Notion vs Airtable: Which Should You Choose in 2026?
Choosing between Notion and Airtable? We analyzed both tools using our proprietary 100-point scoring methodology. Here's what we found.
🏆 Quick Verdict
Winner: Airtable
Airtable edges out Notion with a higher overall score.
📊 Score Comparison
Notion
Airtable
📈 Detailed Score Breakdown
| Category | Notion | Airtable | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value/Price (30pts) | 25/30 | 26/30 | Airtable |
| Competitive Moat (25pts) | 22/25 | 23/25 | Airtable |
| Transparency (20pts) | 18/20 | 19/20 | Airtable |
| UI/UX (15pts) | 14/15 | 14/15 | Tie |
| Tech Maturity (10pts) | 9/10 | 9/10 | Tie |
✅ Pros & Cons
Notion
Strengths
- Notion provides a comprehensive all-in-one platform for various company needs.
- A generous free tier is available for individuals to manage personal projects and life.
- AI capabilities are integrated across all paid plans, including a trial for the free tier.
- Enterprise plans offer robust security and compliance features, including SAML SSO, SCIM, and audit logs.
- Pricing is clearly structured with a discount for annual payments.
Weaknesses
- The free plan has limitations on blocks for teams, restricting collaborative use.
- Automations are basic and limited to buttons only in lower tiers.
- Notion Mail AI is only available as a limited trial for Plus and Business plans.
- Custom domains and branding incur an additional 'Pay per domain' cost across all paid plans, including Enterprise.
Airtable
Strengths
- Comprehensive enterprise-grade security and compliance suite
- Strong entry-level value proposition with functional free tier
- High scalability for complex data management
- Advanced AI integration across all tiers
Weaknesses
- Aggressive pricing for advanced administrative features
- Significant additional costs for external user access
- Opaque pricing for the highest tier
🏰 Competitive Moat Analysis
Notion
Notion's primary moat is its comprehensive, all-in-one platform approach, integrating notes, project management, databases, AI, and communication tools (Mail, Calendar) into a single workspace. This creates significant switching costs for users and teams who have built their workflows within Notion. The advanced AI capabilities, particularly the 'Zero data retention with LLM providers' for Enterprise, offer a strong competitive edge in data privacy and security for AI-powered features. The extensibility through a public API and webhooks further solidifies its position by allowing deep integration into existing tech stacks. Its strong brand recognition and adoption by major tech companies also contribute to a network effect.
Airtable
Airtable's moat is built on high switching costs and a powerful network effect within organizations. By combining database functionality with a low-code 'Interface Designer' and native AI (Omni), it creates a proprietary ecosystem that is difficult to migrate away from once workflows are established. The introduction of 'HyperDB' and 'App Sandbox' further solidifies its position as a professional development platform rather than just a spreadsheet tool.
🎯 Our Recommendation
Choose Notion if: Notion offers a highly comprehensive and integrated workspace solution with strong AI capabilities, clear pricing, and robust enterprise features, providing significant value across individual, small ...
Choose Airtable if: Airtable demonstrates market-leading technical maturity and a robust competitive moat through its integrated AI capabilities, extensive enterprise security features, and highly flexible app-building p...
Our Methodology
This audit uses Onyx Protocol's standardized evaluation methodology, scoring products across 5 categories: Value/Price (30pts), Competitive Moat (25pts), Transparency (20pts), UI/UX (15pts), and Technical Maturity (10pts). Each category is assessed based on publicly available information.
- This analysis is based on publicly available information at time of audit
- Pricing and features are subject to change
- Individual use cases may have different requirements
- Not a substitute for hands-on evaluation or free trial
Last updated: January 03, 2026. Scores may change as products evolve.