• We’ve scoured the Mac App Store and the web in search of the very best calendar apps for OS X. Some serve as full on iCal replacements while others are must have companion apps that extend iCal far beyond what it currently offers.
• Online Calendar Software Made to Share. Customizable calendar with must-have features to share activities, events and schedules. Improve communications with desktop and mobile access, website calendar plugins, invites & reminders, room booking and more.

The Verdict: Fantastical 2 is the best calendar app for Mac The original Fantastical for macOS was the best option for quickly adding and reviewing calendar entries. Version 2 keeps all its advantages while adding the functionality of more robust calendar applications.

Your Mac comes packed with a perfectly fine calendar app, but it’s lacking advanced features, multiple ways to view your calendar, and external service integration. For all that and more, we like Fantastical.

Fantastical 2

Platform: macOS
Price: $49.99

Features

• Menu bar app for easy access to your daily schedule
• Full calendar view with special day, week, month, and year views
• Today widget for Notification Center
• Displays maps with your events
• Reminders are integrated into your calendar events
• Natural language input lets you type events in natural language, like “meet Andy for lunch tomorrow.” Supports English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.
• Dark and light themes
• Keyboard shortcut support for adding events and reminders
• Availability scheduling
• Time zone support
• Handoff support
• Works with iCloud, Google, Exchange, Yahoo, and any other CalDAV account
• Easy to toggle between different calendars with Calendar Sets
• Calendar printing options for those who like a paper calendar
• Google Hangouts support for one-click meetings

Where It Excels

Fantastical’s biggest draw is its ease of use. For those who like to quickly add an event to their calendar and stay organized, you can do so from your Mac’s menu bar using a shortcut. The natural language input is phenomenal, allowing you to add events quickly by typing in something like, “Dinner with Waluigi next Tuesday,” or “Call Comcast March 4 at 8am.” For those who need serious calendar management, you can open up the full app to get detailed views for your month, day, or week.

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The menu bar app might be my personal favorite part of Fantastical, but it’s certainly not the only positive feature. Fantastical makes everything easy. You can edit events with a click, sort your calendars into specific sets so you can toggle multiple calendars on and off with a click, and the inclusion of to-dos from Reminders makes it easy to see everything on your plate for the day at once.

Fantastical also fully integrates with a number of Google and Exchange calendar features, which means you can schedule your availability or check the availability of co-workers. Fantastical is also updated often, which means it supports all of Apple’s newest gadgets and operating system features, including support for Notification Center widgets.

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Where It Falls Short

The price is easily the biggest problem with Fantastical, because $50 for a calendar is a lot to ask. Regardless, it’s comparable to other desktop calendar applications and you’ll get an app that’s well supported by the developer for years. The fact is, if you need more power than Apple’s free desktop app, you’ll need to shell out the cash. There’s good news though, you can check out Fantastical for free for a 21 day trial before you commit.

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The Competition

Apple’s own Calendar (Free) app is the most obvious alternative here, and as a free option, it’s the first one you should try out. If you just need a barebones calendar that shows you events, Calendar does the job perfectly fine. The biggest issue with Calendar is its general lack of advanced features, including the bizarre lack of Reminders integration. There’s also no menu bar app for Calendar, which is a shame, because that’s one of Fantastical’s biggest strengths.

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BusyCal 3($49.99) is the most obvious alternative to Fantastical, and it certainly does the job for some people. BusyCal and Fantastical are similar, but BusyCal’s “Info Panel” is especially nice got those who like to customize their event details. BusCal also integrates the weather forecast and travel times, which is great if you travel a lot. BusyCal’s menu bar app integrates a number of these same features, though it’s not quite as well designed Fantastical. In general Fantastical is just a little easier to use than BusyCal, but BusyCal also has a trial mode, so it’s worth giving both a shot if you’re curious.

Lifehacker’s App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

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A good calendar is a handy addition to your smartphone, helping you stay on top of upcoming appointments and events, whether they're personal or for work. Several calendar apps also offer variety of extra features, from event management and social features to highly customizable and easy-to-read view modes. If you're having a hard time keeping track of all the places you have to be today, these 25 calendar apps for Android and iOS can boost your productivity and make sure you're always where you need to be, when you need to be.

