How to compare alternatives for calendar, email and tasks without getting lost

The short answer: do not compare feature lists, compare answers to six concrete questions. Every tool in this space promises "your day in one place", so the feature list distinguishes nothing. What distinguishes them is what each one does once your real accounts are connected and the first Monday arrives with forty emails.

The six questions

1. Does it read from the source or from a copy?

If the tool syncs every few hours, you will be looking at stale data at the worst possible moment. Ask explicitly how often each integration refreshes; honest answers come with numbers.

2. What can it write, and under which permission?

"Integrates with Gmail" can mean reading, or reading and replying. Those are different things and they are granted separately. A serious tool lets you use it with read access only.

3. What happens when you say no?

Refuse the contacts permission and watch. If the application goes blank or keeps nagging, you have learned how much it respects your decisions.

4. Where does the AI live, and what is sent to it?

If there is a summary or an assistant, ask which provider serves it, what is sent and what is stored afterwards. A vague answer here is itself an answer.

5. What happens if you leave?

Disconnecting an account should leave the source service untouched and state clearly what is deleted and when. If there is no data retention page, there is no retention policy.

6. Which platforms does it actually exist on?

An app that is "coming" is no use on Monday. Count only what you can install today.

Our own answers

So the framework is not abstract, here are ours, including the uncomfortable ones:

• Sources: Google, Microsoft 365 and Outlook, Todoist, iCal-linked calendars, the iPhone's Calendar and Reminders via the app, and the weather. Linked calendars refresh every fifteen minutes; connected accounts are read on request.
• Writing: actions on Google under a separate permission. Microsoft and Todoist are read-only. Apple is read-only on the web and editable in the iPhone app.
• AI: goes through Sinergia's central gateway, with one briefing per account per day in the free beta. We hold no model provider keys.
• Leaving: disconnecting deletes nothing at the source; what we keep is set out in the retention policy.
• Platforms: web, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The Mac app is frozen at its previous version and gets no new features, and there is no published Android app. We would rather say so than let you find out later.
• Access: private, allowlisted beta. This is not something you can sign up for and use in five minutes today.

How to test without losing a week

Connect only your main account, use the tool three mornings in a row, and count one thing: how many times you had to open another tab to find out what was next. If that number does not fall, no feature list will fix it.

If you want the step-by-step setup, it is in how to organise email, calendar and tasks in one place. The rest of the section is in productivity and in the console.