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Notion releases offline mode

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Re: Notion releases offline mode

#91
post #76

Offline mode is one of those features that sounds simple enough, but in reality gets pretty complex pretty fast, particularly if you want to do more meaningful capabilities or operations esp at scale.

I remember Notion talking about adding this YEARS ago. It has literally taken them YEARS to build this. So yes, very complex

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#93
post #90
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obsidian is great for solo use, but then so is Apple Notes and a dozen similar options. Where Notion shines is team based sharing and collaboration. There's really nothing else like it with the same feature set.

Once iOS 26 drops Apple Notes will be much-much more useful with the combination of supported linking between notes and supporting Markdown. Before it rapidly became untenable as a place to actually store my notes. I use it more as a "temporary note" that will be moved to the proper place later.

I have been using Apple Notes' Import to Notes and Import Markdown features a lot in macOS 26 and it has been great so far.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#94
post #8

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

Are they comparable tools in a team context? The ease of linking documents to people and collaborating? Seems like solo, sure. But in a group.. Obsidian doesn't replace Notion at all.

Have you tried Relay [0]? It makes Obsidian work for groups by adding real-time collaboration features.

(disclaimer: I'm the dev)

[0] https://relay.md

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#95
post #7

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

I've never heard of companies using Obsidian. Notion isn't really marketed or suitable for individuals (even if their free plan says otherwise).

Notion is used individually by a lot of students

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#96
post #73
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have Obsidian stopped requiring that you pay for a commercial license to use for work? I know it wasn't enforced but I think the free license limited you to personal use. I bought a commercial license three years ago, and I don't really mind paying it, but then my job for the last year expressly forbid the use of Obsidian [1], and as such I didn't feel compelled to keep paying, though I still used it for personal stu…

Yes. https://obsidian.md/blog/free-for-work/

I don't get it. The pricing page only lists paid options. Not a free tier. What am I missing here?

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#97
post #81

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

Personally, I use Obsidian. But I can’t imagine using it with a team. There’s too much friction sorting out what extensions to use, making sure everyone knows how to use said extensions. I don’t see how Obsidian is feasible for teams. If anyone has experience making it work well for their team, I’d love to hear about it.

I've the dev behind Relay [0] (real-time collaboration for teams using Obsidian), and we work with a lot of teams who have switched over to using Obsidian for work. We just hit 10,000 users yesterday.

You don't need a lot of the plugins to be productive in Obsidian, but I think a superpower people are overlooking is that you can build your own plugins for company specific features/workflows quite cheaply.

Combine that with having everything local, and you can use tools like claude code to actually make use of the knowledge/context that you're creating.

I find it crazy that people are pushing data into locked-in systems like Notion only to be limited by their weak-sauce AI tools.

In contrast, we are all in on file-over-app -- keeping the files locally on your computer so you can actually use them. Many of our customers run their Relay Server on-prem for total document privacy.

[0] https://relay.md

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#98
post #76

Offline mode is one of those features that sounds simple enough, but in reality gets pretty complex pretty fast, particularly if you want to do more meaningful capabilities or operations esp at scale.

Maybe it's just me, but nothing sounds simple about offline mode. The changeset resolution necessary to resync after going back online sounds TOUGH to build in a way that doesn't result in user data loss ever without being more cumbersome than it's worth.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#99
post #96
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. https://obsidian.md/blog/free-for-work/

I don't get it. The pricing page only lists paid options. Not a free tier. What am I missing here?

There are no tiers or different features, just their own sync service is a paid service, and the commercial license is paid but optional.

Otherwise the free Obsidian has everything, and there are other plugins for self hosted syncing that don't use the paid service.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#100
post #65
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's somewhat true for team collaboration, but not if you consider individuals on teams. There are people at least 10,000 companies using Obsidian, and some large corporate sponsors. See obsidian.md/enterprise

Oracle has 162,000 employees, but because about 25 people total asked for reimbursement for licenses, they're on that page.

Isn't that pretty much how every "Trusted by these companies" marketing badge works nowadays?
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