Notion Review. It Is Now One Of The Most Popular Tools Among Writing Apps.

Notion

Notion, a writing app that properly targets Evernote

Notion has become a fairly popular tool in Silicon Valley. Of course, that was the case when I first wrote about it, and now, a few revisions later, it’s already a fairly popular tool. Basically, it seems to develop the web version first, but it supports Windows, Android, and iOS versions. The more I used it, I couldn’t help but think that it reminded me a lot of Evernote, as the official website explains. The sad part is that the developers don’t seem to care about OneNote at all… Anyway, I’ll write it down one by one.

Notion, a writing app that properly targets Evernote

I like Notion because it has a perfect writing function.

It’s hard for latecomers to catch up on this part.

Notion has a clean interface overall. Of course, a clean interface is a requirement for most writing apps. But what I like most about Notion here is that it’s heavily optimized for writing. To put it bluntly, out of all the apps I’ve used and will use, Notion is my favorite for writing. First, it’s a block style, which makes it easy to organize your post formatting.

This is the block style, and the quality varies from tool to tool, but even the block editor in WordPress has been improved a lot now, so it’s pretty good and fast, but I still feel bad comparing it to Notion. It’s hard to put into words, but in a nutshell, notions are much faster and more flexible. The Block Editor is really… I still use it pretty well, but…

In addition, I am still a little clumsy, so there is a limit to creating documents that look like something, but if you look at the official site or official YouTube, you can make more diverse documents as your skills (?) improve. The formatting is simple, and the post formatting flows out from the left side of the block, which is better for people like me who don’t use keyboard shortcuts as much.

The Block Editor, for example, uses a fixed formatting area at the top of the screen, and this can be very distracting and time-consuming to navigate around. Notions lose little of their focus as you write, change formatting, etc. I’ve asked the block editor to do this as well, and it still hasn’t changed, so maybe this is a technicality.

And it’s not just formatting this and that, but if you look at YouTube above, you can change the placement of things in your own way, and if you use a database or something, you can create a more colorful screen. They subtly emphasize that you can create personal wikis; certainly, other software doesn’t make it easy to create personal wikis or knowledge bases. I think it has some appeal. I like it because it has so many features and so much freedom.

One of the big features of Notion is that it’s aimed at Evernote as a whole.

But now, it actually beats Evernote with its own personality…

Notion is a heavily Evernote-conscious app. Not only does it look great, but it also supports moving notes from Evernote (and, of course, Word and other document formats too). They don’t just “support” it, they give you a credit for moving your notes from Evernote so you can use the paid version of Notion for a month or two. There’s also a Web Clipper feature, which I think is pretty Evernote-conscious considering it because it’s one of the critical features of Evernote. Of course, they also give credit for using the web clipper. It’s nice to seduce Evernote users with the right bait…

And it’s priced at $4/month for a personal annual subscription, which is about the same price point as Evernote, so I think they are on the right track too. The difference is that Evernote does a lot of sneaky discounts, while Notion doesn’t. What about Black Friday? I haven’t used it that long yet… It’s also worth noting that both $4 plans are for individual power users. It can be said to be a very good factor for individual users like me.

At the time I wrote this article, Notion was a little expensive, but the popularity of Notion has led to a complete overhaul of its pricing, making it virtually accessible for individual users. Oh… I also thought, “It’s good to improve the cost-performance ratio, but they will operate the service just because there are many users?” But there was a secret weapon called Notion AI in line with the recent trend.

However, it’s expensive, as you’ll have to spend an extra $8 monthly for those who pay for it. Meanwhile, with the disappearance of the Personal plan mentioned above, the Plus version is now $8 per month on an annualized basis, which means you’ll have to pay at least $16 per month to use Notion AI, so your rival is not Evernote, but Roam Research, which costs $15 per month. Is that what they’re pricing in?

I like that Notion is fully functional for home users too.

It’s pricey for the real pros but has some excellent features.

I mentioned earlier that the personal plan is available for $4/month, but there’s no functionality difference between the other plans, except for collaboration-related features. I mentioned it briefly in the previous paragraph, but I think it’s pretty important. I’ve been experimenting with different services, and surprisingly, there is not a lot of software that has full support for personal use.

They designed most of these tools for teams or organizations, and the cheapest plans may exclude some features. Therefore, the Personal plan in Evernote or Notion can be personalized in its own way, and I think Notion is better for individuals like me who will spend some money on a wonderful service.

Of course, the above explanation is outdated. However, the cost-performance ratio is still good, so it is suitable for individual users to use it for free, and those who use pro features or use Notion AI can use the pro version for a slightly higher price, so I would say that we have separated the customer base well.

Notions also have their drawbacks, but they’re getting better step by step.

When I first started using notions, they had a huge drawback. The problem was that it was ridiculously slow on the Android version. It’s not slow all the time, but I’ve noticed that it’s really crazy slow when I reboot my phone and turn it on for the first time, or when I open an app for the first time in a while. I initially thought the app was broken. Sometimes I’ve been stuck with the logo for over a minute and the screen hasn’t moved on, so I’ve had to turn it off and on again to get the app to open appropriately.

I’m not sure how long I’ve been using Notions, but it’s been like this for a long time. If you look at Android reviews, you may see that many people, including me, complain about it… However, with this year’s update, Android has become much faster. Personally, the app opens in about 7 seconds at the latest. If you’re willing to wait a bit, the app will open, so you can see that it’s quite a bit faster. To be honest, I didn’t really want to use Notion until this update, but I really like it these days.

And in terms of speed, I don’t have any complaints anymore, but what I was a little disappointed with Notion is that the writing-related features are really the best, but when it comes to creating simple notes or managing trivial notes, I felt a little disappointed, and it’s a pity that I need a little more flexibility in this area because I can’t change the database features (table, board) of a new note to something else once I create it.

Notion has a lot of competitors, but it still has a lot going for it.

There is a lot of project management software like Asana, Monday, or Trello, or note-taking software like milanote or Bear, or traditional Evernote or OneNote. Still, I think Notion has found its place in the market because it has a distinct personality. There aren’t a lot of blocky editors out there (or maybe they are blocky, but they don’t look like it), and I wonder if Notion inspired WordPress. As I mentioned in the beginning, I wish they could absorb more of the advantages of them… Actually; they have to absorb a lot… Hmm…

There are some people who feel uneasy because there are many cases where services created by such startups are unexpectedly ruined or have slow development apart from performance, but Notion is popular, so I don’t think you need to worry about that right away. I don’t think there is an official blog, but I think they are communicating with their customers to some extent. I’d like to see it get better in the future. When I make more money, I’ll be able to afford Notion Personal without too much trouble, but I’d like to see it in a better light.