With the pro version, you get access to Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Google Apps, and other IMAP accounts. Also, you get to enjoy Calendar support for Office 365/Exchange and customer support. The enterprise program features all features of Inky pro. So, read on to find the best Mac apps that you can download right now. From free apps and utilities to programs for creatives and professionals, these Mac apps will make the best Macs even better.
Each Mac ships with the built-in OS X Calendar application, but Apple’s calendar is basic and lacking many helpful features. Thankfully, there are plenty of great third-party apps that serve as a replacement for the Calendar application, or as add-ons to take it to the next level.
We’ve narrowed our list down to the five best calendar apps for Mac — don’t forget to let us know which one you prefer in the comments at the end of this post.
Great Replacements
Are you looking to replace the standard calendar? One of the following two applications will get the job done.
Fantastical 2 ($49.99)
Best for: Those looking to do a little bit more with their calendar each day, who don’t have time to customize.
Fantastical just happens to be a 2015 Apple Design Awards winner for Mac. What makes Fantastical so impressive is its natural language engine, which makes adding new events a pain-free experience.
For example, you can type “meeting with Jay at 4 pm” and Fantastical will begin creating a calendar entry for the next afternoon on your calendar and also suggest people named Jay from your Contacts application. Once this information is confirmed, it will even send Jay an email inviting him to the event. The application also understands text suggesting a future or repeating event, such as “third Sunday of every month,” “every weekend,” “last weekday of the month,” and more.
Fantastical features a full calendar window with day, week, month, and year views. It also offers light and dark themes, time zone support, and birthday reminders. A Notification Center widget is also available. If you also use Fantastical 2 for iOS, Apple Handoff support is provided, offering continuity between different devicesWhat Does Continuity Mean for Yosemite & iOS 8?What Does Continuity Mean for Yosemite & iOS 8?OS X 10.10, better know as Yosemite, is a major Mac update that offers numerous features never seen before in an operating system. One of the most important is Continuity.Read More. The application’s native CalDAV engine lets users connect their Mac directly to their calendar services such as iCloud, Google, and Yahoo.
What sets Fantastical apart from other solutions on our list is its full-featured menu bar app, which was availableManage Your Calendar From The Mac Menubar With FantasticalManage Your Calendar From The Mac Menubar With FantasticalManage your calendar, completely, from your Mac's menu bar. Fantastical isn't just a way to quickly see your upcoming events: it's a way to never look at Apple's default Calendar again.Read More before the application became a full Calendar replacement. Menu bar access offers a powerful way to review your day through a mini-calendar. Better still, Fantastic 2 allows this calendar to detach right from the menu bar, and you can also resize it.
Fantastical is available on the Mac App Store or Flexibits Store. A free 21-day trial is also available. Should you spend $50 on a calendar? We believe it’s worth every dime$50 for a Calendar? 5 Reasons Fantastical 2 is Worth It$50 for a Calendar? 5 Reasons Fantastical 2 is Worth ItThe original Fantastical wasn't cheap at $15, and now developer Flexibits will be charging $50 for the updated version — so is it worth it?Read More.
BusyCal 2 ($49.99)
Best for: Those happy with Apple’s Calendar application, who want more customization tools.
BusyCal is one of the oldest and most popular third-party Mac calendar applications. Like Fantastical, BusyCal allows you to add events using natural language. It also works with most CalDAV services, including iCloud, Exchange, and Google.
Where BusyCal shines through customization and the use of Smart Filters. Unlike the native Mac application, BusyCal allows you to change the number of weeks to show in the Month view. You can also change the number of days in Week view. Your calendar’s font and colors are adjustable as well.
Smart Filters let you create calendar sets and saved searches. You can create a filter that only shows events that match certain conditions, such as a text string or event type. Another filter could show events that contain a string of text modified in the last 15 days.
The application also includes a to-do list, weather reports by day, list view, and more. With all these features, BusyCal helps you become more organized and productiveGet More Organized and Productive With BusyCal for MacGet More Organized and Productive With BusyCal for MacThe OS X Calendar (formerly iCal) has been a stable application ever since the operating system was released. Many Mac users were not been too happy with the latest design of replacement app Calendar, though...Read More.
BusyCal is available on the Mac App Store or BusyMac Store. A free 30-day trial is also available, as are discounts for BusyCal 1.x customers. There is also an iOS version called BusyToDo.
Perfect add-ons
Enjoying Apple’s Calendar application, but want a little bit more from it? These three applications will fit the bill.
Blotter ($9.99)
Best for: People looking for a fancy live desktop calendar.Live Wallpaper For Mac? It's Easier Than You ThinkLive Wallpaper For Mac? It's Easier Than You ThinkGet animated wallpaper for your Mac. It's beautiful, useless, and fun.Read More
If you’d rather see your schedule and reminders on your desktop, Blotter is for you. With Blotter, your entire week becomes part of your wallpaperTop 7 Ways to Personalize Your Mac DesktopTop 7 Ways to Personalize Your Mac DesktopWant to make your Mac more personal? Check out these awesome methods for customizing your Mac theme and more.Read More. You can also use it to add events and reminders on the fly. With Blotter, you can show weekday dates or your desktop, or the next seven days on your calendar. You can also adjust its size and reposition it.
