Notion is hired to hold a team's written knowledge and a few light databases in one place. The writing is portable; the databases and the habits around them are not, which is why the move is a sorting exercise before it is a migration. Below: what the plans cost as published, what exports and what does not, and a procedure for leaving without losing pages anyone depends on.
It starts as one person's notes and becomes the company handbook, the project tracker and the place new hires are told to look. Each new page makes the next one easier to justify, and nobody owns the decision to stop.
The export is the easy part; the structure is not. A database with several views, relations and the people who know which view to open is not a folder of files, and that gap is what makes leaving feel larger than the invoice suggests.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| AppFlowy | Open source | AGPL-3.0 | AppFlowy repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
| Plan | Price as published | Includes | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion Free | $0 per member per month | Basic forms and sites, databases, 7 days of page history, file uploads up to 5 MB, up to 10 guests | Notion pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Notion Plus | $10 per member per month | Custom forms and sites, charts, 30 days of page history, unlimited file uploads | Notion pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Notion Business | $20 per member per month | SAML SSO, granular database permissions, private teamspaces, 90 days of page history | Notion pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
List prices as printed on Notion's page on the checked date, per member per month and excluding tax. The page offers monthly or yearly payment and does not print the yearly totals, so check which applies at checkout. Enterprise has no published price. Add-ons for AI features are priced separately and are left out.
A wiki has two jobs hiding under one name. One is writing things down so people can find them: notes, policies, meeting records. That moves easily, because the content is text. The other is a light database that runs a process, such as a content calendar or a vendor tracker. That is where leaving gets expensive, because the structure is the product.
Sort the pages into those two piles before comparing tools. AppFlowy describes itself on its repository as an open-source Notion alternative and is published under the AGPL-3.0 license on the checked date. Whether it covers your databases is something to test with a copy of your real pages, not to assume. Running it yourself also costs people time: someone installs it, applies updates, owns backups and answers when it is down.
Samples are made up and are not Notion's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
The honest yearly cost of running open-source software yourself, set against the bill it replaces, with the seat count where it stops paying.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
Moving a wiki is mostly deciding which pages are worth moving. The procedure below is vendor-neutral except where a Notion help page was read.
List the top-level areas of the workspace and mark each as plain pages or as a database that runs a process. Note which pages are public or shared with guests, and which integrations read or write them. Archive in place anything nobody has opened in a year rather than migrating it.
Run the entire-workspace export from settings as an account that can see every teamspace, in the format you will import (Markdown with CSV is the closest to plain files), and in HTML if comments matter. Allow time: the help page says exports can take up to 30 hours. Store the result somewhere you control.
Open the export and check it against the inventory: page counts, a few database tables, embedded files, and comments. The help page says form views are not exportable and tables export only the current and default views, so list every database whose other views you need and screenshot or recreate them.
Page history, permissions and live integrations are not described as part of the export. Write down who could see which area and rebuild that in the new tool, and re-point each automation or integration at its new home.
Move one team's area first, whichever tool you chose, and have that team do real work in it. Keep Notion editable for that team until they are comfortable, then freeze it.
Tell people the date, set the old workspace to read-only by agreement, re-publish or re-share external pages from the new home, and keep the export. After a full month of use, end the plan inside the contract's notice window.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. Notion is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
| Self-hosting, per year | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hosting, backups, tooling | 720.00 |
| Admin and restore-test time | 2,640.00 |
| Total | 3,360.00 |
| One-off set-up (not in the yearly total) | 1,200.00 |
The saving holds only if the time is real. Price the admin hours at what that person's time costs the company, not at zero.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.