Just like any other collaboration software, there are pros and cons of using online calendar apps for business or family use. Some great features include the availability on numerous platforms, easy accessibility for all members, and detailed task management features.
Schedule it
Multiple Users
Add multiple users and get real time scheduling and access for all users at the same time. Stay in control with many levels of access for each user. Control users access from full to read only and many intermediate levels.
Shared Calendars (view in Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, and more)
Easily and automatically share schedules that can be viewed in other calendar applications like Microsoft Outlook®, Apple iCal® and Google Calendar®. View the events in any calendar on any device.View support documentation
Email Alerts & Invitations
Receive email alerts when events are added, updated or deleted in any of your resources schedules. Email alerts contain iCalendar information which allows remote users to add the event to the remote calendar of their choice.View support documentation
Reporting and Export to Excel
Print and export your events and schedules to custom designed reports and forms. Also create custom exports for your information to CSV, TXT, XML and other files for access in Excel and other external tools.
Online and Desktop Scheduling
Use a mix of both our desktop scheduling and online scheduling products to keep local control but still allow online access via our apps, or website on any devices with a browser, from any location.View the differences
Web Page Output
If you only use our desktop software you can still output your schedules as simple web pages. These web pages can be stored on your local or remote network and allows viewing by any users with a browser.More details
Desktop Networking
If you don’t use our online version, our desktop software supports usage over a network for multiple users scheduling together. Supported databases include file sharing with Microsoft Access, also local and remote access using MSSQL and MySQL.More details
The Obvious Choice: Google Calendar
Google Calendar is the best shared calendar app online by default. It’s the go to. If you’re just looking for an online calendar, it’s the one to choose. There’s almost no reason not to.
With Google Calendar you can have separate calendars each in their own colour for all the different aspects of your life. You can have one for family stuff, one for work, another for daily reminders, and another for everyone’s birthdays.
You can share each of these calendars. You and your partner could share the business one. You can keep a public work calendar that everyone in the office sees and a private one that only you and your co-founder share online. There’s so much flexibility for you to use it how you like.
Google Calendar can also serve as the back end to any other calendar you want to use. You can use services like IFTTT to push your reminders, memos, or anything else to your Google Calendar. If you love how a particular iOS calendar app looks, it almost certainly syncs with Google.
Google Calendar is also entirely platform agnostic. You can access it from any web browser. If your team all operates on different devices, then you can use it safe in the knowledge that everyone will be able to get it to work.
To top it all off, Google Calendar is free as part of everyone’s Google Account. It’s also included in a Google Apps subscription so if you’re using that on your domain already to run your email, then you’re already paying for Google Calendar.
With all this going for it, Google Calendar is hard to beat.
The Mac Choice: Apple’s iCloud Calendar
Like many Apple products, iCloud Calendar shines when it’s fully integrated. Maps will automatically suggest directions based on where your next event is, everything you have to do that day is visible in the Today view, and so on. You can do this on a Mac, but you can’t on an Android phone or PC.
If your entire team is using Macs, then iCloud Calendar is a great option. Its features are broadly the same as Google Calendar; it’s a simple calendar app without too many frills.
Apple Calendar is a great calendar option hamstrung by one thing: it works best on macOS and iOS. While you can access iCloud calendars from the web and subscribe to them in other calendar apps, the experience isn’t as good as using Google Calendar.
On the other hand, if your team is using a range of different devices, then a good experience across all platforms is better than a great experience on one platform and an okay experience on all the others.
The Business Choice: Microsoft’s Outlook Calendar
The big contender to Google’s calendar throne is Outlook. Microsoft’s business focus software package is firmly entrenched in a lot of large companies. While you can subscribe to Google Calendars from the Outlook app, if your team is required to use Microsoft’s offering for security or compliance reasons (or even personal choice) it’s probably better if you don’t.
The only place where Outlook really loses out to Google Calendar is in the price. Outlook is included as part of Microsoft’s Office 365 subscriptions which start at $6.99/month/user. If your team is already subscribed to Office 365 because you use Microsoft’s other products, then this isn’t an issue. On the other hand, it’s a pretty steep price to pay for a new calendar app when there are good free alternatives out there.
