Notion vs Raycast
Both are productivity tools. Here is what separates them.
What Notion is
Notion is a workspace application where documents, databases and calendars are built from the same set of blocks, so written notes and structured records sit in one place rather than in separate tools. Third-party listings describe it as an all-in-one workspace covering note-taking, project management and task organisation, and that modular, block-based structure is what separates it from a straightforward document editor. Beyond writing and storing documents, Notion is used for recurring operational work. The vendor gives automating weekly reporting and responding to security alerts more quickly as examples of what teams route through it. Third-party listings note row-level permissions, which control who can see which records inside a shared database, alongside the collaboration features on shared pages. Notion launched with an API, so the workspace was scriptable from the beginning rather than through an add-on bolted on later. It integrates with Slack, and third-party listings note that content can be synced with connected apps so the same record does not have to be maintained in two systems. The product runs on the web and as mobile apps. Adoption is unusually broad for a tool with this much configuration in it. Notion reports over 100 million users in more than 50 countries. Among large companies, 62% of the Fortune 100 use it, as do over 98% of the Forbes Cloud 100. More than half of Y Combinator companies use it as well, which suggests it tends to be adopted early by small teams rather than rolled out later by an IT function. The user community runs to more than 1.4 million members. The flexibility is both the appeal and the cost. Because a workspace can be shaped almost any way, two teams on the same product can end up with structures that look nothing alike, and the work of deciding that structure falls to whoever sets it up first. Notion is made by Notion Labs Inc, is not open source, and is sold on free and paid tiers.
What Raycast is
Raycast is a keyboard-driven launcher that bundles productivity commands and accepts third-party extensions. The commands that ship with it cover clipboard history, snippets, quicklinks, window management, a calculator, file search and an emoji picker. Applications are published for macOS, Windows and iOS, with the Windows build requiring Windows 10 version 21H2 or later, or Windows 11. Extensions that contain no native code run on Windows and macOS without modification. Raycast AI sits behind a paid subscription and is not part of the Free plan. It exposes models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, Perplexity, DeepSeek and xAI through a single interface, and it can also run local models through Ollama or use your own API key for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. Quick AI answers a query in a floating window opened by one hotkey and can search the web as part of the answer. AI Extensions go further, letting a natural language instruction drive third-party applications such as Linear and Slack. The Free plan allows up to 30 shared snippets, 30 shared quicklinks and 5 shared commands, keeps clipboard history for three months and caps Raycast Notes at five notes. Pro costs $10 per month billed monthly, or $8 billed annually, a 20 percent reduction. It removes both the clipboard history retention limit and the Notes limit, and adds cloud sync, dictation, custom themes, a translator and custom window management commands. An Advanced AI add-on costs a further $8 per month. For teams, the free tier costs nothing per user and places no cap on the number of members. Teams Pro is $12 per user per month billed annually, or $15 billed monthly, lifts the caps on shared snippets, quicklinks and commands, and adds custom extensions along with developer tooling. The Advanced AI add-on is $8 per user per month on top of that. Enterprise is quoted rather than list priced and adds SAML, SCIM, domain capture, two factor enforcement, an extension allow list and an IP allow list, plus an AI control centre with an organisation-wide AI toggle, an AI provider allow list and support for a custom AI provider.
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