Craft and Notion are common tools people use for productivity.
Both have various features that teams and individuals use for organization, collaboration, and streamlining workflows. But which one will suit my needs?
Craft is a powerful note-taking application that lets teams collaborate, ideate, and share work. It’s popular for creating and organizing documents, notes, and tasks simply and flexibly.
The app features integrations, templates, and customizations that suit many users, including writers, designers, and creatives.
On the other hand, Notion is an all-in-one workspace that lets you think, plan, and write. You can use Notion to capture thoughts, oversee projects, or run a company in a personalized way.
As we move forward, we will focus on Craft and Notion at length. We will discuss their performance, user interface, customization, templates, pricing, community, and more.
This will help you to pick the one that matches your needs.
Let’s begin.
Craft vs Notion: Features and Functionalities
Craft
Note-taking
Craft has a collection of features for easy note-taking. These include:
Subfolders and folders – For structuring notes for easy navigation
Slash commands – Use simple commands to perform tasks, such as changing font styles, text formatting, list creation, and more.
Block-based editing – It gives you granular control over your notes’ structure. You can organize blocks of tables, images, text, and more easily.
Rich media support – You can embed different content types like files, images, and code snippets in your notes.
Search bar – Use it to quickly locate specific pages, documents, or text from the knowledge base.
Daily notes – A space to let you capture quick notes, tasks, and ideas
Focus mode – Minimizes distractions, allowing you to focus on a single note
Templates – The app has pre-designed templates and lets you create templates for common formats.
Keyboard shortcuts – Use this feature to navigate between sections and notes with ease.
Project Management
Craft has various features that simplify project management. They include:
Tables – Use them to present and organize project data. They are handy for managing budgets, tracking progress, and monitoring essential information.
Block-based editing – It lets you create and arrange project data flexibly. Besides, you can remove or add blocks and move them to change the document’s layout.
Project templates – Use Craft’s templates to organize your project data and get started quickly.
Links – If your project has related parts, you can link between them for effortless navigation.
Collaboration
You can use Craft to share documents with other users or create shared spaces. Also, you can leave comments and notifications whenever someone makes changes.
The collaboration feature is ideal for knowledge sharing, brainstorming sessions, and team projects.
Notion
Note-taking
As a note-taking tool, Notion lets you organize notes the way you prefer. Whether a team or an individual, you can use Notion to:
- Create databases and pages.
- Edit content with various formatting options like code blocks, lists, headings, italic text, and bold text.
- Add various content types, including tables, images, text, and checkboxes to pages.
- Use existing templates or create your own for project planning, meeting notes, or personal journals.
- Add an image, video, and other file types from apps such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
- Embed content from Google Maps, tweets, or YouTube videos so you can create informative and rich notes.
Task Management
Notion is a powerful task manager. It has features such as subtasks, tasks, reminders, and due dates to help you save time on regular to-dos.
As a team, Notion lets you assign tasks to various members and link related tasks. This feature makes it easy to grasp how individual tasks blend into the main project.
You can also import tasks from apps like Slack, Asana, and Trello or link to other services outside of Notion.
Moreover, Notion provides different views, including calendars, kanban boards, and lists.
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Collaborating on Tasks
Teams can enjoy Notion’s collaboration capabilities, including leaving comments, assigning tasks, tagging a member, and receiving notifications for different task activities.
However, Notion lacks message boards or real-time chat, so that you will need another app for instant messaging project members.
Custom Database
If you know how to create a Notion page, you can create a customized database.
Create different content types to customize the database look, then include tags or dates as filter options.
You can also use columns and sub-pages to group pages together.
Besides, Notion supports building linked databases to sort, filter, and show the same source data on different pages. The idea is to create updated and consistent data across the workspace.
If you have larger databases, Notion may experience slow load times.
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Project Management
Notion has improved project management features for better usability.
For example, Notion’s AI feature lets the app prioritize tasks, give recommendations, and automate frequently performed tasks. The outcome is efficient project management.
Notion also provides customizable and flexible workspaces. Customizing the workspace layout and theme is easy. Plus, you can create customized filters and fields for any project database.
Notion isn’t your standard project manager but a customizable productivity tool with project management features.
Notion doesn’t have advanced features to prioritize tasks, track time, or manage complex projects.
Moreover, new users may find it difficult to set up a project due to Notion’s lack of structure and overwhelming features.
Also Read: Best Notion Templates
User Interface and Design
Craft
Craft has a simple, modern, and stylish interface. Its flat and minimalist design ensures no distractions, focusing on content. The design includes white space, helping you increase your focus on work.
Creating and formatting content in Craft is a piece of cake, thanks to the block-based editor. This feature lets you add various block types to your documents, including images, links, code, and text.
If you want to create well-formatted and visually striking documents, Craft is the ideal app, as it supports rich text formatting options like tables, subheadings, headings, and lists.
When creating a document and you add a link, Craft automatically shows the link preview. This feature lets you see how the link’s content appears without leaving Craft.
