Notion vs Roam Research: Workspace vs Zettelkasten in 2026?

Notion launched in 2016 with the vision of being 'one workspace for your notes, wikis, docs, and projects.' It's built on pages (which can nest infinitely), blocks (everything is a block), and databases (with multiple views). You build structure - folders, hierarchies, systems. It's incredibly flexible but also hierarchical.

Your content lives in pages that live in workspaces. Traditional organization that most people's brains understand immediately.

Roam Research appeared in 2020 with a radical different idea: what if notes were networked instead of organized in folders? Every page can link to every other page bidirectionally. Your knowledge becomes a graph of connected ideas. The daily notes approach means you start each day on a blank page and just write.

Links and tags create connections over time. It's based on Zettelkasten method and research on how our brains actually work. Way less intuitive upfront, potentially more powerful long-term.

Notion pages can be anything - docs, databases, wikis, whatever. The editor is solid: formatting, embeds, toggles, callouts, all work well. You decide the structure - create pages, organize them in folders or databases.

It's great for polished docs and structured notes. The catch? You have to decide where things live. New note about a book you read? Is that in Books database? Reading notes folder? Projects section? You're building a system.

Roam is optimized for fast, unstructured note-taking. Open today's daily note and just start writing. Don't worry about where it lives - tag people, ideas, projects as you write. The links create structure over time without you planning it.

This is stupidly good for research, brainstorming, and stream-of-consciousness thinking. Less good for polished docs or structured content. It's notes for thinking, not documents for sharing.

Notion has backlinks now, but they feel like an afterthought. You can see which pages link to the current page, and you can mention other pages with @. It works, but the UI doesn't encourage networked thinking.

Notion wants you to organize pages in databases and folders. The connections are there if you look for them, but the tool isn't built around that concept.

This is Roam's entire thing. Link to any page with [[double brackets]], it creates a bidirectional link automatically. The linked page shows all references to it. Over time, your notes become a knowledge graph.

Concepts connect to each other naturally. The graph view visualizes these connections - you can actually see how ideas relate. For researchers and writers, this is transformative. Connections you didn't plan emerge from the network.

Notion's databases are powerful. Create a table of projects with properties (status, owner, deadline, priority), then view it as a kanban board, calendar, timeline, or list. Filter, sort, relate databases to each other.

You can build CRMs, content calendars, habit trackers - basically anything that needs structured data. This flexibility is why teams love Notion. One tool handles docs and data together.

Roam doesn't have databases. You can use tags and queries to create database-like views, but it's not the same. The tool is fundamentally about networked notes, not structured data.

If you need to track projects with statuses and due dates, Roam fights you. Some people hack together solutions with queries, but you're working against the tool's nature. Pick Roam for thinking, not project management.

Notion is whatever you make it. Some people have elaborate dashboards as their home page. Others just have a list of pages. There's no built-in daily workflow - you create your own system.

This freedom is powerful but requires discipline. Empty Notion workspace = you have to build your system from scratch. Great if you know what you want, paralyzing if you don't.

Roam pushes you toward daily notes. Open the app, you're on today's page. Start writing. Tag people, ideas, projects as you go.

Tomorrow you get a fresh page. The daily practice creates momentum - you're writing consistently instead of organizing endlessly. Six months in, you have this rich network of dated notes you can trace back through. The workflow is opinionated in a good way.

Notion is great for teams. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, comments, page history - all built in. Teams use it for wikis, project management, documentation, onboarding.

The ability to create polished pages that look professional makes sharing easy. You can publish pages publicly or share with specific people. For team knowledge management, Notion is genuinely excellent.

Roam is really built for individuals. Yes, there's a team tier, and you can share graphs, but the networked personal notes approach doesn't translate to team knowledge bases as naturally. Teams that use Roam tend to be small groups of researchers or writers who all think in networks.

For typical company wikis or documentation, Notion makes way more sense. Roam is personal thinking tool that happens to allow collaboration, not a team product.