On Monday, Marta, who works at a six-person agency, is looking for an answer to a simple question: who will prepare the website copy? The task is in Notion, but the decision was made in a private conversation. For her, choosing between Notion and Task Manager comes down to whether she wants to keep building her own way of working or have the task and conversation together in one thread from the start.
Notion or Task Manager: design a system or start with a task?
Choose Notion if you want to build your own work structure; choose Task Manager if you need ready-made task fields and a conversation on each task. You can also start with a template in Notion, so you don't always have to begin with a blank page.
In Notion, tasks can be entries in a database. You define properties, such as status and date, then choose views, filters and how to group items. You can link databases using relations. If you manage projects, clients and a publishing calendar at the same time, that flexibility may be exactly what you need. But someone still has to decide how all these elements should work together.
In Task Manager, you create a task in a selected Workspace, a space that groups tasks and chats. Enter a subject, description and due date, and assign people; choose normal or high priority. The statuses are predefined: no status, in progress, done and cancelled. You can't add a custom property or link tasks through a relation as you can in a Notion database.
On Monday, Marta assigns Magda “Website copy”, due Friday. In the list, Board and Calendar, due date colours work the same way: red means the task is overdue, blue means it's due today, green means it's on time, and grey means it has no due date or is closed. Tiles above the list - “On time”, “Due today”, “Overdue” and “Chat” - show counts and filter items at the same time. These are ready-made rules, not views Marta has to design.
A comment on a page or a conversation on a task?
Notion works well for discussing page content and specific parts of a document. Task Manager focuses on ongoing conversations linked to a task or chat.
In Notion, you can leave a comment on a page or selected text, reply in a discussion and mention a colleague. This is handy when editing a proposal: the comment sits beside the sentence it refers to. But if people in your company mainly need to find the latest decision about a due date and who is responsible, check whether your team actually records it in comments rather than in a separate chat.
On Tuesday, Magda writes in the “Project website” thread in Task Manager: “I'll send over two versions of the hero section by Friday.” Marta sees the message beneath the task card. She can reply with an @ mention, quote a message or react with “I’ll take a look”. When she returns to the thread, the “New” line points to the oldest unread message.
When someone changes a task's due date, the thread records the change along with the previous value. You can attach a file to a message, and the “Files” icon in the thread header collects attachments for that task, including those from older messages. This helps you retrace decisions without having to ask colleagues which version they sent. If you're familiar with this problem from other tools, see also the Task Manager vs Trello comparison.
Notes are not a second database
Notes in Task Manager are for writing documents, checklists and records of decisions, not for building relational databases. Each note stays private until you share it. Assigning it to a Workspace helps you filter the list, but doesn't give access to members of that space or its administrator.
Let's say Marta writes up notes from a client conversation in Notes on Thursday. She shares the document with Magda as “View only” once she's checked the content. If Magda needs to add edits, Marta changes the permission to “Can edit”. You can also pin a note to a task or chat folder, but pinning it alone doesn't make it visible to people in the thread.
The editor saves changes automatically about a second after you stop typing. In her notes, Marta ticks off items on her to-do list, pastes in an image of a mock-up and adds a code snippet in a code block. Later, she searches for decisions using the magnifying glass - in both titles and note content. You can export a note to PDF, Word or TXT. Find out more about organising your own documents in the guide to Notes in Task Manager.
The Notes and Files folders are shared, but Files are part of the Pro plan. If your company needs its own databases with relations, properties and views, Notion has the advantage here. Notes shouldn't be bought with the expectation that they'll replace that kind of structure.
Notion AI is included in the Business plan, while the AI Assistant uses your own key
According to the pricing page on 25 September 2026, full access to Notion AI is included in the Business and Enterprise plans; Free and Plus offer trial AI features. This is an important correction to older descriptions that present Notion AI as a separate add-on with one fixed price per user. Selected premium models in Notion may require additional credits. (notion.com)
The AI Assistant in Task Manager is optional. An administrator provides their own API key from one of the providers: OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude or xAI Grok. The company pays the model provider directly for usage; Task Manager doesn't add a markup. Tasks, chats and Notes continue to work without a key.
On Friday, Marta can select an available chat and a note for the AI Assistant at the same time, then ask what was agreed with the client. The Assistant only sees sources Marta has access to. If the selected material exceeds the model's context window, it will show what it left out. This is how source selection for the AI Assistant works.
Using your own server doesn't mean an AI query stays there: the question and the context it needs are sent to the model provider you choose. The Assistant also can't read a scanned PDF without a text layer, because it doesn't have OCR - optical character recognition. These are limitations to bear in mind before connecting company documents.
How much do Notion and Task Manager cost over three years?
