Why I Switched from Notion to Tana: My Search for the Ultimate Note-Taking App

In the previous article Choosing the Right Note-Taking App, I shared with you the criteria I used when choosing a note-taking app, and I settled on Notion because of its file-based structure, availability of API, and support for metadata. This choice was perfect in the first place. However, with time, several issues came to light.

The Struggles with Notion

1. Reference Constraints: I cannot write a reference before the instance created. E.g, I keep daily journals where I mention people I encountered and what we discussed. Now, I would first need to switch to some other table to make an entry of the new person that I came across and then refer to them in my journal. This used to break my flow, primarily as Notion doesn’t support the opening of multiple files in different tabs.

2. Rigid Table Creation: Tables created for simple comparison necessitated bulky database tables, making the process cumbersome.

3. High Cost: At USD 16 per month (Plus AI feature), the pricing for Notion is too high for me, considering it does not entirely meet my expectations in terms of functionality.

These are the frustrations that motivated me to seek out alternatives, beginning with Capacities.