Notion vs Coda vs Almanac: We Used All 3 — Here’s What We Kept (and Why)

We didn’t plan on testing three doc tools.

We just… grew. And as our team scaled, so did the chaos.

So we decided to run a real test:

2 teams. 3 tools. 6 weeks.
Notion. Coda. Almanac.

Here’s what worked, what failed — and why we made the switch.

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Why We Ran the Test

By Q4 2024, our team had:

• 27 internal docs in Notion

• 11 product pages in Coda

• A few engineers quietly using Almanac

We didn’t realize how fragmented we’d become.

So we set up a head-to-head comparison across:

• Onboarding speed

• Search & navigation

• Access control

• Real-time collaboration

• Team feedback

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The Results — What Surprised Us

Almanac (Winner)

• Best access control

• Cleanest version history

• Best structured async workflows

• Slack integrations nailed

“This felt like it was built for remote collaboration — Notion felt like a wiki, Almanac felt like a workspace.”

Coda

• Beautiful, powerful

• But too “database-y” for many

• Best for dashboards, not documents

Notion

• Most familiar

• Fastest to onboard

• But…

  • Weak permissions

  • Messy structure

  • Poor search

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What We Use Now (And How)

• Docs & workflows → Almanac

• Quick notes → Notion

• Data views → Coda

We didn’t fully drop anything — but we promoted Almanac to our core.

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Lessons We Learned

1. Prettier ≠ Better

2. Search matters more than structure

3. Default workflows shape behavior

4. Permissions = trust

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So… What’s Best for You?

If your team is small and async-heavy: Almanac wins
If your team loves spreadsheets: Coda is powerful
If you just need a flexible, generalist tool: Notion still works

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Want our comparison matrix + migration checklist?
Drop your email and we’ll send the full internal doc — built in Almanac, of course.