Submitted by markbj on 2021/11/29 10:19

 

  • Richness of features
    Both are strong.
    They have many similar features, like user definable columns, filtering, sorting and grouping (IQ's grouping is better), multiple views/grids, bi-directional links, favorites, IQ's multiple parents v.s Notions linked pages/databases, IQ's dashboard grid(very flexible) v.s Notion's board views, formulas, import & export ...
    While: 

    • IQ supports fully hierarchical data, Notion only supports hierarchical pages, its databases are only 2-dimentional;  
    • IQ supports auto assignings, Notion misses this;
    • IQ supports map & surface view (although surface view is not matured) , Notion misses these;
    • IQ supports conditional formats, Notion doesn't have;
    • IQ's richtext editting is good, Notion has excellent MD & block based editing, with a huge set of block types;
    • Notion's synced blocks and template buttons are interesting;
    • Notion supports multiple calender/gallery/timeline views for each database, IQ only have 1 calendar at all, and 1 card view per grid;
    • IQ's card view is more flexible but not so mature, notion's gallery view is simple and mature with image display support;
    • It seems Notion has strong support for integration/APIs, IQ supports VBS functions but not a full set of open APIs; 
  • Intuitiveness
    IQ is good but Notion is better, easy for entry level/casual users, friendly and understanderble for deeper users;
     
  • Performance
    IQ is good but Notion is much better.
    At this point ECCO Pro is still astonishingly good, supports complex data structures and logics, while the application is small, the performance is fast and smooth.
     
  • Multiple platform support
    Thanks to Notion's web/html based technology, it has nice support for web/Windows/Mac/Android/iOS.
    IQ only support Windows desktop, but the support for sync with dropbox/Google/Evernote/DBs is a good and bright point.

Comments

Hi markbj,

Thanks for this overall comparison ! Notion is quite the application indeed. But they are very different

One major difference is that IQ items can be viewed / used anywhere in the IQBase, while, AFAICT, Notion blocks are more tied to a page, a database, etc. It is not possible to collect items from different "containers" as you can in IQ.

Do not hesitate to expand this comparison, feature by feature.

Regarding performance, why do you find Notion to be faster than IQ ? IQ can load >1000 items in a grid in less than 1 second. I don't think Notion can match that...

Pierre_Admin
IQ Designer

Yes you're right, Notion seems to have:

  • A hierarchy of pages, each page with multiple blocks;
  • Many tables/databases, each is like an Excel sheet with multiple columns, and each support multiple views;
  • A db record can be bound to a page, after which the page will be added with a profile block with the fields;
  • A db can be embedded into a page as a block;

IQ has a much more unified definition and hierarchical structure of items.

For the performance, I shall admit I'm not accurate.

IQ's speed is not slow, I shall say it's fast even compared with Outlook etc.,  although its responsiveness is not as fast as ECCO Pro.

Maybe I shall say this is more about the simplicity and fluency of UI and operations, related to intuitiveness.
Notion dosn't expose all the complexities all the time, the UI is cleaner, you can explore and carry out the complexities through gradual and natural operation flows.

While IQ is in a different design style, it's like a sophisticated workbench.
t's the difference between a standard and complex Windows destop application, and a modern web application?

IQ's style is quite powerful and convenient in many scenarios, but also in some scenarios not so fluent.
It has already controlled the complexity to a good extent, through shortcuts, contextual menus etc., but I think it could still do better in some ways, like to reduce the exposing of UI complexities, the digging in scattered menu items and toolbar buttons, the swiching among different panes, popups and lists.

You fogot one very important factor: Notion only works online even though there is a "desktop app". Hence not an option for me.

But many thanks for the detailed comparison!

I have tried Notion several times. It's an interesting app with a lot of fans and I always like it when I see any company trying new things. Personally if I was going to go that route I'd probably use Airtable.

As far as comparisons between products it's all about priorities and goals. IQ and Notion share some similarities but to me are more different than they are similar.

I could not even begin to accomplish what I can in IQ in Notion. I am sure the same might be true for a Notion user who's priorities are in areas where Notion shines.

That said, I find IQ an infinitely more powerful product. That is all. :-)

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