Coda.io Review 2023 - Is it Really Better Than Notion?

Introduction

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Coda.io is the hot new thing in online productivity tools. It's been called "the Notion on Steroids" by some, and for a good reason - it offers many features that make productivity a breeze. But is it really as good as everyone says? In this post, we'll look at Coda.io and see how it stacks up against Notion. Stay tuned!

What is Coda?

Coda is a project management tool that combines spreadsheets and documents into one cohesive unit. Coda's main feature is the ease it can integrate with other apps and the ability to develop your integrations, called Packs. It's like Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Zapier all in one.

It helps you build a perfect project management environment for yourself or your team.

One of the most attractive features of Coda you can create docs that can be fully interactive through its building blocks and use of buttons.

Their document editor allows you to create digital documentation, pull data from other sources, or organize information with extreme flexibility.

What is Notion?

Notion is a productivity app that helps you organize and stay on top of your work. Like Coda, it's like Google Docs, but with Spreadsheet functionality.

Notion is one of the best tools, if not the best, for personal use since it has a free version that covers most of the things one user would need. One of the main Notion pros is you can create documents, spreadsheets, to-do lists, and more - all in one place.

It is mainly used as a knowledge management hub, note-taking tool, or a project management tool since it offers a variety of table views, including Kanban boards.

Coda vs Notion Features

It isn't easy to make an objective comparison that will be relatable to every user because there are many use cases for both tools.

Some people want to create documents and tables in one location, while others want to design appealing dashboards or automate processes by integrating other regularly-used tools.

That's why there is no perfect app. Everyone has different wants and needs for an app, so you have to decide what resonates with you and which tool helps you solve your problems.

Here are the main points to help you decide which way to go.

Formulas

Notion's formulas are only good because we are used to them.

They give us exactly what we expect from formulas. However, if you nest formulas, they can quickly become ugly, confusing, and messy. It can turn into a total disaster - especially if you need to change something later down the road.

We also got used to the fact that we can use formulas just in tables.

Well, for a start, in Coda, you can use formulas anywhere on the page. Let's say that Coda's approach to formulas is very intuitive.

For example, you can show dynamic messages to your user showing their name on the doc.

Or list items from a table if you want.

Coda's Formulas are both eye-catching and well organized. You can enter full-screen formula mode for an even better experience. And if your code gets messy, don't worry - you can always tidy it up again with Coda.

It also displays different referencing tables in various colors to make it easier for you to understand what you're doing. Also, every item in the formula you refer to has an icon indicating if you're getting one row or many rows. There's a lot of attention to detail here.

Writing formulas in Notion or Google Sheets can be messy because you have to wrap a formula in a formula, and that leaves you with a lot of )))'s.

You can do that with Coda as well in a more aesthetic way. But there is a cleaner way as well. Coda lets you use the dot operator to chain your formulas, making them much cleaner and easier to read.

Coda's formulas are integral to everything we do, so understanding them will help you think about what can be done.

Overall, I had the most delightful experience using formulas from any apps out there.

Databases

Notion's table, like many other features, is pretty good. But, once you see what Coda can do with tables, you can't unsee it anymore. Coda's databases extend your data to other services by using Packs. Here is an example of using a table with Wikipedia pack.

Making relations is easy as it is in Notion.

Coda has some additional features that are fun and useful, such as a voting table to keep track of which users voted for certain ideas.

Interactive filters

Coda enables users to create an interactive filter with just a few clicks. With this dropdown field, individuals can select different values and slice data how they want it displayed. Simple as that.

Database Views

Coda has the same table layouts as Notion in addition to Chart, Form, Detail View, and WordCloud.

Charts are frequently bought as add-ons in Notion, but they're included in Coda. You may create incredible dynamic reports on your page when you combine interactive filters with them.

Tables and Card View offer conditional formatting, which can assist in the creation of a user interface that is a bit cleaner. Another possible implementation could be using color to warn the user if a required field is empty.

Form View is a fantastic way to get feedback or a ticket from your consumers or partners. Users can customize Forms in a variety of ways. The layout, error messages, and whether or not it requires login are just a few examples of how you may customize them.

Coda can also automate the data from Form inputs after their submission. For example, Coda can add an email address to your emailing software and can add a user to your CRM system.

The Detail View is best if you want access to a contact list or partner data. It's also a great way of clearly representing the information.

A WordCloud is a simple yet effective method to see whether specific terms are repeated multiple times in the text. We are using it in our blog planning document, where the writer can examine whether he used any particular word too often.

Automation

People saying that Coda is Notion on steroids mainly come from users who want to automate their Notion apps.

Though Notion can automate, it can only be done through external tools. These automations tend to get complicated quickly, especially if they are multi-layered.

Coda makes this a lot easier.

Automations can be run on a schedule (every day at 9 or every hour). It can also trigger automation by an event like when a new row is created.

In some particular cases, Coda may be a viable alternative to your Zapier workflows. Especially now, when Coda Packs are becoming more popular, users from the community started building integrations.

For example, Coda can receive a trigger when you receive a payment on your Stripe account and update the user record with this payment in external CRM (or you can build your own CRM in Coda). Workflows like this are usually built with Zapier and other automating tools.

Automation is one of the key differences when deciding between Notion and Coda.

Building Own Apps with Coda Pack

One of the businesses I manage runs a lot of Facebook ads. The process of creating ads on Facebook can be a pain. Not because it is difficult but because it is boring and extremely slow.

