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Snippets compared to Notion

To be fair ...​

There's no doubt that Notion has become a dominant force in the productivity space. It has evolved into a highly feature-rich ecosystem that enables teams to manage complex workflows while also giving individuals powerful tools to organize their lives.

For personal note-taking, Notion is an especially compelling option. Its built-in building blocks — such as pages, databases, and templates — make it remarkably flexible, allowing users to tailor their systems to fit a wide range of needs.

To avoid some disappointment, here's a list of features which Snippets does not have, compared to Notion:

  • Notion is not just a note taking app - rather, it is a highly flexible engine for building team collaboration and knowledge management systems. Snippets was not built with team collaboration in mind and will most likely remain a simple note taking app.
  • Notion allows to integrate with external tools - Snippets does not offer that, and there are no concrete plans yet.
  • Notion has a web clipper, Snippets doesn't. It is on our roadmap.
  • Notion has AI integrations, Snippets doesn't. It is on our roadmap.
  • Notion has Databases. Snippets has collections, but these are not as powerful yet. We will adjust according to demand.
  • Notion has a relatively generous free plan, allowing you to store data for free. Snippets puts harder limits on its cloud service - at least in the beginning.

How Snippets is different​

First, it's important to clarify the scope of this comparison. We're evaluating Snippets and Notion specifically as note-taking tools. When it comes to team collaboration, Snippets simply isn't designed to compete. Notion is a collaboration-first platform, while Snippets focuses on individual note-taking.

With that in mind, let's look at how notes are structured in Notion.

The Block​

At the core of Notion is the concept of a block. A block can be many things: a paragraph of text, a list item, an image, etc. A note in Notion is essentially a collections of these blocks, arranged in a flexible, two-dimensional layout. Blocks can also reference other notes, enabling a nested hierarchy.

The Page​

A page in Notion is always composed of multiple blocks. Every title, every paragraph, every image, every bullet point —everything— is a block. Each of these blocks can be moved, commented on, transformed, and manipulated in various ways.

The Problem with Blocks​

Although the flexibility is powerful, it can also feel overwhelming. For simple note-taking, such granularity is often unnecessary. Usually, a note, in the context of personal note taking, is very simple: a few paragraphs of text, an image, maybe a link. Notion's block-based system, while versatile, adds that annoying little layer on top that is not needed in 99% of the cases.

The Problem with Pages​

At the same time, Notion's approach to organizing notes can feel unintuitive.

Hierarchy in Notion is built entirely around pages and sub-pages. A page can contain other pages, forming a nested structure — but that's the only model available. Every page must live within another page, and parent pages must explicitly reference their children.

For users accustomed to traditional folder systems, this can feel awkward. In a typical file structure, folders act as containers: they organize content without being content themselves. A folder can hold notes or subfolders, but it doesn't inherently carry its own data.

Not offline-first​

Notion is not built like an offline-first app - instead, it is built like a web app with the assumption that you're always online. If you want to use notion offline, you'll have to plan ahead and enable pages for offline use.

No End-to-end Encryption​

Notion doesn't let you encrypt your data. This means that your content is accessible to Notion's servers in decrypted form, so the company could technically read it, process it, or be required to provide it under legal requests. It also means you are trusting Notion's security practices and internal controls to keep your data safe, rather than relying on encryption that only you control.

Conclusion​

To conclude, here's a list of things Snippets has which Notion does not:

  • At its core, Snippets offers simple rich text notes, while Notion provides a more generalized and complex system built around blocks and pages.
  • Snippets introduces the concept of a Snippet — a structured piece of data paired with a dedicated UI (e.g. flashcards, grocery lists, workouts). Notion does not offer these as native concepts and instead requires users to build similar structures using databases and templates.
  • Snippets clearly separates individual items (such as notes, folders, or other snippet types) and allows them to be freely connected. In Notion, content is organized around pages, and blocks must live inside pages, creating a more rigid structure.
  • Snippets includes a dashboard feature that lets you place individual items side by side as independent units. In Notion, pages can act as dashboards, but all content is still composed of blocks within a page rather than standalone items.
  • Snippets offers flexible syncing options: syncing via a folder or GitHub repository, or using our cloud service. Notion is cloud-based and requires syncing through its servers.
  • Snippets provides end-to-end encryption, ensuring only the user can access their data. Notion does not offer end-to-end encryption.
  • Snippets is built with an offline-first, cache-first approach, meaning syncing happens quietly in the background without interrupting your workflow. In contrast, Notion can start to feel sluggish as your notes grow, since it really is just a web app wrapped in a desktop interface.