Differences between Apple Pages, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word

Many of you are familiar with Microsoft Word, but you may not be familiar with Google Docs.  Microsoft Word and Google Docs are word processors.  Apple has similar product called Apple Pages. They do the same thing, but are slightly different.  Many people are moving away from Microsoft Word due to the new subscription model and are looking for alternatives. Google Docs is one of these alternatives. If you have Apple devices, Apple Pages is an option. 

How are Microsoft Word and Google Docs different? Microsoft Word is feature rich compared to Google Docs. However Google Docs has better saving and sharing capabilities, plus it is free. In regards to features, Apple Pages is like Google Docs, but there are downfalls with the sharing capabilities. 

Microsoft Word has moved to a subscription model called Microsoft 365 and is $70/year. Google Docs is free, but requires a Google account. Apple Pages is free, but requires the user to have an Apple device. The accounts of the users is what makes many of the newer features work.  The connection of these accounts is how users share and edit. Because Apple Pages relies on users having an actual Apple device it is not as useful as Google Docs. Anyone can sign up for a Google account regardless of the hardware they own.

Microsoft Word was developed in 1983 whereas Apple Pages was released in 2005 and Google Docs was released in 2006. Due to the 20+ year head start Word has more features than Pages or Docs.  For example, Pages and Docs does not have picture styles and effects nor does it have easy to mail merge capabilities.  However, for 90% of what most of us do in a word processor Google Docs and Apple Pages is sufficient. 

Because Apple Pages and Google Docs were created in the era of Web 2.0, it was built with wiki features like automatic saving and easy sharing capabilities. One of the key differences between the two programs is that Apple Pages and Google Docs were born and live on the internet whereas Microsoft Word is a program that lives on the computer. Word does have online access, but most of us don’t use Word in this way. This online nature allows documents to be easily saved. Word has this but you must turn this feature on. Sharing is also simple on the web. The sharing capabilities allow users to not only share but do real-time collaboration on documents, meaning multiple can edit at once and see each other’s edits. 

If you have a Google account, an email ending in @gmail.com, or an Apple device, I encourage you to check out your free word processor options. To create a document in Google Docs, go to drive.google.com, log in with your Google account, and then click on the plus icon in the upper left corner and choose Google Doc. To create a document in Apple Pages, go to icloud.com, log in with your Apple ID, and click on Pages.