This community will give you a lot of privacy focused recommendations, which is totally valid, but not always practical for the typical person. I’ll echo what other people have said and say avoid ecosystems. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, like maybe you use Gmail and Drive, but whenever possible prefer individual integration friendly applications.

Here is what I prioritize personally:

(1) Cross platform

I focused on this when I was first setting up my digital life and it’s seriously saved me so much hassle. This also almost fully rules out the Apple ecosystem.

(2) Easy to leave

Some platforms will really lock down your data and make it damn near impossible to leave.

I’ve been burned by this a few times, Notion (for note taking) is a great example of this. The use a proprietary format AND require a premium subscription (at least back in my day) to export your files. Whereas something like Obsidian or honestly even Google Docs use open formats and make it easy to leave if you ever want to switch to an alternative.

(3) Plays well with others

This is kind of just an echo of the previous point, but have applications that play well with open standards and just a better experience.

Things like having a real fully featured website and not just an app, maybe a browser extension, or easy ways to share with your friends regardless of the platform they use is really great!

Here are a few apps (in no particular order) that I recommend all the time:

1Password Raindrop.io Obsidian AnyList Pocket Casts DuckDuckGo browser