The 6 finest calendar apps in 2026

The secrets and techniques to productiveness are so usually boring. Crucial time-management instrument you should use? The standard calendar. In the event you suppose time is cash, your calendar is your finances. That is why it is essential to have one of the best calendar app potential.

However time administration is not simply writing down what you will do when. It requires coordinating with different folks in your crew, conserving monitor of the place your time went, and usually realizing who shall be the place doing what at no matter time. And that is simply considering professionally. A calendar may also be extremely essential in your private life.

I thought of and examined dozens of calendars to search out one of the best of one of the best. Whether or not you are on the lookout for a Google Calendar different or simply need to see what’s on the market, listed here are my picks for the six finest calendar apps.

The very best calendar apps

What makes one of the best calendar app?

Calendars, after all, present you your schedule. Even essentially the most barebones and buggy calendar app usually manages to drag that off. The very best calendars aren’t simply practical, although—they match seamlessly into your life and provide the options that allow you to maintain on prime of the way you spend your time.

I have been a tech author for greater than a decade and depend on my calendar to maintain all of the small shifting items of a contract profession in verify. I additionally use my calendar in my private life to verify nothing—like a visit to the dentist or pal’s birthday—slips by means of the cracks. My best choice, Fantastical (it is on this checklist), is considered one of a handful of apps I take advantage of each single day.

In my view, one of the best calendar apps are:

• Straightforward to make use of. Calendar apps are straightforward to make use of after they require minimal clicking and menu exploration. You must have the ability to add occasions shortly and precisely, see what’s developing, and prepare your schedule with out having to hit up the assistance docs.

• Designed with intention. Does the calendar software program do what it says it is going to do? And does it do it properly? Whereas calendars are easy in precept, in apply, there are many challenges to beat. How do they deal with time zones? Or overlapping occasions? Can you employ it for each your private life and your skilled life? I needed to search out calendars that really feel like they have been made by individuals who love calendars.

• Full of options and customizable. In the event you simply want a solution to preserve monitor of your days, a desk calendar will do high quality. However when you’re a severe scheduler, energy options, reminiscent of customizable views and integrations, will aid you get essentially the most out of your calendar app. For these apps that are not heavy on options, I appeared for personalization choices that make the app modify to your type—a calendar app ought to offer you choices, not lock you right into a sure method of planning your day.

• Easy to share. You nearly definitely must schedule occasions with different folks—whether or not they’re for work or your private life. The very best shared calendar apps embrace invites to occasions and even the power to share whole calendars. That method, you possibly can preserve your schedules in sync when it’s essential to.

• Out there for a number of gadgets. I gave choice to apps which are accessible on multiple platform. The very best on-line calendar enables you to see your schedule irrespective of the place you might be or what machine you’ve got readily available—or not less than on all of the gadgets you personal.

For essentially the most half, I centered on calendar platforms—I did not take into account mobile- or desktop-only apps designed simply to sync with different companies. If an app was constructed on prime of different calendar platforms, I required it so as to add lots of additional options to make the minimize. Take a look at Zapier’s lists of Android calendar apps, iPhone calendar apps, Home windows calendar apps, and Mac calendar apps if you’d like these types of platform-specific functions. 

What about AI calendars?

Calendars really feel like a type of instruments that is perhaps disrupted by AI sooner or later—nevertheless it hasn’t fairly occurred but. The massive calendar apps like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook work the identical method as they at all times have. 

Nonetheless, a few of one of the best AI scheduling instruments are actually able to working as standalone calendar apps along with mechanically managing and rearranging your schedule. You now not want a separate calendar app to truly view issues as you go about your day, so this 12 months, for the primary time, I’ve included a finest AI calendar app on the checklist.

AI calendars definitely aren’t for everybody, and so they include some quirks and issues I will get into later. In addition they sometimes depend on Google or Outlook as a backend, so you will have to join a unique calendar on prime of them. Nonetheless, it is fascinating to see AI calendars maturing as a class of software program. 

With that mentioned, listed here are one of the best calendar apps.

The very best calendar apps at a look

Finest free calendar app for groups

Google Calendar (Android, iOS, Internet)

Google Calendar professionals:

Google Calendar cons:

• Requires a Google account to make use of, so it may be inconvenient when you use one other service to handle your e-mail

• No desktop apps, although it integrates with numerous them 

Google Calendar is each highly effective and versatile, all with out being laborious to make use of. If all you need is an easy calendar to maintain monitor of your occasions, you are lined. It does not take lengthy to learn to add occasions, or change from the default week view to a month or day view. Even inviting different contacts, or including a Google Meet video convention, is simple.

