This year has been a literal dumpster fire, but we all still have lives that we need to live, as hectic as they can be. We know — you have meetings, appointments, events, errands, and so much more on your plate, and managing everything can be quite difficult. That's why it really helps to have a digital calendar to help you track everything on your schedule. Here are some of our favorite calendar apps on Mac.
Fantastical
Fantastical has been around for several years now, and even though it has switched to a subscription model, it remains the favorite calendar app for many of us here at iMore.
With Fantastical, you are getting a fully functional desktop app that also has a menubar version for quick access. You can customize your views for daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly, and your agenda of events appears in the side bar as well. If you are running multiple calendars at once, things can get gnarly — Fantastical lets you customize sets of calendars to view at once, and they can even be location-based, so things don't get too crazy when viewing. For example, you can have work calendars viewable while you're at work, but personal ones when you're at home.
The natural language input is also top-notch, as the app easily understands and fills out all of the appropriate fields while you type out something as simple as 'Have lunch with Mom at In-N-Out on Tuesday at 2 p.m.'
Nov 24, 2013 CalenMob is a native Google Calendar app with intuitive design. It inherits the simple and clean look of Google web calendar and makes it more accessible, responsive and reliable on your Mac. It can also be used with no Internet connection. All changes will be synced back to your Google account the next time you connected. MULTIPLE WAYS TO VIEW EVENTS. In the Calendar app on your Mac, choose Calendar Preferences, then click Accounts. Select the account, click the Refresh Calendars pop-up menu, then choose an option. If you choose Push, the account is updated automatically when you make a change on any of your devices that use the same account, or when someone makes a change to a shared calendar in that account. Mar 06, 2020 By adding your Google account to iOS, you've configured it for the Apple Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Notes apps. However, apps from the App Store, such as Microsoft Outlook, cannot read from the iOS Settings configuration; set up your Google account individually in non-Apple apps.
While Fantastical does have a subscription model now, previous users of Fantastical 2 get most of the features unlocked, so it's still very functional. If you're new to Fantastical, there is a trial to test it out to see if you like it before deciding on a subscription. The free version has restricted features.
Fantastical 3
Fantastical has a beautiful interface that's easy to use and plenty of robust features.
Source: Busy Apps FZE
Another great option is BusyCal. This app automatically syncs up with any accounts that you're using with the Mail app on Mac, and everything will be up-to-date. The design of the app itself is simple and clean, but there are plenty of powerful features as well. One of those is the Smart Filter, which lets you create rules for what events are shown. For example, you can set a filter to only show birthdays or repeating events. BusyCal also lets you have multiple Smart Filters set up at once, making it easier to organize your hectic calendar.
Other features of BusyCal include a menubar app, travel time, natural language input, and a ton of customization options including font face, size, colors, time format, and much more. If you don't like Fantastical's subscription model, BusyCal and its one-time cost is an excellent alternative to consider.
BusyCal
BusyCal packs in a ton of useful features and is highly customizable. It also has a single, one-time cost.
Source: Qbix
If you are satisfied with the default Calendar app on Mac, but just want a companion app to go with it in the menubar, then Calendars is worth a look. This free app lives in your menubar, acting as a viewer for the calendars that you've set up in Calendar. It serves as a quick way to see your schedule and agenda in a single glance, so you aren't able to add new events from this app. There is an optional subscription that gives you more features, like adding Google Calendar accounts and backgrounds.
Calendars
Calendars lives in your menubar and serves as a companion to the default Calendar app.
Source: Fanatic Software
Need your calendar app to be more than just a calendar? Then Informant is the one you're looking for. This powerful app rolls your calendar, task manager, and notes into one, giving you everything you need in a single glance. The task manager element of Informant is also very flexible, working with you, whether it's GTD, Franklin Covey, or a simple and basic task list. Informant also has support for multiple filters, so you can easily switch and access the important stuff whenever you need to.
Informant
Informant rolls your calendar, task manager, and notes app into one.
Source: Higher Bar LLC
If you want your calendar to live in your menubar, but need a bit more functionality than Calendars, then InstaCal is worth considering. This app also lives in your menubar, so it's not a full blown app like the others. However, it keeps your calendar a click away, so you can view your events, agenda, and even tasks, as well as having the functionality of adding new events and tasks directly. InstaCal works with any of the calendars that you already have set up in Calendar, or you can manually add unlimited accounts from Google, Office 365, and Outlook. It also has Dark Mode support, customization options, and more.
InstaCal - Menu Bar Calendar
InstaCal lives in your menubar but still gives you plenty of functionality, including the ability to add events and tasks.