For ten people over 36 months, Notion Plus costs 3420 EUR in this calculation, while Notion Business costs 7020 EUR. Task Manager Standard / Classic costs 1 490 zł with no renewals or 2 384 zł with two annual Update renewals. Notion charges for paid plans per team member, while Task Manager sells a perpetual licence for a specified number of seats. Comparing a subscription directly with a licence price isn't enough: factor in your own hosting for Task Manager, and the model provider's fees if you use the AI Assistant. Notion's pricing page lists the Free, Plus, Business and Enterprise plans, with monthly or annual billing options. (notion.com)
The calculation below assumes ten people, 36 months and unchanged rates from the Notion pricing page checked on 25 September 2026. The rate used for Plus is 9,50 EUR per person per month, and for Business - 19,50 EUR per person per month. This is an indicative comparison, not a price forecast: it excludes taxes, price changes and any differences resulting from the billing option selected. (notion.com)
| Option for 10 people | Three-year calculation based on the assumptions above | Not included in the calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Notion Plus | 9,50 EUR × 10 × 36 = 3420 EUR | Full access to Notion AI isn't included in Plus. |
| Notion Business | 19,50 EUR × 10 × 36 = 7020 EUR | Some AI usage is subject to limits, and selected premium models may require credits. |
| Task Manager Standard / Classic | 1 490 zł as a one-off payment with no renewals, or 2 384 zł with two annual Update renewals | Hosting and any usage of your own AI key. |
Notion prices are in euros, while Task Manager prices are in złoty, so don't subtract one line from the other without applying an exchange rate. In Task Manager, the licence price includes the first 12 months of Updates. After that, you can renew access to new versions or stay on your current version without further licence fees. We've broken down this model in detail in our subscription and one-off licence calculation.
Starter supports up to 8 people, so Classic (up to 20 people) is the smallest Task Manager plan that fits a team of ten. If you need Mail, Files or Automations, compare the Pro / Classic plan at 3 990 zł, not Standard / Classic. For self-hosting, you need PHP 8.1+ and MySQL or MariaDB; standard shared hosting is sufficient. Installation involves uploading the files and going through five installer screens in your browser.
Stay with Notion or switch tools?
Stay with Notion if custom databases, relations and views are part of how your company works. Consider Task Manager if ready-made tasks with conversations, documents shared with specific people and app data on your own server matter more to you. Neither choice, however, will fix decisions that your team doesn't record anywhere.
Notion is a strong choice for a company that manages content, projects and other related records in one system. It also lets you publish pages on the web. Task Manager doesn't offer custom databases with relations, independently designed properties and views, or public page publishing. It also has no documented Notion import feature, so don't plan a tool switch as an automatic archive migration. (notion.com)
Tomorrow, list five things where someone asked “where did we get to?” this week. Check whether the answer is next to the task or whether you have to look for it in someone's private conversation. To see what the first option looks like, open the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
Notion or Task Manager - which should you choose for tasks in a small business?
Choose Task Manager if you want to get straight to work with tasks that have a status, due date and conversation. Choose Notion if you need to design your own databases, properties and views for different types of work.
Can Task Manager completely replace Notion?
No, Task Manager won't replace custom databases with relations, designed views or publishing pages online. But it can handle day-to-day tasks, team conversations and working documents.
Can you automatically transfer data from Notion to Task Manager?
There is no documented import feature from Notion to Task Manager. Plan to create the tasks and Notes you need separately, starting with the work your team is currently doing.
How much does Notion AI cost compared with the AI Assistant?
According to the pricing page on 25 September 2026, Notion AI is available in Business and Enterprise, while Free and Plus offer trial AI features; selected premium models may use additional credits. The AI Assistant in Task Manager uses the customer's own key, and you pay the model provider directly for usage. (notion.com)
Can the whole team see a note assigned to a Workspace?
No, assigning a note to a Workspace is a label for filtering, not a way to share it. The note is visible to its owner and anyone the owner has given access to with “View only” or “Can edit” permissions.
Sources
- Notion, Pricing Plans - https://www.notion.com/pricing (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Notion, What is Notion AI? - https://www.notion.com/help/notion-ai-faqs (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Notion, Intro to databases in Notion - https://www.notion.com/help/intro-to-databases (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Notion, Database views, filters, sorts & groups - https://www.notion.com/help/views-filters-and-sorts (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Notion, Database properties in Notion - https://www.notion.com/help/database-properties (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Notion, Comments, mentions & reactions in Notion - https://www.notion.com/help/comments-mentions-and-reminders (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Task Manager, Features: Notes - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/notatki (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Task Manager, Features: Tasks - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/zadania (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Task Manager, Features: AI Assistant - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/asystent-ai (accessed: 2026-09-25).
- Task Manager, Pricing - https://taskmanager.pl/#pricing (accessed: 2026-09-25).
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
