Diarist vs Notion

Notion is a very good tool for organizing everything you think and know. Diarist is a very different kind of tool, one that makes the act of thinking visible to someone else, in real time.

Notion

• Flexible workspace for notes, wikis, tasks, and databases
• Excellent for organizing research, planning writing projects, managing drafts
• Can be shared, but sharing is static, people see the document, not the writing of it
• Not designed for live broadcasting or real-time keystroke sharing
• Powerful but complex; not optimized for the flow of creative writing

Diarist

• Minimal, distraction-free writing environment
• Every keystroke broadcast live to anyone with your link
• Built for the writing session, not for organization or project management
• Followers, notifications, and a public writing profile
• Free to use

The honest comparison

Notion and Diarist are not in competition. Notion is where you organize your writing life. Diarist is where you perform one specific act, writing live, for a reader, that Notion cannot do.

If you want to share a page in Notion, you share a finished document. If you want someone to be present while you write, you need Diarist.