We are going to tell you about the best calendar apps, I have found that using a calendar app helps me stay organized and avoid any unnecessary stress. However, I have had a bad experience with using a non-native Mac calendar app. It caused inconsistencies with keyboard shortcuts, had a notification system that did not work correctly, and had a user interface that made the system difficult to use.
As a long-time Mac fan, I have strong opinions about apps that work with Apple’s philosophy. I have conducted extensive research and have come up with a list of the top five calendar apps developed for Mac users. This list is not haphazardly made, but a result of years of research and frustration with bad apps.
Essential Features of the Top Mac Calendar App
Let me start with this: though there’s no Google Calendar app for Mac, any of the apps you see on this list can be synced with it to merge and bring you the best of both worlds. I make use of Google Calendar to sync all my devices and share important things with my partner, but I don’t like using it through the official web app. However, it is just as smoothly operative, hence if you are a GCal fan—don’t worry. All the apps work well with iCloud Calendars of course, except for one app.
Key Characteristics Of Calendar Apps For Mac
Provide a user-friendly, native macOS user interface. This involves mimicking Apple’s design principles and making effective environment compatibility by offering keyboard shortcuts, notifications, menu bar icons, and even Today widgets. The best app of all, like macOS, is simple to use at a glance, but not in a way that skips the functionality.
- It will be easy to add events and appointments. The pace is fast when it is about a calendar. If you can’t add something to your calendar in a few seconds, then you are also less likely to keep updating your calendar. Conveniently, all you need to do is click one button or do a keyboard shortcut to begin writing an appointment. The natural language processing feature, which allows you to put events into your calendar by typing something like “Go and drop off your dog at the vet on Monday at 5 pm”, is a big plus here.
- Let it be quick to look at your schedule in a snapshot. Calendars will only be useful when you can see what is coming, hence the ideal app calendar needs to be easy to schedule according to your preference. Daily, weekly, monthly, and agenda views need to be provided, and each one needs to be straightforward to parse. A dreadful and difficult-to-read user interface was a no-go for us.
- Offer availability of sync on both mobile devices and other computers. Regardless of whether the syncing is performed by iCloud, Google Calendar, Exchange, or any combination of these three, a syncing of some kind is essential. Your calendar should be available all the time and anywhere–this is when apps do the real job. Undoubtedly, many of those applications are going to be easier to sync with iPhones and iPads than Android devices – that’s the nature of Apple’s ecosystem.
This meant that apps that didn’t support these features were not considered, but the best apps had a lot more to offer. Even the usual Apple Calendar app functions just fine, so this might be why even at the lower-price level there is rarely a decent app like that. It’s hard for small developers to compete with Apple on basic functionality so unless you need your calendar, you might be even more shocked by what these apps can price you.
In addition, except for one or two cases, I selected only pure calendar apps. Several to-do apps, email apps, and other productivity apps also have calendars but not the same as being dedicated calendar apps. If a more general overview of the productivity tracking app is what you need, read our Mac-to-do app guide.
To be thorough in testing the apps that passed this criterion, I connected my calendars and used them throughout the week to learn the features. (There were icons of date in the menu bar of my Mac for a couple of days.) I’ve been writing about productivity for almost ten years and coming up with this list for the last three, so most of these apps were already familiar to me, but I made sure to take into account how they had changed with recent updates to macOS.
Quick Overview: Top Mac Calendar Applications
| Name | Best for | Standout Feature | Pricing |
| Microsoft Outlook | Microsoft Office fans | Integration with Office apps and cross-platform support | Starting at $6.99/month with Microsoft 365 |
| Fantastical | Design | Beautiful and intuitive interface | Free for basic features; $6.99/month for Flexibits Premium |
| Calendar 366 II | A menu bar icon | Full-featured menu bar app with multiple views | $14.99 with a 30-day free trial |
| BusyCal | Flexibility | Task integration | $49.99 with a 30-day free trial |
| Apple Calendar | A free, built-in option | Native Apple interface | Included with all Macs, iPhones, and iPads |
Top Mac Calendar Choice for Those Who Prefer Microsoft Office: Perfect Syncing with Windows and Android
Microsoft Outlook (iPad, macOS, Windows, Android, iPhone)
Outlook pros:
- Bundles all Microsoft plugins and power
- It still looks nice on the Mac.
Outlook cons:
- Unpleasant is support for iCloud calendars
- Which Mac freak won’t choose Mail?
Mac apps usually concentrate on one aspect of functionality well, therefore Apple compressors have individual email, contacts, to-do, notes, and calendar apps. In contrast, Microsoft’s Outlook does not take this approach—it’s all of those things, along with everything else. If you are that sort of a person—or you are obliged to use it with your job—then Outlook might be what you need.
