HenkSuiteTL;DRThousands of power users are quietly leaving Notion for local-first apps. It's not a single feature - it's a category shift. Local-first apps (HenkSuite, Obsidian, Anytype, AppFlowy, Logseq) store data on your machine, work offline, open instantly, and don't depend on a vendor's servers or subscription.
Quick answer: the migration is real
In 2024–2026 something has shifted in the productivity market. Notion is still growing, but inside long-time power-user communities - indie hackers, academics, ops leads, developers - churn to local-first apps has become a visible trend. Reddit threads about "I finally migrated off Notion"get thousands of upvotes. Exports-to-Markdown tools have become a small industry.
This article covers what's driving it, who's leaving, and where they're going.
What's happening in 2026
The pattern behind the churn
The Notion users who are leaving aren't casual users. They are people who built the most elaborate Notion setups - PARA systems, CRMs, content calendars, OKR databases. For them, Notion became load-bearing. The slowness, the cloud dependence, and the complexity they built started to feel like a risk.
Not switching apps - switching categories
The interesting thing is that they're not switching to other cloud apps. They're switching to local-first tools: apps that store everything on the user's machine and treat the network as optional. That's a category change, not an app swap.
Five reasons people are leaving Notion
1. Speed finally matters again
In 2026, "fast" is table stakes. Apple's latest chips, Tauri-based native apps, and local SQLite/DuckDB databases made sub-millisecond interactions the baseline. Anything slower feels broken. Notion's cloud round trips are the most visible slowness in most people's day.
2. Privacy stopped being abstract
Three years of high-profile data breaches, vendor pivots, and AI training concerns made privacy concrete. Users started asking "who else can see my journal?" and "what happens to my workspace if this company pivots?" Local-first apps don't have those questions - because there's nothing to see and nothing to pivot.
3. Data ownership = continuity
When Evernote's fortunes shifted, users learned that "we'll just export and move" is harder than it sounds. Local-first apps make ownership the default, not a backup plan. Your database is a file. Your notes are files. Nothing vanishes.
4. Offline work is no longer niche
Remote work, travel, spotty home internet, frequent flights - the "I'm always online" assumption has aged badly. Local-first apps work identically on a plane and in a coworking space with gig internet. Notion doesn't.
5. Stack costs keep climbing
Notion at $10–18/user/month is only part of the stack. Add a task manager, calendar, notes-on-the-side app, and AI add-on, and you're at $40–60/user/month easily. A local-first all-in-one replaces most of that for a fraction of the price.
What this adds up toLeaving Notion isn't about disliking Notion. It's about realizing your entire tool stack is built on assumptions that no longer hold in 2026.
Where Notion users are going
HenkSuite - the all-in-one local-first option
HenkSuite is the most common landing spot for Notion users who want the whole stack in one place. 21 modules, one local SQLite file, no cloud required. Projects, tasks, notes, calendar, time tracking, habits, goals, finance, spreadsheets - all native, all offline.
Obsidian - notes-first power users
If your Notion workspace was 80% writing and linking, Obsidian is the natural upgrade. Markdown files on disk, instant search, and a plugin ecosystem that fills almost any gap.
Anytype - E2EE by design
Anytype is where the privacy-maximalist crowd ends up. Encrypted, self-hostable, local-first, and open-source. The UX isn't as polished as Notion yet - but the trajectory is fast.
AppFlowy - Notion clone, open-source
AppFlowy replicates Notion's page + database model in a local, open-source app. Popular with users who liked Notion's shape but not its politics or performance.
Logseq - outliner-first academics
Outliner-first, graph-second, local Markdown notes. Favoured by academics, Zettelkasten fans, and anyone who thinks in bullets rather than paragraphs.
How to actually make the switch
- Export Notion as Markdown + CSV. In Notion: Settings → Export. Keep the zip file as your portable backup.
- Don't migrate everything. Most Notion workspaces are 30% load-bearing and 70% abandoned templates. The switch is a good excuse to delete half of it.
- Run Notion and the new app in parallel for a week before committing. Pay attention to the speed difference - it's the most durable part of the switch.
- Cancel Notion only after you've re-linked the things that matter. No rush.
FAQ: leaving Notion for local-first
Can local-first apps collaborate in real time?
Some can. Anytype supports multiplayer. HenkSuite focuses on individuals and small teams with shared projects but isn't optimized for simultaneous editing. If real-time co-editing is the primary requirement, Notion or a doc-native tool may still be the right choice.
How does sync work without the cloud?
Local-first apps add sync on top of local storage - usually via iCloud Drive, Dropbox, a self-hosted endpoint, or optional end-to-end encrypted vendor sync. The key difference: the canonical copy of your data is on your device, not the server.
Do people regret leaving Notion?
The most common regret isn't about the switch itself. It's about waiting too long to do it - and letting Notion's complexity compound for another year.
The bottom line
People aren't leaving Notion because Notion is bad. They're leaving because the assumptions Notion was built on - always online, always on the server, always more features - don't match how they want to work in 2026.
If any of this sounds like you, take HenkSuite for a spin. Install, open, work - on or offline. It's built for the world we actually live in.
About the author
Emilia is the founder of HenkSuite. She builds productivity tools because the internet has 47 of them and none of them feel fast, private, or finished.