Rigid workflows and shallow customization → Taskade
“I found Notion frustrating to use across the different teams I manage because they really want you to do things 'one way”
Notion alternatives: where its users went, and why they left
Notion (notion.so) has 14 sourced reports on Friction, drawn from 25 public source threads (as of 2026-10-15), 4 of them describing a move away. This page reads them for one question: if you are leaving Notion, what do its users say they moved to, and what pushed them out?
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Where Notion users say they went
Switching reports that name a destination. A count is the number of reports naming it, not a market share: Friction only holds what people say in public.
| Named alternative | Reports naming it | Newest report |
|---|---|---|
| Bear and other tools | 2 | 2018 (over 5 years old) |
| Taskade | 1 | 2023 |
| Trello | 1 | 2023 |
In their words
Nonstandard editing shortcuts and unreliable embeds → Bear and other tools
“The syntax was kind of like markdown but not quite, and the shortcuts for moving between levels of indentation were different”
Team edits can clutter tables or make documents disappear → Bear and other tools
“There just didn’t seem to be very good controls or audit trails”
Notion feels too complex for simple kanban planning → Trello
“Notion is just overwhelming for me”
What pushes people away from Notion
The most-reported open problems, worst severity first. Each links to the item with its source.
Notion calendar table is too feature-rich for daily planning · UI & usability · Blocks work
“I'm relying on a notion calendar table which is annoyingly feature rich and defeats the purpose of having a lightweight way of CRUD entries”
Account suspension permanently deletes data without export · Data export & migration · Blocks work
“you delete it permanently without prior notice or the ability to export it”
A disputed invoice blocked access to a paid workspace · Billing · Blocks work
“now they have completely blocked my workspace, even though I already paid for my original subscription”
Slow performance makes editing feel cumbersome · Performance · Annoyance · 3 people
“it’s frequently very heavy and slow”
Basic actions are hard to discover in Notion · UI & usability · Annoyance
“Notion is another one) takes things one step further and hides even more things, even the simple stuff”
Other workspace and files tools on Friction, and what their users struggle with
Switching trades one set of problems for another. The same evidence, for each tool Friction covers in this category:
Nextcloud
38 reports · 92 source threads · most-discussed area: Reliability & bugs
Outline
17 reports · 71 source threads · most-discussed area: UI & usability
Counts and reports reflect people who post in public (developers and technical buyers are over-represented). A tool with fewer reports is not a better tool; it may only be discussed less. How the data is built.