In principle, a calendar app is nothing more than a digital list of events. It should be simple, yet in our age of digital noise and constant distraction, it becomes the our most important tool for managing our time 1.
I rely on recording everything, especially at work when I’m deep in concentration. My particular struggle is with events about a week or so in the future: too far to hold in memory, but not distant enough to be reliably pre-emptied by colleagues. For the habitually forgetful like me, a calendar app is not just a convenience; it’s an essential external brain.
While simple tasks like maintaining work-life balance and remembering anniversaries can be handled by a paper diary, the demands of the modern work week require more opinionated, thoughtfully designed software. This is where apps truly shine, offering features like:
- Daily Time Blocking: Planning your day hour-by-hour, potentially overlaying your tasks with your meetings.
- Intelligent Reminders: Telling you precisely when to leave, factoring in travel time.
- Video Call Integration: Quick links to join meetings instantly.
I was a long-time Fantastical 2 user, and was lucky enough to be grandfathered into some paid features of Fantastical 3. However, the constant pop-ups advertising premium-tier features eventually broke my resolve 2, which led me to reassess the current landscape.
What do I want from a calendar app?#
Before diving in, let me set our my criteria. I specifically ruled out AI scheduling assistants (like Motion), as scheduling itself isn’t my core problem. Instead, I care about the following:
- Multiple Account Support: Seamlessly supporting both work and personal lives, as the two inevitably interact.
- Task Integration: Ability to show tasks (like Apple Reminders or Google Tasks) alongside events for better daily planning.
- Meetings: Easy ways to see upcoming meetings and links to quickly join video calls.
Note that I focussed only on apps for MacOS since this is what I use daily. I didn’t consider windows or android apps (although some of the options below are available on these platforms). At the same time, I want to be able to have the same interface on my iPhone, so I only consider apps available on iOS as well.
What options are there?#
Apple Calendar#
Apple Calendar is installed by default on all Apple devices, so is the easiest option. It’s perfectly functional, but relatively bare bones.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free and deeply integrated with OS. | Forces reliance on Apple services (Apple Maps, Apple Reminders). |
| Native apps on all Apple devices, including widgets. | No-frills experience—does the fundamentals but lacks desktop features like a menu bar calendar. |
| Can show Reminders alongside your calendar since iOS 18/MacOS Seqioua. | Can require additional third-party apps (e.g. Itsycal for a menubar calendar, Meeting bar for meeting links, or Dato which can do both) to extend functionality. |
| Time to Leave notifications using its native knowledge of your location. | Does show events on desktop widget, but this obviously usually hidden |
Google Calendar#
Google Calender needs no introduction. Purely as a tool for managing your events, it is very good. However, lack of multi-user support is a deal-breaker for me.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free on all platforms | Have to manage different Google accounts separately. However, you can sync a personal iCal feed (read-only) to your work calendar and vice versa. Personally I prefer to keep my work and personal accounts separate. |
| Supports proprietary functionality for Google accounts (e.g., showing your working location). | On desktop, it’s just a browser tab, so no rich features such as meeting links or menubar access. |
| Rich features on mobile apps (e.g., widgets) |
Notion Calendar#
Notion Calendar was formerly known as Cron before being bought by Notion. Unfortunately, development appears to have stagnated since then. For example, there is still no week view on the mobile app!
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free with Notion. | Can only display tasks from Notion databases, limiting utility for those who use other task managers. |
| Great integration with any Notion database (projects, day-to-day tasks etc). | Mobile app lacks feature parity - it doesn’t even have a week view yet! |
| Includes a decent menubar calendar on Mac and handy conference call notifications. |
Fantastical#
Fantastical is widely regarded as the best calendar app for Apple devices. However, they recently switched pricing models to an expensive subscription which has annoyed a lot of users.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Packed with rich features like the menu bar calendar and instant meeting links. | Expensive subscription if you want all the premium features, though it is high-quality software. |
| Excellent design, particularly the Schedule view. I don’t know why other apps haven’t copied this fluid timeline. | |
| Syncs with many different services such as Google Tasks, Apple Reminders, or Todoist. | |
| The free tier still has a lot of features, making it highly usable without paying. |
BusyCal#
BusyCal is the main competitor to Fantastical. It has an up-front pricing model (with a limited widow of updates), but doesn’t quite have the same polish as Fantastical.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| One-off purchase for bioth the desktop and mobile apps, avoiding subscriptions. | MacOS licence only includes 18 months of free updates 3. |
| Excellent customisation: includes Smart Filters, Tags, and highly configurable views. | The visual design is more functional and less aesthetically polished than Fantastical. |
| Deep task integration, supporting multiple external task managers. | iOS app is a separate purchase (though also one-off). |
| Includes unique features like integrated weather forecasts, moon phases, and graphics. |
Why are there so few native calendar apps?#
One of my biggest frustrations during this search was realising just how many modern calendar tools are moving towards being purely web-based; the obvious example being Google calendar, but Notion calendar is just an electron wrapper. The situation is even worse if you’re not on MacOS. Unfortantely, it seems that calendar apps aren’t particularly profitable, so few developers are willing to build good calendar apps. If you’re a developer, it makes much more sense to focus on web apps since it’s cross-platform and maximises your potential user-base.
However, a web app is “trapped” in the browser so is inherentely limited. It cannot easily “leave” its tab to provide the deep system integration that makes a calendar most useful. For example, you can’t have things like widgets, or have to rely on less robust browser notifications. Multi-user support is also often lacking; even in 2025, the web version Google Calendar can only show you one calendar account! Compare this to the mobile app which can support multiple accounts, and has native widgets.
Sticking to what you know#
So, after this deep dive, what did I go for?
If you’re already embedded in the Notion ecosystem, Notion Calendar provides good task integration and a decent desktop app, all for free - although the mobile app is pretty poor. If you are budget-conscious and willing to piece together features, Apple Calendar + third-party helper apps is a surprisingly capable option, albeit less polished.
However, in my opinion, only Fantastical offers a seamless blend of multiple accounts, task display, and crucial quality-of-life features like menubar access and meeting join links. None of the alternatives quite matches its thoughtful design, especially the excellent Schedule view 4. It’s just as good on iOS too.
I’ve decided to stop the endless search. While the subscription is a consideration, Fantastical still excels at my needs. Sometimes, the best solution is the one you already know. I just wish there were more options to choose from!