3 ms·

I guess I might as well ask here. I tried notion 1-2 years [0] ago, and the features were great. I'd even have considered paying for it. But the performance was

I guess I might as well ask here. I tried notion 1-2 years [0] ago, and the features were great. I'd even have considered paying for it. But the performance was atrocious. It made Gmail seem fast. Have things Improved on that front? [0] I've always been bad at remembering how much time passed, but COVID really didn't help … So those numbers might be off. Edit: Thanks everyone, sounds like I'll at least give it another chance.

adamcharnock 4y ago
I’ve found the performance to be pretty good, and I use it most days. I certainly rarely feel as though I’m waiting for it. The global search can take upto a second to return results, but that is as bad as it gets for me. I recall some blog post about a major refactoring/sharding they did sometime in the last few years. Maybe that helped?
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Just tried it again. Slow initial load on pages and worse, even after that almost every action has a few ms delay, not a lot, but enough to feel them. It’s like with Gmail, Facebook or new reddit, everyone else seems to have a far higher pain threshold for slowness.
  - dgb23 4y ago
    I use it daily. We use it for a mix of documentation, specification, changelogs and so on. Some tables are generated through the API. I personally wouldn’t have chosen it over something that’s text/html/markdown etc. based with git version control. For one it’s as you said, slow. And it’s restricted. But it’s very practical, nice looking, easy to use for less technical people etc.
iamben 4y ago
We use it daily. It's way, way better than it used to be, but there's still times it feels a little sluggish. I'd definitely recommend giving it another go though.
- jitl 4y ago
  What feels sluggish? Load speed, and/or something else?
  - iamben 4y ago
    Load speed is generally fine (but then I tend to have it open in a pinned tab). On occasion you're clicking and waiting, or you're typing and everything is just a second/fraction of a second behind what you're actually doing. I don't think it ever hits frustration point, it's just not magic.
segphault 4y ago
Performance has improved noticeably, particularly for the mobile apps, but it is still slow. I am a heavy Notion user and happily pay for it, but I really wish they would support local sync so that it would be more responsive.
virgil_disgr4ce 4y ago
The performance is better than it was at that time. At that time performance was the #1 item for improvement on their roadmap. I currently pay for Notion and I don't usually mind the performance. However, things like opening a new window and changing it to a new document with the "quick" search (command-p) is still almost unacceptably slow (it's an Electron app). The benefits for me do outweigh the costs though. I've never seen native apps anywhere in their stated plans.
- d3nj4l 4y ago
  Native vs electron is probably not the thing that makes notion slow - AFAIK (last used notion ~2 years ago) everything has to go through the web, nothing is local, and the performance bottleneck is their server.
rchaud 4y ago
Notion is known for being a laggy web app. It's partially why local-first, Markdown-based solutions like Obsidian and Logseq have exploded in popularity. Logseq is amazing and truly shows the power of backlinked text with a query interface. And the whole thing is FOSS, at least for now.
- SaltyBackendGuy 4y ago
  I just started using Logseq and I am blown away with how amazing it is.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  They are also far from notion in how powerful they are.
- scrollaway 4y ago
  I was turned off by Obsidian because, much as it is local first, it doesn’t have the more notion like mode where I can invite a team and use it as a shared wiki. Did I miss something? For me, being able to edit things from multiple devices seamlessly and share it with my coworkers so they can edit it too, that is critical.
  - savanaly 4y ago
    Obsidian just uses whatever files are in the directory you point it at. So you could just pair obsidian with any folder syncing product that does everything you need as far as ability to invite team members. OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
  - rchaud 4y ago
    I think that's because Obsidian is designed for individuals over teams. It uses a local folder structure for organizing MD files and keeping them portable, although the backlinks mean everything can stay in sync. They aren't set up as a SaaS in the way Notion are, and that has a big impact on the design and intended audience for it.
  - fellInchoate 4y ago
meken 4y ago
I use it daily for kanban and as a scratch pad and the performance is horrible. I’m on a 2015 mac
- jitl 4y ago
  What feels sluggish? Load speed, and/or something else?
  - meken 4y ago
    When I type '/todo', I type '/', and sometimes it just hangs for like 10 seconds. Then I type 't'... and then I can usually finish 'odo' quick Also when I click to maximize a notion page, that is often quite slow
apple4ever 4y ago
It's pretty responsive, and I use it everyday. But note the search is HORRIBLE. Unless you know the title of what you want to find, don't both with the search.

adamcharnock 4y ago

I’ve found the performance to be pretty good, and I use it most days. I certainly rarely feel as though I’m waiting for it. The global search can take upto a second to return results, but that is as bad as it gets for me. I recall some blog post about a major refactoring/sharding they did sometime in the last few years. Maybe that helped?