Even if you have all the assets ready (image, title, body, CTA) it can take a few hours for creating approximately 20 ads.

We created a Coda Pack that connects to Facebook Marketing API and creates ads automatically from our ad planning table. This table contains all elements needed to create a Facebook ad such as image/video, body text, and call to action.

When the manager approves an ad and changes the status from "draft" to "ready to publish", an ad gets instantly created in our Facebook Ads Manager

It took us only 2-3 hours to create this integration without prior experience with Coda Packs.

The automation saved us many hours every week. Now, we are planning to extend this Pack to scheduling posts for multiple platforms and even getting ad statistics so we can make improvements.

This is barely scratching the surface. Consider all the tasks you and your team despise but must perform regularly. A flood of great ideas will come to mind, no doubt.

With Coda's Team plan you get unlimited automation, which is insane.

Buttons

Having buttons in Coda gives your doc an interactive app-like experience. Buttons can be anywhere on the page or even as a column in a table.

One of the most common use cases is for creating rows since you can set default values to be added to the table immediately upon creation. You can even chain several actions so it can trigger many changes if you want on multiple tables.

Buttons can also help you do some bulk actions, such as marking all tasks complete.

You can even have a button that pushes other buttons. This way, you can make multiple actions with only one click.

Coda vs Notion Pricing

Notion's pricing plan is perfect for you if you work by yourself and don't upload files larger than 5MB.

You may create personal content for free because you get unlimited blocks and pages. You'll need to upgrade to a personal or team plan if you want to collaborate with more people and if you need some security features.

Coda's free plan is limited especially compared to Notion's free plan. You have limits on the number of rows on a table, a low quota plan for automation, and a limited number of objects on a page. To get unlimited doc size, you need to upgrade to the Pro plan.

Suppose you want even more cool stuff like unlimited automation 😱 and other features; you need to upgrade to the Team plan. The difference with Coda is that you pay per Doc Maker, which is like a user that creates docs and sets automation. Other editors, viewers, and guests are completely free.

Notion

The Personal Pro plan is 4$/month when billed annually and 5$/month when billed monthly. The Team plan is 8$/month when billed annually and 10$/month when billed monthly. These are the prices per user

Coda

The Pro plan is 10$/month when billed annually and 12$/month when billed monthly. The Team plan is 30$/month when billed annually and 36$/month when billed monthly. These are the prices per Doc Maker

So, if you have a team of 10 people using the Team plan, the monthly subscription fee for using Notion would be $100 per month or $80 if paid annually.

Compared to Coda it would be 1 Doc Maker, which is $36 per month or $30 if paid annually. At this price, you have unlimited users and guests.

If you're a single user looking for a free app, Notion is your best bet. If you have or foresee having a team, Coda is a much cheaper option down the road.

Coda vs Notion Templates

A blank canvas can be scary. That's why both tools offer a gallery full of templates that help you start with your document.

What makes Notion such a popular productivity app is its incredible ability to be customized with various templates, dashboards, and tutorials created by a fantastic community of people.

One of the best templates I have seen, among others, is the Ultimate Brain Dashboard from Thomas Frank. You can see that there are 100s of hours put into this template. He is also a great Notion teacher, and on his channel, you can find many good tips and tricks for using Notion.

Coda has beautiful templates that you can use right away, and they are excellent for inspiration, so you can reverse-engineer them to make improvements according to your preferences.

The last few months have seen Coda's community producing some excellent templates, and I believe it will be closer to Notion in this category. Because of the endless possibility of integrations, those templates will be on another level. It is more like an app within an app.

To conclude, both Coda and Notion have great templates, even though Coda has some catching up to do.

Ease of Use

At first glance, both Coda and Notion are pretty similar apps with a flat learning curve. At least for basic features. You can either start from a blank page or use built-in templates for a kickstart.

Both Coda and Notion offer intuitive docs space where you can build your page in a modular approach with blocks like headings, bullet points, images, tables, and others. This makes it easy to link data between pages or create linked databases so that users can see all the relevant information in one place.

The main difference in ease of use is Coda's formulas. It has much more features than what Notion offers, so there is a steeper learning curve.

To conclude, these two tools also offer a user-friendly way to build structured data for yourself, your team, or your organization.

Coda vs Notion - What to choose?

Notion

• Free tier for those working independently or in smaller groups.
• A familiar and easy-to-use interface
• Great for personal knowledge management docs

Coda

• Great for documents, project management, and managing tasks
• Collaboration workspace with a great price for unlimited users
• Process automation and integration with other tools

Cons of using Coda

Coda is not without flaws. Currently, it does not have a desktop version yet, and the mobile app may be more versatile. However, they are always improving its platform with new features to ensure users have the best experience possible.

If you're undecided about using Coda, you can try it out as it integrates with Notion, so you can bring your tables from Notion into Coda. This is really handy!

Conclusion

The main differences between these two project management tools are in the level of complexity you want to achieve. Notion is great for personal use, while Coda is great for teams and organizations.

Is Coda perfect for everyone? Almost. :) As I mentioned, you can do many things without automation using Notion.

But as soon as you need more and start automating with external tools, Coda is the right tool for you. Another key difference is that Coda formulas give you more power than the Notion database.

Coda is the closest thing to an all-in-one tool on the market right now. I believe that Coda is just getting started and will become even more popular in the near future.

Sign up for Coda.io today and see how it can help your business run smoother!