Craft’s drag-and-drop option makes it easy to move content between apps and documents. For example, you can open Craft and Ulysses on your iPad in split-screen mode and insert an image from the web or Photos app into your notes.
You can also drag a block of text from Ulysses to Craft.
You can also tag and categorize a document, allowing you to find an item quickly and organize content.
Also Read: GoodNotes vs OneNote
Notion
Notion has a simple, clean, intuitive interface, but advanced users will also find it powerful.
Its block-based system lets you build customized layouts for your page. You can also rearrange and move content around easily. Besides, the blocks make creating complex workflows and databases effortless.
Linking pages and blocks to each other is easy with the app’s linking system. The result is easy navigation between related pieces of content. But having too many pages and blocks can make it look cluttered, overwhelming new users.
Notion provides keyboard navigation, allowing users to navigate the app by accessing different features and pages.
Performance and Compatibility
Craft
While Craft is relatively new, most users already prefer it for its performance. Craft is designed with modern web technology and optimized for all devices, making it fast and responsive.
For example, scrolling the application is fluid and smooth on documents of all sizes. This is possible because Craft uses hardware virtualization and acceleration.
The app uses different techniques, such as image compression and lazy loading, to enhance image loading. As a result, there’s quicker loading of images and other types of media when using this app.
Besides, Craft doesn’t lag when using complex features or working with multiple documents. The app’s optimized codebase and JavaScript use make this possible.
Of course, the app’s developers are still working to make it better and quicker. They release updates from time to time to address various performance issues.
When using Craft, consider certain factors that may impact performance. The first one is your document’s complexity. If you include numerous code blocks, embedded images, and other complex elements, the document can take longer to render or load.
Opening multiple documents simultaneously can consume more CPU resources. Also, if your internet speed is slow, images and videos can take longer to load.
Furthermore, the Craft app works well on all Apple devices (iPad, iPhone, and Mac) and provides an outstanding experience on these devices.
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Notion
Notion is available on many platforms, including web browsers, Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS.
However, its performance can be slow, particularly with complex pages or large workspaces.
Various factors may affect the app’s performance. They include:
Block types: Pages with predominantly text blocks often load quicker than those with several images, embeds, widgets, and linked databases.
Content quantity: Having a lot of content on a Notion page can slow its loading speed, as the app must load all the page’s data, including embedded widgets, images, and text.
Internet speed: A slower connection can also slow down the Notion application because the app must download data from the servers before loading your pages and updating content.
Templates and Customization
Craft
Use Craft’s templates to accelerate your workflows. You can use the app’s ready-made templates or create your own.
Craft has hundreds of templates, and you can use them by tapping the + symbol at the top right of your iPad or Mac. On the iPhone, the symbol is at the bottom right.
Choose a template and click on a new document to use it immediately. You will find templates for different purposes, such as travel, recipe collection, goal tracking, subscription tracking, restaurant wishlist, and team activities.
Creating custom templates is easy, too. Create a document, move it to the My Templates folder, and then use it as a template.
You can also open the My Templates folder and create a new document.
Craft also allows you to modify an existing template to the My Templates folder, double-click on one of the existing templates, and decide to edit the template or create a new document.
Craft offers various template customization options, including using symbols and emojis, changing the text’s font type, color, and size, creating charts and tables, adding code blocks, adding links, including images and other forms of media.
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Notion
Notion has over 10,000 templates that you can use for work, school, business projects, personal projects, and more.
These templates can serve different people and purposes, from individuals looking for a grocery list or daily habit tracker to enterprises looking for an editorial calendar.
Notion templates are simply pre-made Notion pages that you can move to your workspace and customize to your needs.
Notion’s template gallery is the perfect place to find templates; it has 250+ categories, making it easy to find a specific template for your task.
The search bar lets you type in a keyword, creator, team, or category to find a suitable template.
You can also check the top categories and popular templates to narrow down a search quickly.
Using a Notion template is easy; after logging in to the platform, tap on the ‘Start with this template.’
You will see the template in your workspace in the sidebar. If you aren’t logged in, you will see a prompt to sign in first.
The ‘View template’ option lets you play around with a template to see how it works before adding it to the workspace.
After adding the template to a workspace, use the endless customization options to modify it. You can update, edit, or change it for your needs. Here are some changes and updates you can make:
Pages: You can change or add the page icon, update the cover photo, or change the title.
Blocks: Include blocks, such as tables, toggle lists, and callouts. Eliminate the blocks you don’t need to make the workspace neat and create space for more blocks.
Text: You can format the text by making it bold or italic. You can also change the text color or its background.
Databases – Switch property icons, types, and names. You can also remove properties that don’t align with your needs and add views like boards, timelines, lists, galleries, and calendars to the database.
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Community and Support
Craft
Craft has a community of over 10,000 people, a forum where members can ask questions, share ideas, and find helpful resources on using the app.
