TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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.

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: 7.1

  • Scheduling

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

    Category average: 7.6

  • Workflow Automation

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

    Category average: 6.8

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

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

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

Notion Review

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Notion to manage our client processes. It allows us to organize each client's workflow by mapping out the necessary tasks and their respective deadlines. We can see what needs to be done for each client, whether any tasks are overdue, and organize ourselves to ensure good service and smooth progress for every case.

Notion also enables effective self-management of time and tasks, allowing team members to keep track of everything, avoid forgetting important items, and increase both personal and project productivity.

Pros

  • Organization
  • Productivity
  • New Tools
  • Customer Support

Cons

  • More automation
  • Fewer bugs

Return on Investment

  • possibility to manage our team
  • gave us the chance to reach more customers
  • enabled us to reach new projects

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Asana

Other Software Used

Intercom, Microsoft Teams

Simple note taking that just makes sense

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Notion is primarily used for personal note taking and documentation. This could be for meeting minutes, project planning or just general day to day notes. Typically mostly for things that don't require formal documentation that is to be distributed.

It is easily accessible across various devices (desktop/ mobile), which makes it ideal for moments that require quick access.

Pros

  • Simple design
  • Smart shortcuts
  • Easy organisation

Cons

  • Sometimes it relies too heavily on shortcuts for formatting, which can make it hard if you don't know / recall them.
  • 'space' for AI commands is a bit aggressive and I often end up accidentally triggering it when I don't intend to.

Return on Investment

  • Centralises note taking and increases access outside of individuals various ways of taking notes
  • Increased knowledge base / sharing of organisation

Usability

Alternatives Considered

OneNote

Other Software Used

DaVinci Resolve, Google Gemini, Trello

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