HTMLPub vs Notion Sites

Notion Sites strengths

Notion Sites is not trying to be a website builder, and that is actually its strength for certain use cases. If you already live in Notion for project management, documentation, or note-taking, Notion Sites lets you publish any page to the web with a single toggle. No new tool to learn, no content migration, no setup.

Easy publishing from familiar tools

The biggest advantage of Notion Sites is the zero-friction publishing workflow. You write content in the Notion editor you already know, click “Share to web,” and the page is live. Updates are instant - edit the Notion page and the published version reflects the change immediately. For teams that already collaborate in Notion, this removes the need for a separate CMS or publishing tool entirely.

Real-time collaboration

Notion’s collaboration features are best-in-class for document editing. Multiple team members can work on the same page simultaneously, leave comments, and track changes. If your website is content-heavy and maintained by a team, this collaborative editing experience is hard to beat.

Structured content organization

Notion’s database and page hierarchy makes it easy to organize content logically. You can create navigation structures, link between pages, and maintain large documentation sites with Notion’s built-in organization tools. For knowledge bases and documentation, this works well.

Notion Sites limitations

For simple published documents, Notion Sites works fine. But the moment you need your site to perform like a real website - fast loads, SEO, forms, custom design - the limitations stack up quickly.

Slow page loads

This is the most common complaint about Notion Sites. Every page load goes through Notion’s rendering layer, which adds significant latency. Largest Contentful Paint scores are often poor, and visitors on slower connections notice the delay. For landing pages, marketing sites, or anything where first impressions matter, this is a real problem. Google also uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal, so slow loads can directly hurt your search visibility.

Notion branding on free plans

Free Notion Sites show a “Made with Notion” badge and use a notion.site subdomain. Removing branding requires a paid Notion plan starting at $10/month per user. For a personal portfolio or business landing page, having another company’s branding on your site undermines credibility. HTMLPub never shows branding on any plan, including the free tier.

No custom HTML, CSS, or JavaScript

Notion Sites publishes Notion documents exactly as Notion renders them. You cannot add custom styles, interactive elements, animations, or scripts. Every Notion Site looks like a Notion page because it is a Notion page. There is no way to create a unique design, match your brand identity, or add functionality beyond what Notion’s block editor supports.

Basic SEO controls

Notion Sites offers limited SEO - you can set a page title and description, but there is no support for structured data (JSON-LD), custom Open Graph tags, canonical URLs, or other advanced SEO elements. If you are trying to rank for competitive keywords, these limitations put you at a disadvantage compared to platforms that give you full HTML control.

No forms or lead capture

Notion Sites has no native form support. If you need a contact form, email signup, or any kind of lead capture on your published page, you need to embed a third-party tool or link visitors away to an external form. HTMLPub includes built-in form collection on every page with no additional tools or integrations needed.

No analytics beyond page views

Notion’s built-in analytics are minimal. You get basic page view counts, but no visitor tracking, session data, scroll depth, click heatmaps, or conversion tracking. For a marketing page or landing page, understanding how visitors interact with your content is essential. HTMLPub includes full analytics with heatmaps on the Pro plan.

How HTMLPub is different

HTMLPub and Notion Sites solve fundamentally different problems. Notion Sites publishes documents. HTMLPub publishes websites. Here is what that means in practice.

AI that generates complete web pages

Notion AI helps you write text inside Notion documents. HTMLPub’s AI generates complete, production-ready web pages with custom layouts, typography, color schemes, interactive elements, and responsive design. The difference is between AI that edits a document and AI that builds a website. HTMLPub also has an MCP server, so Claude can create and publish pages autonomously without you leaving the conversation.

Full code access

Every HTMLPub page gives you complete control over the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can use any framework, any design system, any script. Your page is published exactly as written with no rendering layer adding overhead or stripping functionality. If you or your AI generates it, HTMLPub hosts it.

Faster page loads

HTMLPub serves your raw HTML directly. There is no intermediate rendering step, no JavaScript bundle to parse, no Notion API to call. The result is near-instant page loads and strong Core Web Vitals scores. For landing pages and marketing sites, this directly impacts conversion rates and search rankings.

Built-in forms and analytics

Every HTMLPub page can collect form submissions natively - no third-party tools needed. Add a standard HTML form to your page and HTMLPub captures the data automatically. On Pro plans, you also get full analytics with visitor tracking, scroll depth, click heatmaps, and conversion goals. These are features Notion Sites simply does not offer.

No branding, ever

HTMLPub never adds branding to your published pages, even on the free tier. Your pages look like your pages. For portfolios, client work, and business sites, this matters more than most people realize. A “Made with Notion” badge at the bottom of your professional portfolio sends the wrong message.

E-commerce ready

HTMLPub supports payment and checkout flows on published pages. You can build product pages, pricing tables with buy buttons, and complete checkout experiences. Notion Sites has no e-commerce capability at all.

Migrating from Notion Sites

If you are currently using Notion Sites and want to move to HTMLPub, the process is straightforward. You do not need to manually recreate your pages line by line.

1. Export your content from Notion. Notion lets you export pages as Markdown or HTML. Export the pages you want to migrate. The exported content preserves your text, headings, and basic structure.
2. Recreate with HTMLPub’s AI. Paste your exported content into HTMLPub’s AI builder and describe the design you want. The AI generates a complete, custom-designed page using your content - with proper typography, layout, responsive design, and any interactive elements you need. This is faster than manually coding and produces better results than Notion’s default styling.
3. Connect your custom domain. If you were using a custom domain on Notion Sites, point it to HTMLPub instead. HTMLPub handles SSL certificates automatically. Your visitors see the same domain with a faster, better-designed page.

Most users complete the migration for a single page in under 10 minutes. For larger sites, the AI makes it practical to migrate dozens of pages without the tedium of manual HTML editing.