There are five main views to see your appointments: day, three-day week, working week, week, and months. Outlook’s weekly view, which isn’t provided by any other app in this list, is a good illustration of how work-centric the Outlook app is. There are some other nice features: a 3-day forecast in the toolbar, for example. Collaboration is the very focus and the integration with mail and contacts is crucial in that respect. You can also design appointment templates, which are handy if you invite people to a similar thing over and over again.
Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Google, Yahoo, iCloud, POP, and IMAP accounts are among the supported ones, but to have Exchange support you will have to revert Outlook to an earlier edition. One thing you have to mention is that iCloud Calendars are not supported. You can sync your calendar to an iCloud one but not use it. (Yes, I know that it is odd to suggest a Mac calendar app that does not completely support Apple’s calendar service, but in this case Outlook performs better with cross-platform protocols.)
Adding appointments is a little more complicated than other apps we’ve looked at: there’s no walk-on smart entry available to use and this is quite disappointing. When appointments are created, they appear in a pop-up or own window, but you can still create an event quite fast by pressing the tab key. Along with the whole work focus, this feature of Scheduling Assistant helps you to invite many people and find a time that suits all of them.
Outlook might not be the first app you think of using for the calendar on Mac OS, but it’s still worth the check, even if you’re an Office user who pays for the service. It doesn’t seem as Apple-y as the other non-Apple apps on this list, but it only does what a calendar should do—even has macOS-specific features like Today widgets and a menu bar app. Microsoft’s developers may have different design languages from Apple’s but at least they would remain loyal to the platform they are building the app for.
Microsoft Outlook price: Beginning at $6.99/month as part of Microsoft 365 Personal or $6/user/month contained in Microsoft 365 Business Basic.
Mac Best-designed Calendar App
Fantastical (iPad, macOS, iPhone)
Fantastical pros:
- The most powerful and good-looking macOS calendar app
Fantastical cons:
- It’s expensive—and a subscription
The choice of word “Fantastic” in your product name is dangerous. Making the name of your product a joke is even less desirable.Fantastical pulls off both.
In short, this is the best designed calendar app for macOS and I might be biased because of my years of use of Fantastical.
Start with the left panel: this is where most apps (including BusyCal) (including BusyCal) put a list of unnecessary calendars.Not Fantastical. Here this space is for you to have the agenda view or your reminders. It’s a small thing, but I’m using it almost every day, which means that the creators thought over every design element very carefully to make the calendar easy to use. Another little thing: in case the identical event appears in the two calendars, it will only be seen once with a pin-striped pattern to let you know it is in the two calendars. Use Fantastical for a while, you will spot this and other smaller things.
Adding appointments is quick: just tap the + button and type away. There is natural language processing and real-time effect for animation that makes it very clear how natural language processing work. Viewing appointments is also great: there are views of a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual kind, all well thought out. There’s always a nice menu bar icon too, which is your direct access to the left panel when you need it—you can bring up the icon at any time with the keyboard shortcut control + option + space and you can start typing to add an event. (And that’s what I mostly do.) – Brief notifications and Today Widget complete the package of integrations.
Fantastical offers syncing with iCloud, Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Google, Yahoo, Fruux, Meetup, Zoom, Fastmail, Todoist, Webex, and any CalDAV service so you have virtually endless syncing choices. The only disadvantage I can think of is the price, which is $6.99/month, which is much more than what the majority of people would have to pay for a calendar. This shows that BuysCal’s $49.99 flat rate seems like a great deal.
Luckily, the free version of Fantastical offers all you need for a casual user. But it will not have just a couple of features such as travel time estimates, support for invitees, and automatic conference call detection. The Flexibits Premium subscription, which comes at $6.99 per month, includes all of these. Plus Calendly-based scheduling (that I use to manage interviews across time zones), numerous customization options, unlimited Calendar Sets, and the ability to switch calendar sets based on time, your location, or Focus mode. It also has a CRM capability called Cardhop.
I can’t stress this enough: it is its price that makes it the only downside to Fantastical, and I gladly pay it. However, I always have my calendar to be in control of my personal and professional life. Besides the wild price, I can say that I am getting value from Fantastical because it helps me do certain things with ease. In case you also have a busy calendar, you can consider it too. However, for most of us, it is excessive.
Fantastical for macOS price: The basic features are free and $6.99/month for Flexbits Premium upgrade.
Apple Calendar’s Best Menu Bar Icon
Calendar 366 II (iPad, macOS, iPhone)
Calendar 366 II pros:
- A good, fully functional menu bar app that’s compatible with Apple Calendar
Calendar 366 II cons:
- Essentially none
Calendar 366 II is a very good menu bar calendar. In truth, you can use this app to manage your calendar even without the need for the Apple Calendar. And Reminders apps, which it copies all of its data from.
