We all have too much on our plate these days. With so many deadlines to meet it’s easy to fall behind. Another thing that makes staying organized difficult is trying to remember usernames, passwords, account numbers, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. As time goes on you forget more because you’re too busy to write it down or keep track of what you need to do. With so many things going on in our daily lives, the last thing we need is something else to stress about. That’s why I created this free online calendar planner.
Outlook
Cost: Free or by Microsoft 365 subscription ($69.99 per year for one person)
Outlook is a combination email and calendar service. It comes included with any Microsoft 365 subscription, or you can sign up for the free online version.
Microsoft’s calendar functions much like Google’s, in that you can create and color-code multiple calendars. You can also add locations and set automatic reminders, so you can keep track of your schedule on the go. With the Android and iPhone mobile apps, it’s easy to take Outlook with you anywhere.
Also, because Outlook includes email, you can easily share your events and availability with your contacts. Plan meetings, invite your contacts, collect RSVPs and keep people updated, all from a single calendar.
5. Jorte
Cost: Free or choose from one of three Premium plans ($1.99 per month, $3.99 per year or $29.99 per year)
Jorte is a Japanese company that designed its calendar to be as flexible and customizable as a paper calendar. A broad selection of visual themes, including pop culture characters and sports teams, lets you customize every aspect of the app’s interface.
With Jorte, you get the tools you need to plan your schedule, plus diary features that let you use the app as a personal journal. You can also subscribe to public calendars, from video game releases to news and weather from around the world.
Like Cozi, Jorte integrates with more commonly used online calendars like Google, Apple and Yahoo.
6. Apple Calendar
Cost: Free
Apple Calendar is much easier to use if you have Apple devices, but it makes the list because it’s easy to learn and has plenty of customization options. You can:
- Create and color-code calendars
- Add event location, travel time and other details
- Invite people easily using your Contacts app
- Check invitee availability to choose a time
- Set alerts
- Personalize your day, week, month and year views
7. Calendly
Cost: Free or by subscription ($8 per user per month for Premium or $12 per user per month for Pro, if billed annually)
Calendly is not a calendar; we consider ourselves more calendar adjacent, but we do make your calendar work for you instead of against you. We make scheduling easier by eliminating the back-and-forth emails usually involved in finding a meeting time. Just enter your availability and Calendly creates a link that will take people to your schedule.
You can send that link to anyone you choose or embed it into a web page. Anyone who opens the link can see the slots you’ve marked as available and pick the best time for them. Both participants get a confirmation email and, if you have a paid plan, you can set up personalized reminders as well.
Calendly also has a robust team functionality that makes it great for work purposes. The tool pools team members’ availability so you can schedule group meetings or auto-assign one-on-one meetings with an available team member.
You can integrate Calendly with many of the tools your team already uses, from Slack to Zoom. If you integrate with Google, Outlook or another supported calendar, Calendly will automatically add your events to that calendar.
Google Calendar
Cost: Free
Google Calendar is one of the most popular online calendars out there. All you need is a Google account, which more than 1.5 billion people already have. You can access it via any internet browser or download a dedicated app for Android, iPhone or iPad.
With Google Calendar, you can add multiple color-coded calendars and choose which ones you want to view. That way, you can easily keep your work and personal schedules separate or view them together. You also have the option to view your schedule by the hour, month, day and more.
Google Calendar can even auto-fill many of your entries thanks to its smart suggestion tool, Assists. Just start typing an event title, location or invitee name, and Assists will suggest what it thinks you might mean. You can also opt to have events auto-added from your Gmail. No more missing an event because you forgot to add it to your calendar!
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Zoho Calendar
Zoho Calendar
Cost: Free
Designed to help professionals manage complex schedules, Zoho Calendar makes event scheduling quick and easy. It includes features like Smart Add, which lets you type in a phrase, then automatically takes the important information to create an event. If you want a reminder, you can have Zoho send one to your email or create a pop-up in your calendar.
Like Outlook and Google, Zoho lets you create multiple calendars and manage them from a single dashboard. You can share your calendars and events by sending invites, whether or not the person you’re sharing with has a Zoho account. You can even embed your Zoho calendar on your website with a customized look that matches your branding.
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What We Like
- Highly customizable.
- Embed calendar on a web page.
- Video tutorials available.
What We Don’t Like
- Offline viewing PDF option doesn’t allow updates to calendar.
- No copy and paste function.
With a ton of options available, Zoho Calendar can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be, definitely making it one of the best free online calendars out there.
This one can work for anyone because you can set your own workweek and work schedule to fit your specific lifestyle. There are multiple ways to view your calendars and add new events, and a Smart Add feature makes it a cinch to quickly create events.
