Notion or Coda? 30 Crucial Differences to Find Your Match

Notion and Coda inspired the revolution of all-in-one apps that's redefining productivity. While they're built on the same core concept, their subtle distinctions make them suitable for particular users.
To make it easy to identify which app serves your priorities, this video showcases the 30 most consequential differences between Notion and Coda.
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[@ozroth1295]

Great video! And the comparison doc is awesome, I sometimes get tired of answering to people which is better (obviously Coda ❤), now your doc and video can do it for me :) Also you should notice that in the Database properties section you wrote coda doesn’t do dependencies natively, well now it does and it’s awesome 🙃

[@WilliamNutt]

Thanks so much. Indeed, they'll both continue rolling out features that were missing when the video was published, but the core principle that Coda is more capable with automations, integrations and formulas will certainly hold.

[@willymerdiansyah]

I have never had time to compare Coda and Notion, the reason, the video, and how you simplify it are amazing. It will be even better if you provide a comparison of the pricing between the two. I think this will be crucial, especially if you work with small team.

[@WilliamNutt]

Thanks so much. That's a great point. The prices are comparable, but when you consider that Coda can be published to a custom domain as a website, it is a tremendous value.

[@DrJohnPollard]

12:05 my complaint from below defined, explained. Looks like I've spent the last 2 years with the wrong program for me. This is a phenomenal video btw. The brain power to separate those two must take a lot of bandwidth and storage capacity.

[@WilliamNutt]

Ha! Many users come to that realization when they dive into Coda.

[@coda-yoda]

I create automated workflows for my clients using both Notion and Coda (their choice). I agree with William's overall description - Notion is the expresso machine - simple and easy - but VERY limited for automating complex business workflows - CODA is the barrista-sized industrial coffee maker - powerful, versatile, and capable of automating ANY business process no matter how complex. What is not highlighted here is the EXTRA power you get from CODA once you start to use its AI capabilities - its way ahead of all the alternatives in that regard. Max

[@WilliamNutt]

Thanks Max. I find their AI capabilities comparable, but Coda seems to be advancing faster.

[@coda-yoda]

@@WilliamNutt I suppose my impression comes from being able to manage the Coda AI tasks via the Coda Formula Language to make powerful AI Agents that have built-in logic. Formulas build the Prompts. Then formulas parse the responses and update the tables.

[@WilliamNutt]

@@coda-yoda That's great. I expect Coda to run away with AI integration.

[@CodaTricks]

Ha, not every day you see an author of a prominent Notion resource admitting Coda is superior in pretty much every aspect 🙃 Come join our side!

[@WilliamNutt]

Thanks! Coda is certainly more capable, but Notion's simplicity is better for many users.

[@HippieP629]

If one could make multiple DB views (filter set 1, filter set 2, etc.) like notion, that'd be a biggie for me

[@pauldanyliuk6356]

​​@@HippieP629You can create virtually unlimited views of a table. It's just that they aren't displayed like tabs in Notion but you add them to a page or separate pages. You can make them collapsible though. And if you absolutely want the tabbed experience, there is totally a way to build it. Since Coda filters can be formulas, you can totally set up your filtered views elsewhere, and then set up your "main" view to filter on the rows included in either of those other views based on some dropdown. You can then create a row of buttons to switch between those filter sets. This is actually giving me an idea for a video, so thanks!

[@WilliamNutt]

@@HippieP629 Agreed-that's probably my biggest request of Coda.

[@DrJohnPollard]

One more comment/question. 😅 That chart is amazing, but it would help my brain if the info boxes were cols, Notion on Left / Coda on right. Then you could go down one col all the way. Is the Coda bulletproof part of A-Z? Thank you for this video. It solved my Notion problem. 😂

[@WilliamNutt]

Very helpful feedback, thank you. I'm glad you found the video helpful. Coda is not part of A-to-Z, but if you reply to the the Notion VIP email sent today, you can get it for 75% off. If you didn't receive today's email, you can reply to any Notion VIP email.

[@TommyLambertFr]

For the past few months, I’ve been using Coda and I’m really a fan of it. However, I noticed that some information is incomplete or inaccurate, such as details about Table views (Database) and Grouping. Despite this, the video is overall quite good.

[@WilliamNutt]

So much appreciated it. Let me know if I can answer any specific questions.

[@tinooze]

This video is very heplful. I want to add sth else, when trying to move from Notion to Coda, it's not native. Meaning the tables, the information, etc. all need to be input from the start in Coda. So we need to choose one and wisely.

[@DrJohnPollard]

I saw a Coda to Notion and back effort. Some where on YT. Didn't try at the time.

[@WilliamNutt]

So long as you organize all information in databases, the transition is rather painless. Relations are the most difficult part, but there are some tricks to streamline it.

