Valentina Akpan: Founder of Rellatech, providing administrative and operations support to executives, founders, business owners and teams. Her background combines technical support, customer success, administration and operations.
Businesses often ask me which of the two to choose. The answer depends on how you work, and below I explain the questions I use to decide.
The feature notes below come from my own use of both tools. Both change often, so confirm anything specific on Notion's help centre (notion.com/help) and ClickUp's help centre (help.clickup.com) before you decide. Last reviewed 5 September 2026.
Notion: strongest for documents, with some task features
- ●Good for: SOPs, knowledge bases, client portals, content planning and other writing-based work
- ●Why people like it: it is well designed, flexible and pleasant to work in
- ●Watch out for: recurring tasks, time tracking and automations have been its weak points in my use. Check the current help pages, because this changes.
- ●Best for businesses that keep most of their work in documents rather than Gantt charts
ClickUp: strongest for projects, with some document features
- ●Good for: client work, recurring tasks, time tracking, dashboards and team handoffs
- ●Why people like it: it covers almost everything, with strong automation built in
- ●Watch out for: the number of features, a steep learning curve, and that it can feel heavy for small, simple projects
- ●Best for businesses that deliver client projects week to week
A quick way to decide
- ●If your work is mostly writing, planning and content, choose Notion.
- ●If you mostly deliver client projects with recurring tasks, choose ClickUp.
- ●If your business does both, use Notion for documents and a simple Trello or Asana board for the tasks.
Whichever tool you choose, it needs to be one your team will open and use every day.
How I decide: ownership, documentation, reporting
Neither tool suits every business. I ask three questions, and the answers usually make the choice clear.
- ●Task ownership: does every piece of work need a named owner, a due date and a status someone else can check? If yes, ClickUp. If the work is mostly yours and the list is short, Notion can manage it.
- ●Documentation: is most of what you produce written, such as SOPs, client notes, plans and content? Notion is the better place for it. ClickUp Docs work, but they are part of a task tool.
- ●Reporting: do you need dashboards on workload, time or progress across people? ClickUp has that built in. In Notion each question needs its own database view, and time tracking is not native.
If you run a team, an agency or repeatable client deliverables, ClickUp is worth the extra setup. If your business is built on documents and you work mostly alone, you are more likely to keep using Notion, and regular use matters most.
Work with Rellatech
I set up Notion and ClickUp workspaces, including SOPs, dashboards and client portals, as a regular part of my work. If this sounds like your situation, a short call will help us see whether I am the right fit.
Book a free callChoose a time that suits you on the booking page. On the call, tell me what needs attention and which tools you use. Any detailed audit or implementation is scoped separately.
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