How much does Notion cost in 2026?

Plus: $10 per seat a month on annual billing ($12 billed monthly); Business: $20 per seat a month on annual billing ($24 billed monthly). 5 MB uploads, 7 days of page history and 10 guests; pages and blocks are limited for teams of 2 or more. Checked October 26, 2026.

What is a cheaper alternative to Notion?

Google Docs and Drive (Included in Google Workspace (from $7/user/mo)), Microsoft Loop and OneNote (Included in Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($14/user/mo)), AFFiNE (Free to self-host; cloud free for up to 3 members, Team $10/seat/mo billed yearly). A Notion-style docs and whiteboard app you can host yourself; the project is younger and has fewer integrations.

Docs, wiki and lightweight databases

Should you build your own Notion?

Q: Should you build your own Notion?

Buy it. Five people on Notion Plus pay about $1,800 over 3 years. Rebuilding a live block editor, page permissions and database views would cost about $9,000 over the same period, plus months of upkeep. Google Docs or Microsoft Loop can replace plain documents if you already pay for the suite, but neither matches Notion’s databases.

Buy it. A shared editor with databases is hard to build, and Notion Plus is only $10 a user.

BUY

Short answer

Five people on Notion Plus pay about $1,800 over 3 years. Rebuilding a live block editor, page permissions and database views would cost about $9,000 over the same period, plus months of upkeep. Google Docs or Microsoft Loop can replace plain documents if you already pay for the suite, but neither matches Notion’s databases.

Buy for 3 years: $1,800
Build and run for 3 years: $9,025
Verdict: BUY

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Cheaper options

Already includedGoogle Docs and DriveIncluded in Google Workspace (from $7/user/mo)Fine for plain documents and shared folders; it has no linked databases.Already includedMicrosoft Loop and OneNoteIncluded in Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($14/user/mo)Loop workspaces and OneNote notebooks cover shared notes and planning; they are less polished than Notion.Open sourceAFFiNEFree to self-host; cloud free for up to 3 members, Team $10/seat/mo billed yearlyA Notion-style docs and whiteboard app you can host yourself; the project is younger and has fewer integrations.

Notion pricing in 2026

Plan	Billed yearly	Billed monthly
Plus Typical	$10/seat/mo	$12/seat/mo
Business	$20/seat/mo	$24/seat/mo

Free plan: 5 MB uploads, 7 days of page history and 10 guests; pages and blocks are limited for teams of 2 or more

Paying too much? The Free plan is enough for one person. A team will hit its limits on pages and blocks, 5 MB uploads and 7 days of page history.

Per member, in USD from Notion’s pricing page, billed yearly or monthly as shown. Business adds Notion Agent and AI meeting notes; optional Custom Agents cost $10 per 1,000 credits. Checked October 26, 2026.

Run your own numbers

Defaults are a typical small team at $30/hour. Change anything.

If you buy Notion

Plan

Seats

If you build it

Your time, $ per hour

Hours to build

Upkeep, hours per month

Hosting and services, $ per month

Buy

$1,800

Build

$9,025

Buying is about $7,225 cheaper over 3 years.

3-year totals. Building includes your time, upkeep, running costs and one month of an AI app builder ($25). Change any number to match your situation.

What you’d build

Pages in a nested tree with a block editor (BlockNote or Tiptap)
Live co-editing with Yjs
Simple table views with filters and sorting
Search and links between pages
Team and guest permissions

A Supabase Pro project ($25) plus a small server for live co-editing.

What you’d give up

Linked databases, relations and rollups
Notion AI and meeting notes
Hundreds of ready-made templates
Offline apps and a web clipper

Risks the price doesn’t show

Live co-editingHigh

Merging edits from several people without losing text takes careful use of a CRDT library.

PermissionsMedium

A page shared with a guest must never expose its parent or sibling pages.

Search and historyMedium

Page history and fast search across thousands of pages take real work.

When the verdict flips

The verdict flips to SWITCH if you only write plain documents and already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, since Docs or Loop cost nothing extra. Notion Free covers a solo user.

Sources

Notion pricing

Build hours are our estimates for one person using an AI app builder. How we score. Spotted a wrong price? Tell us on X @BuildictHQ.

Related verdicts

Google Workspace

Docs & productivity

BUY

Buy it. Email, docs, storage and video calls for $14 a user is hard to beat, and none of it is worth building.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,520
Build, 3 yrs: $22,045

Grammarly

Docs & productivity

SWITCH

Switch to LanguageTool if spelling and grammar are what you use. It costs about half as much as Grammarly Pro.

Buy, 3 yrs: $432
Build, 3 yrs: $3,265

Microsoft 365

Docs & productivity

BUY

Buy it. At $14 a user you get email, Teams, desktop Office apps and 1 TB each, and nothing home-built comes close.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,520
Build, 3 yrs: $22,645