Notion can genuinely model an ISMS. Whether your certification should depend on one colleague's database design is a different question.
Notion is the most credible DIY option on this list. Its linked databases can genuinely model controls, risks and assets, and a well-built Notion ISMS is a pleasure to use, for a while. We say that as admirers: the question is not whether Notion can do it, but whether you should spend your ISO budget building and maintaining a compliance product inside a note-taking tool.
| Notion | ISOvault | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | From ~£8/user/month, plus the build | £125/month + VAT flat, unlimited users |
| Data model | You design it: databases, relations, rollups | ISO 27001:2022 model built in, 93 controls pre-seeded |
| Word output for auditors | Copy-paste and reformat by hand | Statement of Applicability and registers export as Word documents |
| Document approval | Page history shows edits, not approval | Named approver, dated, with a full revision history |
| Audit trail | Edit history, no compliance context | Every change and approval logged and exportable |
| Reminders | Per-page reminders, set manually | 90/60/30-day compliance calendar across everything |
| Auditor familiarity | Auditors ask for exports | Auditors get the Word documents they expect |
| Longevity | Depends on the person who built it | Structure survives staff changes |
Every impressive Notion ISMS has a builder, and the build is never finished: new relation here, new rollup there, a template that only its author understands. That is fine for a wiki. For the system of record behind your certification, it means your compliance posture depends on one person's Notion habits. When they leave, you inherit a beautiful, undocumented machine.
Keep your runbooks, onboarding docs and internal wiki in Notion; it is superb at that, and better than ISOvault would be. The ISMS records with audit consequences (controls, risks, evidence, reviews, corrective actions) are what belong in a tool that enforces their structure.
Export your databases to CSV, upload them to ISOvault, and they are structured and linked to the 93 Annex A controls. Most Notion migrations are an afternoon.
Deliberately not. ISOvault enforces the ISO 27001 structure rather than letting you invent one, which is exactly the property auditors and successors will thank you for.
Import your existing ISMS into ISOvault, run the AI gap analysis and generate your Statement of Applicability. 14 days free, no card required, walk away with the Word documents.