The community has various sections. They include:
Start Here – For new Craft users to start with the vibrant community.
Introduce Yourself – Let other members know more about you.
Ask for Help – You can post questions about the app, notes, tasks, templates, etc.
General – A discussion area for Craft-related topics like bug reports, new features, or feedback.
Workflows – For discussing productivity tips and workflows.
Showcase Your Craft – For showcasing your creations with others.
Craft AI Assistant – For discussing the app’s AI tool, a new feature to help with editing, writing, or organizing your documents.
Events – Contains announcements for meetups, webinars, or past event recordings.
Craft Resources – Contains links to blog posts, tutorials, and other valuable materials.
Notion
Notion has a huge community with passionate, creative, and vibrant members worldwide.
It has at least 30 million users, with four million being paid subscribers.
Community members host events, create videos, lead groups, teach classes, share Notion templates, and more.
The community is also a resource for new members to learn how to use Notion.
You can benefit from the community in various ways, including:
Joining an event or webinar
Each week, members host online events to familiarize new users with the basics. They also delve into other advanced topics or setups or link new members with a local Notion community.
You can browse community events by city or campus.
Joining a Community-Hosted Forum or Group
Many Notion users visit community-hosted forums to meet virtually, trade tips, share templates, or answer questions.
Global Groups
- Notion Club (Discord)
- Notion Clubhouse (Clubhouse)
- Tools for Thought (Discord)
- Notion for Business (Facebook)
- Notion Made Simple (Facebook)
- Notion Templates (Facebook)
- r/Notion (Reddit)
- Notion Certified Users (LinkedIn)
- Notion LinkedIn Community (LinkedIn)
- Notion Community (X)
- Notion Creators Community (X)
Interest-Based Groups
- ADHD & Notion (Facebook)
- Marketing & Notion (Facebook)
- Notion Automation (Facebook)
- Minimalist Notion (Notion)
- Notion Family (Facebook)
- Notion Hacks and Systems (Facebook)
- Notion Open Source (Facebook)
- Notion for Students (Facebook)
You can also find Facebook groups in different languages, such as Chinese, Dutch, Arabic, Espanol, etc.
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Location-Based Groups
Are you looking for a location-based group in your language or city? Notion has categorized these groups according to different regions of the world.
There are groups for countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.
We have Notion ambassadors, too, referring to passionate volunteers who share and teach Notion to others.
These volunteers organize offline and online events, create tutorials and courses, build templates, lead local communities, and more.
Pricing and Plans
Craft
Craft has a free (Starter) plan and three paid plans. The Pro plan costs $5 per member per month and is suitable for small teams and freelancers. The monthly subscription is $6.
The Business plan costs $10 and is perfect for businesses and teams that use Craft for collaboration and document sharing. The monthly billing is $12.
The Enterprise plan is for businesses seeking more control, security, and support. It is available on request.
Visit Craft’s pricing page to know the features available under each plan.
Also Read: Best Note Taking Apps For iPad
Notion
Notion has a free plan and three paid plans. The free plan is mostly for individuals seeking a collaborative workspace.
The Plus plan costs $8 per user per month, and the Business plan costs $15 per user per month. Both plans are billed annually.
If you want a monthly subscription, you’ll be charged $10 for Plus and $18 for Business.
The Enterprise plan is available on request. You can also request a trial for the Business and Enterprise plans.
For specific features for each plan, check out the Notion pricing page.
Notion AI is available for any paid plan for only $8 per user per month. However, it costs $10 for the monthly subscription and free plans.
If you are a student, teacher, or student organization, you can use Notion for free. Schools and teams can use the app at a discount.
Individual students and teachers only need the school email address to sign up. No need for a credit card.
Use Cases and Preferences
Craft
Craft is designed for users interested in taking and organizing notes, editing and writing documents, creating and managing various projects, and learning and researching.
Users prefer the tool for its clean and intuitive interface, rich features, real-time collaboration, and integrations with other apps like Day One, Ulysses, NotePlan, Bear, iCloud, Slack, Dropbox, and Google Drive.
Notion
Notion is a preference for those needing an all-in-one productivity app.
Notion’s general use cases include note-taking, personal knowledge management, distraction-free writing, and team collaboration.
Additionally, this tool has specific uses, including product development, event planning, customer relationship management, content management, and more.
Users prefer it for its customizable interface, thousands of templates, mobile apps, offline support, and integration with tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, Zapier, GitHub, Google Drive, Slack, and Dropbox.
Conclusion
Among productivity apps, Craft and Notion are powerful contenders. Each has unique features and target users.
Craft is popular for sharing and editing documents. On the other hand, Notion is a versatile tool for various uses, such as project management, database tracking, writing, and more.
Whether to choose Notion or Craft depends on your preferences, goals, and use cases. If you want a customizable workspace suitable for your growing needs, you could use Notion.
However, if you prefer a distraction-free interface to write, edit, and take notes, Craft might work for you.
