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DeNotes vs Notion

Notion is a workspace you assemble. DeNotes is a place to write. If you want databases, shared team pages and a tool you can shape into almost anything, Notion is the better answer. If you mostly want to write and want the result to be plain Markdown files you own, DeNotes is.

What Notion does well

Notion is genuinely powerful. Its blocks and databases can model a CRM, a content calendar, a wiki and a task tracker inside one product, and its collaboration and permissions are built for teams. For a company that wants a single shared surface for everything, very little else comes close.

Where DeNotes is different

That power has a cost, and the cost is that Notion becomes something you maintain. Pages about pages, views about views, a structure that needs decisions before any writing happens. DeNotes has folders, files and notes, and that is the whole model. Your writing is also stored differently: Notion keeps your content as blocks in its own hosted database and can export Markdown on request, while DeNotes writes each note as a Markdown file into your Google Drive as you type, where you can open it without DeNotes at all.

Side by side

Structural differences only. Plans and prices change often enough that comparing them here would go out of date faster than it would help.

DeNotes compared with Notion, feature by feature.
FeatureDeNotesNotion
Note formatPlain Markdown (.md) filesBlocks in a proprietary database, exportable to Markdown
Where notes liveYour own Google Drive, or your deviceNotion's cloud
Reading notes without the appYes, they are files in your DriveAfter an export
Built forOne person writing and thinkingTeams building a shared workspace
Databases and relationsNoYes, extensively
Real-time collaborationNoYes
Setup before you can writeNone, a new file opens its first noteSome, you choose a structure first

Should you use DeNotes or Notion?

Choose Notion

Choose Notion if you work with a team, need databases and relations, or want one tool to hold projects, tasks and documents together.

Choose DeNotes

Choose DeNotes if you write alone, want to open the app and start typing, and want every note to remain a Markdown file in storage you already control.

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