Notion aims to present users with an all-in-one workspace — for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases, from Notion Labs in San Francisco.
$5
per month per user
OneNote
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's OneNote is a digital note-taking app, supporting photos, annotating, web page clipping, emailing, and synchronizing notes across devices.
N/A
Pricing
Notion
OneNote
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Plus
$12
per month per user
Business
$24
per month per user
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Microsoft OneNote
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Notion
OneNote
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
A discount is offered for annual billing.
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Notion
OneNote
Considered Both Products
Notion
Verified User
Engineer
Chose Notion
I've never used OneNote, but i friend of mine did, and she told me that actually OneNote it's better for studies, cause it has a open drawing board so it's better to organize our thoughts. Even if i find those two tools similar, they have different purposes, but i think it …
Notion provides the most organisation by way of being a "digital brain". The other softwares (i.e. OneNote, Google Drive, Milanote) aren't as robust in the organisation of these documents and the levels of managing files and pages. Notion feels like a communal digital notebook …
While I have not used OneNote since 2022, I can say that it got the "binder" organization completely right. I loved bucketing my work into those notebooks, with tabs containing all the subdomains. Notion keeps that momentum going, with the welcomed addition of rich multimedia …
Notion is far superior to OneNote. OneNote is unnecessarily complex and quite constrained by 'old ways' of doing things. Notion is a more simplistic interface and just 'works'.
While Microsoft has a great productivity suite that most will be able to use just fine, having everything under a single executable and not having to jump between multiple windows is always a plus to me. Additionally, both programs lack the robust, customizable nature Notion …
The other competitors all offer valuable content management tools however Notion exceeds expectations when it comes to ease of use, accessibly, versioning, structuring, integrations, and the list goes on. I have used several different tools during my career in the tech industry …
The beauty of Notion is on how to best use databases, I populate all I need in one place and then I have the flexibility to adjust views as I need in a matter of seconds, I can save meeting notes, documents, project status, websites, all in one place. I can have a nice Gantt …
While Notion lacks the depth of the formulas of Coda and is less ideal for something more resembling a web application, it compensates with a generous free tier, very usable mobile app (full editing) and clean styling.
Airtable is not suitable for wiki-style document management, …
OneNote has its strength rooted in the ability to create and manage notes whereas some of the other players in the market address more niche needs, such as Notion. OneNote absolutely can facilitate note taking, semantic organization, sharing and collaboration, but if you are …
At the company I work for, we use Notion as an organizational base for all sectors and projects. For example, we use it for the marketing team, customer support team, among others. And for each one, we can create pipelines, tasks, due dates, execution time, tags with different colors. It's something very versatile that helps with everything around here. We've even created a sales funnel in Notion.
In my opinion OneNote is a must for anyone who does business. It’s versatile, stable and sustainable. It can keep private information private - like passwords. It can be used for collaborative work - like standard operating procedures. It is fairly easy to use and far superior to pen and paper. When used for meeting notes, it can be flagged with icons that are searchable - like ideas or important items. You can even create Outlook tasks on the fly
Because of its flexibility and ability to hold different types of content (text, images, tables), it is a great tool for collecting content from different resources and organizing it in one place.
Technical support analysts are using sections for their support case analysis; they paste pieces of logs, screen-shots, document their steps in troubleshooting etc., all in one section, to get the full picture yet stay organized.
The logic of content structure; Notebook>Section>Page>Paragraph, allows you to manage and collect all needed information by the areas of the user's responsibility. For example; each of my projects has its own section, in which each page is a task.
I use Notion on my personal tablet, and unlike on the computer, I have a lot of difficulty editing backgrounds, GIFs, and page dividers. It's not as user-friendly, and often the elements end up cut off or misaligned, which is frustrating.
While the current calendar feature is helpful, I'd love to see more customization options. The Google Calendar style isn't always ideal, especially for tasks without specific times or for ongoing projects that require daily maintenance.
It would be fantastic to have more flexibility in customizing Notion pages. For example, I'd love to create planners with the freedom to add illustration boxes, stickers, or GIFs without being restricted to a fixed layout.
The table editing tools are too simplistic and lack the features found in other Office products.
