Notion.so - the free for all workspace

mikho

Got this tip when I was looking for an cloud alternative for evernote.

https://www.notion.so/product

According to their webpage, it replaces products as Confluence, Github Wiki, Trello, Asana, Jira, Google docs and Evernote.

Anyone used it? It is free for personal use. Which indeed will save me a couple of dollars on Evernote and other software.

sahjanivishal

I have very recently started using it to store tutorials URL and create a go-to place for some repetitive basic server tasks, the product is very extensive in its features and while I am only using it as a digital notebook as of now, there are plenty of content creators who swear by and use Notion to manage their workflow.

For e.g.

Naix

I've been using it for a while, so far so good!
Haven't really found the perfect setup yet.
It can get overwhelming as there's so much you can do with it, plus tons of templates and different ways to do things.
I'm using their web app since they don't have a Linux app (Only Mac and Windows), though they do have apps for Android and iOS, which I haven't tried yet.
They bought notion.com domain and they said they will start using it soon AFAIR.
Check out r/notion, great community and you can find a lot of resources, tutorials and templates.
P.S. You get a premium account for free if you signup using an edu email.

Mew

It does kind of everything, but it does nothing exceptionally well. However, it really depends on what you want to do with it.
I'm currently using it to keep track of my projects, linux commands and some notes. From time to time I use it for some basic budgeting and task management (supplementary to Excel and Things).
It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

user123

@Naix @Mew Do you have any idea how it compares to OneNote?

mikho

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

Mew

It really depends on the usecase. Like for example; the app of Notion is super unresponsive and has quite a lot of bugs. So if you plan to take notes on a tablet with it or even handwritten notes, One Note wins hands down. I’m not sure about workflows and projectmanagement in One Note, because I’ve not used it for that purpose.

Naix

@user123 said:
@Naix @Mew Do you have any idea how it compares to OneNote?

No idea, I don't use OneNote.

Naix

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

lentro

Yep, it's pretty cool - at FluidStack, we kinda use it as our internal knowledgebase + task tracking board.

casadebamburojo

@Naix said:

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

+1 to this. It's very lightweight compared to Evernote plus it has the ability to automatically back up your notes to Dropbox.

I use it together with Evernote, with the latter for archiving notes that contains images and for PDF files.

Fritz

Can we get the data if leave them because that is not a hosted product.

seenu

I use notion for almost everything!

planning projects,
writing notes
blog post drafts
saving logins
todo
life goals.

you can do much more like hosting your blog from notion.

notion is one of the products i am really excited using about.

if one is not using notion, definitely they should spend their time on it

real power of notion lies in their template system

this is a small preview of my notion

i keep notion opened as much as chrome!

---

@Fritz said:
Can we get the data if leave them because that is not a hosted product.

they have options to export

Asim

Notion is pretty cool but I use Dropbox Paper (since I already have a dropbox account)

https://paper.dropbox.com/
saves and syncs using DROPBOX

vyas

Some years ago I had published a post on Medium about note taking apps.
https://medium.com/@amarvyas/comparison-of-notes-taking-apps-evernote-onenote-simplenote-zoho-notebooks-15550f3fd11b

Working on an update to it. The market seems to have exploded, with over 35 apps and sites that I can list down :-)

sgheghele

I tried it and enjoyed it, but it’s not compatible with my job privacy-wise, unfortunately. Besides that, my biggest gripe is close to zero offline usage support.

I’m now using https://obsidian.md for notes, drafts, and knowledge management. It’s self-hosted. Project management is also in there supported by imdone.io.

quicksilver03

@Fritz said:
Can we get the data if leave them because that is not a hosted product.

To the best of my knowledge, Notion doesn't have a way to export data nor an API. One group of colleagues has started using it and they're slowly beginning to realize that all the data they added is stuck there.

Fritz

@quicksilver03 said:

@Fritz said:
Can we get the data if leave them because that is not a hosted product.

To the best of my knowledge, Notion doesn't have a way to export data nor an API. One group of colleagues has started using it and they're slowly beginning to realize that all the data they added is stuck there.

Good point. I will need to rethink to use it for my work.

seenu

tldr;

Open Notion
Go to “Settings & Members” in the left panel
Click on “Settings” to bring up the Settings page
Click on “Export All Workspace Content”
Select the export format
Exporting will start, when complete, select where to save exported files and click “Save”

URL https://theproductiveengineer.net/how-to-backup-notion-the-complete-guide-with-video/

sgheghele

@seenu said:
tldr;

Open Notion
Go to “Settings & Members” in the left panel
Click on “Settings” to bring up the Settings page
Click on “Export All Workspace Content”
Select the export format
Exporting will start, when complete, select where to save exported files and click “Save”

URL https://theproductiveengineer.net/how-to-backup-notion-the-complete-guide-with-video/

Yes, I can also attest that you can take out data from Notion. Have done this in the past.

vimalware

I am still not comfortable with my plaintext notes/journal being on a machine/service I don't physically control.

I use Zim wiki. I can literally just sync/backup/transform/re-render the zim folder containing the (plaintex) zim-markup any way I want.
The Unix-way.

Remember, #shitHappens

havoc

Hearing about notion more & more.

I've been burned by proprietary note taking systems before though. The vendor lock in is off the charts if all your knowledge is on it

Busy moving towards a git/md/obsidian combo

vyas

I spent a couple of hours playing around with Simplenote (again) this morning and I am impressed.

Only Zoho notes comes this close IMO

The seamless integration across devices, ability to share (and unshare) a note publicly and import/export of notes as text documents, json, etc. is great. iosApp, Mac App, web browser all work seamlessly. Dark mode helps.