Fantastical 2 (iOS: $4.99/£4.99)

Fantastical is an iOS calendar that delivers a clean presentation of events in daily, weekly, and monthly calendar views, backed up by really easy reminder and event management. Users can create events through a traditional menu-based interface, or simply type or speak a quick audio note that the app automatically parses into an event (which users can further tweak). The Day Ticker is especially great, allowing users to view and manage their events and reminders. Apple Watch integration pushes your events and appointments right to your wrist for easy reference. An iPad version takes advantage of the expanded screen space with a more detailed Fantastical Dashboard.

Calendars 5 (iOS: $6.99/£6.99/AU$10.99)

Readdle's Calendars 5 is a neat iOS app that does a deft job of displaying everything you need to know about your schedule, whether you're on an iPhone or an iPad. It's got all the requisite views, from monthly down to daily, and natural language support means it's easy to enter new events in plain speech. The app also has solid task and event management, which syncs easily with the built in iOS calendar app, Reminders, and Google Calendar for easy event importing. We particularly like the timeline view, where events are categorized with icons for a good at-a-glance look.

Google Calendar (Android, iOS: Free)

Google Calendar service has grown to become the backbone of a variety of calendar apps, but the mobile Google Calendar app (Android, iOS) itself is no slouch, with a clean and bright interface and a variety of views, such as traditional month and week views as well as more focused schedule views. The app integrates with Gmail to give you the option of automatically creating events for flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations based on your emails, and also works in to-dos and reminders, as well as habit-forming goals (pulled in from Google's acquisition of Timeful). It's a feature-packed and nicely designed calendar app that works great.

Accompany (iOS: Free)

Accompany brings together calendar and contact management features so you can up your meeting prep A-game. Sign up for the service with your work email account, and Accompany turns itself into your mobile chief of staff, assembling detailed profiles for people and companies in your upcoming events and meetings, all of which you can look up on the fly or consult via an Executive Briefing emailed to you the night before the event. You can look up your last communications with contacts, their social media posts, or news stories featuring them, as well as company profiles, financial reports, and news, meaning you'll never walk into a meeting unprepared.

24me (iOS: Free)

24me is a smart virtual assistant app that helps you make sense of your business day and appointments by combining calendar features, a to-do-list, and note-taking. The calendar syncs with a wide range of calendar services such as Google Calendar, iCal, Exchange and Outlook. 24me also provides smart notifications such as a heads-up notice for the next day's events and tasks, the right time to leave for your next appointment based on traffic conditions, and weather alerts. Voice controls make it easy to take down notes and set appointments, and you can even create tasks through Amazon Alexa, Siri, and Apple Watch. A premium subscription provides extra features like more customization options and the ability to turn emails into tasks.

BusyCal (iOS: $4.99/£4.99)

BusyCal is an excellent calendar app for Mac, and comes with a solid iOS companion app that brings the experience to mobile. BusyCal supports iCloud, Google, and other CalDAV calendar systems, and offers color-coded month, day, week, and list view of your upcoming events. Natural language parsing for event creation helps you set up appointments, with tags and a wide range of configurable attributes to get the details just right. Map support can show you an event's location and estimated travel time, and BusyCal comes with to-do list functions that are compatible with the iOS Reminders app. About the only thing we can fault is its bland but functional look.

Outlook (Android, iOS: Free)

Sunrise Calendar is dead. Long live... Outlook? Sunrise Calendar's days were numbered when Microsoft bought it, but it's also given a calendar and scheduling shot in the arm to Outlook (Android, iOS). In addition to its powerful email functions and MS Office app integration, Outlook on mobile has been improving on its scheduling and events functions, with new Calendar App tie-ins for Facebook, Evernote and Wunderlist, event directions from your favorite mapping apps, and a new 'Interesting Calendars' feature that you can subscribe to for things like sports games and TV shows.

Timepage (iPhone, $1.99/£1.79)

Moleskine may be better known for its notebooks than its mobile apps, but the company's Timepage calendar app for iOS does a good job at being stylish and feature-packed. A smart calendar and day planner, Timepage works with existing calendar providers like iCloud, Facebook and Google, while providing some nifty calendar views and easy event creation. The base view provides a simple timeline of the day's coming appointments, with a date tab on the side for selecting specific days of the week. A month 'heatmap' view quickly shows which days are free or busy, with filters surfacing particular events or calendars. Natural language parsing for event creation, maps and weather info, and natural language support are among the other additions. The iPad app provides expanded view modes and split-screen support.

