Notion

What it is

Notion is a workspace combining documents, databases, wikis and light project management, where every page can contain structured data as well as text.

Its strength is that it becomes whatever you build, which is also its risk: people spend more time designing their Notion than using it.

I use it as the documentation layer for my business: processes, client notes, content plans, research. Tasks live elsewhere.

What it does

Documents with rich formatting, embeds and nesting, which is enough for most business writing and considerably better than a folder of Word files.

Databases with multiple views, filters and relations, so a list of clients can also be a board, a calendar and a filtered report of the same records.

Templates for recurring documents, which is where the real time saving is: a client onboarding page created from a template with every field already there.

AI features summarise, draft and search across your workspace, and the search is the genuinely useful part.

Who it's for

Features

Pros and cons

Pricing

The free tier covers individual use completely. AI features are a separate per-user charge, which is worth trialling before committing.

Alternatives

My verdict

Notion is where I keep everything my business knows: processes, client research, content plans, prices. The searchable wiki is the value, and the databases make it more useful than any documentation tool I have used.

The trap is real. Notion rewards tinkering, and I have watched people build elaborate systems that document nothing. Three templates and a habit of writing things down beats any structure.

Keep tasks somewhere else. Notion's task management is adequate and a dedicated tool is better, and mixing them is how the workspace becomes a project in itself.

Who should use it

Who should avoid it

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