You might wonder why you should prefer Google calendar as your favorite calendar app over other such as Outlook, iCalendar and others. The post enumerates the reason why you should make Google calendar your favorite desktop calendar app…
Staying on top of your tasks and events is a necessity if you want to keep your business running smoothly. Every entrepreneur, student or professional needs a solution that fits their lifestyle and their schedule. We have carefully prepared this free 2021 0nline calendar planner list for you.
Google Calendar (Android, iOS, Web)
Much of Google Calendar‘s popularity comes from the fact that you can create multiple calendars in one place using a Google account, and then port those entries to almost any other online calendar. Google Calendar also works with nearly everything else on the market. You can connect your Google Calendar not only to other calendar apps, but also to business apps and services that have calendars as part of their features, such as Trello and Asana.
Color-coding for individual calendars makes it easy to see which area of your life an event applies to. You can also show or hide calendars, so you can focus on specific types of events. As you would expect from the company that started as a search tool, Google Calendar offers excellent search capabilities. It also integrates with Google Workplace (formerly G Suite) apps, letting you create a calendar event from Gmail, for example.
When used across an entire organization, Google Calendar gives you the ability to check your coworkers’ schedules alongside your own. Inviting others to your calendar is a cinch too. You can choose between sharing an entire calendar or just using the invite option to add people to an event.
Although there’s no desktop app, Google Calendar’s web app and mobile apps for Android and iOS are enough to keep schedules straight. If you want a more enticing user interface or more robust features, you can always connect Google Calendar to virtually any other app on this list.
Want more out of your calendar? Connect Google Calendar to your favorite apps through Zapier. You can create automated workflows that send calendar appointments to other apps, like Trello or Todoist. You can even create calendar appointments from spreadsheets. Create new Trello cards from new Google Calendar eventsUse this ZapAdd new Google Calendar events to Todoist as tasksUse this ZapGenerate Google Calendar events from new Google Sheets rowsUse this ZapSee more Google Calendar integrations powered by
Google Calendar Pricing: Free with a Google account; Business Starter for Google Workspace, which includes all Google Apps, starts at $6/user per month.
You can do even more with Google Calendar. Here’s how to turn it into the ultimate productivity hub with Zapier.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Apple Calendar (iOS, macOS, Web)
Because it’s built into macOS and iOS, Apple Calendar is the default place to store calendar entries on Apple devices. Without any real effort on your part, you can keep your calendar up to date across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, thanks to iCloud. In a pinch, you can also view and update your calendar entries from a web app on iCloud.com.
Apple Calendar allows you to pull in info from other calendars, too, such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo, and any calendar that uses CalDAV. Setting this up is as easy as connecting an email client app to another email account.
Apple’s clean and simple calendar lets you focus on your events rather than the app itself. It’s intuitive to use if you’re familiar with other Apple apps, with support for drag and drop and Siri integration. Click or tap the plus sign (+) to create a new event, which can include a title, location, reminder, note, and invitees. You can also add a travel time estimate that will be factored into event alerts. As you might expect, this no-frills calendar integrates with Apple devices, so that you see notifications from it in the iOS and macOS notification bars.
Apple Calendar Pricing: Included with macOS and iOS devices, or via iCloud with an Apple ID
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.
Calendar.com (Android, iOS, Web)
It’s hard to think of a simpler name for a calendar than Calendar.com, but fortunately, that’s not all this app has to offer. Everything you need to manage your appointments is here, on a site with modern design and full support for collaboration. This is a well-thought-out app.
But it’s not just a calendar app: it also works as an appointment scheduler. Sign up for Calendar.com, and you’ll get a public profile—for example, calendar.com/michaelscott. You can set up times that you’re available, then allow anyone with the link to schedule an appointment with you.
There are plenty of appointment scheduling apps that do this, but so far as we know, Calendar.com is the only full-fledged calendar app to also offer a feature-complete scheduling feature like this. That alone makes it worth trying out.
You can also connect Calendar.com to your other favorite apps through Zapier. You can, for example, get a Slack notification every time someone signs up for a meeting with you. Send direct messages in Slack when new meetings are scheduled in CalendarUse this Zappowered by
Calendar.com pricing: Free plan available; Pro version starts at $8/month with unlimited scheduling time slots.
Conclusion
Nearly everyone you know uses a calendar. The most popular kind of calendar app is the paper version that people stick on their walls and post notes on, but now we have the digital version, which has come a long way since early versions of Microsoft Outlook and a host of others.