Roam Research vs Notion
A tale of two block structured note-taking apps
Notion and Roam Research are two popular tools for productivity and note-taking enthusiasts. Both apps utilise a block structured approach and have cult-like followings. But that’s where the similarities end.
A brief (dramatised) history
After Ivan Zhao graduated from college, he was considering a career in photography or academia. His social circle consisted of mostly artists. In his own words, he was the only nerd amongst the group and got sick of making websites for them¹. Instead, he built a tool that allowed them to create a medium for expressing themselves. In 2016, Ivan Zhao released the first version of Notion to the public.
Fast forward to 2019, Roam was running out of money and approached Notion for an investment. Ivan turned Conor (Roam founder) down. Notion had enough ideas, Ivan said. It wouldn’t be a wild stretch to say this fuelled Conor’s drive for success, indirectly leading to Roam’s own cult-like following.
In June 2020, Roam Research released the believer plan ($500 for 5 years). This generated more revenue in the first 48 hours of launch than they ever made.
How blocks fit together
Everything in a Notion or Roam Research page is composed of blocks. Blocks are the fundamental building pieces for both apps, allowing you to craft your own workflows.
However, their underlying implementation is rather different. In Notion, blocks are like LEGO pieces. There is a variety of different shaped blocks that can be combined and put together however you like. Different blocks represent different mediums such as text, images, bulleted-lists and more. Notion’s flexibility stems from being able to organise these blocks to fit your needs. Like LEGO blocks though, once pieces are fit together, they can become rigid if you need to make large changes.
Roam’s blocks are much more fluid. They are not bound by other blocks or pages when combined. Instead, they are always in a state of flux and can exist in multiple places within your database. Rather than promoting fixed structures, Roam allows for incremental and organic change.
Clear structure or exploration?
With the differing implementation of blocks, both apps are optimized for different goals. Notion optimizes for organisation and curation, whereas Roam optimizes for exploration and creation.
Notion tagline is “the all-in-one workspace”, providing one tool for your whole team. Having clear structure for sharing information within a team allows anyone to open up a page and quickly understand relevant information.
Roam’s tagline is “a note-taking tool for networked thought”. Because of the fluid nature of blocks, it frees up concerns about organization. This allows you to direct your focus solely on writing and connect/view ideas when relevant.
User experience and design
There’s no doubt that Notion is more aesthetically pleasing than Roam. It was crafted with designers and non-technical folks in mind. Though visually pleasing, the learning curve for Notion can be steep. It takes time to familiarise yourself with the different types and arrangement of blocks available. Luckily, the Notion team has provided example templates that you can start with.
Building and organising together different blocks to your liking can be fun but also a time trap. The Notion subreddit is consistently filled with the community posting examples of dashboards. Once established, the dashboard acts a single source of truth. This can be a time effective tool for working in groups, tracking processes and progress.
Roam’s design in comparison is quite bare. Unlike Notion, blocks in Roam are purely text based. There’s no distracting visuals, and each day starts fresh with a new daily notes page. Roam handles the organisation for you, allowing you to not feel bound by existing structure.
Use different tools for different goals
As you can see, both tools excel in certain areas. Don’t get caught up in the tribalism of people using these apps. There seems to be an obsession with all in 1 solutions, with people migrating all their content from one app to the next. While these apps seem similar on the surface, they are optimised for different goals.
If you want clearly structured information for sharing with a team or yourself, so that anyone can open something up and understand, use Notion. If you want to explore, brainstorm, write and make connections, Roam may be more ideal. Choose the tool that works best for your use case. You might even be pleasantly surprised to see they can be complementary.
[1]: https://www.inc.com/alexa-von-tobel/notion-ivan-zhao-founder-turned-passion-software-profitable-business-1-million-users.html Roughly 7:30 minutes onward in the podcast.