Microsoft OneNote vs Notion

by Gralio Mar 10, 2025

OneNote excels as a dedicated note-taking app within the Microsoft ecosystem. Notion shines as a versatile workspace for teams needing project management, wikis, and collaboration tools. OneNote's free version caters to individual users, while Notion's free plan has limitations, making its paid plans more suitable for teams.

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This comparison was created by analysing 8160 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 21 hours, 50 minutes of reading.

Microsoft OneNote

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Notion

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About

Microsoft OneNote is a versatile digital notebook for capturing, organizing, and sharing your thoughts and information. It's a free, cloud-based app that allows you to create notes, store files, and collaborate with others. OneNote integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products, making it a convenient tool for individuals and teams already using the Microsoft suite.

Notion is an all-in-one workspace platform designed to help teams organize information, manage projects, and collaborate effectively. It centralizes notes, documents, tasks, and databases, making it easy for teams to access and share information. Notion allows users to customize their workspace with templates and integrations and offers AI features for writing assistance and information retrieval. It aims to be a flexible solution that adapts to various work styles and replaces the need for multiple single-purpose tools.

Summary

Main difference

Microsoft OneNote is a powerful note-taking application deeply integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem, ideal for users heavily reliant on Microsoft products. Notion, conversely, offers a more versatile all-in-one workspace for project management, team collaboration, and knowledge bases, best suited for teams needing a centralized hub.

Relative strengths of Microsoft OneNote (compared to Notion)

Strong Microsoft Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, simplifying data sharing and workflow.
Offline Access: Allows access to notes even without an internet connection, ensuring productivity on the go.
Free Version: Offers a robust free version with ample features for individual users.

Relative weaknesses of Microsoft OneNote (compared to Notion)

Limited Project Management: Lacks advanced project management capabilities compared to Notion's comprehensive features.
Less Versatile: Primarily focused on note-taking, unlike Notion which serves as an all-in-one workspace.
Simpler Collaboration: While supporting shared notebooks, it lacks the real-time collaborative features and granular permissions of Notion.

Who is using Microsoft OneNote and Notion?

No data

Olesia Krilyshyn

Sales Acceleration Specialist at Reply.io

Celeste Yamile

Founder&Coach at BrandWise Accelerator

Kate Donnellan

Founding Marketer at Plain

Jonathan Parsons

Marketing Director - Clinique UK & Ireland

Anna York

Digital Marketing Consultant at Anna York Consulting

Show all 6 stacks

Who should use Microsoft OneNote VS. Notion

Microsoft OneNote is a versatile digital notebook ideal for students, professionals, and teams. Users praise its ease of use and integration with other Microsoft applications, especially for daily tasks and interactive discussions. Some users have reported syncing issues and occasional difficulties with tables. OneNote is a free, cloud-based app supporting various note-taking features like sections, pages, and cross-platform syncing.

Notion is an all-in-one workspace for teams and individuals to organize, manage projects, and collaborate effectively. Users appreciate its versatility and ease of use for notes, tasks, and wikis. While some find the platform requires a learning curve, many praise the generous free plan. Notion offers real-time collaboration and customizable templates to enhance productivity.

Ideal for businesses of all sizes (1-1000+ employees).
Particularly well-suited for Education and Professional Services.

Ideal for teams of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, seeking an integrated workspace.
Highly adaptable and suitable for diverse industries, including tech, marketing, education, and non-profits.

Microsoft OneNote and Notion features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Note organization

Supported

OneNote supports organizing notes into notebooks, sections, and pages.

Supported

Notion supports the ability to organize notes into notebooks, sections, and pages.
Sections

Supported

Notebooks can be divided into sections and section groups.

Supported

Notion supports the ability to divide notebooks into sections for further organization.
Cross-platform support

Supported

OneNote supports notes on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android through cloud syncing.

Supported

Notion supports cross-platform access, allowing notes to be accessed on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices.
AI Content Improver

Supported

OneNote supports AI content improvement through its Copilot integration, which offers rewriting and enhancing features.

Supported

Notion supports the feature of rewriting and improving existing content using AI through its various Notion AI functions.
Real-time co-editing

Supported

OneNote supports real-time co-editing for multiple users.

Supported

Notion supports real-time co-editing, allowing multiple users to edit notes simultaneously.
Shared workspaces

Supported

OneNote supports shared workspaces for collaborative note-taking.

Supported

Notion supports shared workspaces where users can access and collaborate on projects in a shared online environment.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

-0.11

Neutral sentiment

-0.08

Neutral sentiment
Customer Service

No data

+0.18

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.92

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.69

Rather positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.13

Neutral sentiment

+0.19

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Implementation

+0.27

Neutral sentiment

-0.4

Rather negative sentiment
Scalability

+0.09

Neutral sentiment

-0.14

Neutral sentiment

Microsoft OneNote and Notion Pricing

Microsoft OneNote is free to use and available on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and web. It is also included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

User sentiment

Neutral

-0.11

See full Pricing page

Notion offers a free plan for individuals and paid plans for teams and businesses. Notion AI is an add-on available for all paid plans.

