Craft vs. Notion: Which is best? [2024]

Every time I sneeze, it seems like there's a new "must-have" get-work-done app on the tip of everyone's tongue. Craft and Notion have both been around for several years, and both are designed to help you get more done, collaborate with your team, and generally organize everything in your work and/or life.

But which one is right for you?

I've used Notion for years, and it's honestly good at most things, with active updates leading to new features all the time. I'm newer to using Craft, but it solves many of the minor quibbles I have about Notion. So, I spent the last few weeks comparing them head-to-head to determine which is the best work/life/everything app.

Craft vs. Notion at a glance

Here's a quick comparison of these two apps, but keep reading for more details about the features of each and my experience using them. Or scroll to the end for a summary of which app is (probably) best for you.

Craft is easier to get started with right away, but Notion is more flexible

While both apps offer help docs and tutorials—and Notion has a particularly robust community—Craft is easier to use straight away. It feels more familiar with its document-style interface and folder organization in the sidebar on the left. Simply open a new document, and start typing.

That means Craft is better suited to folks who work more with traditional text documents and need a central place to keep everything organized. Yes, you can add media files and attachments, cross-link documents, and add smart features like blocks and document templates—but at the end of the day, Craft pages act more like documents.

Notion pages, on the other hand, can be a dashboard, a document, a spreadsheet, and a calendar, among other options. And the databases (more on them later) make it feel like you're combining all the features of a spreadsheet and document. It's also more customizable: lay out pages however you want, instead of sticking to Craft's vertical document-focused layout.

But all that customization comes with a steeper learning curve. It took me a while to learn how to drag blocks around in Notion without messing up the rest of my page and to set up databases the way I wanted them to work. Once you learn, though, Notion is just as easy to use from then on—and you can create really unique, functional pages that aren't really possible in Craft, like this database-driven task calendar.

Both apps have solid AI features; Notion's work better out of the box but cost extra

Both apps have some great time-saving AI tools built in, but I give the edge to Notion if you use AI for content creation tasks. 

For example, I asked both apps to generate text based on what I'd already written on the page. This is what Craft came up with.

It's not bad, but it doesn't sound like something I'd write myself. It's generic.

Notion's AI impressed me when I asked it to write a social media post based on existing content on the page. Here's the output.

Notion AI took in more of the sentence structure style I usually write with, included some specific examples, and put together a cohesive paragraph of content with a beginning, middle, and end. Pretty decent for AI content at the click of a button.

I'm sure with some prompt engineering, Craft's AI could also generate on-brand content I like, but I found Notion's AI to be faster with better results in this test.

Both apps have AI capabilities beyond generating content, too. You can translate text, summarize notes, explain concepts, suggest headlines or hashtags, estimate how long something will take to read—and even ask questions about your docs.

Worth noting: Notion's AI tools cost an extra $10/member/month (more than the Notion plan itself, in some cases), while Craft includes it (with limits) on all of its plans.

Notion databases are better for planning work

You can add a database anywhere on a Notion page, and crucially, you can display the information from a database in multiple ways by creating linked views—without changing the source data. Your databases can be viewed as calendars, lists, galleries, tables, Kanban-style boards, or timelines.

For example, you might leave the parent database as a table with rows of tasks, but create linked views to display the due dates for those tasks in a calendar, or group them by the status field in a Kanban board, or feature the image from each item in a gallery display. Linked views make Notion databases so flexible for nearly any need, from project planning to building visual brand boards or even planning a trip.

Here's an example using a database about a trip I'm planning. Each activity is a database item linked to a district and tagged with a day of the week, among other custom attributes. This information is all stored in one database, but I can organize it effectively by adding multiple views on one page: a gallery view for the districts and a Kanban board for the activity plan, sorted by day of the week.

It sounds complicated, but like I said, once you learn how Notion databases work, it only takes a few minutes to set something like this up. If you're a big nerd who loves spreadsheets but wishes they looked prettier, Notion is for you.

When you combine Notion's database functionality with a Team plan, you can manage project tasks, timelines, briefs, due dates, and work assignments easily from one database with multiple linked views connected to it. There are even custom fields, and you can create templates, so you're not starting from scratch every time. There are plenty of official and unofficial Notion work planning templates available to get this up and running quickly for your whole team.

Craft is no slouch when it comes to organization—it has plenty of formatting and media insertion options to make gorgeous looking documents—but it's just not the same level of functionality as Notion's database options, especially for team project management.

Craft is better at organizing writing projects

If getting words out is your main goal, Craft provides the quickest route for doing so: open up a document and go. The outline summary that automatically appears from the headings in your document is a nice feature for keeping longer documents on track. There's also a focus mode that gets rid of the sidebars, so it's just you, the page, and your words. Plus, auto–dark mode is a gift to all writers' eyeballs when in our natural nocturnal habitat.

My favorite organizational tool in Craft is the ability to make a task list inside each document in the sidebar. Once you use it, you can't go back to other writing apps. Add notes to yourself about edits to make or research to do without cluttering up your document or having to switch over to another notes or to-do list app. Genius.

That's not to say you can't write in Notion. A blank page in Notion is similar to a blank page in Craft if text is your goal: you can add, remove, and move blocks of content around the page, format headings and subheadings, and of course, type your heart out.