Source: AntLogic
Do you want a calendar app that is simple and lightweight? Mini Calendar fits the bill perfectly. It gives you access to your calendars three ways: on the desktop, from the Dock, and from the menubar. When it's on the desktop, it is always-on and sits above the wallpaper. From the Dock, you just need to click on the icon and it will bring up the calendar as a popup. Mini Calendar is configurable in terms of color, shortcut keys, and it can show you sunrise and sunset times too. It's just a light and fast way to get to your calendar when you need to.
Mini Calendar
Mini Calendar is a lightweight calendar app that you can access from your desktop, Dock, or menubar.
Source: Vincent Miethe
Rounding out the list is Calendar 366 II, which is another menubar calendar app. However, it's one of the more fully featured ones, which is quite impressive. With Calendar 366 II, you get full access to your calendar and reminders right from your menubar, and you can change the view to year, month, week, day, agenda, or even list. It has eight themes for light and dark modes, custom colors, calendar sets, custom font sizes, Spotlight integration, travel time, Alfred and LaunchBar support, and so much more. To pack all of the features of a full on application into just the menubar is pretty amazing, and the cost of the app is not too much either, all things considered.
Calendar 366 II
Calendar 366 II is one of the most feature-packed menubar calendar apps there is.
Keep your schedule organized
These are just a few of our favorite calendar apps on the Mac App Store. What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments!
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The days of keeping a manual log of your calendar events is largely over. With smartphones, tablets, and the internet, your life can be digitally organized with ease and there are plenty of options.
Two of the most popular options are via Google and Apple’s Calendar services. Obviously, the determining factor depends on which ecosystem you are already tied into, iOS or Android.
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However, if you want to switch between the two, the processes are pretty simple. Here are the ways you can sync Google Calendar with Apple or vice versa.
Sync Google Calendar
Before you can get started with seeing your Google Calendar events on your iOS devices, you’ll need to log into your Google account. From your preferred iOS device, follow these steps:
If you have two-factor authentication enabled on your Google account, you’ll need to confirm the login from the Google or Gmail app. You can also do this through either SMS or email.
Once you have logged in, you’ll need to set up the proper syncing functions on your device.
After this has been completed, your Google Calendar events will appear in the Apple Calendar application. However, the fun doesn’t stop there, as there are a few more settings to tinker with.
You can actually set up which specific calendars sync with your iOS device. In order to do so, follow these steps:
How To Sync Apple Calendar with Google
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t make things extremely easy if you want to sync its services with others. This is by design, but syncing your Apple Calendar with Google can still be done, although it takes a few more steps. Before starting, you’ll need to make sure that you are using the correct iCloud account.
Your browser will then begin downloading the webcal file, but the file name will look odd. Ignore this and continue to the process after the file is downloaded.
After the file has been downloaded, open the location where it was downloaded to. Rename the file and add ics as the extension (i.e. mycal.ics) and save.
After a period of time, all of your Apple Calendar entries will populate on Google Calendar. Now, if you continue to use Apple’s Calendar services moving forward, they will not sync and you will have to repeat the process.
Alternative options
One of the great things about iOS is the App Store and the multitude of beautifully-designed apps that can be found. If you are sticking with the iOS side of things, there are quite a few calendar apps to choose from and here are some of our favorites.
Fantastical 2
This is a personal favorite and one that I have purchased across iOS and macOS. Regardless of what Apple does to upgrade the Calendar app, Fantastical 2 keeps me coming back.
The app is features natural language parsing, reminder integration, and even a dashboard to easily see an overview of your events. There is also built-in cross-functionality with Siri to make life even easier.
Plus, you can sync iCloud, Google Calendar, Exchange and more. This makes life easy for those with multiple calendars.
Calendars 5
If there was no Fantastical, then I would be using Calendars 5 by Readdle. Calendars 5 also sports natural language input, along with a built-in task manager.
You can easily create recurring events, as well as work offline if needed. Once you connect to the internet again, all of your work will automatically be synced.
With a company like Readdle at the helm, you can rest easy knowing that new features will be coming all the time.
Google Calendar
If you aren’t in the mood to deal with learning a new calendar app, Google has you covered. The Big G has released a number of apps on the iOS App Store, including Google Calendar.
The app is free and provides you all of the same functionality that you are already accustomed to. This is great if you need cross-platform syncing, or integration with Google’s other apps such as Drive, Docs, or Gmail.
Google has even included Apple Health integration. This allows you to track your workouts and mark your Goals as “done” automatically.
Conclusion
Keeping your calendars synced and up-to-date can be a rather frustrating business. But there are plenty of options and alternatives if you want to move away from the world of Google.
![]() Google Calendar Mac Desktop App
Please let us know if you run into any issues when trying to get your calendars to properly sync. If there’s another calendar app that we didn’t mention above, let us know and we’ll check it out!
Andrew is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US.
He has written for a variety of sites over the years, including iMore, Android Central, Phandroid, and a few others. Now, he spends his days working for an HVAC company, while moonlighting as a freelance writer at night.
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