Notion alternative
ForkLeaf vs Notion
Notion is an excellent shared workspace whose pages live in Notion's database. ForkLeaf is a notebook whose pages are Markdown files in your own GitHub repository — readable without ForkLeaf, versioned by git, and yours if the app ever goes away.
Side by side
| Question | ForkLeaf | Notion |
|---|---|---|
| Where a note ends up | A .md file in a GitHub repository you own | A row in Notion's database, on Notion's servers |
| Format | Markdown — readable in any editor, for ever | Blocks. Markdown export exists and loses things |
| History | Every save is a git commit — diffs, blame, revert | Page history, on paid plans, for a limited window |
| Sync | git push, to a repository you already pay nothing for | Theirs, included, and required |
| Offline | Fully — edits queue locally and push when you reconnect | Partial, and not something to rely on |
| Diagrams | A Mermaid studio; the diagram renders on GitHub as well | Mermaid in code blocks |
| Collaboration | Pull requests and review — proposed, discussed, then merged | Live multiplayer editing — genuinely excellent |
| If the company disappears | Nothing happens. The notes were never here | You have whatever you exported before it happened |
| Price | Free, open source, and no account to close | Free tier, then per person per month |
Choose Notion if…
- Your team edits the same page at the same time — Notion's live multiplayer editing is genuinely excellent.
- You build databases, relations and dashboards; Notion's databases go well beyond what plain files can be.
- Nobody on the team has, or wants, a GitHub account.
Choose ForkLeaf if…
- You want your notes as files you can read in any editor, not blocks you have to export and lose things from.
- You want to write offline and trust that it works — ForkLeaf writes every keystroke to the device first.
- You want history without a retention window: every save is a git commit.
- You want notes beside your code, reviewed in pull requests and published to GitHub Pages.
- You want something that costs nothing per person and holds nothing on its own servers.
Moving from Notion
- In Notion: Settings → Export all workspace content → Markdown & CSV, then unzip the export.
- Open ForkLeaf, sign in with GitHub and choose the repository your notes will live in.
- ⌘K → Import notes from Obsidian or Notion, choose Notion export, and pick the unzipped folder.
- The long ids Notion adds to file names are removed and links are rewritten to match. Database tables (CSV) are skipped, and the import says so.
Nothing is locked in on the way in, either: your notes stay plain Markdown in your own repository, so changing your mind later means opening the same folder in something else.
Questions
Can I import my Notion workspace into ForkLeaf?
Yes. Export your workspace from Notion as Markdown & CSV, unzip it, and import the folder in ForkLeaf. Pages, folders, links and pictures come across; Notion's random ids are stripped from file names and links are rewritten. Database tables are skipped and listed.
Does ForkLeaf have real-time collaboration like Notion?
Not live multiplayer editing. ForkLeaf collaborates the way code does: changes are proposed on a branch, discussed in a pull request and then merged, with the whole history kept in git.
Does ForkLeaf work offline?
Yes, and by default. Every edit is written to IndexedDB on your device first; the commit queue pushes to GitHub when there is a network again, and the status bar says what is saved where.
What happens to my notes if ForkLeaf shuts down?
Nothing. They are Markdown files in a repository on your own GitHub account. Clone it and keep going in any text editor.