Semaphor 4y ago
Just tried it again. Slow initial load on pages and worse, even after that almost every action has a few ms delay, not a lot, but enough to feel them. It’s like with Gmail, Facebook or new reddit, everyone else seems to have a far higher pain threshold for slowness.
- dgb23 4y ago
  I use it daily. We use it for a mix of documentation, specification, changelogs and so on. Some tables are generated through the API. I personally wouldn’t have chosen it over something that’s text/html/markdown etc. based with git version control. For one it’s as you said, slow. And it’s restricted. But it’s very practical, nice looking, easy to use for less technical people etc.

iamben 4y ago

We use it daily. It's way, way better than it used to be, but there's still times it feels a little sluggish. I'd definitely recommend giving it another go though.

jitl 4y ago
What feels sluggish? Load speed, and/or something else?
- iamben 4y ago
  Load speed is generally fine (but then I tend to have it open in a pinned tab). On occasion you're clicking and waiting, or you're typing and everything is just a second/fraction of a second behind what you're actually doing. I don't think it ever hits frustration point, it's just not magic.

segphault 4y ago

Performance has improved noticeably, particularly for the mobile apps, but it is still slow. I am a heavy Notion user and happily pay for it, but I really wish they would support local sync so that it would be more responsive.

virgil_disgr4ce 4y ago

The performance is better than it was at that time. At that time performance was the #1 item for improvement on their roadmap. I currently pay for Notion and I don't usually mind the performance. However, things like opening a new window and changing it to a new document with the "quick" search (command-p) is still almost unacceptably slow (it's an Electron app). The benefits for me do outweigh the costs though. I've never seen native apps anywhere in their stated plans.

d3nj4l 4y ago
Native vs electron is probably not the thing that makes notion slow - AFAIK (last used notion ~2 years ago) everything has to go through the web, nothing is local, and the performance bottleneck is their server.

rchaud 4y ago

Notion is known for being a laggy web app. It's partially why local-first, Markdown-based solutions like Obsidian and Logseq have exploded in popularity. Logseq is amazing and truly shows the power of backlinked text with a query interface. And the whole thing is FOSS, at least for now.

SaltyBackendGuy 4y ago
I just started using Logseq and I am blown away with how amazing it is.
Semaphor 4y ago
They are also far from notion in how powerful they are.
scrollaway 4y ago
I was turned off by Obsidian because, much as it is local first, it doesn’t have the more notion like mode where I can invite a team and use it as a shared wiki. Did I miss something? For me, being able to edit things from multiple devices seamlessly and share it with my coworkers so they can edit it too, that is critical.
- savanaly 4y ago
  Obsidian just uses whatever files are in the directory you point it at. So you could just pair obsidian with any folder syncing product that does everything you need as far as ability to invite team members. OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
- rchaud 4y ago
  I think that's because Obsidian is designed for individuals over teams. It uses a local folder structure for organizing MD files and keeping them portable, although the backlinks mean everything can stay in sync. They aren't set up as a SaaS in the way Notion are, and that has a big impact on the design and intended audience for it.
- fellInchoate 4y ago

meken 4y ago

I use it daily for kanban and as a scratch pad and the performance is horrible. I’m on a 2015 mac

jitl 4y ago
What feels sluggish? Load speed, and/or something else?
- meken 4y ago
  When I type '/todo', I type '/', and sometimes it just hangs for like 10 seconds. Then I type 't'... and then I can usually finish 'odo' quick Also when I click to maximize a notion page, that is often quite slow

apple4ever 4y ago

It's pretty responsive, and I use it everyday. But note the search is HORRIBLE. Unless you know the title of what you want to find, don't both with the search.