Comparison
nTilia or Notion: which one for taking notes in the field?
The short answer
Notion is an online collaborative workspace: databases, wikis and project management for a connected team. nTilia is an offline-first notes app built for field work: Missions, on-device transcription, Travel Mode and a citable journal. To organize a team’s work at the office, choose Notion; to capture without a network and then publish, choose nTilia.
nTilia and Notion, side by side
| Criterion | nTilia | Notion |
|---|---|---|
| PriceTie | Free; Pro at $14/mo | Free; Plus from €9.50 per member/month (billed yearly) |
| OfflinenTilia’s edge | Everything works offline by default: capture, dictation, editing | Page by page, enabled on each device, in the apps only (not in the browser) |
| PlatformsNotion’s edge | Web and installable app (PWA); no native app | Web plus native desktop and mobile apps |
| TeamworkNotion’s edge | Built for one author; no collaborative editing | Real-time co-editing, comments, permissions, shared databases |
| FormatnTilia’s edge | Open Markdown; ZIP export per Mission, .md import | Notion blocks; export to Markdown, HTML or PDF |
| Audio and transcriptionnTilia’s edge | Audio inside the note; on-device Whisper transcription (Pro), audio is not uploaded | AI meeting notes in the cloud (Business plan) |
| AITie | Built in, only when you ask, with a Before / After review; 40 credits a week on Free | Notion AI: limited trial depending on plan; paid custom agents |
| Security on the phonenTilia’s edge | Encrypted vault (AES-256-GCM), device-only notes that never sync, Travel Mode (Pro) | Data in Notion’s cloud; no end-to-end encryption |
| PublishingnTilia’s edge | Bilingual FR/EN public journal, indexed from Pro, Cite block, Zenodo DOI (Pro) | Publish a page to the web, on the Free plan |
| OrganizationNotion’s edge | Missions: one folder per trip | Databases, views, templates, wikis, project management |
Choose nTilia if…
- you write where the network drops and don’t want to prepare anything in advance;
- your interview audio must not go to the cloud;
- you cross checkpoints with your phone;
- you publish your notes as bilingual or citable articles.
Choose Notion if…
- you work as a team, in real time, on the same documents;
- you need databases, views and project management;
- you are almost always online;
- you want a team wiki or dashboard.
Online first vs offline first
Notion is built for a connected team. Since 2025 it works offline, but page by page: you mark each page “available offline”, on each device, and it doesn’t work in the browser. Sub-pages don’t follow their parent.
nTilia starts from the opposite premise: everything lives on the phone first. Sync waits for the network, not the other way round. On assignment, there is nothing to prepare before you lose the connection.
What Notion does better
For working together, Notion is far richer: simultaneous editing, comments, fine-grained permissions, linked databases, templates, wikis. nTilia doesn’t try to compete there: it is an author’s tool.
Sources and privacy
In Notion, content lives in the company’s cloud, without end-to-end encryption. For everyday notes that is a fair trade-off; for the names of sources, it is a risk to weigh.
nTilia keeps an encrypted vault on the phone, device-only notes that never sync, and transcribes audio on the device. nTilia’s sync is not end-to-end encrypted either, by design: an article published in the journal has to be readable.
Using both
Many newsrooms organize their work in Notion. Nothing stops you from capturing in the field with nTilia, then exporting the Mission as Markdown files and importing them into Notion once you are back.
Frequently asked questions
Does Notion work offline?
Yes since 2025, but page by page: you make each page available offline on each device, and only in the desktop and mobile apps. nTilia works offline by default, for every note.
Is nTilia an alternative to Notion?
For field note-taking and publishing, yes. For teamwork, databases and project management, no: Notion remains far more complete.
Can I move my notes from nTilia to Notion?
Yes. Export an nTilia Mission as a ZIP of Markdown files, then import them into Notion, which accepts Markdown.
Which one better protects sensitive sources?
On the phone, nTilia: an encrypted vault, notes that never leave the device, local transcription and Travel Mode. Neither end-to-end encrypts synced data.
Sources, checked on
Free · No credit card · Works offline