Outgrown Notion? When custom beats Notion for a 10-60 person firm
Notion is a great place for your team's docs, wikis, notes and simple trackers - flexible, pleasant to use and cheap. Most firms should keep using it for exactly that. This page is about when people start asking it to be something it isn't.
Forge is the embedded engineer for people businesses - businesses that sell their people’s expertise and time: agencies, accountants, lawyers, consultants. We audit how your team works, decide what to build, build and test it, train your team and manage the change so people use it, then run it on your own accounts.
When you should stay on Notion
- You mainly use Notion for docs, process notes and the team wiki.
- Your trackers are light, and people update them without being chased.
- Nothing important depends on Notion talking to your other apps.
- The team actually opens it - which is more than most internal tools manage.
If that sounds like you, keep Notion. You don’t need us yet.
When custom starts to make sense
Your Notion has become a dashboard someone has to update by hand from five other apps.
People ask 'is this page current?' and nobody's sure.
The databases have grown relations and rollups only one person understands.
You want things to happen automatically - reminders, hand-offs, client updates - not just be written down.
What a custom build looks like, and what it costs
- One place the team starts the day, showing live work, priorities and who's on what.
- Data pulled from the apps you already use, so nothing has to be updated by hand.
- Notion stays where it's good - docs and the wiki - and the hub links to it.
- Running on your own accounts, monitored and fixed by us, and changed when your process changes.
The typical market price. Building a team hub usually costs $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) and takes 2-6 weeks, plus $1,500-7,500 a month if you want someone to keep it working. Those are typical ranges from our custom software cost guide, not a quote.
What it costs with Forge. We start with an ops audit ($2,500 / £2,000, credited to your first month). Then a monthly plan - $2,000, $3,500 or $7,500 (£1,600, £2,800 or £6,000) - with your first build, training and change management included. It runs on your own accounts, so you own it; we monitor it, fix it and keep improving it. See pricing, or see the team hub we built and run at Fame.
The only numbers we quote are our own: the tools Forge built for Fame have given the Fame team back 5,460 hours (as of 14 Oct 2026). How Fame uses Forge.
Questions, answered plainly
Is Forge a Notion competitor?
No. Keep Notion for docs and the wiki. Forge is an embedded engineer: we audit how your firm works, then build, roll out and run the tools around it that need to connect your apps and do the manual work.
Will we have to stop using Notion?
Almost certainly not. Most firms we'd work with keep Notion and stop asking it to be a live dashboard.
What does a custom team hub cost?
A dashboard-style tool like this is typically $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) and 2-6 weeks to build, plus upkeep. With Forge it's a $2,500 (£2,000) ops audit credited to month one, then a monthly plan from $2,000 (£1,600) with your first build included.
Who owns it?
You do. It runs on your own accounts and you pay those tool costs directly. We monitor it, fix it and keep improving it on your monthly plan.
Not sure if you’ve outgrown Notion? The audit will tell you.
We map where your team’s hours go and put a number on it. If Notion is still the right answer, we’ll say so. The $2,500 (£2,000) audit is credited to your first month.