| Notion Review | |
|---|---|
| Rating | 4.5/5 |
| Starting price (Monthly) | $10 per user |
| Starting price (Annual) | $8 per user |
| Key features |
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Notion is a project management software known for its versatility. With its dynamic and intuitive interface, project managers can seamlessly create efficient workflows for teams both large and small. Being a collaborative tool, Notion has a lot to offer to various teams.
In our Notion review, we’ll explore all of the key features the software has to offer. We’ll explore every aspect of the software and provide a list of alternatives with differing features. Through this guide, you’ll be able to discover whether Notion is right for you and your project workflow.
What is Notion?
Notion is a collaboration-focused project management software that offers a customizable experience for project managers. The software allows users to create a number of resources such as databases, documents and more, all within the same platform.
Hands-on Notion review results
Below is our evaluation of Notion as a project management tool.
| Criteria | Score |
|---|---|
| Features | 5/5 |
| Pricing | 4.4/5 |
| Ease of use | 3.7/5 |
| Service and support | 4.3/5 |
Notion pricing: 4.4/5
| Pricing Plan | Cost/month (per user, billed monthly) | Cost/month (per user, billed annually) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| Plus | $10 | $8 |
| Business | $18 | $15 |
| Enterprise | Upon request | Upon request |
Featured Partners
Free
The Free plan of Notion gives you unlimited blocks and allows you to invite up to 10 guests. You receive basic page analytics and access to the full collaborative workspace. Pages have a seven-day history.
Plus
The Plus plan has everything in the free plan, but entire teams receive unlimited blocks. You also have unlimited file uploads and a 30-day page history. Your limit for guests is also increased to 100.
Business
The Business plan comes with several additional features from Plus. You have access to private team spaces, bulk PDF exports and you receive advanced page analytics. You also get security assertion markup language single sign-on. Your page history increases to 90 days and you can invite 250 guests.
Enterprise
Enterprise plans come with everything in Business, and you have advanced security features with more controls. You receive a customer success manager, workspace analytics and an audit log. User provisioning becomes available and you get unlimited page history, security and compliance integrations.
Core Notion features: 5/5
Notion’s customizable features allow users to do a wide array of tasks for project management and organization.
Real-time collaboration
Notion’s real-time collaboration feature allows multiple users to view and edit the same page or database concurrently. There is no limit to the number of people who can collaborate on a document—avatars or profile photos of team members who are working on the document will appear next to the blocks they are editing or have clicked on.
This allows everyone to easily see who is working on what. Any edits or comments made by other collaborators are instantly visible to all users in real time. Notably, multiple people can edit the same block simultaneously without any conflict. It reflects the most recent changes made by any collaborator, ensuring that all team members have access to the latest version of the document.
Customization
Notion gives you a long list of pages to adjust and customize to fit your needs. You can limit permissions for various pages, develop entire wikis and add visuals for easy identification. With the wide array of features available, Notion can easily be transformed into any business workflow.
Task tracking and management
Notion offers various task-tracking and management templates that cater to the needs of different individuals, professionals and students. These templates are designed to help you plan, track and prioritize your tasks, providing an organized and productive work environment.
For professionals, there are templates specifically tailored to project management, team collaboration and task delegation. These templates allow you to create tasks, assign them to team members, set deadlines and track progress. Students can benefit from templates that help them stay organized with coursework, assignments and exam preparation. These templates often include features like task categorization, due dates and progress tracking, allowing students to effectively manage their study schedules and stay on top of their academic responsibilities.
Project planning
Notion’s flexibility allows you to create Kanban boards, Gantt charts and other means of viewing project workflows. Team members can also collaborate by sharing project plans, updating progress and communicating in real time through the software.
Resource management
Notion’s database management features allow teams to manage resources easily. You can track workloads, assign tasks and assign resources through Notion’s database. Interlinking is a built-in feature of Notion and allows you to directly link to various tasks and objectives, which allows you to connect them to any project or communicate them to team members through assignments or tasks.
Note taking
The platform provides a blank canvas, where you can create and edit notes using various formatting options and multimedia elements. You can start by creating a new note, giving it a title and then start typing or adding content. You can format the text using different styles, such as headings, bold, italics and underlines to emphasize important points.
Apart from text, you can add media elements like images, videos and audio recordings to your notes. This makes it convenient to include visual aids or reference materials directly within the note. You can either upload media files from your device or embed them using a URL.
Notion’s note-taking feature supports collaborative editing, making it easy for users to work together on a note. Multiple users can simultaneously access, edit and comment on the same note, allowing for real-time collaboration and feedback.
Documents
Within Notion, users can create documents, wikis and notes that are available to everyone. If you have valuable documents for a project, Notion allows you to keep them organized on one platform.
