Notion Subscription Tracker vs a Real App
App Comparisons · The Subgrove Team · · Updated · 5 min read
A Notion subscription tracker works well as a list, and Notion can even send you a reminder before a renewal, but its reminders don't repeat: after each charge you have to move the date and set the reminder again by hand. If you'll keep up with that, a free Notion template is enough. If you won't, a dedicated subscription app that recalculates every renewal and reminds you automatically is the better tool.
What a Notion template does well
The case for staying in Notion is real. Templates are free, and a database gives you a table you can sort by cost or renewal date, filter by category, and switch to a board or calendar view. You can add any property you like: who shares the plan, which card pays it, a link to the cancellation page, notes about the price you were promised.
If you already run your life in Notion, a subscriptions page costs nothing and adds no new app. For a reference list ("here's what I pay for and roughly what it costs") it's genuinely fine, and so is a spreadsheet; our subscription tracker spreadsheet template covers that route.
How Notion reminders actually work
Notion's reminders help page explains that any database with a Date property can carry a reminder: click the date, choose how far ahead to be warned, and Notion notifies you. When the time comes you get a badge in your Notion inbox, a desktop notification, and a mobile push within five minutes; if Notion isn't open, it also sends an email.
So the old complaint that "Notion can't remind you" isn't true any more. The real limits are narrower, and they matter more for subscriptions than for almost anything else you'd track there.
Reminders don't repeat
The same help page answers the question directly: Notion does not have recurring reminders yet, though it says they're on the roadmap. A subscription is by definition recurring. Each reminder fires once, for the date in the cell. After Netflix renews, the row still shows last month's date until you edit it, and there's no new reminder until you set one. Miss that edit once and the next renewal you meant to cancel before it charged goes through silently.
Formulas can calculate a date, but you set the reminder
Notion's formula language can work out the next renewal for you, for example with dateAdd() to add a month or a year to the last charge. But reminders are created on a Date property you edit, so a calculated column doesn't give you an alert by itself. Most templates end up with a manual "next renewal" date that you roll forward after every charge.
The monthly total is yours to build
The number that changes behaviour is your true monthly total, with yearly plans divided by twelve and weekly charges multiplied out. In a template you write and maintain that formula yourself, and one wrong cycle quietly skews it. People underestimate this badly: in a 2022 C+R Research survey, US consumers guessed they spent $86 a month on subscriptions, and their itemised spending averaged $219.
Templates drift
A template only works while you keep it current. Nothing pulls you back after a sign-up, so new subscriptions go unrecorded and cancelled ones linger. Within a couple of months the page describes the subscriptions you used to have.
Where a dedicated app fits: Subgrove
Disclosure: Subgrove is our app. The Notion details below come from Notion's own help centre, checked in October 2026.
Subgrove does the part Notion leaves to you: enter each subscription once with its cycle, and it works out every future renewal and sends a push and email reminder before each one, at a lead time you pick per subscription (on the day, or up to two weeks before). Monthly and yearly totals are calculated for you, and nothing connects to your bank. It's free for five subscriptions; past that, Pro is $4.99/month or $39/year.
The trade-off runs the other way too. Notion holds any field you can imagine; Subgrove does one job and won't hold your cancellation notes in a linked wiki page.
Notion template vs spreadsheet vs Subgrove
| Notion template | Spreadsheet | Subgrove | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | Free (5 subs); Pro $4.99/mo or $39/yr |
| Reminder before renewal | Yes, one-off per date | No (without add-ons) | Yes, every renewal |
| Next renewal updates itself | No, you edit the date | Via formula | Yes |
| Monthly total | DIY formula | DIY formula | Built in |
| Custom fields | Unlimited | Unlimited | Fixed set, plus notes |
| Bank linking | No | No | No |
| Where it lives | Your Notion workspace | Your files | Subgrove account, synced across devices |
Which one to use
Use a Notion template if you already work in Notion daily, want rich notes on each subscription, and are disciplined about rolling dates forward after every charge.
Use a spreadsheet if you like formulas and want a file you own outright, and don't need alerts.
Use Subgrove if the reason you're tracking is to stop paying for things you forgot, because that depends on a reminder arriving before every renewal, not just the next one.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Notion subscription tracker template? Yes. Ours is a CSV you can import as a Notion database (Settings → Import → CSV), with name, cost, currency, cycle, next-renewal and category columns already set up; there's also an Excel and Google Sheets version with the monthly-cost formulas built in. Notion's template gallery and many creators offer other free subscription databases too. Any of them is a starting point you'll customise.
Can Notion remind me before a subscription renews? Yes, once. Add a reminder to the Date property and Notion will notify you in the app, by mobile push and, if you're not active in Notion, by email. It won't repeat the reminder next month; you have to update the date and set a new one.
Can a Notion formula calculate the next renewal date?
It can calculate it with functions like dateAdd(), but Notion's reminders are set on Date properties, so you'd still copy the result into a date you edit to get an alert.
Do I have to link my bank to use Subgrove? No. You add subscriptions yourself, the same as in a template, and Subgrove never connects to a bank.
What does Subgrove cost compared with a free template? Nothing for up to five subscriptions, reminders included. Beyond that, Pro is $4.99/month or $39/year and adds unlimited subscriptions, household sharing, free-trial and price-increase alerts, and CSV export, which also gets your list back into Notion or a spreadsheet if you ever want it there.
If your Notion tracker has stayed accurate for months, you probably don't need anything else. If it has drifted because each renewal meant another manual edit, that's the signal to let an app keep the dates.