Architecture comparison

Asana vs Notion

Asana runs closer to the foundational model (Direct API) than Notion (Off the LLM map (in-house non-LLM ML)). No shared foundational model — different bets.

Asana

Productivity

Proximity

Direct API

Models

OpenAI · GPT

Cloud · datastore

HybridMySQLAmazon Aurora (MySQL-compatible)Snowflake or similar cloud data warehouse (inferred)

Compliance

SOC 2 (inferred)ISO 27001 (inferred)GDPRCCPA

Architecture

Asana runs a large-scale, stateful, microservice-style backend with autoscaling infrastructure and a dedicated Production Infrastructure pod for observability and platform reliability, layered behind a multi-region, hybrid cloud deployment. Its data stack separates transactional MySQL/Aurora stores from analytical event pipelines and a cloud data warehouse used by growth and analytics teams.

Notion

Productivity

Proximity

Off the LLM map (in-house non-LLM ML)

Models

—

Cloud · datastore

AWSPostgreSQLAmazon RDSApache Kafka (Confluent Cloud)Apache HudiS3SnowflakeDebezium CDCSpark

Compliance

data residency controls (US/EU regional processing)

Architecture

Notion’s core production architecture is centered on a sharded PostgreSQL system on AWS, with 96 physical Postgres instances and five logical shards per instance as of 2023. Its data lake pipeline uses Debezium CDC into Confluent Cloud Kafka, then Apache Hudi and S3 for downstream analytics, search, and AI-related workloads; the public sources do not confirm a native foundational model inside Notion’s core product.

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