When comparing Emacs Org-mode vs Notion, the Slant community recommends Emacs Org-mode for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” Emacs Org-mode is ranked 3rd while Notion is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Emacs Org-mode is:
This app's flexibility is based on its minimalist approach, giving the user near-infinite freedom.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Ultimate flexibility
This app's flexibility is based on its minimalist approach, giving the user near-infinite freedom.
Pro Absolutely free
Emacs with Org-mode is free as in beer and free as in speech – that is, it costs nothing and it’s totally open source.
Pro Files are usable anywhere at anytime
Users are not tied to one service provider, program, platform, or database engine.
Pro Incredibly extensible
There are many plug-ins for Org-mode, including Org-habits and Org-notify. If Org-mode lacks some piece of functionality, it is very easy to add it.
Pro Agenda views
Pro Excellent unofficial Android app (orgzly)
Pro Offline support
Pro Efficient features for deadline organization
Pro Supports plaintext spreadsheets
Pro There are a lot of extensions, for exporting to html, bootstrap, js-reveal and much more
Pro Quickly add rich text
Pro Full-featured on desktop, mobile and web
Even the right-click menus on the web are the same as the app.
Pro Unlike anything else
One of the most complete applications one can use to build a personal dashboard (or professional) and migrate all other services to it. No more calendar, task, notes, financials, lists, writing and wiki apps, just Notion.
Pro Pages within pages within pages, to infinity
You can have a ridiculous amount of information within a single note. Look at how it works, you'll be surprised!
Pro Flexible contents storage and organization
You can upload files and embed online stuff in any hierarchical structure using pages, toggle lists, etc.
Pro Highly visual, with icons next to every new page and so on
This feature makes it very easy to find certain notes and such. And great for visual people as well. You could also add images as icons instead, if you like.
Pro Blocks offer incredible flexibility
The basic unit of organization in Notion is the block, which can be a chunk of text, an image, a bullet point, or even a link to another page. Each page consists of these blocks, which can be easily reorganized, moved to other pages, converted into other content types, or generally manipulated in many useful ways. Because of blocks, restructuring information in Notion is way easier than in any other wiki or notebook app.
Pro Does a great job with both notes and to-dos
To-dos in Notion aren't just dot point lists. You can drag and drop them into columns just like Trello (Kanban style), you can have sub-tasks, and you can easily mark things off as completed so they are no longer in your way. Notes are also powerful, with proper formatting and ways to manage and search for them, which makes it a great Evernote alternative.
Pro Cross platform
Works with Android, iOS, Windows, & Mac OSX.
Pro Awesome for wikis
You can easily start writing a bunch of web pages, share it with co-workers and choose whether to publicize or keep your contents private. It's also easy to hyperlink pages.
Pro Amazing view flexibility
You can create different views for a page's content and easily toggle between kanban, table, etc. (As long as the content is able to allow different views.)
Pro Quick and effective search
Just type in a word and you'll have results in no time at all.
Pro Attach files in tables
You can attach files in table cells, which is a feature missing in most spreadsheet-like applications.
Pro Great spreadsheet functionality
You can use calculation/formula, links, attachment, inter-referencing of data from other pages or tables, embed documents and images in the table cells.
Pro Renders Markdown Syntax
Add code blocks, Headers, bullet point, numbered lists, or To-Do boxes by typing using Markdown Syntax (instead of klunkily moving the mouse to formatting boxes)
Pro Less headaches when editing pages
Lets you restore your page to a past edit. Also works with sub-pages and databases. Though it is worth mentioning that it's a paid feature.
Cons
Con Unintuitive user interface
The key combinations are unintuitive and difficult to remember. This is probably because there are a lot of hidden "modes" depending on where the cursor is. Actions aren't paired with reversing actions like in other todo apps. For example, hitting shift-tab does NOT reverse the effect of hitting tab.
Con Android app isn't very good
There are several user-created apps for Android, but none seem to offer the same level of functionality as other to-do apps.
Con Not really cross platform
Although it is possible to get a lot of it working, no all in one, sync included, out of the box solution is available for mobile devices.
Con By default, a hard-to-read display
The default way of writing an outline or checklist creates a very messy wall of text that's difficult to read with no vertical spacing. You can manually add vertical spacing, but the Org operations don't preserve it. There are pretty-display modes, but you need to remember how to enable them, etc. etc.
Con Not very fast using native apps
Can take time if you're switching between lots of pages often as it needs to load the data each time
Con Not always very intuitive
Column filters are not that intuitive to apply.
Con No true backup
True backup can only exist if it's automated and easily recoverable. Else, it's just an outdated copy or useless scrambled data.
Con Designed with teams in mind, and less formatting than Evernote
Evernote may be more individual-oriented and has more formatting and such options available, but whether that affects you is down to personal preference. Try both and see which you prefer.
Con Not yet a new protocol, as it could be! (or could it?)
Think of scuttlebutt or email. the best Evernote alternative would be a "web 3.0" of sorts. Something that would be just a simple file added to a computer and automatically replicated to other computers along with a website and any company could easily pick up the concept and make their own hosting, including some awesome google drive/host of sorts.