Notion was founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao as a workspace combining notes, databases and project tools.
Notion was designed as a flexible system in which users could build pages from blocks. Those blocks could represent text, tasks, tables, calendars, databases or other types of information, allowing one workspace to serve several organizational purposes.
Ivan Zhao founded the company in 2013. Notion later became popular with individuals, startups and larger teams that wanted to combine documentation, project planning and knowledge management in one product.
Evernote is a common comparison because it is also known for digital notes, while Airtable emphasizes spreadsheet-like databases. Coda is another collaborative document platform. Notion’s distinctive pitch is the combination of documents, databases and customizable workspace structures.