Some content loses its rich text formatting when being pasted into OneNote. A workaround is to paste the content first into Outlook or Word and then copy/pasting that into OneNote.
Microsoft is moving away from a local install of OneNote, which means notebooks have to be in the cloud in Office 2019. This will actually reduce the usefulness of OneNote in some environments and opens the door to competitor products.
Update: Microsoft has now announced that it will continue to support OneNote 2016 through 2023. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Your-OneNote/ba-p/954922
As this is not a compulsory tool in our organization, I would say all depends on the decision makers, however since this is a part of MS Office, I am sure we will have it for as long as we will possibly need it. However, I would not be so sure, if it was a separate product
Notion addresses most of our needs and help teams to organize their tasks, track their progresses and then archive for future reference. The company uses Notion to share announcement, holiday schedules, employee contact information and organizational structures. Everyone finds it useful and helpful. The notifications are instant. Reminders are on time.
I find OneNote incredibly usable. I'm fairly middle of the road when it comes to tech savvy-ness. The platform was very easy to learn and explore. I like that OneNote is no clunky and offers a clean interface. This is important when it comes to deciding if a tool is usable for multiple people.
Overall, I rate OneNote's performance highly. In general, notebooks, sections and pages load quickly. OneNote integrates with other apps and info ca easily be shared/copied to and from the tool to other tools. Moreover, Notebooks tend to sync quickly meaning shared notebooks are up to date almost immediately provided there are no syncing issues.
Since it is part of Microsoft Office and used across the globe there are a lot of support options available. It's quickest to just do a google search which will have plenty of articles to help you since there are so many OneNote users but as an Office customer you also have access to Microsoft support and I have had good experiences with their support (probably because I'm with a large company who is a large customer to them).
Jira is a great tool, that is probably more robust than Notion and more scalable. But for a small company (under 50 people) the investment is hard to swallow without a significant revenue stream justifying it. Notion is a perfect low cost option that meets 80% of the capability, and that extra 20% is not needed by most organizations.
I tried using Evernote and it is an equally usable tool, however, I prefer the interface and capabilities of OneNote. OneNote seems much easier to use and understand. I think that may primarily be because OneNote is a Microsoft application and I am very used to using Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, etc. I also use OneNote to keep my grocery list. It does as good of a job as the grocery list applications out there, only I like the flexibility I have with OneNote and how I specifically do my shopping.
The first positive impact of using Notion is saving time and increased productivity. Since switching to Notion, I spend less time searching for notes, tasks, or messy documents. Everything is in one place, making my workflow at least 30% more efficient compared to using multiple apps.
The second positive impact is a better organization (and it leads to fewer missed business opportunities). Before Notion, it was easy to lose track of ideas, follow-ups, or small tasks. Now, I rarely forget important details, which has led to more consistent execution of projects and fewer last-minute rushes.
Because Notion’s free plan has been more than enough for my needs, using the free plan has another positive impact on ROI for me. If I had to replace it with separate tools for note-taking, task management, and project planning, I’d likely spend $10–$30 per month on multiple subscriptions.
Although they are very few, Notion has some negative impacts or limitations on ROI. I think the most important one is the offline mode issues can interrupt productivity. There have been times when I needed to access an important document while traveling or in a meeting with poor internet and couldn't. This led to delays or extra effort to work around the issue.
While Notion is fantastic for organizing work, it's not a full replacement for spreadsheets, collaborative docs, or task management software in all cases. This means I still need to use some other apps for specific tasks, which slightly reduces the efficiency gain.
If I need to give some figures; Notion helps me at least 3-5 hours per week to save time; $10–$30 per month by not needing multiple apps. Even with some limitations, Notion has had a net positive impact on my productivity, organization, and overall efficiency, all at zero cost!
OneNote has become our organizational standard method of taking electronic notes (though some still prefer pen and paper.) It has been a zero cost outlay due to its freely available nature.
Its integration with other Microsoft Office products makes it easy to share notes and content between products, allowing for easy collaboration where needed.
OneNote's integration with OneDrive ensures that individual's notes are always safe and secure, taking away the tedious responsibility of backup from the user, and makes it happen seamlessly in the background.
