Notion vs TriliumNext Notes

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.

TriliumNext Notes is a free, open-source application for taking notes and maintaining a personal knowledge base. It uses an outliner structure in which notes can be nested hierarchically and placed in multiple locations. Supported note types include text, Markdown, code, spreadsheets, canvases, Mermaid diagrams, mind maps and files. Collections can present the same material as calendars, tables, Kanban boards, geomaps, presentations or dashboards. Full-text search can inspect image and PDF text through OCR. Notes can be imported from Markdown, HTML and OPML and exported to those formats. Self-hosted or cloud instances synchronize across devices and provide mobile browser access through a PWA; no official mobile app is provided. JavaScript supports widgets and scheduled or event-driven scripts. Optional AI connections use your own provider keys. Protected notes use AES-128 CBC, while metadata remains unencrypted. The software is designed for one user, not simultaneous shared editing.