[@HippieP629]

As a 3-4 yr daily notion user, the only reason I didn't / haven't use(d) coda more is bc I've used PPV for quite a while now. I tried porting it all over to coda but gave up. Coda's formulas are much more intuitive. Buttons can do a ton more. On and on. If I could smoosh together motion's "ai" task system, notion's or craft's aesthetics, coda's functionalities and anytype's / capacities' object-based system, that'd be it

[@WilliamNutt]

Choosing software is like choosing a house: All options have advantages and drawbacks. The right one for you depends on your priorities.

[@HippieP629]

@@WilliamNutt Very well researched, written and edited video, William. The graphics are on point. Every one of your videos is like this. I appreciate you, sir

[@WilliamNutt]

@@HippieP629Appreciate you as well. Thanks so much for the positive feedback.

[@thatchanguy]

As a happy Bulletproof 2.1 user, would love to try it in Coda. I am thinking of incorporating more automation via Coda instead of trying to hack together something using the limited third-party integrations Notion's ecosystem currently offers. Would there be more functionality in Coda's version of the Bulletproof Workspace?

[@WilliamNutt]

Great. Yes, in terms of automations and integrations, Coda is far more capable.

[@raymondpoirier93]

Loved the video comparison! It really showed how far behind Notion is with its database features. That being said, the biggest thing holding me back from Coda is the inferior mobile app. With Notion, you pretty much have all the features the desktop app has. Coda really limits what you can do. For me, having a rich mobile experience is needed for someone who uses their phone as much or more than a desktop. Unless there’s something I’m missing?

[@WilliamNutt]

Totally agree. I mention it without sugar-coating at 13:30 😂

[@DrJohnPollard]

Just a cursory viewing of the video tells me that Coda can probably do what I do in Filemaker Pro. Hope I'm right. BTW, am a A-Z member. Not sure where that fits in.

[@WilliamNutt]

Much of it, I'm sure.

[@DrJohnPollard]

Do coda packs integrate with Mail on Mac? That would be a miracle.

[@WilliamNutt]

Mail is unfriendly to integrations. It offers "extensions," but they only come with other apps downloaded to Mac.

[@hishamalhadi]

So basically why Coda is much superior to Notion in almost every way. 😅

[@WilliamNutt]

True for users with the tech chops to leverage its superiority. Many users are better served by Notion's simplicity.

[@HippieP629]

Shhh, don't let the notion template sellers read that =) It's wild how rabid user-bases of notion, obsidian, etc are. A while back I asked a "notion expert" on twitter why they chose notion instead of coda. Holy crap, the backlash. It's like I damn near killed his puppy. Tons of folks have made $$ off of marketing their templates. I see notion and coda like iOS and android. One of them has pumped trillions into marketing and the other is actually superior for users that want more functionality. Marketing, marketing, marketing. If I had Coda's ear, I would've told them to put out videos CONSTANTLY a while back. They haven't. Even their ai video a while back was cringe and low-budget. But even more importantly, once the user-base evangelize for you, (e.g. "Hey ya'll, come check this out...") that's $ in the bag.

[@WilliamNutt]

The iOS-Android comparison gives Notion too much credit 😂

[@DrJohnPollard]

@@WilliamNutt Which is which? I hope IOS?

[@HippieP629]

@@WilliamNutt lol

[@Atilhos]

A whole bunch of update suggestions for the Notion team 😁

[@WilliamNutt]

Indeed, that seems to be the consensus. 🙃

[@3d-illusions]

can anyone summarise, I just received an email saying notion vs coda, but after finding nothing in the email that answered what the difference was, I then clicked the link to be greeted by an overwhelming wall of boxes showing feature differences, so I clicked the video to be met by a man and his dog riding a motorbike, speaking to me like there's a world changing productivity redefinement 🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷 I've given up now, I'll just stick with notion 😂😂

[@WilliamNutt]

TL;DR: Coda is far more capable than Notion, especially regarding automations and integrations. That makes it a more powerful tool for productivity, sharing, and collaboration, but it also requires a higher level of proficiency.

[@tinooze]

this is unnecessarily rude to say, no one bothers about your negative experience of things

[@WilliamNutt]

@@tinooze My Notion experience is exceedingly positive. Coda is objectively more capable. Many users prefer Notion's simplicity, including myself in many circumstances. Neither app is better than the other. The right one for each user depends on priorities.

[@3d-illusions]

@@WilliamNutt thanks. Sorry I didn't realise this was a private channel that Notion had linked to.

[@Chris-cx6wl]

I always wonder why Notion is so much more popular than Coda. Coda is technically better than Notion in many ways, but it doesn't get the same praise as Notion. Do you think simplicity is the determining factor as to why Coda doesn't have the same appeal?

[@WilliamNutt]

Notion's playful approach to branding, marketing and community-building plays a major role.

[@HippieP629]

Marketing, marketing and more marketing. It's a formula. 1 Get high (inflated?) valuation that creates media buzz 2 Produce how-to videos internally 3 User-base (template makers, evangelists, etc) produce videos / social media to create a ground-swell from "users like you". Coda's formula doesn't include #1 and #3

[@WilliamNutt]

@@HippieP629 I'd say Coda includes all three; it simply values them less than the product itself. Notion sometimes seems to give more attention to marketing and branding that the product.