I like notion a lot, especially for its databases function, it's much more powerful than stuff like excel, but being proprietary I'm scared of the buyers lock in / notion disallowing exports in the future and all the cons that come from using a proprietary software. Also managing integrations is probably harder than with an app that you own I think..

Is database in notion just a normal database like mysql? How easy/intuitive would be making the switch? Is it worth it?

We would use it for a very small organization, mostly for registering invoices, documents, lists of contacts with several informations.

I need to query results and to sort / filter database as I want, there's also the idea of trying integrating it with a website in the future maybe..

I like how practical notion is, but I don't like that it's proprietary and notion could potentially modify its terms of use whenever it wants.

top 13 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Tundra@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 days ago

https://anytype.io/

[–] krcr@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 days ago

If it's only the database part that you're looking for maybe you could look at https://nocodb.com/ Which is self-hostable.

[–] sem@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

OrgNote is a nice GPL-licensed alternative. It's still quire raw, but it is evolving very rapidly.

[–] tkw8@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

This looks neat. Thanks for sharing.

[–] PandaInSpace@kbin.earth 4 points 5 days ago

There isn't a 1:1 FOSS replacement for Notion. I've been also looking for one and haven't found any.

As others have said, Appflowy and Affine are the best options that don't require self hosting. Appflowy now has a web version too. There's also SiYuan.

If you're fine with self hosting there might be a few options mainly for database like functions, some provide a free trial/tier :

[–] kambusha@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I think Affine is the closest in terms of functionality to Notion. It's essentially a Notion/Miro hybrid. Open-source.

[–] trashboat@midwest.social 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Obsidian has been working well for me though it may not have all the functionality you’re looking for

[–] RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Obsidian is proprietary though

[–] Jaximus@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Yeah but it saves everything in your folder so even if it is closed your data remains

[–] trashboat@midwest.social 1 points 5 days ago

Ah sorry didn’t know that. I’m still new to self hosting stuff

[–] noor48@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

Appflowy and also others

[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If you are from EU, I think it's forbidden to disallow exporting your data. I may be wrong.

[–] Lasagna@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

Correct. It’s part of GDPR.