Notion vs Superhuman
Both are productivity tools. Here is what separates them.
| Notion | Superhuman | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
| Pricing model | freemium | paid |
| Price from | Freemium | Paid |
| Upvotes | 10 | 4 |
| What it does | Docs, databases and wikis that bend to whatever shape your team wants. | Email and documents in one workspace, with an AI assistant called Go. |
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 Superhuman is
Superhuman is a suite of AI work software covering email, documents and an assistant that runs across other applications. It began in 2014 as Superhuman Mail, an email client, and the founding team includes Rahul Vohra. The current line-up grew out of a group of products that originally included Coda and Grammarly, and both of those lineages are visible in what it now sells. Superhuman Docs is the document and project side. Documents hold text, tables, formulas and buttons, and AI can assemble them. Beyond static pages it runs workflows: approval processes, dashboards built and customised for data visualisation, and knowledge hubs that update themselves so the information in them stays accurate. Collaboration features include voting, reactions and charts, and templates cover common team set-ups. Anyone using it is classed as either a Doc Maker or an Editor. Docs AI, the assistant inside it, is in beta for Doc Makers. Document size is unlimited on Pro and above. There are more than 800 integrations, including Jira, Salesforce and Asana, and it works in real time alongside assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor. Go is the AI assistant, described as proactive and available in every app rather than only inside Superhuman's own. Grammarly is included with the Pro and Business plans, with a limited trial on the free plan. Elsewhere the suite connects to Gmail, Slack, Google Calendar, Jira and Salesforce. Superhuman puts the scale of the whole thing at more than 40 million people and over 50,000 organisations, and says it analyses 200 billion words a day. Pricing starts with a free plan at $0. Pro is $12 a month billed annually, or $15 billed monthly. Business is $33 a month billed annually, or $40 monthly. Enterprise is quoted individually. None of it is open source. The figure the company attaches to all this is four hours saved per person per week, which is a vendor claim rather than an independent measurement. The more useful point for anyone arriving on the strength of the keyboard-driven inbox is that email is now one component of a wider set. Documents, workflows and an assistant that follows you into other applications carry a substantial share of what is being sold, and the pricing covers the suite rather than the mail client alone.
We are not affiliated with either product. Upvote counts come from the published formula and neither position was paid for.