Dig in, although, and you will find every kind of options. You may share whole calendars, for instance, which is nice for coordinating along with your crew and even simply having a shared calendar along with your important different. (It is how my accomplice and I coordinate our hectic schedules.) You may create as many calendars as you need or subscribe to any iCal-compatible calendar, then select which calendars you do and don’t need to see. There are nice cell apps, or you should use a third-party app for the desktop when you favor (each different app on this checklist can sync with Google Calendar).

Google can also be persevering with so as to add AI-powered options to all its apps. Whereas Gemini can solely actually create or edit occasions with Google Calendar, it is solely a matter of time earlier than it will get extra highly effective options. Till then, numerous Zapier’s favourite AI scheduling apps can use Google Calendar as their spine—actually, lots of them require that you simply achieve this. It is this wide-ranging degree of integration and adaptability that makes Google Calendar really easy to suggest.

After all, you do not have to look to third-party apps. Google Calendar’s integration with different Google instruments is one other plus, assuming you are already a Google person. It is simple to see Google Calendar in your Gmail sidebar, for instance, or to ask your Google Contacts to an occasion. Google Workspace customers have entry to a lot of work-related options, together with many particularly meant for distant or hybrid groups. There is a work location instrument and the power to break up your work hours, each of which acknowledge the altering nature of labor. And you’ll create appointment slots to imitate a gathering scheduler instrument. In the event you’re on the lookout for one calendar to coordinate an expert crew, Google Calendar actually ought to be it.

Total, it is laborious to search out a lot to complain about with the Google Calendar app, and imagine me—I like complaining. It ought to be the primary calendar app most individuals strive, whether or not you want it in your private or skilled life.

Need extra out of your calendar? Join Google Calendar to your favourite apps by means of Zapier. You may create automated workflows that ship calendar appointments to different apps, like Trello or Todoist. You may even create calendar appointments from spreadsheets. Be taught extra about methods to automate Google Calendar, or get began with considered one of these pre-made templates.

Google Calendar pricing: Free with a Google account; Starter for Google Workspace, which incorporates all Google apps, begins at $7/person/month with a one-year dedication.

Finest calendar app for Microsoft customers

Microsoft Outlook Calendar (Android, iOS, macOS, Home windows, Internet)

Outlook Calendar professionals:

• Shockingly good app on Home windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, that additionally consists of e-mail and contacts administration options 

• Highly effective enterprise options for any firm that depends on Microsoft’s apps 

Outlook Calendar cons:

Outlook dates again to the ’90s and remains to be among the finest calendar apps available on the market at present. It combines e-mail, calendar, and contacts in a single software. Some folks love this strategy, and a few folks do not. Both method, the calendar itself is stable—and it is considered one of my favourite e-mail apps too.

Including occasions to your calendar solely takes a few clicks. You may add a number of calendars and have a number of views, together with at present, this week, and even simply the work week. Help for Alternate and Microsoft 365 accounts means it is simple to ship occasion invites to different folks at your organization, evaluate your schedule to theirs whereas doing so, or share whole calendars. The built-in Scheduling Assistant can even aid you discover an open spot in everybody’s calendar for a gathering.

If your organization runs on Microsoft, this shall be your calendar app. However Outlook is price trying out regardless due to a couple of very nice options. The climate is at all times proper there on the prime of your calendar, for instance. It is simple to alter an e-mail right into a calendar appointment or to see your e-mail alongside your calendar. And there is assist for including iCalendar subscriptions. The cell apps are additionally very nice, each on Android and iOS.

Like Google, Microsoft is including AI-powered options to virtually every part it might. Outlook now has Copilot, and whereas it might’t presently do lots to handle your calendar, it might schedule conferences and make sending calendar invitations faster.

After all, this being Microsoft, the phrase “Outlook” has a number of meanings, and the variations between these meanings might be complicated. Traditional Outlook and New Outlook are two totally different apps with barely totally different characteristic units. After which there are cross-platform variations: Outlook for Mac can sync with Google Calendar whereas Outlook for Home windows can solely subscribe to them, and there are quite a lot of interface variations between the 2 merchandise. On prime of all this, New Outlook is a alternative for the built-in Home windows Mail and Calendar apps, so it is free on each platform, whereas Traditional Outlook requires a subscription to Microsoft 365. Then there’s Outlook.com, which refers back to the free e-mail and calendar service that was known as Hotmail again within the ’90s. It provides lots of the identical options as Outlook however is not fairly the identical. 