---

Too bad this is a free product. I would have happily paid for it.

flips

@vyas said: Too bad this is a free product. I would have happily paid for it.

Oh, when did it become free? It used to be a pay to avoid ads service, unless you bought plus/premium before that (like I did).

vyas

Paid plans for Simplenote?

flips

@vyas said:
Paid plans for Simplenote?

As I recall, they switched to a subscription to avoid ads (at least on iOS), but those who had already purchased Pro/something stayed ad-free ... (But I haven't paid attention for quite a few years, service works great still.)

vyas

I started compiling a list of note taking apps to update my old post from 2016.

I decided to use Nimbus Notes for this list.
https://nimbusweb.me/s/share/5068547/e7glm3pll91kdplsgg82

To Do :

• Sort by : Free, Freemium, Premium
• Tag if Open Source
• Availability (Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Web..)

I might keep updating the list in days to come and post here

verd

@flips said:

@vyas said: Too bad this is a free product. I would have happily paid for it.

Oh, when did it become free? It used to be a pay to avoid ads service, unless you bought plus/premium before that (like I did).

Seems simplenote is owned by Automattic, wordpress .com owner.

https://simplenote.com/help/#cost
Simplenote is a free service provided by your friends at Automattic.

elliotc

For short notes, I use tiddlywiki and push to github; For long documents, I use hackmd.io, once I complete the writing, I will copy the whole makedown and hexo it.

mikho

I’m a Confluence user and so used to how it works. Page includes, reports.

Haven’t found a similar solution now that they announced that they focus on their SaaS solution.

Mew

@Naix said:

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

vyas

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

Why is paid feature a downside?

Mew

I do not mind paying for features, but the the subscription is not worth the price imho. You can get a MS365 sub for the same price as their montly and yearly plans, which offers more value for your money.
The other important paid feature is 2FA. Not having 2FA can be a real dealbreaker to some people.
Having dark mode and 2FA as standard feature would make it a great app for most people.

vyas

@Mew said:
but the the subscription is not worth the price imho.
Not having 2FA can be a real dealbreaker to some people.

Agree on both counts :-)

_MS_

@Mew said:
Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

Dark theme is now available in the free version.

Naix

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

awesome-standard-notes
There are many extensions (themes and editors), tools and libraries made by the community that you can use for free.
There's also a minimal theme and a guide on how to make your own theme.
Also, their phone apps (at least Android) have an official dark theme.

Mew

@Naix said:

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

awesome-standard-notes
There are many extensions (themes and editors), tools and libraries made by the community that you can use for free.
There's also a minimal theme and a guide on how to make your own theme.
Also, their phone apps (at least Android) have an official dark theme.

Thanks, this was exactly what I was looking for!

sgheghele

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

awesome-standard-notes
There are many extensions (themes and editors), tools and libraries made by the community that you can use for free.
There's also a minimal theme and a guide on how to make your own theme.
Also, their phone apps (at least Android) have an official dark theme.

Thanks, this was exactly what I was looking for!

You can also self-host a sync server and the paid extensions. No need to pay. But I encourage you to sustain them, they are the only real privacy note taking app excluding self-hosted stuff.

vyas

@sgheghele said:

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@Mew said:

@Naix said:

@mikho said:

@Mew said: It cannot replace Evernote for me, simply because they are superior in archiving notes and webpages.

I'm very basic in my usage of Evernote, it is basically a notebook where I add random notes of things done to remember them next time.

If notes is all you need, then I'd recommend StandardNotes.

Only downside I found using StandardNote is that dark mode is a paid feature and I do like dark mode on my writing apps...

awesome-standard-notes
There are many extensions (themes and editors), tools and libraries made by the community that you can use for free.
There's also a minimal theme and a guide on how to make your own theme.
Also, their phone apps (at least Android) have an official dark theme.

Thanks, this was exactly what I was looking for!

You can also self-host a sync server and the paid extensions. No need to pay. But I encourage you to sustain them, they are the only real privacy note taking app excluding self-hosted stuff.

My reasons for paying as well. Sustainable SAAS

jaden

@vyas said:

@sgheghele said:
You can also self-host a sync server and the paid extensions. No need to pay. But I encourage you to sustain them, they are the only real privacy note taking app excluding self-hosted stuff.

My reasons for paying as well. Sustainable SAAS

Same here. The monthly price is far more reasonable if you're willing to go with the 5-year plan. They're having a flash sale right now that works out to $2.11/month. I've been using Standard Notes as my primary notes solution (switched from Google Keep) since early 2019 and I have a few minor complaints, but overall it's been great. Knowing everything's encrypted on the client side is liberating. Plus I've had too many free services disappear on me, so I'm more than happy to pay.

sgheghele

@jaden said:

@vyas said:

@sgheghele said:
You can also self-host a sync server and the paid extensions. No need to pay. But I encourage you to sustain them, they are the only real privacy note taking app excluding self-hosted stuff.

My reasons for paying as well. Sustainable SAAS

Same here. The monthly price is far more reasonable if you're willing to go with the 5-year plan. They're having a flash sale right now that works out to $2.11/month. I've been using Standard Notes as my primary notes solution (switched from Google Keep) since early 2019 and I have a few minor complaints, but overall it's been great. Knowing everything's encrypted on the client side is liberating. Plus I've had too many free services disappear on me, so I'm more than happy to pay.

I don’t even use them actively (waiting for linked notes) and I’m still subscribed. I want them to live and can’t wait to use them fully and exclusively.