You can share your calendars with others via a web page or an ICS file, as well as save your calendar to a PDF for viewing offline. You can also subscribe to other calendars (e.g., friends or holidays) from inside Zoho Calendar so that you can see all those events next to your own.Visit Zoho Calendar03of 04
Cozi Family Organizer
Cozi Family Organizer
Cost: Free or subscribe to ad-free Cozi Gold, which offers extra features like calendar search, multiple reminders and a month view on mobile
If you’re looking for an online calendar for your entire family, Cozi Family Organizer is the way to go. Start by setting up your family calendar. From there, you can add sub-calendars for each family member.
When you add events — or “appointments” — as Cozi calls them, you can assign them to one or more family members. If you have a paid plan, you can set up reminders that Cozi auto-sends to the appropriate people.
Beyond the calendar, Cozi gives you:
- Shopping lists
- To-do lists
- Meal planning and recipes
- A family journal
Already have a calendar? No problem. Cozi integrates with other calendars including Google, Apple and Outlook.
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What We Like
- Perfect for large, active families.
- Intuitive user interface.
- Different color assigned to each family member.
What We Don’t Like
- Severely limited compared to premium version.
- Free version is ad supported.
- Search and contacts aren’t available in the free calendar.
Our Review of Cozi Family Organizer
If you’re looking for a way to keep everyone in your family on the same page, check out the family organizer from Cozi.
It offers a shared calendar and individual calendars for each family member, making it easy to sync activities and see what’s going on for the day, week, and month.
Besides the shareable calendars, you can also email or text to-do lists and grocery lists to certain family members with just a click. You can also store recipes on your calendar.
The free mobile apps give you access even when you’re out of the house.
If you already use another online calendar service but want to switch over to Cozi, see how to use it with other calendars.Visit Cozi Family Organizer04of 04
30 Boxes
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What We Like
- Supports plain language entries.
- Schedule recurring events.
- Colored tags for emphasis and organization.
- Share all, part, or none of the calendar.
What We Don’t Like
- Doesn’t warn if two events are scheduled at the same time.
- Bare-bones website doesn’t provide much information before you register.
The 30 Boxes calendar has a simple design that lets anyone create and use an online calendar easily.
Create events with a click and add notes, text, or email reminders, repeating events, and invites. There’s also a to-do list that’s not part of the calendar so that you can fill it with things you need to get done but don’t want to define a date for.
Events can be structured so you see them by week or in a list with an agenda view. There’s also a view that shows a map of all your events that have a location attached to them.
If you like to get daily email summaries of your online calendar events, 30 Boxes lets you do that, too.
Something else worth mentioning about this online calendar is that when you add events, you can add the same event to multiple days at once by picking dates on the calendar, something you can’t even do with some of the more popular online calendar websites.
You can share the calendar with others via RSS, iCal, a read-only web page, or even through your own website with embeddable HTML code. You can also print the calendar in the day, week, agenda, or month view.
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Google Calendar
Google Calendar
Cost: Free
Google Calendar is one of the most popular online calendars out there. All you need is a Google account, which more than 1.5 billion people already have. You can access it via any internet browser or download a dedicated app for Android, iPhone or iPad.
With Google Calendar, you can add multiple color-coded calendars and choose which ones you want to view. That way, you can easily keep your work and personal schedules separate or view them together. You also have the option to view your schedule by the hour, month, day and more.
Google Calendar can even auto-fill many of your entries thanks to its smart suggestion tool, Assists. Just start typing an event title, location or invitee name, and Assists will suggest what it thinks you might mean. You can also opt to have events auto-added from your Gmail. No more missing an event because you forgot to add it to your calendar!
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What We Like
- Color-coding for calendars.
- Easy to add new events.
- Offline viewing in mobile app.
- Share calendars with others.
What We Don’t Like
- Offline access only from a mobile device.
- Possible security concerns.
Google Calendar is an easy-to-use free online calendar that you can share with anyone.
Choose who’s allowed to make changes to your calendars and who can view them, or keep your Google calendars completely private. You can also invite people to single events from a completely private calendar without disclosing the other events in your calendar.
If you already have a Gmail account, using Google Calendar is as simple as opening the link. You’ll love how easy it is to share, sync, update, and access Google Calendar. Plus, making events from Gmail messages is really handy. You can even embed Google Calendar in your website or blog.
Calendar is also part of Google Workspace, which is available to anyone with a Gmail account and offers deeper integration with other Google apps, including Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Conclusion
Create events with a click and add notes, text, or email reminders, repeating events, and invites. There’s also a to-do list that’s not part of the calendar so that you can fill it with things you need to get done but don’t want to define a date for.
Events can be structured so you see them by week or in a list with an agenda view. There’s also a view that shows a map of all your events that have a location attached to them.