That is all complicated, however there’s a fantastic calendar app on the core of it—one you have already got entry to when you’re a Microsoft person. It is properly price contemplating. And you’ll join Outlook to Zapier for extra energy. That method, you are able to do issues like ship calendar appointments to different apps, together with different calendars or your to-do checklist. Be taught extra about methods to automate Microsoft Outlook, or get began with considered one of these templates.

Microsoft Outlook pricing: Outlook is free on Home windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Some options require a paid subscription. Microsoft 365 Enterprise Primary begins at $6/person/month with an annual contract.

Finest calendar app for scheduling exterior appointments

Calendar (Android, iOS, Internet)

Calendar professionals:

• Scheduling integrates properly with the remainder of the calendar options 

• Good, fashionable net and cell apps 

Calendar cons:

It is laborious to consider an easier title for a calendar than Calendar, however thankfully, that is not all this app has to supply. Every part it’s essential to handle your appointments is right here, on a website with fashionable design and full assist for collaboration. It is a well-thought-out net app. 

But it surely’s not only a nice digital calendar app: it additionally works as an appointment scheduler. Join Calendar, and you will get a public profile—for instance, calendar.com/michaelscott. You may arrange occasions that you simply’re out there, then enable anybody with the hyperlink to schedule an appointment with you. 

There are many appointment scheduling apps that do that, however as far as I do know, Calendar is the one full-fledged calendar app to additionally provide a feature-complete scheduling characteristic like this on each platform. Positive, Google Calendar provides some primary appointment scheduling, however Calendar’s model is simpler to make use of in some ways. This alone makes Calendar price making an attempt out—particularly if you wish to keep away from the terrible forwards and backwards required to schedule a Zoom name. It even integrates with Stripe if you wish to cost in your time, and you may arrange customized Workflows so your invitees get customized reminders, follow-up messages, and extra.

Sadly, two years in the past, Calendar tripled its costs for brand new customers—the Customary plan went as much as a whopping $25/month. It is nonetheless a fantastic app, and the worth has since dropped again to $20/month, so when you think about the price of subscribing to each a calendar app and a scheduling app, issues are barely much less unreasonable. However the severe price ticket does take away a few of the shine.

You may join Calendar to your different favourite apps by means of Zapier. You may, for instance, get a Slack notification each time somebody indicators up for a gathering with you or create new Google Sheets rows for each scheduled occasion. Listed here are some templates to get you began.

Calendar pricing: Free plan out there; Customary model begins at $20/month with 5 scheduling time slots. Professional begins at $30/month with limitless scheduling slots.

Finest free calendar app for Apple customers

Apple Calendar (iOS, macOS, Internet)

Apple Calendar professionals:

• Easy, clear person interface that exhibits all of the essential particulars you want 

• Surprisingly deep integration with the remainder of the Apple ecosystem

Apple Calendar cons:

Apple Calendar is the default calendar on Macs, iPhone, and iPads. In the event you’ve used an Apple product, you understand what to anticipate: easy, stunning, and straightforward to make use of. Apple Calendar is all that. 

Every part syncs by default utilizing iCloud, or you possibly can arrange Apple Calendar to sync with Google Calendar, Microsoft Alternate, Yahoo, and any calendar platform that makes use of CalDAV. Setting this up is as straightforward as connecting an e-mail shopper app to a different e-mail account.

Apple’s clear and easy calendar enables you to focus in your occasions moderately than the app itself. It is intuitive to make use of when you’re accustomed to different Apple apps, with assist for drag and drop. The Apple Intelligence integration is a spotlight: inform your assistant so as to add an appointment, and that is the app the place it would find yourself, together with no matter context it might glean from the way you made the request.

But it surely’s additionally fast so as to add appointments within the app, particularly on the Mac. Click on or faucet the plus signal (+), and create a brand new occasion utilizing pure language—simply kind a phrase that features a title, time, and date, then hit enter. You too can add a journey time estimate that shall be factored into occasion alerts. Plus, it integrates with Apple’s Reminders app so something with a due date shall be seen right here too.

In the event you simply use Apple gadgets, Calendar is a superb app to strive first. It has all of the options you’d search for in a calendar app. You may even share and sync calendars along with your Apple-device-using crew members or important others. The largest letdown actually is that syncing every part between totally different working programs requires leaping by means of a couple of hoops or utilizing a couple of totally different apps.