Outlook’s calendar feature set is very similar to Google’s but it also goes further. It integrates with your email app so you can see them both together in one place.
Designed from the ground up for businesses, Outlook is great for more traditional tiered teams. It’s easy for managers to view everyone’s schedules, add events, and so on. People can have individual calendars, team calendars, organisation calendars, and more.
Bookafy
The Perfect Free Online Scheduling Calendar For Multiple Users For Your Business!
Bookafy’s Free Online Scheduling Calendar For Multiple Users can easily streamline how your organization handles its appointments.
Bookafy, an elegant appointment reminder happ, has a robust feature set, a beautiful user experience for your customers and can help your team automate appointment booking, reminders, payments, reviews and much much more.
Get started in minutes to automated your appointment booking experience. Whether you are a large organization or just getting started, we can help! Our free account is free forever, so go ahead and give it a try!
Woven
Price: Free (Basic), $15/month (Premium)
Woven allows you to sync all of your calendars to get a complete picture of your availability. Its scheduling features are extensive, including a poller, scheduling links, and availability sharing.
SimplePractice
SimplePractice is powerful and transformative—just like you. When you use SimplePractice to run your health and wellness business, you can spend more time with your clients.
Key benefits of using SimplePractice
● Client Portal: Send paperless intake forms, collect secure payments, and send secure messages, all in one place.
● Streamlined documentation: Use the template library or create your own to make your note-taking process simple, easy, and quick. Plus, use Wiley Treatment planners for free for a limited time!
● Mobile app: Download the top-rated iOS or Android app to run your practice from anywhere. The mobile app lets you take notes, schedule appointments, and collect payments, all from your phone.
● Integrated insurance filing: Stop spending hours on the phone with insurance companies. With SimplePractice you can file and track your claims right from your account.
● Free, unlimited appointment reminders: Reduce no-shows in your practice with free voice, text, or email reminders. Plus you can customize each reminder for individual clients.
● Online appointment requests: Give your clients the flexibility they want with the online appointment requests feature. Your clients can request their desired appointment, and then you can approve or deny every request.
● Integrated telehealth: Run your practice from anywhere with our fully integrated, HIPAA-compliant Telehealth platform. With just one link, you and your clients can have your sessions no matter where you are—no extra logins required.
● World-class customer service: Our customer service team is ready to answer any questions you have. Live Q&A classes, how-to videos, and an extensive library of Help Center guides make it easy for you to get the support you need.
Microsoft Outlook Calendar (Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Web)
The most stalwart of calendar apps, Microsoft Outlook Calendar is more of a personal information manager than a place to see your next appointment. The desktop app unifies your calendar, email, notes, tasks, and contacts into one view. Outlook’s mobile apps aren’t quite so ambitious, but they do at least combine your calendar and email.
Outlook, which is part of Microsoft Office, lets you share calendars with teammates, and that’s its real strength. With Exchange Server accounts and the appropriate permissions, team members can view and manage each other’s schedules and subscribe to one another’s calendars. Outlook offers options for how you can view multiple calendars at once: side-by-side or with calendars combined in an overlay view.
If you don’t use Outlook within an organization, you might still appreciate the calendar’s many features. You can drag and drop an email onto the calendar icon in the navigation menu to turn it into an appointment (available in the Windows app only), or quickly send a meeting request from either email or the calendar. Outlook supports multiple time zone views, too. There’s a lot to dig into.
You can get a free online version of Outlook, called Outlook.com, which is more streamlined and has fewer features. Outlook.com has family sharing, so you can add other household members to your account to make your calendar accessible to others. The Mac version of Outlook isn’t as robust as the Windows version, but if you like having everything in one place, this is an all-in-one productivity tool to consider.
Conclusion
Scheduling is so important for teams or multiple users who work on a single project. Things get messed up when one person doesn’t have the information they need when they need it so scheduling with reminders can help avoid mistakes from being made in regards to the status of a certain task, issue or whatever it is that needs to be reflected in a calendar. I’m going to talk about a few options that I’ve tried throughout the years, some good and others not so good, but I’ll also provide a link for this particular service which I personally would recommend (for now) and can definitely see value in.