Notion by Notion Labs Inc.

I've tried Evernote, OneNote, Roam, Obsidian, and plain text files. Notion is the first tool that actually bends to my workflow instead of forcing me into theirs. The database views (table, board, calendar, list) on the same data is a game-changer. I manage my entire life in here — content calendar, habit tracker, project docs, meeting notes, even my recipe collection.

The learning curve is real though. Spent my first weekend just watching YouTube tutorials and building templates. But once it clicks, it's incredibly powerful. Mobile app has improved a lot — used to be unusable, now it's solid for quick capture.

Only real complaint: large workspaces get slow. My team's 500+ page workspace takes 3-4 seconds to load sometimes. And offline mode is still basically non-existent.

As a solo user? 5 stars. For a team of 12? 2 stars. The permission model is confusing — page-level permissions don't inherit intuitively, and we constantly have people accidentally editing things they shouldn't. Comments get lost in long pages. No native threading on comments makes discussions messy.

The API is decent but rate limits are tight. We built a custom integration to sync with our CRM and hit limits constantly. Support is responsive but often just links to docs.

Pricing jumped from $8 to $10/user/month for teams. For what we get, it's getting hard to justify vs. Coda or even Google Docs + Sheets.

I'm a researcher and I live in Notion databases. The ability to create a database, then view it as a kanban board for workflow, a calendar for deadlines, a gallery for visual reference, and a list for details — all from the same data — is something no other tool does this well. Relations and rollups between databases let me build a proper personal CRM.

Formula property is surprisingly powerful. I've built automated tagging, progress tracking, even a simple budgeting system. It's basically Airtable with better writing experience.

Tip: Start with templates. Don't try to build from scratch. The community templates (Notion Everything, Thomas Frank, etc.) save weeks of setup.

The aesthetic is undeniable. Clean, minimal, satisfying to use. But fragility is the word. Sync issues between desktop and mobile. Blocks disappearing. Whole pages reverting to old versions. I've lost work multiple times.

Export is a mess — PDF export breaks on complex pages, Markdown export loses formatting and database content. If you ever want to leave Notion, good luck getting your data out cleanly.

Also, no end-to-end encryption. For personal notes, fine. For sensitive client work? Hard pass. They've been "working on it" for years.

Still use it daily because the UX is that good. But I keep backups in Obsidian now.

Canceled my Trello, Airtable, Google Keep, Todoist, and Confluence subscriptions. Notion does all of it. The kanban boards aren't as polished as Trello but they're 90% there and integrated with my notes. The database replaces Airtable for my use cases. Tasks with due dates and reminders replaced Todoist.

Free plan is generous — unlimited pages and blocks for personal use. Only pay if you need team features or file uploads >5MB.

Best $0 I spend on software monthly.