Notion vs Org mode

Notion is a cloud workspace for organising personal projects and coordinating work. Its pages, blocks, and databases support note sharing and real-time collaboration, and offline access is available. It runs on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, with a Chrome extension also listed. Connections include Slack, Google Drive, Figma, GitHub, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Notion supports semantic search, AI search or answers, and version history. The Free plan costs $0 per member per month and includes trial AI capabilities and a trial of Notion AI. Free uploads are limited to 5 MB per file, multi-member Free workspaces have a limited number of blocks, and external guests are limited to 10. Plus costs $10 per member per month, and Business costs $20 per member per month; yearly payment saves up to 20%. Paid plans list unlimited guests. Notion says data is encrypted and private, and that Notion AI does not use customer data to train models unless users opt in. Enterprise workspaces get zero data retention with LLM providers.

Org mode is a structured plain-text format and a mode for GNU Emacs, suited to work ranging from notes and markup to literate programs. It combines task planning, time tracking, document editing and publishing. Tasks can have TODO states, priorities, deadlines, schedules and tags, with clocking and customizable agendas. Org documents use nested sections that can be folded or unfolded, and tables support formulas, references, and CSV or TSV imports. Org Babel runs source blocks in more than 80 languages. Documents can be exported to formats such as HTML, LaTeX, ODT and Markdown, and projects with multiple Org files and resources can be published. Org Capture collects structured information from Emacs and other applications, including browsers and PDF viewers. The full feature set is exclusive to GNU Emacs, though third-party file tools are listed for Android, iOS and web. Org is free, included with GNU Emacs, and also installable through package management or its Git repository. Recent releases require a recent Emacs version.