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Notion

Score8.7 out of 10

863 Reviews and Ratings

What is Notion?

Notion aims to present users with an all-in-one workspace — for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases, from Notion Labs in San Francisco.

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Videos

Top Performing Features

  • Gantt Charts

    Gantt charts are charts that show tasks or events along the y-axis displayed against time along the x-axis.

    Category average: 6.9

  • Scheduling

    Scheduling capabilities allow users to set schedules on tasks, and create timelines and milestones.

    Category average: 7.3

  • Workflow Automation

    Workflow automation is the ability to route work requests along an approval process automatically.

    Category average: 6.6

Areas for Improvement

  • Integrates with Google Drive

    Integrates with Google's cloud storage platform, Google Drive.

    Category average: 6.2

  • Integrates with Outlook

    Integrates with Microsoft Outlook to tie in email threads.

    Category average: 9.3

  • Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts

    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts.

    Category average: 6.2

Pros

  • Strong organizational capabilities for both professional and personal use.
  • Effective centralization of information and documentation.
  • Streamlines team communication and collaboration.

Cons

  • Performance can be slow with large databases or on under-resourced devices.
  • Formatting and editing features are limited compared to dedicated office suites.
  • Reliance on shortcuts can be cumbersome for some users.

Notion - Powering Wikis and SoPs

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We leverage Notion as an internal Wiki and to centrally manage all of our SoPs. We had previously used it as a broader productivity and communications platform within our organization but found that it was almost too flexible. Pairing it back to be our Wiki and hub for SoPs has helped keep everything centralized. It's easy for the team to manage and edit.

Pros

  • Internal Wiki
  • Managing internal documentation
  • Drag and drop experience
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • It's almost too flexible at times
  • More controls to restrict how pages / content / dashboards can be structured

Return on Investment

  • Stopped using Google Drive and moved everything into Notion making it easier to create, find and update content
  • Migrated more than 500 internal Wiki Documents and SoPs that govern all of our operations.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Google Drive

Other Software Used

Twilio, Apollo.io, Playwise HQ

Flexible and Customizable Tool

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've used Notion on and off for years to keep my marketing business organized, and help clients understand project scope, progress, and deliverables. I also use it to organize contractors and keep people aligned with goals.
Notion's customizability is a big help, since each of my projects is bespoke to the client's needs.

Pros

  • Customizable
  • Affordable
  • Easy to share

Cons

  • Better how-to onboarding walkthrough
  • Walkthrough videos for most popular functions
  • Links can be glitchy

Return on Investment

  • Allowed me to onboard several contractors and employees for a marketing client
  • Allowed me to make custom content management system for a marketing client
  • Allowed me to track project expenses all in one place

Usability

Alternatives Considered

ClickUp, Asana and Google Tasks

Other Software Used

ClickUp, Asana, Google Drive

Almost perfect, but not there yet - Notion.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

1. Knowledge management - All technical, non-technical, legal, or otherwise documents written and stored on Notion. 2. High-level project and product management - Product planning for the quarter happens on Notion, as we usually write down the high-level work items we pick up and prioritize. This is also helpful as the product plan is circulated among the different teams at the companies. 3. Meeting notes - Rough meeting notes and associated recordings are always added to notion trackers to keep track of important meetings and decisions. 4. Customer release notes or customer trackers - Any deliverable we might have for customers, or if we want to track the onboarding process of any customers, the project management is done on Notion by the CSM team.

Pros

  • Project and task management.
  • Knowledge base management.
  • Formatting of documents is easy and beautiful.
  • Export / import of markdown is great.

Cons

  • AI integration - very mediocre implementation, and it doesn't work very well.
  • Clunky and slow desktop/mobile apps - very slow to load large tables.
  • No support for whiteboarding /wireframing.

Return on Investment

  • Onboarding time has significantly reduced, possibly up to 70-80%, as new joinees can just be shared required notion documents.
  • It isn't great for project management because of its clunky and slow UI, so we used something else for task and project management on a granular level.
  • Great for document collaboration and writing collaborative product specs.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Atlassian Confluence

Other Software Used

Slack, FigJam

Versatile Tool

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As head of operations, I organized the company's entire control through Notion. We use it to organize tasks, sectors, pipelines, customer cases, and more. Basically, Notion is a Lego that we can create as we wish. In addition, we use the visualizations for timelines, planning, viewing results, monitoring customer stages, defining projects, and organizing teams. There is also the possibility of creating customized formulas with dependencies on other columns, which is very useful for the company I work for.

Pros

  • Organization
  • define projects

Cons

  • Project copy and paste bugs
  • cumulative sum

Return on Investment

  • we can plan projects in an organized way
  • we structure sectors through the platform

Usability

Alternatives Considered

ClickUp and Atlassian Jira

Other Software Used

Intercom, Slack, HubSpot CRM

Capable of good surprise in legal world

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As part of a legal team, I personally use Notion to organize internal legal documentation, maintain case trackers, and create structured repositories for research memos. More than any one else, I use Notion as my personal tracker for tasks and timesheet.
Rest of the team also uses it, but not nearly to my extent.

Pros

  • Easy to collect meeting notes and organize and categorize them
  • DD checklists for reference
  • Knowledge management - research memos, sources

Cons

  • Task and time tracking - slow app, time tracking is difficult to execute.
  • No granular access control (like view-only for external counsel, or restricted edit access per section)
  • We primarily work on office suite, but Notion does a decent job in collaboration. But it offers a lot less control over formatting like office does.
  • Very limited export options for documents.

Return on Investment

  • Able to collate personal and team knowledge and learnings across deals
  • I am not losing on my salary because of Notion's overall help in me time tracking across deals and projects.

Usability

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, OneDrive