looking for
an alternative
to Notion?

focus and vibe

Notion
The vibe is “Build your own custom workflows for anything” which means it can do pretty much anything—CRM, reading list, project management, etc. but will require watching 17 YouTube tutorials and paying $699 for a course to actually figure out how to do any of it. Notion is for people that are not intimidated by complex workflows and a steep learning curve.

Sublime
Laser-focused on building a simple knowledge tool to collect, connect, and retrieve ideas and inspiration. Designed for creatives who value simplicity and don't want their second brain to become a second job.

organization style

Notion
Uses pages and folders in nested hierarchies, which can create a sense of order but can lead to overly complex systems that are difficult to navigate or maintain.

Sublime
Uses cards and collections. Any piece of content becomes a card that can exist independently or within multiple collections. This approach allows for more flexible organization and promotes unexpected connections between ideas. Additionally, Sublime Canvas offers a more visual way to make sense of your ideas.

Practical Example
Imagine you come across this quote from designer Don Norman: "Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible" This insight is valuable for both your design resources and your newsletter content collections.

In Notion, you'd need to create two separate pages and duplicate the quote (the way around this requires a much more complicated setup). One copy goes under your "Design Resources" folder. Another copy goes under your "Newsletter Content" folder. If you later want to add notes or context to this quote, you'll need to update it in both places

In Sublime, you'd create one card with the quote and add it to both your "Design Resources" and "Newsletter Content" collection.

idea capture

Notion
Media capture is an afterthought, not the core. Additionally, Notion has no built-in web or PDF highlighter, screenshot capture, and because media types are second class citizens metadata is not optimized for intelligent retrieval.

Sublime
Offers a browser extension for easy capture of all kinds of media types, plus:

• Screenshot capture directly from the browser extension.
• Built-in web and PDF highlighter.
• Import from other apps (e.g. Kindle, Readwise).
• Add stand-alone text notes.
• Podcast insight capture via our companion app, Podcast Magic
• Smart search and OCR to make media easily retrievable not just using keywords.

social factor

Notion
Primarily focused on personal or team use, without a built-in public sharing or discovery element.

Sublime
Offers both private and public modes. While you can keep everything private, the secret sauce is the communal experience.

• Put in a thought or idea and get instant related inspiration from other people's libraries (everyone's favorite).
• Create collections, collaborate, and share with others.
• Follow other people's libraries and let others peek into yours.

bottom line

Mechanically filing and organizing your socks and kitchen pantry might be life-changing and magical in your home, but it is not a useful model for creatives to navigate their inspiration (sorry, Mrs. Kondo).

Choose Sublime if you're looking for an intuitive, relational, and communal tool to collect and connect ideas and inspiration. Opt for Notion if you need a comprehensive workspace for project management, business tasks, or creating a company wiki.

Or, use both—Sublime for saving, exploring, connecting ideas and figuring out what needs to get done, Notion for task management and more structured project work.

Like we said at the beginning, comparing Notion to Sublime is apples and oranges ;)