Apple Calendar pricing: Included with macOS and iOS gadgets, or by way of iCloud with an Apple ID

Finest calendar app for its design

Fantastical (iOS, macOS, Home windows)

Fantastical professionals:

Fantastical cons:

Is it tacky to name Fantastical improbable? In all probability, however not less than on this case, it is not hyperbole. Fantastical has nearly every part you possibly can need in a calendar app. Whereas it was an Apple unique initially, it is now out there on Home windows. It is the calendar app I take advantage of each day (although it is built-in with Google Calendar).

Whereas it is good to have the cell app, Fantastical is at its finest on desktop. Put merely, that is the best-designed calendar app for any working system. Begin with the left panel: most apps put a principally ineffective checklist of calendars right here. Not Fantastical. Right here, that house is used for an agenda view or your reminders. It is a small factor, nevertheless it displays how fastidiously the builders thought of each design ingredient to make the calendar intuitive to make use of. One other little factor: if an similar occasion exhibits up in two calendars, it would solely present up as soon as, with a pin-stripe sample letting you understand it is in two totally different calendars. Use Fantastical for some time, and you will discover every kind of little issues like this—and it feels native on each Mac and Home windows gadgets.

Fantastical is finest identified for its natural-language occasion creation. Begin typing “Lunch with Casey at midday at Park Place,” and watch because the app parses your phrases into calendar fields and pulls in related info. Another calendars provide this; Fantastical does it a lot better. Fantastical helps syncing with iCloud, Alternate, Workplace 365, Google, Yahoo, fruux, Meetup, and any CalDAV service, so you have acquired practically countless syncing choices.

Certainly one of my favourite options is simple appointment scheduling. Whereas there are many apps that do it—together with Calendar and Google Calendar—Fantastical’s strategy actually works for me because it integrates so seamlessly with the calendar I take advantage of on all my gadgets. Actually, if you’d like one of the best calendar available on the market, that is the one you are on the lookout for.

Even higher—Fantastical now integrates with Zapier, so you possibly can join it to all the opposite apps you employ. For instance, at any time when an appointment is requested or confirmed in Fantastical, Zapier can mechanically ship a Slack message or e-mail, or create a brand new activity in your to-do checklist. Listed here are some examples to get you began.

Fantastical pricing: Free primary calendar; Premium plan with scheduling and many different options from $4.75/month (billed yearly)

Finest AI calendar app

Morgen (Home windows, macOS, Internet, iOS, Android)

Morgen professionals:

Morgen cons:

Most AI scheduling apps are fairly poor as standalone calendars. Morgen bucks that development. It integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, Fastmail, and any CalDAV calendar in addition to activity administration apps like Todoist and ClickUp. It is acquired desktop and cell apps so you possibly can entry it from any of your gadgets. And you’ll open up scheduling slots so folks can e-book conferences. 

With that mentioned, you continue to must need the AI options for Morgen to make sense. At $30/month (or $15/month billed yearly), it is considerably dearer than most non-AI calendars. So, let’s discuss in regards to the AI scheduling. 

The thought is that Morgen syncs your varied to-do lists and calendars. It may possibly then create a time-blocked day plan primarily based in your priorities and the urgency of your varied duties. You may create blocks of time dedicated to particular forms of duties (like deep work or private initiatives) known as Frames and use different guidelines to dictate how Morgen schedules your totally different duties. If one thing crops up, it might intelligently shift your schedule.

In my testing, this all labored on a technical degree. The catch is that, not less than for me, this may by no means work on a private degree. My private {and professional} to-dos are too variable to neatly slot into pre-defined containers. Take this text: I used to be meant to have it completed an hour in the past so I might go to the health club. 

That is to not say that this type of AI-powered time blocking will not be just right for you, and it definitely exhibits lots of promise for scheduling work throughout a crew. However the AI side is the large motive to make use of an app like Morgen as an alternative of Google Calendar. 

Morgen additionally integrates with Zapier, so you possibly can pull in to-dos from all the opposite apps you employ and spend much less time in your calendar. Listed here are a couple of templates to get you began.

Morgen pricing: From $30/month for particular person plan; from $25/person/month with crew plan. 

Which digital calendar ought to I take advantage of?

Your calendar retains your whole work and residential life organized, so it is a fairly private alternative. All these calendar apps have free variations—or not less than free trials of their finest options—so give a couple of of them a whirl and see which fits you finest.

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Initially printed in Might 2017, this publish has had contributions from Melanie Pinola, Tim Brookes, and Justin Pot. The newest replace was in November 2025.