Can Notion's new productivity apps stand a chance against Microsoft 365? Here's what we think

Notion, a US startup focusing on developing productivity apps, recently acquired Skiff, another company focusing on developing highly encrypted and secure productivity tools, according to the latest reports.

Skiff has been developing security-focused productivity tools, such as text editing apps, calendars, mail apps, and so on, and the company’s products have been seen as a more secure alternative to giants such as Google Docs, and Microsoft 365 apps.

The company had also been on Notion’s radar since 2020, and now that the acquisition was made last month, we began to wonder if the combined forces of Notion and Skiff can stand a chance against Microsoft 365 and Google Suite.

Skiff-Notion’s productivity suite might become the go-to platform for organizations

Why are we saying this? Well, the answer is quite obvious. Skiff has been developing secure and highly encrypted productivity apps right from its inception, and their tools are widely perceived as the more secure versions of the Microsft 365 apps.

Organizations and commercial customers trying to protect their data, and documents will most likely find the Skiff-Notion productivity platform as the better choice. Not only the platform have everything a company needs, from text editing tools to calendars, mail apps, and AIs, but it will also be less prone to phishing attacks, malware, security issues, and sensitive data loss.

Even though Microsoft 365 is quite comprehensive and updated regularly (Microsoft Teams, for example, has a new Copilot experience), the platform is extremely vulnerable to malware, and phishing attacks.

In fact, in 2022, over 80% of Microsoft 365 accounts were the target of at least one hacking attack, and the trend continues well into 2024, where there are reports that Microsoft 365 is hitting a peak when it comes to being the target of cyberattacks.

This fact alone would make a lot of companies consider another platform if only there were one. While Microsoft does its best to counter these attacks, and most of the time, it manages to do so, the Redmond-based tech giant has seen instances where it wouldn’t address serious vulnerabilities that would cause the leak of extremely sensitive data.

However, the Notion-Skiff productivity platform might just be the answer. With its highly secure capabilities and encrypting features, Notion could take on Microsoft, or Google, in just a few years.

Assuming they will position themselves as the more secure option, the company could easily overtake Microsoft 365 in the long run. Our most recent survey shows that Copilot is not yet adopted by the employees out there, and AI still has a long way until it truly becomes part of the workforce.

This only shows the need for a simplistic yet secure productivity platform, that has exactly what companies need without the AI fuss or extra features that nobody will actually use.

We’ll have to wait and see, but it is a possibility.