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(Cristina from Notion here) We shared a bit more in the past about how most of our user content was stored in a single database instance (see more here: https:

(Cristina from Notion here) We shared a bit more in the past about how most of our user content was stored in a single database instance (see more here: https://www.notion.so/notion/Focus-on-performance-reliability-89f937a6ccc04905b1dcfa878537e08d https://www.notion.so/notion/Focus-on-performance-reliabilit...). That is no longer true and we recently re-architected this database to scale horizontally. Totally understand that you want more options for how to host your data. Unfortunately, we don't have any plans on that front at the moment.

tacosaretasty 5y ago
Do you at least have plans to expose audit and access logs to customers yet?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bradgessler 5y ago
My company had Notion hit us up for an Enterprise contract. When we asked if they offered enhanced security, single tenancy, or even they’d accept some sort of liability if they had a breach … the answer was no, no, and no. We ultimately decided to not go enterprise since it offers little value over their existing plan and keep sensitive data out of Notion. I hope Notion gets to a point where they can offer stronger guarantees to their customers. If they pull it off they’ll easily be mission critical software.
- marcc 5y ago
  Notion doesn't even need to offer these guarantees in their SaaS service. They can just ship to my Kubernetes cluster, and let me manage the ingress and storage, and that would be enough to make it mission critical software. In the meantime, we end up using tools with a little bit less good UX, but we just can't share that data publicly. UX can't win over security, and I hate having to choose.
  - anonymouse008 5y ago
    Curious, how is that a less good UX? That seems exactly like what customers want — just when you share things publicly it goes to a separate public sandbox? It should be fairly trivial to obfuscate
smoldesu 5y ago
>Totally understand that you want more options for how to host your data. Unfortunately, we don't have any plans on that front at the moment. This is unfortunate. I tried Notion a few months back, and almost loved it enough to pay for a subscription. Once I saw that, I refunded the subscription and went back to markdown and git. I love your software, but the lock-in is frustrating.
- ptd 5y ago
  If you’re the CEO, would you rather have a frustrating but profitable product or a non-frustrating but non-profitable product? I think people forget this part of the math.
  - oarsinsync 5y ago
    If your product is only profitable because you created artificial friction, your business is unlikely to exist a decade from now unless you are thinking about diversifying already. Allowing me to host my data myself should not reduce your profits as long as your product is still the best. If you’re focused on (relative) short term profits to get paid and retire on a beach, and you succeed, good for you. I’m totally jealous and wish I was you. Unfortunately, I’m also not your target customer.
  - jitl 5y ago
    (I work at Notion) "Lock in" is not a part of our strategy. We try to offer data portability via import and export; you can export your entire workspace as HTML (most metadata, pages link to each other and can be browsed offline), PDF, or Markdown (most easily editable). Given an HTML export and a few hours of scripting, I think you could migrate to any API-accessible document storage strategy.
    - SixFive7 5y ago
      Except if the export is broken, as it has been for us for months with no answer from support. Our company account got quite large to about 40 GB. Ever since, all export options just result in "export failed"... and as nothing can really be deleted; I'm scared we'll be locked in permanently. Don't get me wrong. We love Notion. But we also need our data to be portable and backed up to not be liable.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mavelikara 5y ago
Off-topic question. Who draws the illustrations for Notion's marketing pages? I love the art work.
- jitl 5y ago
  We pay professional artists to draw all of our illustrations. - Roman Muradov: https://www.bluebed.net/ https://www.bluebed.net/ - Iris Chiang: https://irischiangart.com https://irischiangart.com
vira28 5y ago
I couldn't find anywhere what database that they use. Am I missing it?
jareware 5y ago
Thanks for being upfront about “don’t have any plans for that”, instead of a vague “we’re looking into it” which sounds better but effectively means the same thing.

tacosaretasty 5y ago

Do you at least have plans to expose audit and access logs to customers yet?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bradgessler 5y ago

My company had Notion hit us up for an Enterprise contract. When we asked if they offered enhanced security, single tenancy, or even they’d accept some sort of liability if they had a breach … the answer was no, no, and no. We ultimately decided to not go enterprise since it offers little value over their existing plan and keep sensitive data out of Notion. I hope Notion gets to a point where they can offer stronger guarantees to their customers. If they pull it off they’ll easily be mission critical software.

marcc 5y ago
Notion doesn't even need to offer these guarantees in their SaaS service. They can just ship to my Kubernetes cluster, and let me manage the ingress and storage, and that would be enough to make it mission critical software. In the meantime, we end up using tools with a little bit less good UX, but we just can't share that data publicly. UX can't win over security, and I hate having to choose.
- anonymouse008 5y ago
  Curious, how is that a less good UX? That seems exactly like what customers want — just when you share things publicly it goes to a separate public sandbox? It should be fairly trivial to obfuscate

smoldesu 5y ago

>Totally understand that you want more options for how to host your data. Unfortunately, we don't have any plans on that front at the moment. This is unfortunate. I tried Notion a few months back, and almost loved it enough to pay for a subscription. Once I saw that, I refunded the subscription and went back to markdown and git. I love your software, but the lock-in is frustrating.

ptd 5y ago
If you’re the CEO, would you rather have a frustrating but profitable product or a non-frustrating but non-profitable product? I think people forget this part of the math.
- oarsinsync 5y ago
  If your product is only profitable because you created artificial friction, your business is unlikely to exist a decade from now unless you are thinking about diversifying already. Allowing me to host my data myself should not reduce your profits as long as your product is still the best. If you’re focused on (relative) short term profits to get paid and retire on a beach, and you succeed, good for you. I’m totally jealous and wish I was you. Unfortunately, I’m also not your target customer.
- jitl 5y ago
  (I work at Notion) "Lock in" is not a part of our strategy. We try to offer data portability via import and export; you can export your entire workspace as HTML (most metadata, pages link to each other and can be browsed offline), PDF, or Markdown (most easily editable). Given an HTML export and a few hours of scripting, I think you could migrate to any API-accessible document storage strategy.
  - SixFive7 5y ago
    Except if the export is broken, as it has been for us for months with no answer from support. Our company account got quite large to about 40 GB. Ever since, all export options just result in "export failed"... and as nothing can really be deleted; I'm scared we'll be locked in permanently. Don't get me wrong. We love Notion. But we also need our data to be portable and backed up to not be liable.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

mavelikara 5y ago

Off-topic question. Who draws the illustrations for Notion's marketing pages? I love the art work.

jitl 5y ago
We pay professional artists to draw all of our illustrations. - Roman Muradov: https://www.bluebed.net/ https://www.bluebed.net/ - Iris Chiang: https://irischiangart.com https://irischiangart.com

vira28 5y ago

I couldn't find anywhere what database that they use. Am I missing it?

jareware 5y ago

Thanks for being upfront about “don’t have any plans for that”, instead of a vague “we’re looking into it” which sounds better but effectively means the same thing.