DigiCal (Android: Free)

DigiCal is an excellent Android calendar app alternative that offers a good range of features, widgets, and calendar views to easily make sense of your upcoming schedule. Day, week, month, and agenda views let you quickly look up upcoming events, with widgets available to make things easy to look up without firing up the app. The free features can also be augmented with in-app purchases for interesting calendars you can subscribe to, weather forecasts, and a premium DigiCal+ tier. DigiCal+ adds extra view modes such as year view, more widgets, and a raft of customization features and themes; it also removes ads.

SaiSuke 2 (iOS: Free)

Japanese calendar app SaiSuke 2 comes with 11 different view modes, complete with landscape and portrait support to take full advantage of iPhone and iPad screens. That's especially helpful on the iPad, thanks to split-screen support. Event templates make it easy to add entries, and a configurable interface and color themes give you some room to set the interface to how you like it. A downside, though, is that multi-device syncing requires a premium upgrade.

Shift.Cal (Android: Free)

Users with more irregular work shift hours might want to check out Shift.Cal, an Android calendar app designed with tracking shift schedules in mind. Users can create pre-defined shifts patterns, add and view them on a calendar while noting down overtime hours and stats of the shifts they've taken. Users can set alarms for their scheduled shifts, view them on a calendar widget, and backup and restore their schedules to external storage.

My Study Life (Android, iOS: Free)

For a to-do list and calendar that's built with students in mind, check out My Study Life (Android, iOS). This cross-platform digital planner helps you keep track of your daily schedule, as well as important dates such as exams, tests and homework deadlines. My Study Life includes numerous academic-oriented features, such as a homework tracker for due and overdue assignments, a calendar with color-coded events, a class schedule manager, notifications and more.

Fammle - Family Organizer (iOS: Free)

KeepSolid's Fammle - Family Organizer wants to make it a snap to help manage your family's schedule so you'll never forget birthdays, school trips, game days, or even your groceries and school shopping lists. You sign up with your email or Facebook account, and then the app will let you create a family account or join an existing one. From there, you can view your family's shared calendar with personal and group events, color-coded by each family member. Users can create, share and track tasks, create categorized shopping lists, and easily sync all data between other family members to make sure everyone's on the same page.

TimeTree (Android, iOS: Free)

TimeTree (Android, iOS) is meant to keep family and small group schedules in sync, with support for multiple calendars displayed in month, week, or daily modes. Other tools, such as event based messaging and notifications for events and schedule changes, help you stay organized. Users can manage separate calendars, share notes and sync schedules across devices. The app can sync with Google and iCloud calendars, and widgets let you easily access your events from the lock or home screen.

Informant 5 (Android, iOS: Free)

Informant 5 (Android, iOS) is a powerful multi-purpose calendar, tasks, and notes management app. Natural language processing makes it easy to create new events, while multiple configurable view modes present as much or as little information as you want on screen. A Travel Assistant feature helps you manage international time zones, while location-aware features indicate travel ETAs and suggest locations when you create events. Natural language entry also extends to task creation, which you can display on your schedule, with checklists and filters to help you blast through your tasks. Variant modes support productivity techniques like Getting Things Done. Informant also includes a raft of premium features that you can unlock a la carte, or through a subscription model.

Awesome Calendar (iOS: $6.99/‎£9.99)

Awesome Calendar sets itself up as a combination calendar, to-do-list and note-taking application that links up with iPhone-supported calendars like iCloud, Google Calendar and Exchange. The app supports natural language processing for event creation, Google Tasks integration, recurring events, customizable event colors, time zones, and weather forecast information. In addition to the calendar features, the app includes a to-do list function and a built-in diary that allows you to take down notes, complete with photos. Still, it is a fairly pricey custom calendar and some users will be put off by the fact that multiple other functions such as a lunar calendar, holiday calendars, and TV schedules are walled off behind in-app purchases.

