After 5+ years, I'm using all native macOS apps.

[mrjohnnyglass]

I do BizDev for a fairly decent consulting firm that operates on GSuite primarily. Before that, I was on an organization that also used GSuite.

For years with Mac, I've had to use different apps for my calendar and mail because the native macOS apps couldn't operate as fast for me. I used Chrome, Outlook, etc,

I recently got my display replaced under warranty, and I decided to reformat/reinstall Mojave to have a fresh clean start on my '18 15" mbp.

Upon setting it up, I decided to see if I could operate my mail, calendar, reminders, and notes on macOS natively rather than downloading the 6 other apps I used on a daily basis.

Turns out, Mojave is a beast. The only external app I'm running now is Slack. My machine is SO MUCH FASTER than before using the native apps.

To those of you thinking about it, give the native apps a try. It may take you a few hours to get used to it, but with continuity, especially between my XS Max, has saved me a bunch of times in just 3-4 days of operating natively.

 

[Tajhad]

I agree. I think the native apps are often overlooked or discarded. I, too, have migrated to all Apple apps. notes has replaced Evernote. Pages replaced Word/ Google Docs. Calendar replaced Google Cal. Numbers replaced Google Sheets ( I must admit this has been the hardest !) Keynote has always been my presentation app.

 

[Peadogie]

I agree, Apples built in apps are much under appreciated. While not as comprehensive as MS Office ect., they are a lot less complicated and resource intensive.
It's hard to beat their integration into the Apple ecosystem.

 

[superscape]

I've said this before on other threads, but my approach (as a stereotypically tight-fisted Yorkshireman) is to go with the free stuff until there's a compelling reason not to. Sure, I have some third party apps but like you, I find Mail, Calendar, Safari etc to be more than adequate. And where they do lack, they don't lack badly enough to make me want to dust my wallet off.

 

[jeyf]

Apple's native apps suffer from delayed maintenance. Still have that 90 look feel. All good tho.

 

[ipponrg]

I do BizDev for a fairly decent consulting firm that operates on GSuite primarily. Before that, I was on an organization that also used GSuite.

For years with Mac, I've had to use different apps for my calendar and mail because the native macOS apps couldn't operate as fast for me. I used Chrome, Outlook, etc,

I recently got my display replaced under warranty, and I decided to reformat/reinstall Mojave to have a fresh clean start on my '18 15" mbp.

Upon setting it up, I decided to see if I could operate my mail, calendar, reminders, and notes on macOS natively rather than downloading the 6 other apps I used on a daily basis.

Turns out, Mojave is a beast. The only external app I'm running now is Slack. My machine is SO MUCH FASTER than before using the native apps.

To those of you thinking about it, give the native apps a try. It may take you a few hours to get used to it, but with continuity, especially between my XS Max, has saved me a bunch of times in just 3-4 days of operating natively.

That works fine for a consultant with limited needs. Going 1st party on apps at my job as an engineer / tech lead would kill productivity.

Some issues I’ve ran into:
- We use outlook exchange servers. Apple Mail is not good at integrating with the way we set up our exchange servers. The authentication doesn’t always sync, and you can’t save filters to the server
- Calendar has the same problems. It’s just better to use Outlook since it has everything built in with our infrastructure
- Notes is adequate for scribbles, but OneNote works better for organization and structure.
- Sharing works best with Gsuite. When you create things with Pages/Numbers they are not as portable as if you just use Gsuite off the bat. iCloud is simply too slow for anything other than a 1:1 engagement

What I still use daily from Apple are:
- Stickies
- Airdrop

 

[sracer]

I do BizDev for a fairly decent consulting firm that operates on GSuite primarily. Before that, I was on an organization that also used GSuite.

For years with Mac, I've had to use different apps for my calendar and mail because the native macOS apps couldn't operate as fast for me. I used Chrome, Outlook, etc,

I recently got my display replaced under warranty, and I decided to reformat/reinstall Mojave to have a fresh clean start on my '18 15" mbp.

Upon setting it up, I decided to see if I could operate my mail, calendar, reminders, and notes on macOS natively rather than downloading the 6 other apps I used on a daily basis.

Turns out, Mojave is a beast. The only external app I'm running now is Slack. My machine is SO MUCH FASTER than before using the native apps.

To those of you thinking about it, give the native apps a try. It may take you a few hours to get used to it, but with continuity, especially between my XS Max, has saved me a bunch of times in just 3-4 days of operating natively.

Just a point of clarification. Every app that is developed and compiled to run on macOS is a "native app". Apps written by Apple are often referred to as "1st party apps".

It has always been the case that using 1st party apps were preferred over using 3rd party apps because Apple was in control over the synergy between the software and hardware. Even when they provided less functionality than their 3rd party counterparts. The "it just works" slogan arose out of this cohesiveness.

The greatest limitation of focusing on the use of 1st party apps is that one is limited to Apple hardware. If a person is locked in to Apple's ecosystem then it makes sense. But people with a mix of devices will not be able to use those apps to great effectiveness.

Some of that is changing as Apple slowly improves the web version of icloud. It has allowed me to start my documents on my iMac and continued to work on them throughout the day on my Pixelbook (chromebook).

I take mix-n-match approach to things to avoid being too heavily dependent on any ecosystem. I try to limit my use of 1st party apps to those that have a web iCloud component. I use GSuite for those tasks and workflows that can benefit from near-universal access regardless of what device I'm using.