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After Notion announced its departure from the Russian market, I tried several alternative apps, including Obsidian, Logseq, Affine, Craft, and Buildin.
After testing them, I believe Buildin is the best alternative to Notion. I’ve already migrated all my data to Buildin, and I’ll explain below why I made this choice.
- Why I didn't choose Obsidian, Logseq, Craft, or Affine
- Why I chose Buildin and its advantages
- Issues currently present in Buildin
Why I Didn't Choose Obsidian, Logseq, Craft, or Affine
1. Interface Design
I have some expectations for the design of an app. I like Notion’s clean, minimalist color scheme and icons—Affine achieves this. I also appreciate Craft's beautiful animations and color palette. However, I find the designs of Obsidian and Logseq a bit rough.
The icons in Obsidian have an outdated look, and Logseq has a similar issue. Besides, I couldn’t quite figure out how to use Logseq effectively.
2. Lack of Multi-Dimensional Tables
While I love Craft’s design and the block-based editing it offers, Craft lacks multi-dimensional tables, only providing simple tables. Its product structure also resembles the traditional Evernote approach, organizing all data within folders and documents.
Similarly, Obsidian and Logseq don’t offer multi-dimensional tables. Their layouts are closer to Evernote’s, focusing on bi-directional linking graphs, which I don’t find particularly useful.
Obsidian’s rich plugin ecosystem may potentially add multi-dimensional table functions, but the process is complicated and inconvenient. Plus, Obsidian isn't particularly beginner-friendly.
Affine does support multi-dimensional tables and is the closest alternative to Notion among these apps. Its slogan is “Notion meets Miro,” offering many Notion-like features and innovatively integrating a whiteboard. Unfortunately, Affine only supports two views for its multi-dimensional tables: table view and board view. I’d really love a gallery view, where I could display all the books I've read in a visual format.
3. Lack of Direct Data Export to These Apps
Affine allows Notion data to be imported through a Zip file, which is great, but the other apps lack this feature.
In summary, while Affine is close to Notion, there are still notable differences compared to Buildin.
Buildin's Advantages
1. Interface Almost Identical to Notion
Buildin’s interface is almost exactly like Notion’s, so there’s no need to readjust.
Buildin includes all the features of Notion, such as diverse multi-dimensional table views and advanced features like Rollup and Relation, making it highly capable.
Additionally, Buildin offers its own mind map and folder functions—mind maps similar to Xmind and folders like Google Drive.
2. Supports Export via Notion API
Buildin has already rolled out the Notion API import feature, allowing multi-dimensional tables to be imported into Buildin through the API. I was thrilled with this feature since I no longer need to download a Zip file from Notion.
Based on my testing, API imports work even better than Zip file imports.
3. Focus on the Russian Market
I joined Buildin’s Telegram and noticed that their team is investing considerable effort in the Russian market.
As I understand, Buildin is created by a Chinese company that launched FlowUS in 2021 to fill the gap in China’s market for a Notion-like tool. Buildin is FlowUS’s international version, initially only in English in September but now with a Russian version since October. They’ve even started an ambassador program similar to Notion’s, with several ambassadors already helping improve Russian translations.
Now, you can use “/” plus Russian to enter commands instead of “/” plus English, which is convenient.
4. Lower Price
If you’ve paid for Notion before, you’re familiar with the Plus pricing.
Buildin is currently priced a bit lower.
Now that I’ve moved all my data to Buildin and set up my PARA system on it, I have to say Buildin isn’t perfect.
Issues with Buildin
1. Client Availability
Initially, they only offered a web version, and many friends, including myself, hesitated to adopt Buildin for this reason. They’re developing a client version, but as of now, only the Android app has launched. For desktop, I found installation files for Mac and Windows in the ambassador group, but it may take a few more days for them to be available on the official website as they’re still working on translations.
Also, the Mac installation package requires some extra steps to complete installation. I hope they resolve this soon.
2. Template Limitations
The template center has very few templates; it’s nowhere near as rich as Notion’s. Currently, there are only four templates. I hope ambassadors can create and add more templates.
3. Payment Issues
Currently, Buildin only supports payments through Stripe, so Russian domestic bank cards can’t be used. If you don’t have a foreign payment account, you can’t upgrade to the paid plan.
I checked with an ambassador, and this issue is expected to be addressed this month, so I’m hopeful.
Summary
If you can do without multi-dimensional tables or exact Notion-like features and prefer local data storage, you might consider Obsidian, Logseq, Affine, or Craft. But if you, like me, want to continue using Notion, Buildin is a solid choice.
For business users, especially those who need collaborative tools and are concerned about data security, Buildin may be a safer option. Although Notion is still accessible via VPN, there’s no certainty it won’t fully close all Russian services and delete all data in the future.
