Vikunja vs Notion
A task manager that loads in milliseconds, not seconds.
Notion tries to be everything. Docs, wiki, database, project manager, AI assistant. And if you need all of that, it's a reasonable choice.
But if what you actually need is a task manager? Notion is slow. Pages take seconds to load. The mobile app is sluggish. And you're paying $10-18/user/month for a tool where you mostly use one feature.
Vikunja does task management. That's it. List view, Kanban, Gantt, table. Every interaction takes less than 100ms. It's fast because it's focused.
It's also open-source and self-hostable. Notion keeps your data on US servers (EU residency is Enterprise-only). Vikunja lets you run it wherever you want, or use our Cloud on EU infrastructure.
Different tools, different jobs
This isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. Notion does more things. But for task management specifically, here's how they stack up.
| Vikunja | Notion | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Task management | Everything (docs, wiki, databases, tasks) |
| Speed | <100ms interactions | Multi-second page loads |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Open source | AGPLv3 | No |
| Task views | List, Kanban, Gantt, Table | List, Board, Calendar, Timeline, Gallery |
| Reminders | All plans | All plans |
| CalDAV | Yes | No |
| Wiki / docs | No | Yes |
| Databases | No | Yes |
| EU data residency | Self-host anywhere, or Cloud (EU) | Enterprise only |
| Vendor lock-in | None (open source, export anytime) | High |
Pricing
Self-hosted Vikunja is free. Vikunja Cloud starts at 4 €/month for personal use and 5 €/user/month for teams. Notion Plus starts at $10/user/month, Business at $18/user/month (billed yearly).
But these are different tools solving different problems. If you need a full workspace with docs, wikis, and databases, Notion's price covers a lot more surface area. If you need a fast task manager you can self-host, Vikunja is the better fit regardless of what it costs.
Notion prices from notion.com as of April 2026. See Vikunja pricing for details.
When to pick which
Pick Vikunja if you need a task manager that's fast, self-hostable, and respects your data. Especially if you're a team that's been using Notion for tasks but finds it slow, expensive, or overkill for what you actually do with it.
Pick Notion if you genuinely need the wiki, docs, and database features. If your team lives in Notion for documentation and project context, adding task management on top makes sense even if it's slower.
Some teams use both: Notion for docs and knowledge, Vikunja for the actual task tracking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Vikunja a Notion replacement?
Not really. Notion is a workspace with wikis, docs, and databases. Vikunja is a task manager. If your team uses Notion mainly for task tracking, Vikunja does that part better and faster. If you need the wiki and database features, you'll want to keep Notion or pair Vikunja with something like Outline or BookStack.
Can I import from Notion?
There's no direct importer, but you can export Notion databases as CSV and restructure them in Vikunja. If you're also on Todoist or Trello, those have built-in importers.
Does Vikunja have docs or a wiki?
No. Every task has a rich-text description with markdown support, but Vikunja is a task manager, not a documentation tool.
Try it out
Use the open-source version on your own server
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