XWiki vs. Notion

Open-source vs. proprietary

XWiki is an open-source alternative to Notion. Why does it matter? For starters, since XWiki is open-source, you can download it and use it for free, while Notion is proprietary and thus subject to constraints such as vendor lock-in. As open-source advocates, we are driven to build accessible and transparent software that allows you to make your own decisions. This means that you have full control over your data and software. You have the liberty to deploy XWiki on your server or on our cloud, as compared to Notion, that offers only the cloud option. Simply put, with XWiki you have the advantage to be able to change your mind at any time in terms of hosting.

When XWiki is self-hosted, it allows organizations to have complete control over their data and hosting environment. This can be an essential requirement for businesses with strict data privacy and security concerns. This is why tech players such as Amazon and Lenovo chose to rely on XWiki and benefit from full data privacy and our team’s expertise.

Comparison between XWiki and Notion

Technology and features

The power of customization vs. all-in-one products

While mostly famous for its note-taking capabilities, Notion is actually an all-in-one workspace for document collaboration, wikis, databases, and task management. The downside to the all-in-one approach is the limitation it brings when it comes to customization solutions. Even though it supports workspaces, when they are large and complex, performance is reportedly an issue. The same applies to the website use cases. Notion can be configured to become a website, but the storage and speed performances only make it suitable for personal blogs and resumes. And this leaves the corporate websites out of the equation. What you gain in terms of functionality and aesthetics, you give up in terms of performance, data privacy and control. It also lacks a native app for Linux (nor is one planned in the near future) and has a steep learning curve.

On the other hand, XWiki was built with the mindset that software should adapt to its user and not the other way round. What does this mean for your business requirements? XWiki is designed to handle large-scale deployments and can cater to the needs of enterprises with many users and extensive documentation. At the same time, answering large-scale needs makes XWiki seamlessly customizable to smaller projects. This is because XWiki's source code is open. What is more, users can create custom macros, applications, and workflows tailored to their specific requirements.

Generally speaking, we provide solutions for specific collaborative needs, such as knowledge bases, procedures management, extranet and communities, digital workplace, and custom projects. If you want to find out more about the benefits of opting for a customized solution, you can consult our references page.

Reversibility

Page history is a must when dealing with content management. XWiki and Notion both provide this feature, but with considerable differences. In Notion, you can access the history of a page and restore past versions that go back only 7 days if you are on the free plan. For longer or unlimited access to page history, you need to choose a paid plan.

In XWiki, you will experience powerful reversibility capabilities. You will never lose content because you have unlimited and free access to your page history, thanks to the fact that this functionality is included in the standard product. You can see all the versions listed for a page you are interested in and decide which version you want to view. If you or someone else in your team made changes to a page that are no longer accurate or up-to-date, you can roll back to any previous version of that page. What is more, you are able to compare any two versions and effortlessly understand what changes someone made on top of a previous version.

Market positioning

Through its functionality and aesthetics, Notion is appealing to small businesses and individuals, including university students. In exchange, XWiki fits perfectly IT companies but at the same time is sought-after by organizations of all sizes, including enterprises. It is aimed towards businesses, workgroups, and developers. But what matters the most is that XWiki can become suitable for your specific needs, be it at individual or enterprise level. It's the beauty of community contributions combined with XWiki SAS expertise. Our team of specialized developers and consultants handle complex business projects and offer informed advice.

"Our organization transitioned from using three different wikis to just XWiki with no problems. Most important for us is that XWiki is open source, allowing for a quicker pace of development, greater stability, broader features. Quick, easy, great features and open source - everyone is happy!"- Patrick M., Director & GM, Capterra review

Why choose XWiki over Notion?

• Basic vs. advanced features. While Notion meets basic needs in terms of collaboration, wikis and information management, XWiki enables you to experience a myriad of advanced features adapted to specific use cases. Functioning as a comprehensive development platform, it addresses a diversity of businesses and comes with a great extensibility that translates into over 750 apps and extensions. With XWiki, you can build customized applications with the help of App Within Minutes, a user-friendly tool that eases the life of non-technical individuals as it doesn't require any programming skills.

• Privacy. With Notion, all information you enter can be accessed by the vendor, so sensitive data is not protected. XWiki puts you in control of your data and the way you decide to host it: on your computers or on cloud. Privacy is a burning matter for everyone who needs to share their information over Internet, but if you are an enterprise with strict security policies, privacy becomes instrumental. So your choices in terms of software will impact how your data and business will be kept safe from third party access or breaches.

• No vendor lock-in. Choosing where to deploy, what services to use, and what features do the job is up to you. You don't have to deal with license fees, a lack of portability, or the inability to customize the software as you wish. XWiki can effectively address all these needs. It can be deployed both on your server or our cloud, but there is no vendor lock-in so you are free to change your mind at any point.

• The power of the community. XWiki benefits from the open-source values which dictate that the source code will always be available for further improvements. This means the sky is the limit in terms of who can contribute. The community is continuously reviewing code, making improvements, and fixing security gaps. The collective power of such a community of talented individuals coming together not only delivers more ideas but quicker development and troubleshooting.