Plans

User sentiment

Neutral

-0.14

See full Pricing page

Microsoft OneNote and Notion review insights

8067 reviews analysed from and

Users love

Its a very easy to use and implement app and can be integrated easily with other microsoft applications.
It has multiple features such as taking notes, sharing the same with others, interactive discussions.
creating a to do list, organising pages into sections etc.
I use it quite often for my day to days tasks.

The variety of templates and projects that are ready for use.
Seamless collaboration with the team thanks to the real-time working feature.
The generous free plan which meets the needs of most casual users.
It’s so versatile and easy to use! All-in-one software for productivity, notes, and more.

Users dislike

Syncing problem happens.
Having some Issues while creating tables sometimes.
It is a versatile software but it may take some time to understand to use all features.

The platform is not intuitive - it requires several hours of learning to fully understand what this platform is capable of.
Limited offline access capabilities.
The mobile app is underwhelming with limited functionality.
Limited font selection

Microsoft OneNote and Notion Ratings

G2

4.5/5

(1813)
Capterra

4.6/5

(1502)

G2

4.7/5

(2596)
Capterra

4.7/5

(2184)
TrustPilot

2.9/5

(93)
Glassdoor

4.7/5

(172)

Company health

Employee growth

3% increase in the last year

92% increase in the last year

Web traffic

11% decrease in the last quarter

5% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

No data

How do OneNote's Microsoft integration benefits compare with Notion's AI features?

OneNote's strength lies in its seamless integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, allowing smooth data flow between familiar tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This is a significant advantage for users heavily reliant on Microsoft products. While Notion offers AI features like content generation and summarization, these do not directly replace the benefits of deep Microsoft integration for users already entrenched in that ecosystem. Notion's AI can be a powerful tool for certain tasks, but OneNote's integration offers a broader advantage for Microsoft-centric workflows.

Which product better supports my need for free-form note-taking versus structured databases?

OneNote is significantly better for free-form note-taking. While Notion allows for note-taking, its strength lies in databases and structured information management. OneNote's core functionality centers around flexible note creation, including placing notes anywhere on a page, sketching, and audio recording, making it ideal for brainstorming and capturing thoughts organically.

What are the advantages of Microsoft OneNote?

OneNote's advantages include seamless integration with other Microsoft products, making it convenient for users already within the Microsoft ecosystem. It offers free-form note-taking, flexible organization with notebooks, sections, and pages, and cross-platform support for access across various devices. Being a free, cloud-based app also lowers the barrier to entry for individuals and teams.

What are the disadvantages of Microsoft OneNote?

OneNote's freeform nature, while flexible, can make organizing large amounts of information challenging for some users. Syncing issues have also been reported, which can disrupt workflows. While integrated with the Microsoft suite, it may lack the specialized features of dedicated note-taking applications. Some users find the interface less intuitive compared to alternatives, potentially requiring a longer learning curve. Lastly, the mobile app's functionality has been criticized as limited compared to the desktop version.

Alternatives to Microsoft OneNote and Notion

Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking software designed to help you capture and organize information. You can use it to write notes, save documents, scan images, record audio, and clip web content. Evernote allows you to access your information from various devices, even offline. Its powerful search function helps you quickly locate specific notes, including handwritten text within images. Evernote aims to provide a centralized platform for managing your thoughts, projects, and tasks.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a comprehensive work management platform designed to consolidate various work processes into one centralized location. It offers a wide array of features including task management, project planning, document collaboration, communication tools, goal setting, and automation options. ClickUp aims to enhance team collaboration, improve visibility across projects, and streamline workflows for increased productivity regardless of team size or industry.

xTiles

xTiles is a visual workspace that helps you organize your ideas and projects. It uses a flexible, card-based system that allows you to arrange information, notes, and media in a way that makes sense to you. xTiles allows you to embed images, videos, and links, making it suitable for brainstorming, planning projects, or creating presentations. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, even for non-technical users.

Confluence

Confluence is a collaborative workspace designed to streamline teamwork and knowledge sharing. It allows you to create, organize, and collaborate on documents, projects, and ideas in one central hub. This eliminates scattered information and keeps everyone on the same page. Confluence integrates with other tools and is highly customizable to adapt to various team needs, from product launches to marketing strategies.

Evernote Teams

Evernote Teams helps businesses organize information and work together more efficiently. It provides a central location for storing notes, documents, and files, making it easy for team members to access and share information from any device, even offline. With powerful search and integration capabilities, teams can quickly find what they need and streamline their workflow.

Coda

Coda is a collaborative workspace tool that combines aspects of documents, spreadsheets, and applications. It allows teams to create customized documents with integrated features such as tables, buttons, and automations. Coda aims to centralize information, streamline workflows, and replace multiple single-purpose tools. It's suitable for various teams and tasks like project management, OKR tracking, and creating knowledge bases. Coda is free for individual use with tiered paid plans for teams.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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