For those who prefer a calendar app to stay productive and organized, I put together a list of the best calendar apps I tested and reviewed in 2022.

While a calendar can be used just by a single person to manage their time, collaboration has become one of the key features of modern calendar apps. It’s no longer about what you have to do and when, but more about how you coordinate with your colleagues, family members or friends.

Calendar apps alongside to-do list apps are one of those things that can never become perfect. The features will cover about 90% of your needs, but there will always be something left that you wish they had. That’s been my experience, at least. So it’s no wonder that whenever a new calendar app shows up, I test it. Maybe this is the one, the best calendar app ever made.

The Best Calendar Apps In No Particular Order

What Makes a Calendar App the Best

While there are some general criteria such as ease of use, number of features, shareability that a great calendar app should have, the truth is that being the best is still subjective. Let me give you an example: if, let’s say, privacy is very important to you, chances are you are going to choose a calendar app which puts privacy first, no matter how many features another app has.

Still, there are a few basic requirements a calendar app should meet. Here are the ones I checked for:

Ease of use: Aside from being able to perform basic tasks with the least amount of taps, clicks or scrolling, a good calendar app should also be intuitive and promote discoverability.

Customizable: Everyone works differently and has different needs. The best calendar apps empower users by allowing them to customize the features needed to suit the users’ workflow. Additionally, the app should offer the ability to change the colors and profile pictures to match the user’s branding.

Device compatibility: The calendar app should be available for most of your devices. Being able to see your calendar on your workstation, smartphone or tablet is a must. This means syncing has to be a core feature.

Shareability: Working in a collaborative environment requires that your calendar app needs to let you share your calendar with other members of your team or group. Furthermore, integration with other apps, like Zapier, for example is a plus.

The 7 Best Calendar Apps of 2022

When writing this article I tried to cover different uses and to make sure users of popular platforms had a recommendation for the best calendar app.

Google Calendar – available on the web, Android, and iOS

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is a great choice for those who use multiple platforms at the same time. All you need is Gmail account and if you have that already, Google Calendar will be available to you. This means you can easily test it without having to make a new account.

The fact that Google Calendar is part of suite of apps, means that it easily integrates with other products such as Google Meet to schedule video conferences. Another advantage is that it can be accessed from Gmail’s sidebar, and by combining it with Google Contacts you can invite anyone from your address book to an event.

As with many other calendar apps you can set different colors to different calendars making it easier to organize your schedule, be it for work or for personal events. Because of its many features and advanced customizability it’s useful to have a Google Calendar cheat sheet around.

By being part of Workspace, Google Calendar benefits from continuous updates and improvements. One of its latest features includes the ability to allow people from outside of your organization to see your schedule and availability for when and where you could have a meeting. So now it’s more easier than ever to set appointments even with users without a Google account. At the moment this feature is only available for paid accounts. Which brings us to the price.

Google Calendar is free to use for anyone with a Google account. But for certain features you need to be a paying customer of Google Workspace which has plans starting at $6 per month for each user.

Apple Calendar – available on iOS, macOS and the web (iCloud.com)

Apple Calendar

This is the calendar app I use at the moment. It works on all of my Apple devices and, more importantly, it’s a native app on my Mac. For Apple users it’s the best free calendar app.

It comes pre-installed on iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Macs. Using iCloud it can sync your calendars on iOS, iPadOS, macOS and iCloud.com. But at the same time, through CalDAV it allows you to sync with other popular calendar platforms such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange.

With a clean and intuitive design, Apple Calendar offers its users multiple possibilities to create an event. The classic way would involve using the interface, by clicking or tapping the plus sign “+”. Then, you can use Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, which through voice recognition can create appointments for you without lifting a finger. For power users, Shortcuts and ApplesSript can automate the creation of calendar events that can improve your workflow and productivity.

One of my favorite features of Apple Calendar on macOS involves letting you create custom alerts by which you can open a file. This means that you can run apps or scrips to perform specific tasks at certain times of the day, basically turning Apple Calendar into an event scheduler.

Since it’s included in all Apple OSes, Apple Calendar is free to use as long as you have a supported device.

Microsoft Outlook Calendar – available on Windows, Android, iOS, macOS and the web

Outlook Calendar

Part of the Microsoft Office suite, Outlook Calendar is probably the best integrated calendar app for Windows users. Not only is it available as a native Windows app, but it also has regularly updated apps on Android, iOS and macOS. Of course, it can also be accessed online.

Well known in the enterprise world, Outlook incorporates email, calendar, and contacts in one app. This makes the interaction between these services much easier. Which is a good thing because many companies use Microsoft Office, so a dependable calendar app is necessary to make sure employees can schedule meetings with ease.

