People who use apps like "Notion", are you not worried about lock-in due to complex files/data structures? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by njordomir@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I like the idea of something like Notion but I have no idea how I would preserve my data or ever migrate it. I imagine you have to have some pretty complex stuff going on to have rich text, images, databases, macros and whatever else all in a file or notebook. Getting it out in some sort of format may not be too hard, but how would you ever migrate that to new software?

Am I over thinking this?

I know Obsidian stores everything in plaintext, but how would something like Notion or Affine (a self-hosted one) compare.

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[-] BurntKrispe@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

It's completely valid to think about. Note taking programs inherently come with a "technical debt." The more you make use of its exclusive features the harder it'll get to transfer.

If you're worried about migrating I'd recommend something open source or self hosted. You can always choose to stay on a specific version you know will be easy to migrate from in needed.

I used Notion for a while in like 2020, it was fairly easy to transfer to Joplin, Obsidian, and later Logseq once I decided to move to more source available options. But I imagine with how many features they've added it might not be as easy anymore.

I'm currently exclusively using Logseq markdown, the one pro but also con is the non-linear note storage. Every page is in a single folder and they're linked using tags and references rather than organized by folder. Super intuitive in Logseq and it works with other markdown editors like Obsidian too, but open it up in a regular file explorer and it looks like a mess lol.

[-] flandish@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

currently in obsidian and wondering abt logseq. as a sw eng myself i kind of like “its just markdown” anyway. i don’t share, collab, or really do much more than some data table js but thats it.

but having each note be its own folder seems… weird.

[-] BurntKrispe@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Actually it's all in a single folder. if you want it sorted into folders you have to do so manually in a external application or use a plugin. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

this post was submitted on 04 May 2026

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