Comparison
kwaku vs Notion Sites.
Notion Sites (Notion's own publish, plus Super and Potion as the popular wrappers) turn your Notion pages into a website. Kwaku is a real chat-built site, paid for once. Different starting points, different ceilings.
The short answer
Pick Notion Sites if you already write in Notion, you want your Notion docs to be your website with minimal new work, and you don't mind that the design always reads as "this is a Notion page". Notion's own publish is free and instant. Super ($16/mo) and Potion ($10/mo) wrap it with a custom domain, theming, and SEO.
Pick kwaku if you want a real website (not a styled Notion page), you don't want it to look like Notion, you want multi-page navigation, real design language, and you want to pay once instead of monthly. A portfolio, a business landing, anything where the design has to do persuasion work.
Notion Sites win on "I already wrote it, just publish it." Kwaku wins on "I want a site that looks like a site, not a doc." These are different jobs.
Side by side
| kwaku | Notion Sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay once. ~$30 for a pack of edits. No subscription. | Subscription. Notion's own publish: free, no custom domain. Super: $16/mo. Potion: $10/mo. Plus your Notion plan ($10/mo+). |
| How you build | Describe what you want in chat. Kwaku writes the code, you see it live. | Write in Notion as normal. Publish the page. Optionally wrap with Super/Potion for theming and a custom domain. |
| Output | Plain HTML and CSS. Fast, lightweight, exportable. | Notion-rendered pages, often heavy. Super/Potion proxy and cache to make them feel fast. |
| Design | Editorial / minimal / brutalist / magazine / japanese / terminal — picked per site. Doesn't look like a builder. | Notion's block style. Super/Potion add theming but the underlying layout is still a Notion page. |
| SEO | Schema markup, fast load, structured headings — built in. | Notion's own publish has weak SEO (no meta tags control). Super/Potion fix this; it's their main value add. |
| Pages | Multi-page, real nav. | Multi-page, but the nav is Notion's sidebar metaphor or a thin wrapper. |
| Form handling | Built in. Emails the site owner on submit. | Not native. Embed a Tally / Typeform — extra service, extra paywall. |
| Custom domain | Included with the $30 pack. | Paid wrapper required (Super $16/mo or Potion $10/mo). Notion's own publish does not support custom domains. |
| Cost over 3 years | $30 for one pack of edits, used whenever. | $360 – $576 at Potion/Super alone, before your Notion subscription. |
"Docs as a site" is a specific shape
Notion Sites are amazing for one specific job: you already wrote a long-form thing in Notion (a roadmap, a wiki, an FAQ, a documentation page), and you want it on the internet at a URL with minimal extra work. Hit publish, you're done. For internal docs that need to be external, it's wonderful.
Where it stops working: the site has to do persuasion work. A portfolio, a business landing, a product page — these need a hero with intentional visual weight, a value-prop section with rhythm, a CTA that feels like a button (not a Notion link block). Notion Sites can be themed, but the design ceiling is "a Notion page with a custom color and font." That's a real ceiling.
Where Super / Potion fit
Super and Potion exist because Notion's own publish has weak SEO, no custom domain, and limited theming. They proxy your Notion page, add real meta tags, let you point a custom domain, and offer some CSS overrides. They're well-built tools and the right answer if "publish my Notion page as a real site" is the exact job.
They are still subscriptions ($10–16/mo), on top of your Notion plan. And they can't change the fundamental shape — the source of truth is still a Notion page, so the site still has Notion's layout DNA in it.
What kwaku does differently
Kwaku doesn't start from a doc. It starts from a description: "I'm a portrait photographer in Lagos, I want a gallery-first portfolio with a quiet hero and a contact form." It writes the HTML and CSS from scratch. The design language is picked deliberately, not inherited from a doc-tool.
The trade-off is the input. With Notion Sites, your content is already in Notion; you just publish it. With kwaku, you describe what you want. If the writing is the work and the publishing is the afterthought, Notion is the right shape. If the design is the work, kwaku is.
When each one wins
Pick Notion Sites when your content already lives in Notion, the site is mostly a long-form doc (wiki, docs, FAQ, roadmap), and you want zero new tools in your workflow. Add Super/Potion if you need a custom domain and proper SEO.
Pick kwaku when the site needs to do persuasion work — a portfolio, a landing page, a small business site, anything where the design matters. When you'd rather describe than write-then-publish. When pay-once economics matter.