Compare/Notion
Handshake vs a Notion personal CRM
Updated
A Notion personal CRM is a do-it-yourself pattern: a database of people with views, templates, and relations, living in Notion's cloud workspace (free for light personal use; Plus from ~$10/month, July 2026). Handshake is the purpose-built version of the same idea – a local desktop app where the network map, warmth ties, and person notes exist out of the box.
The Notion approach is seductive because you already have Notion, and a template gets you a people table in minutes. For some, that's genuinely enough – especially if your whole life already runs on Notion and one more database keeps everything in one place.
The failure mode is equally well known: DIY CRMs rot. The template needs maintaining, relations get tangled, the 'last contacted' formula breaks, and a table never shows you the actual shape of your network. Handshake's bet is that a tool with opinions – warmth, ties, introductions, a board – survives contact with real life better than a schema you have to be your own admin for.
At a glance
| Notion | Handshake | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for light personal use; Plus ~$10/mo (July 2026) | Free, open source (MIT) |
| Where your data lives | Notion's cloud | Plain markdown files on your device |
| Platforms | Web, desktop apps, mobile | macOS, Windows & Linux desktop |
| Works offline | Limited offline support | Fully offline – no account |
| Data format | Notion blocks; markdown export is lossy for databases | Already plain text; nothing to export |
| Seeing your network | Tables, boards, galleries – no relationship graph | A spatial board of your whole network |
| Auto-sync / enrichment | None for people (manual, like Handshake) | None – you decide who's on the map |
| Open source | No | Yes (MIT) |
Competitor details checked July 2026 – check their site for current pricing.
Where Notion wins
One tool for everything
If your notes, projects, and journal are already in Notion, a people database keeps life in one place. Handshake is proudly a single-purpose tool.
Infinite flexibility
Custom properties, formulas, views, rollups – you can model anything. Handshake gives you its model: people, ties, warmth, goals, notes.
Everywhere
Web and solid mobile apps. Handshake is desktop-only during the beta.
Where Handshake wins
Works in two minutes, keeps working
No template to build, no schema to maintain, no formulas to fix. The tool already knows what a person, a tie, and an introduction are.
The graph exists
Notion cannot draw your network. Handshake's board shows who connects to whom, how warmly, and who's drifting – the thing a people-table fundamentally can't do.
Local, plain, permanent
Notion is a cloud workspace with lossy database export. Handshake is markdown on your disk – Obsidian-compatible, greppable, forever.
The honest verdict
Choose Notion if…
- Your entire life already runs in Notion and you want one workspace
- You enjoy building and maintaining your own systems
- You need mobile access to your people notes today
Choose Handshake if…
- You want a network tool, not a database hobby
- Seeing the map matters – warmth, ties, who-knows-whom
- You want your relationship notes in files you own, offline
Questions
- Can Notion work as a personal CRM?
- Yes, as a DIY database – and for light use inside an existing Notion workspace it can be enough. The common failure mode is maintenance: you become the admin of your own CRM schema, and a table never shows the network's shape.
- Can I export a Notion CRM to Handshake?
- Notion exports databases to CSV/markdown (with some loss of relations). Handshake's format is plain markdown files with simple frontmatter, so migrating is a matter of reshaping that export – by hand or with a small script.
Try the local-first way
Handshake is free, open source, and takes about two minutes to meet your network. If it's not for you, your notes are plain markdown – nothing lost.