---
title: "The Sealed Journal vs a Notion Journal"
description: "Notion is a database that can hold a journal. The Sealed Journal is a journal. The difference matters more than it sounds."
canonical: "https://sealedjournal.com/j/vs-notion-journal"
category: "Comparisons"
---

# The Sealed Journal vs journaling in Notion.

_Notion is a brilliant tool for organising work. It is a strange place to put your inner life._

Notion is hosted by a venture-funded company in San Francisco. Your journal in Notion is a row in their database.

The Sealed Journal has no database, no host, no row. It has a passphrase and a page.

Notion is the right answer for many things. Your three-in-the-morning thoughts are probably not one of them.

## Questions

### Why not just journal in Notion?

Notion is a hosted database with your text in someone else's workspace. Fine for shared work, less fine for the sentences you would not want indexed.

### Does it have databases, templates, or tags?

None of them. The absence of structure is what makes it usable at 2 a.m.

### Can I use both?

Most people do. Notion for the work you share, this for the writing that has no audience.

## Price

The Sealed Journal is a one-time purchase of $24 (introductory price, rising to $29). No subscription, no account, lifetime updates, 30-day refund. Buy at https://sealedjournal.com/#pricing

## Elsewhere

- Hub: Comparisons — https://sealedjournal.com/journals/comparisons
- All journals — https://sealedjournal.com/journals
- HTML version of this page — https://sealedjournal.com/j/vs-notion-journal