the power of a tool like Notion. CEOs and Product Managers from varied sectors are leveraging Notion to simplify complex organizational tasks and to maintain company knowledge. Companies like:

• Cocoon

• Ironhack

• Privateaser

• Makespace

have utilized Notion for project management and as a centralized knowledge base, improving their workflow and information organization.

Notion is used by various individuals and organizations for different purposes:

• Workwell uses it to streamline communication within distributed teams

• Adobe’s CPO and Vertex Ventures’ Principal use it to organize and clarify creative ideas and research

• Duolingo and Brightback use it to improve goal tracking, enhancing team awareness and reducing the need for ancillary tools.

Summary

To conclude, Notion is a powerful project management tool that offers a unique blend of customization, collaboration, and project management features, making it a go-to platform for teams and individuals alike. From its versatile pricing plans to its robust project management features, Notion provides a comprehensive solution to streamline productivity. Whether you’re a solo freelancer or a large organization, it’s worth exploring Notion to see how it can enhance your workflow in 2024 and beyond.