Time tracking
Through the database and templates, it’s possible to log and track the time spent on a task or project. This allows you to monitor and track the productivity of tasks. There are also third-party time-tracking tools you can integrate into Notion for easier use.
Custom workspace
Notion gives you the flexibility to design your workspace based on your preferences and work style. Notion’s custom workspace capability enables you to create your own unique structure, layout and organization system. Notion allows you to create different pages, databases and boards to suit your specific needs. These components can be customized by adding various blocks, formatting and even integrating with other tools and services.
Notion AI
Notion AI offers various features to assist you in getting answers, improving writing and organizing data.
- Q&A: The Q&A feature allows you to ask questions and get the information you need, as Notion AI analyzes the content in a document or database and provides relevant answers.
- Writing assistant: Notion AI provides suggestions for writing assistance and helps you brainstorm ideas and organize thoughts. This feature can be particularly useful when you are looking for inspiration or struggling with writer’s block.
- Auto-filled tables: The auto-filled tables feature helps you turn data into clear, actionable information. Notion AI analyzes the data and automatically fills the tables with relevant information, saving users time and effort in organizing and formatting the data.
You can add Notion AI to your workspace at $8 per member per month billed annually or $10 per member per month billed monthly.
Notion ease of use: 3.7/5
Due to Notion’s versatility, it can be difficult to adjust to at first and it does come with a slight learning curve. Although some of the basic features are easy to pick up at a glance, the more advanced tools can be difficult to utilize and implement for some users.
Notion mobile app
Notion has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. With the Notion mobile app, you can access and edit your Notion workspace on the go, allowing you to stay productive and organized wherever you are — you can create, edit and view notes, tasks and databases. The app supports push notifications and the ability to sync across devices, so any changes you make on your phone will also be reflected on your other devices.
Notion customer service and support: 4.3/5
Notion’s customer service and support features make it easier to navigate some of the more complex aspects of the application.
Notion Academy
Notion Academy is an in-depth resource for learning how to use Notion from its basic to advanced features. Users have access to resources for templates, security provisions and getting started for Enterprise-level plans.
Guides & tutorials
Notion provides various guides and tutorials through its resource page. These guides walk you through specific aspects of Notion for creating workflows and performing various tasks.
Live training
Notion provides live training services to users. This allows you to learn the ins and outs of the software with a knowledgeable individual. You can also hire a trained consultant who can help with navigating the software if you’re looking for more specific work for your project.
Notion pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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Best uses for Notion
Below are some of the best use cases for Notion.
Project planning
Notion’s database and documentation features allow you to plan projects more efficiently. You can assign tasks to people and gather documents to store in one place for all team members to easily view.
Goal tracking
If you have defined project goals and objections, you can use Notion to track them. Charts allow you to track the progress towards your objectives and key results and align with your overall goals for your project.
Knowledge base
Notion serves as a great hub of resources and information. If you’re onboarding new team members or want a convenient way to keep people up to speed, Notion serves as an excellent knowledge base to hold your important documents, previous project workflows and more.
Notion compared to alternatives and competitors
| Notion | Trello | Smartsheet | ClickUp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price (per user month-to-month) | $10 | $6 | $12 | $10 |
| Starting price (per user per month, annually) | $8 | $5 | $9 | $7 |
| Native time tracking | Limited | No | Yes | Yes |
| File storage | 5MB to unlimited | Unlimited | 500MB to unlimited | 100MB to unlimited |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trello
Trello offers a streamlined experience for projects. Its interface is easy to pick up on and it has a very low learning curve. If you want an application with a simpler user interface that you can quickly integrate into your project management workflow, this is a great alternative to consider.
Smartsheet: Best for Spreadsheet
Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-style design is similar to Notion in that it can take some time to adjust to. However, the software is more intuitive and can be easier to learn in a short period of time. If you’re looking for a more simplistic project management solution for smaller projects, Smartsheet may be a better software to consider.
ClickUp
ClickUp offers an array of tools and serves as a great alternative to other visual-based project management software such as Trello. Compared to Notion, ClickUp has fewer features, but its visual boards and tracking features make it a great tool, especially for larger teams with multiple projects that need to be managed.
Notion review methodology
We rated Notion based on the following criteria: pricing, features, ease of use and services. The scores we chose were based on the industry average compared to other popular project management software. We then further determined our ratings based on our hands-on experience as well as data gathered from reviews and other user experiences.
Our hands-on experience with Notion involved creating a project workflow with the application, getting familiar with the user interface and finding ways to assign and share tasks with other users. We took advantage of the resources Notion has to offer for navigating the software and tested the various features for various project workflows.