Note-Taking Apps Compared: Notion, Obsidian and Tana

Digital note-taking is no longer just a habit; it has almost become a way of life. As the concept of the second brain has become popular, people are looking for the right tool to organize their thoughts, ideas and knowledge. I'm part of that search too, and over the past year I've used three different apps in depth.

In this post, I'll compare Notion, Obsidian and Tana based on my real-world experience. To give a spoiler, they each have different strengths and there's no such thing as the best app. Whichever fits your working style is the best one.

Notion: The All-in-One Workspace

Notion isn't just a note-taking app; it's also a project management, database, wiki and calendar tool. This versatility is both its greatest strength and sometimes its greatest weakness.

When I first started using Notion, I decided to organize my entire work and personal life here. My reading lists, project notes, weekly plans, my shopping list, all in Notion. The first two weeks were a process of setting everything up, and to be honest it was a bit tiring. But once I got the system in place, I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said my life changed.

Notion's database feature is a real game changer. For example, I keep the books I read in a database. Each book has its status, my rating, my notes and my quotes. With different views, I can see the same data as a table, a kanban board or a gallery. After a friend saw my Notion template, he started using it too, and now we have a shared workspace as a team.

It has downsides too. Notion requires an internet connection and its offline support is limited. Also, when you create too many pages, search can sometimes slow down. And most importantly, instead of starting to take notes with Notion, you can spend hours building the Notion system. It's important not to fall into this trap.

Obsidian: The Master of Building a Knowledge Network

Obsidian works on a completely different philosophy. Your notes are stored as local files in Markdown format on your computer. You aren't dependent on any cloud service. By linking notes together, you build a knowledge network.

I discovered Obsidian during my academic research. I was taking notes on the articles I read and wanted to see the connections between the articles. Obsidian's graph view provides exactly that. You see the links between your notes as a visual network, and you discover connections you didn't expect.

A university professor I know uses Obsidian for lecture notes and research. Among the thousands of notes he has built up over the years, he can navigate easily with Obsidian's search and linking system. He says that seeing the relationships between notes in graph view inspires new research ideas.

Obsidian's learning curve is steeper than Notion's. You need to know Markdown, and although its plugin system is powerful, it's hard to know which plugins to install at the start. Also, it isn't as visually polished as Notion; it has a minimalist interface.

Tana: The Next-Generation Thinking Tool

Tana is still a new player, but it stands out for its concept. Everything is a node, and you build relationships between nodes. It combines note-taking with structured data.

I used Tana for three months for daily note-taking and task management. The feature that impressed me most was supertags. When taking meeting notes, you automatically structure the participants, decisions and action items. Then you can see the action items from all your meetings in a single view.

However, Tana is still in beta and has some gaps. It doesn't have a mobile app yet, performance can sometimes be an issue, and the community isn't as big as Notion's or Obsidian's. But its potential is very high.

A Real-Life Comparison

I tried using all three apps for the same project. It was a book-writing project, and I needed to manage research notes, chapter drafts and editing notes.

With Notion, the project management side was very easy. I tracked chapters in a database and saw deadlines in a visual calendar. But linking research notes to each other was laborious.

With Obsidian, research was excellent. I built links between source notes and saw in graph view how my thoughts connected to each other. But the project management side was weak.

With Tana, I had an experience somewhere in between. Structured notes were useful for both research and project tracking. But the lack of maturity got in the way at some points.

Conclusion and My Recommendation

If you want an all-in-one workspace, start with Notion. If you'll also be doing teamwork and project management, Notion is the most sensible option anyway.

If you're a researcher or want to focus on knowledge management, try Obsidian. Having your data stay with you and not depending on the internet are big pluses.

If you like trying new technologies and the idea of structured note-taking interests you, take a look at Tana.

Personally, I use Notion for daily work management and teamwork, and Obsidian for my personal knowledge base and long-term research notes. This two-tool combination works ideally for me.