But when it comes time to find that thing you wrote last month, unless you have a good organizational process in Notion already, that can get rough. It just feels easier to lose track of random pages in Notion. Craft also has a super speedy and robust search.

I enjoy that both apps feature this little hover-y bar to quickly format any text you've selected without having to open a menu or click to the sidebar. They have essentially the same options, with Notion's adding a spot to access AI, which is a nice touch.

Honestly, in my purely aesthetic-based, vibe-y opinion, writing in Craft feels better. The one case I'd recommend Notion over Craft for writing projects is if price is a concern: Notion's free plan for individuals allows unlimited pages, whereas Craft's free plan limits you to 10 documents.

Notion is better for a second brain

Notion started gaining popularity a few years ago with productivity-conscious folks who use it as a "second brain" setup. The term second brain is often attributed to Tiago Forte, who writes and teaches about using tech to enhance productivity.

A second brain is basically a system that collects all your thoughts, research, tasks, to-dos, reference documents, and more—everything that would otherwise be floating around your squishy, pink human brain—and organizes these items to be easily referenced any time you need them.

Notion's combination of structure and flexibility makes it perfect for using as a second brain: add as many pages and sections as you want, including databases to track tasks or organize favorite articles and websites, complete with custom tagging and sorting to find anything you need when you need it. Here's a peek into my Notion second brain, which is almost as vacant as my first brain.

Besides the ability to sort and store information, Notion also allows for a lot of aesthetic customization. A popular way to organize a second brain in Notion is to have a main dashboard page linking out to other sections, sorted by life area, like personal, work, and home. There are all sorts of templates online with themed dashboard layouts ready for you to make your own. Many have exciting extra features, like Spotify playlists, displaying daily weather, or counting down to a specific date.

Sure, you could create folders to organize all the parts of your life in Craft, too, but it wouldn't be as effective for informational storage and retrieval as Notion's database functionality. (Or as pretty—let's be honest.)

Craft is better for offline work

Notion doesn't offer proper automatic offline syncing. There, I said it.

To me, this is a fatal flaw. While I spend 99% of my life connected to Wi-Fi or data, there are at least a handful of moments a year when either the power goes out or I feel like working on a plane. (And, no, I refuse to pay $29.95+ for 90 seconds of in-air internet access, thx.)

Because I can already hear my rabid Notion-using friends lighting torches outside, I'll mention that you can still work offline with Notion, but the process is cumbersome. In order to minimize data loss or conflicts, you need to open the pages you want to edit on your device while you still have data to ensure the latest version syncs to your device. Once offline, make your edits. Your changes will sync to the cloud once you're connected again if you remember to open the app up. (Will you remember? Really? Because I definitely won't.)

If you edit pages offline that you either didn't have the latest version of on your device, or were edited by someone else while you were offline, there can be syncing problems when you're back online again. This can be especially disastrous for teams working on the same pages.

The non-automated syncing of Notion means you need to know exactly what you want to work on during an offline period, open those pages before you go offline, and then only change those pages until you're online again. I don't know about you, but that is a level of prep that either isn't always possible, or that I just don't want to do… and don't have to do with Craft.

With Craft, this isn't a problem as all your work syncs in the background, so it's ready to jump back into from any device. As long as your device had data and a few moments to sync before you entered The Twilight Zone, you'll be able to access all the latest document versions from your offline device. Work to your heart's content, knowing all your changes will automatically sync back to the cloud once you're back on Wi-Fi—including ironing out conflicts automatically.

I tested this out by having Craft open on my desktop and turning on airplane mode on my iPad. I edited a document on the offline iPad and on the desktop computer. When I turned data back on the iPad, the changes synced right away, and both my offline and online edits were merged in the document. It's so much easier and more reliable than Notion's offline syncing.

Notion is better for automating tasks and workflows

Craft doesn't slack when it comes to quick workflows. Anywhere within a document, you can type / to bring up the menu, allowing you to insert media, format text, use AI commands, and more. You never have to leave your keyboard, and it's a beautiful thing.

But Notion is an automator's dream. Besides built-in productivity tools like setting due dates, subtasks, and more, Notion integrates with Zapier so you can connect Notion to thousands of other apps to automate your work and life.

For example, you can automatically update your Google Calendar when a new database item has a specific tag, back up new Notion attachments to cloud storage, or anything else you can imagine. Learn more about how to automate Notion, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Notion vs. Craft: Which is right for you?

Craft and Notion are both stylish, functional apps for organizing and storing your work and life. So which one should you use? Honestly, I hate to say it, but you'll have to try both and decide for yourself. A lot of it is about how it feels.

Ok, really want me to tell you which one to use?

Choose Notion if:

• You want task management functionality, like due dates and calendars

• You want to create searchable databases

• You don't need to work offline often

• You want to customize every aspect of how your workspace looks with columns, custom layouts, etc.

Choose Craft if:

• You do a lot of writing

• You write best with a simple, aesthetically pleasing atmosphere

• You want a familiar document-style editor, but with smart AI capabilities

• You don't need complex databases or calendars, or use other apps for these types of tasks

Either Craft or Notion is an excellent choice for unlocking more productivity in your work or life. Try both, then trust your vibes.

Related reading:

• How to use Notion as a to-do list (with template)

• The best note taking apps

• Coda vs. Notion: Which app is right for you?