CloudCal (Android: Free)

CloudCal is a free Android calendar application that has a cool way of showing you just how busy you're scheduled to be on a given day. Using a system called 'Magic Circles,' CloudCal marks each day on the calendar with a colored arc roughly corresponding to your scheduled appointments and events for the day, showing you at a glance when you're booked, and when you'll be free. In addition, CloudCal features quick gesture commands, customizable views, and Google Tasks syncing, with a number of premium features locked behind an in-app purchase.

Vantage (iOS: Free)

For a different look at your upcoming appointments, try Vantage, a free calendar app for iOS devices. Vantage gives you a overhead view of your calendar with dates spanning out into the distance while events and appointments stack up on top of each other. (Tapping a stack gives you a closer look at what you have scheduled for the day.) Color-coding on the dates gives you an at-a-glance view of days when you're busy, and you can keep to-dos right in your calendar where they show up alongside events. (Vantage even brings tasks you've set up in iOS's Reminders app into your calendar.) Vantage syncs with Google, iCloud, Exchange, Facebook and other calendar services.

aCalendar (Android: Free)

aCalendar is a free, robust Android calendar app that provides an easily navigable three-view interface. Swiping sideways on the phone allows you to swiftly move between a monthly, daily and weekly planner. Sliding up or down moves you up or down the calendar in increments based on your current planner selection. aCalendar is smart enough to sync photos from your address book for birthdays and anniversaries, and it features both NFC sharing and full-screen widgets. Want a personal touch? Choose from 48 colors per calendar. A further premium upgrade unlocks other features such as additional calendar views, tasks, advanced settings and public holidays.

Business Calendar 2 (Android: Free)

Business Calendar has long been a stalwart among Android calendar apps, and it gets a welcome refresh in Business Calendar 2, which gives the venerable app a modern visual makeover while retaining the original blend of usability and features. Users can easily switch between a variety of calendar views, from precise daily and weekly calendars, agenda modes for quick summaries, and overarching month calendars, with events easily marked in colored swatches for easy reference. The app also includes easy task and event creation, and highly configurable widgets give you an easy at-a-glance reference. A Pro upgrade provides extra features such as advanced task management and event templates.

Jorte Calendar (Android, iOS: Free)

Jorte Calendar is a popular Android and iOS calendar alternative, featuring a highly configurable interface and multiple view modes. Monthly, weekly and daily views allow you to quickly get to the dates you need, and a helpful task and memo bar keeps upcoming events and notes in focus. A cloud service, Jorte Cloud, allows you to sync calendars, schedules and tasks across devices. The app supports importing from Google Calendar. There's even a Jorte Store for buying more backgrounds and icons to personalize your calendar.

Good Free Calendar App For Mac

Today Calendar (Android: Free)

Today Calendar is a solid Android calendar app replacement, thoroughly embracing the flat, colorful principles of Google's Material design, while also backing up the clean interface with a variety of informative view modes and calendar features. The default view is a handy split mode that presents both a month view with color-coded event dots as well as a daily agenda. Other views include day, week, and month views, and natural language processing helps with event creation.

Good Calendar App For Mac

tinyCalendar (iOS: Free)

Best Calendar Program For Mac

Tiny Calendar doesn't have all the features of big name calendar app brands, but it does have some important ones: synching with Google, iCloud, and Exchange calendars. It features natural language processing for events creation, as well as a neat, low-frills interface for easily viewing and arranging your schedule.

Simple Calendar (Android: Free)

If you're looking for something even more bare-bones than tinyCalendar, check out Simple Calendar, an ad-free, open source Android calendar app designed with minimum intrusiveness and permissions, without any automatic syncing or a lot of fancy settings. The app comes with a widget, recurring events features, reminders, and week numbers.

Week Calendar (iOS: $1.99/£2.99/AU$6.99 on iPad)

What Is The Best Calendar Program For Mac

Week Calendar is a bit of a misnomer, as it does more than just weekly calendar viewing. There's agenda, daily, monthly, and even yearly views. A feature-rich application, Week Calendar walks a tightrope between putting the day's events in focus and swamping you with too many details. Batch edit your events, drag and drop them, search through your calendars, set complex recurring events and color-code your events for easy sorting. It can look a bit cluttered, but this old reliable still delivers a feature-rich calendar experience.