Apple vs Google vs Microsoft: Which Productivity Suite is the Best?

Notes, tasks and calendar.

This is the holy trio of productivity apps. So it’s no surprise that 3 of the biggest names in tech — Apple, Google and Microsoft — all have big teams working on these products.

But which one is doing the best job? I decided to give all 3 ecosystems a spin. We’re going to look at the following tool combos:

1. Apple Reminders + Apple Notes + Apple Calendar.
2. Google Tasks + Google Keep + Google Calendar.
3. Microsoft To Do + Microsoft OneNote + Outlook Calendar.

Below are my takeaways — hopefully they’ll help you extract more value from these tools and strengthen your current workflow.

Apple Reminders, Notes and Calendar

Let’s start with Apple Reminders.

While it looks alright and does a fair job of tracking tasks, I found it limited in a few ways.

On a task level, there is no option to add comments and attachments other than images — something I use heavily in Todoist (my standard task management app).

On an organizational level, there is no default “Inbox” functionality — again a key advantage I see in Todoist. As I constantly jot things down, this made Reminders a bad fit for my workflow.

Apple Notes, on the other hand, was a joy to use. It’s simple, looks great across devices and has everything I need in a notes app.

I’d love to continue using it but — as I have written here — I currently rely on Google Docs and don’t see a critical use case for a notes app in my workflow.

As for Apple Calendar — it feels rigid and cumbersome. I like it as a way to sync several calendars into one but not as a standalone app to use throughout the day.

Google Tasks, Keep and Calendar

While the Apple suite didn’t quite cut it for me, Google’s felt like a real alternative to my current setup.

To start, Google Tasks has come a long way over the last few years and now has most of the features you’d expect from a modern task manager.

Without a doubt, the biggest advantage I see is having your tasks and calendar side-by-side (although the calendar does get a little cramped on a smaller screen).

The only downsides were the lack of natural language recognition when creating task due dates and, as with Reminders, the lack of comment functionality on a task level.

Looking at Google Keep — I didn’t see any significant improvements (in fact, it looks a bit neglected) but it’s still a solid notes app.

A few things I love about it: (1) you can select multiple notes and merge them in a single Google Doc; (2) the drawing tool is very sleek; and (3) the Chrome Extension + mobile app work great for capturing notes on the fly.

I would have liked to see the option to format text and/or markdown support in the note’s body — something that comes as standard with other note-taking apps. But not essential, at least for my use case.

Similarly to Apple Notes, I’d use Keep if a note-taking app was a part of my current workflow.

As for Google Calendar (my default choice anyway)— still loving the simplicity and easy integration with pretty much anything else.

Microsoft To Do, OneNote and Outlook

Ok, let’s look at the Microsoft suite.

Ever since Satya Nadella took over, it seems like most products are going from strength to strength.

Most notably, acquiring Wunderlist and turning it into Microsoft To Do seems like an impactful move (at least as it relates to Microsoft’s personal productivity tools).

However, the best thing I can say about Microsoft To Do is that it looks a lot like Wunderlist. In general, I don’t see it as a viable solution for my needs.

Like Google Tasks, it lacks natural language recognition on the Mac version. And inputting due dates is really cumbersome.

I did appreciate the “My Day” functionality which allows you to prioritize the most important work for the day. But honestly, I had a hard time using the app even for a few days.

OneNote was a better experience — it felt very flexible compared to other note-taking apps and there are some unique features.

I probably enjoyed the drawing functionality the most, similar to Google Keep. And OneNote’s approach to organization — nesting pages within pages — allows you to create a logical structure of your personal knowledge base.

Still, it’s a bit of an overkill for me so if I had to choose, I’d select Apple Notes over OneNote for sure. Nevertheless, it’s a breath of fresh air compared to most note-taking apps.

Lastly, Outlook felt hyper-functional as always. I can’t imagine a single feature that’s missing.

While the calendar, like Apple’s, feels a bit rigid, the overall comprehensiveness of Outlook compensates for this. Perhaps that’s its biggest flaw as well — compared to Google or Apple, Outlook’s calendar can seem complex and bloated.

I’ll finish here with a final rant — it’s still so hard to log in and sync Microsoft products. Using live.com vs 365 vs Outlook vs Skype credentials… And God forbid you have multiple accounts to switch between.

Conclusion

Unsurprisingly, I think you should just go for the best tool for the job — the one that suits you best.

The integration between platforms by the same company is mostly irrelevant now since modern productivity apps already work together pretty well — if this is even needed.

For my use case, a native integration between Notes, Tasks and Calendar does not bring much value. I’m happy with my Todoist + Google Calendar combo, relying on Google Docs to store notes and other files.

Still, for many the integration might be handy. I particularly enjoyed the way Google Keep and Tasks work in your Google Calendar. And Apple Notes is one of the best products I’ve ever used, working seamlessly across devices.

For heavy MS Office users, Outlook is still a life-saver and I wouldn’t bother switching to anything else.

So that’s the end of my little experiment. Got questions or want me to test something else? Drop a comment below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.