Notion – notes, docs, tasks

My Experience with Notion – notes, docs, tasks

I moved over from Google Keep because I kept losing track of random notes for work and my personal projects. On paper, Notion sounds perfect—one place for everything. But honestly? The first few days felt like trying to organize a messy garage with a tool you have to build yourself first. I spent a whole Saturday afternoon just figuring out how to make a simple to-do list that didn’t look like a spreadsheet exploded. Last Tuesday, I tried to quickly jot down a grocery list while standing in the produce aisle at Kroger, and the app took forever to load. My wife was already waiting at the checkout. I ended up typing it into my regular notes app instead. The desktop version is smoother, but on my OnePlus 11, it stutters and sometimes crashes when I switch between pages. I’ve only had it two weeks, and I’m already wondering if the flexibility is worth the headache.

Features Worth Noting

Okay, the good stuff: once you figure out the database thing, it’s actually kind of cool. I set up a little tracker for my freelance invoices and it works better than a spreadsheet. The templates are handy—I used one for a weekly meal planner and it saved me time. I also like that you can throw images and videos into a page without it turning into a mess. The kanban board view is neat for my side project to-do list, even though it took me a while to find the button for it. Collaboration is there too, but I haven’t really used it yet since most of my stuff is personal. The search function actually finds stuff fast, which is more than I can say for Keep. But every time I open a new feature, I feel like there’s a hidden learning curve waiting to trip me up.

What Needs Work

The mobile app is slow. Like, noticeably slow. Scrolling through a page with a few images makes my phone warm up. I’ve also had it just freeze mid-typing and lose a sentence I was writing about a doctor’s appointment—had to rewrite it all. The support experience didn’t help either. I emailed them about the lag and got a reply three days later that basically said “try clearing your cache and restarting the app.” I did that. Didn’t fix it. Then I asked again and they just sent me a link to a help article I already read. I get that they’re a big company, but it felt pretty dismissive. Also, the formatting tools are weird on mobile—trying to bold a word sometimes selects the whole paragraph instead.

Pricing

So it’s free to download, which is nice at first. But the free plan has limits on uploads and how many people you can share with. I hit the file upload cap after a week because I was adding screenshots for a work guide. To unlock more features—like unlimited storage, version history, and better integrations—you have to pay $10 a month for the Plus plan. That’s not terrible, but for a note-taking app? It feels pricey compared to stuff like Keep or Apple Notes that come free with your phone. I’m still on the free tier, but I’m already worried I’ll need to upgrade if I keep using it seriously. The business plan is even more, like $18 a month, which seems overkill for most people.

Developer Notes

Notion Labs seems active—they push updates every few weeks. I got one last Friday that said “improved performance,” but I honestly didn’t notice a difference on my phone. They have a blog and a community forum, but the forum is full of power users who talk in code languages I don’t understand. I just want an app that works without reading a manual. The developer seems focused on adding flashy new features (like AI stuff) instead of fixing the basic mobile experience. Maybe that’s great for desktop users, but for a regular person on a phone, it feels like they’re forgetting us.

Security & Privacy

Here’s where I get annoyed. I always check the permissions before installing. Notion wants access to your storage, camera, microphone, and even your contacts. Why does a note-taking app need my microphone and contacts? I dug into their privacy policy and they admit to collecting usage data, device info, and even what links you click inside the app. They also say they share data with “service providers” and for “legal reasons.” There’s no end-to-end encryption on the free plan either—only if you pay for the business tier. That made me think twice about putting sensitive notes in here, like passwords or financial to-dos. For a free app, they’re gathering a lot of info about you. I’m not comfortable with how much tracking is going on behind the scenes.