You can open the calendar by clicking the menu bar icon. Or by using a combination of keys on the keyboard. It is swift to add events as natural language processing is in use. And you can view your appointments in different ways. The default puts a list of your upcoming events below a monthly calendar, but there are other views offered. Time, date, agenda, week, week with all events, and even the current day.
Also, all features are adjustable. There are many different color schemes, such as this one. And you can change up the font and the way the text is laid out. The menu bar item can be an icon or a time replacement for your system clock.
It works nicely together with iOS Calendar, but might even be enough as a standalone tool.
Calendar 366 II for macOS price: $14.99 (or enjoy the 30-day free trial). Calendar 366 for iPhone and iPad costs $9.99.
Mac’s Most Adaptable Calendar Option
BusyCal (macOS & iPhone)
BusyCal pros:
- Apple Calendar now has many options to customize and change schedules.
BusyCal cons:
- We can be (ironically) the interface.
- It’s expensive
BusyCal, just at first glance, seems to be very similar to Apple’s Calendar. It isn’t.
Look closer, and you will see a few details. Weekly and monthly outlooks also feature the weather forecast and moon phases. And there’s more. The left side can be your to-do list and tasks are taken from Reminders or Todoist. In case you do not use any of those apps, this panel shows information for the selected event. Or, the other way around, you can have a to-do list atop the details of each task. On the due dates, your to-dos can additionally pop up in the calendar if needed.
In other words, this program is highly flexible since anything about it is flexible. Dive into the preferences, and you’ll unlock the ability to change the color scheme. Choose different shows to put into the info panel, and even customize the fonts. There is an option of adding a second time zone to the side panel. And it is very useful if you do a lot of traveling or have to work with teammates in different zones.
You can display an additional calendar, so you can see Hebrew, Islamic, or Chinese dates together with the Gregorian one. There’s an availability panel, so if you want to see the next available time slot in your appointments, it is useful. Another thing to note is the great menu bar icon for easy browsing of appointments. Simply give it a try, and you will discover many other details merit adjustment.
Adding tasks is quick: you can just push + to start natural language processing. Or click and drag to the time you prefer. And there are five main views for seeing your appointments. Day to day, week to week, month to month, yearly, and list. Syncing is carried out with the default calendars and iCloud, while other accounts. Can be added from Google, Yahoo, Fruux, Fastmail, Office 365, Outlook, CalDAV and Exchange. It can sync easily with Todoist, Zoom, GoTo Meeting and Webex as well.
BusyCal provides a lot of degree of flexibility. The only cons that come to my mind are the price factor and the irony in the name as the app can seem a bit busy. Nevertheless, it may well be worth it even for you. If you are looking for the most customized calendar for Mac. It is great to see an app that does not have the subscription model of pricing as well.
BusyCal for macOS price: $49.99 30-day free trial. BusyCal is also a members-only app for SetApp, a $9.99/month subscription offering a suite of over 50 indie Mac apps. BusyCal for iPhone is priced at $9.99.
Free Calendar App Only For Apple Users
Apple Calendar (iPad, macOS, iPhone)
Apple Calendar Pros:
- Free and built-in
- Nails the basics
Apple Calendar Cons:
If you are reading this list, it’s quite possible that you don’t like what Apple Calendar has for you.
Unsure how to proceed? The Calendar by Apple, which is preinstalled on your Mac, is easy to use, clean, and functional. And automatically syncs with your iPhone and iPad.
Adding appointments is simple: just click the + button. Natural language processing implies that instead of typing something like “go for a walk at noon” you ask your computer to do that for you and expect it to understand what you really mean. Moreover, you can create an appointment by just clicking and dragging on the calendar. There are four main views: day, week, month, and year.
You can have as many local calendars as you like and all of them will be synced using iCloud. In addition to this, you can also add calendars from Exchange, Google, Yahoo, or AOL accounts. This is nice for, if your work account and personal calendars are to be balanced. As well as it makes shared calendars easier to use, including shared iCloud Calendars.
Calendar integrates seamlessly with the rest of Apple’s toolset. For example, an address is one feature that is present in Apple Maps. And you can receive travel time notifications as an option. Scheduling and inviting people to FaceTime calls is possible too. Even the Siri Suggestions Calendar retrieves potential events from iMessage, Mail, and other Apple apps.
Apple’s native Calendar is easy to use, but advanced features are lacking. If you use only Apple products, you should make sure to try it before installing anything else. Because if you want to use something that gives you a significantly better experience, you need to pay a surprisingly large amount of money.
Apple Calendar for macOS Price: Sold along with all Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