Switching between views in your Outlook calendar is simple. You can choose to see the current day, the entire week, just the work week (Monday through Friday) and the full month. Adding an event to your calendar can be done in a couple of clicks.

Like other major calendar platforms, Outlook Calendar can take advantage of its support of Exchange and Microsoft 365. By having an account, you can easily share calendars with people in your organization and can easily send event invitations to other members of your team.

When you make an Outlook account, you get access for free to the Outlook Calendar. But paid plans are also available for those who want more features and capability when it comes to the email component of Outlook. At the moment, you can get a Microsoft 365 personal account for $6.99/month or a Business Basic account for $6/month for each user.

Calendar – available iOS, Android and on the web

Calendar.com

With a domain name that makes it crystal clear what the service is about, Calendar was built with collaboration in mind, offering every feature you might expect from one of the best calendar apps.

By using machine learning, Calendar is knowledgeable of not only your schedule, but also of your contacts and tasks doing behind the scenes all the work you might have had to do otherwise. It will take into account where you are and whether you are available or not. Thanks to this feature you will avoid scheduling meetings at 5 in the morning just because you forgot you were traveling.

The design of Calendar is modern and straightforward focusing on the features commonly used. Having a Calendar.com account will also give you access to analytics which can offer important insights into how many meetings you have scheduled, rescheduled, attended, canceled or missed. Some nicely designed graphs will make this data easier to understand visually.

All in all, Calendar is great for managing appointments as it will give you a public profile page where you can publish the times when you’re available and then send the link to anyone who wishes to schedule an appointment with you.

Calendar.com offers a basic account which is free, but for more features and capacity you can get a “Standard” or “Pro” account for $6 or $8 a month.

Calendly – available on the web, iOS and, Android

Calendly

A great choice for individuals and teams, Calendly excels at scheduling meetings without having to send emails back and forth. This will save you time and streamline the process of setting up meetings.

Calendly has three defining steps for simplifying scheduling. First, you create simple rules which let the smart calendar app know your availability. Then, it will generate a link that you can send to people or embed in your website. Finally, those who are interested in a meeting with you can pick a time and date with the resulting event being added to your calendar.

A feature that I really appreciate in Calendly is the fact that you can embed a calendar on your website. More than that, you are able to customize the calendar widget to match the look and feel of your page. It has options available for popular website providers such as WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and others while also giving you even more control with advanced calendar embeds.

With more than 10 million users worldwide, Calendly is a reliable calendar app that can simplify and improve your team’s scheduling. Automatic reminders greatly reduce the chances of missed meetings, while the ability to easily reschedule makes cancellations go down.

Like many calendar apps, Calendly has a free plan for basic usage, with the option to access more features for more users by choosing one of the paid plans which start at $8 a month per seat.

Fantastical – available for macOS, iOS, iPadOS and watchOS

Fantastical

Fantastical is probably the best designed calendar app for macOS. Available for most Apple devices, including the Apple Watch, Fantastical lets you add your existing calendar accounts while keeping your events and tasks in sync.

The interface of Fantastical allows you to get a quick overview of your calendar with the DayTicker view, but it also displays the day, week, month, quarter, and year. All of this is comes in a light and dark theme which matches the color scheme preferences of your device.

If like me, you also value your privacy, Fantastical is a great choice for a calendar app since it collects very little personal information and is fully compliant with GDPR.

My favorite feature of Fantastical is its powerful natural language engine. You can write the way you would normally speak and Fantastical will understand it, converting what you wrote into events and tasks almost like magic. Needless to say, I was very impressed with it the first time I tried it. But what’s even more impressive is that Fantastical offers this feature in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.

Fantastical is available for free in the App Store giving you access to essential features, however to make use of its more advance features you need subscribe to the premium plan for $3.33 per month.

Lightning Calendar (Thunderbird) – available on Linux, Windows, and macOS

Lightning Calendar

Lightning Calendar is integrated in the open source email client, Thunderbird part of MZLA Technologies Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mozilla Foundation.

It works on Windows, macOS and, of course, Linux. Lightning Calendar can work with local calendars (kept on your computer) as well as with online calendars which may be hosted on WebDAV or CalDAV servers, your local network, or Google Calendar. So from a privacy perspective you decide if you want to keep things local, use your own server, or a third-party service.

The classic interface is well organized and has a daily, weekly, multiweekly, and monthly view. From here you’ll be able to manage multiple calendars, invite people to events, and even subscribe to public calendars.

Lightning Calendar for Thunderbird is free. This is one of the many good things about open source.

Conclusion

If, in this article, you’re expecting to find the best calendar app for everyone, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. But what you might find, is the best calendar app for you.