Blotter’s most impressive feature is its use of shortcuts. With these, you can perform simple tasks with a few clicks of the keyboard. These include new event, new reminder, next week, and more.
Blotter works directly with your OS X Calendar app and is available on the Mac App Store.
Calendar 2 (free)
Best for: Those who want to view their upcoming schedule in the Mac menu bar without paying a dime.
Here’s another status bar app that compliments Apple’s standard calendar. With a single click, Calendar allows you to see your whole month’s events and tasks right in your menu bar. The aim here is to view everything on your schedule at a glance, without having to spend the time bring up Apple’s application.
The application shows your entire monthly calendar. Details about a particular day are just a click away, also on the menu bar. You can customize the application by changing its fonts, colors, and themes; and you can also add a weather forecast.
Calendar is free on the Mac App Store. Additional customization such as Facebook integration is available through an in-app purchase.
QuickCal 3 ($2.99)
Best for: Folks who need to add calendar events in a hurryHow To Instantly Add Anything To Your Mac's CalendarHow To Instantly Add Anything To Your Mac's CalendarAdd something to your Mac's calendar in just a few keystrokes – we've got the software to make it possible.Read More.
Natural language plays a central role with QuickCal. After a few keystrokes, the menu bar app begins creating an event for placement in your Mac’s Calendar application. It even notes when there are conflicts on your schedule.
With QuickCal, your upcoming schedule is viewable in a list view, which can include events up to seven days in advance. You can also see your reminders from this location. Want to receive a notification for an upcoming event? QuickCal features “Smart Alerts”, which will create alarms at different time intervals.
QuickCal supports iCal, Google Calendar, and BusyCal. It’s available on the Mac App Store. A free 14-day trial is also available through the QuickCal website.
See also: For a slightly outdated and older equivalent of QuickCal that won’t cost you a penny, check out RemindMeLater. It was built during the iCal era but still works well with OS X El Capitan’s Calendar app, allowing you to use natural language to add events to your schedule — without QuickCal’s fancy extra features.
The Choice Is Yours
There is nothing wrong with using Apple’s built-in Calendar app for Mac. If you’re looking for something different, consider the solutions we’ve presented here. Fantastical and BusyCal will replace the Calendar application while Blotter, Calendar 2, and QuickCal will enhance it. Each can be an excellent choice, depending on your needs.
What’s your favorite calendar solution for Mac?
Explore more about: Calendar, Google Calendar, Organization Software, OS X El Capitan.
Does anyone know of a good free calendar app that works with Trello? That was the main reason I used Sunrise, and the two integrated seamlessly.
Itsycal looks okay, I'll check it and UpTo out. I can't justify spending all that cash on an app like Fantastical that looks exactly like iCal, and charges separately for mobile and desktop versions.
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I'm really liking UpTo as a Sunrise replacement. Not everything sunrise was, but free. And nice. And some fun different features.
I've been having a very tough time looking for a free calendar (or at least one that is not so expensive as Fantastical2) that allows me to have the same functionalities on iphone and mac... Just as I used to with Sunrise. </3
If anybody has a suggestion, please, fire away... :(I just tried Fantastical 2, and can't believe Sunrise being a free app was so much better syncing with google calendars than this overpriced garbage app. Calendar 5 is a good app for mobile devices, syncs well with google calendars too, but for Macbooks I'm still on the search :( Come back Sunrise :'(
I found a couple for iphone... But nothing for Mac. :(
Sunrise is officially shutting down soon. I need an alternative, and I haven't been able to find one yet. :-(
I've been using Sunrise [Broken Link Removed]
I can keep my calendar updated on my iphone, ipad & mac
I just found out Sunrise discontinued further development and support as they were bought by Microsoft in Feb. :(
Too bad it is going away :( stupid microsoft
Been using Itsycal for quite some time and absolutely love it, might have to check out Calendar 2 though.
Itsycal looks like crap
That is not very helpful; what is it that you don’t like?
I have a Mountain Lion and a Sierra MacBookPro (insist on working in InDesignCS4, so needed a new machine rather than just upgrading). Sierra will be my traveller, Mountain Lion my “desktop” stay-at-home. I tried copying my new calendar from Sierra to Mountain Lion, as I have done for back-ups previously in Mountain Lion; the transfer failed, as Calendar on Sierra is not the same as iCal on Mountain Lion (which I actually prefer). Thoughts on something that will work on both? Could I actually copy iCal to the new machine and use it, even if it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Apple seems to think I prefer? (I like months that stay as months, with 1 at the top and 30 at the bottom, for instance, not free-form.)
For about a year now, I’ve been joking that it’s entirely possible—if you want—to have the Android experience on an iOS device. Why not? While Apple keeps its own app offerings pretty strictly tied to its own devices (Apple Music being a forthcoming exception to the rule), Google is more willing to take customers wherever it can get them. Don’t have an Android phone? That’s fine: Google has an app for many of the things you already want to do on your iPhone, like email, instant messages, news, streaming music, and of course maps.
So I wondered: How well could I survive for one week just using Google apps on my iPhone?
Here were my ground rules: First, I would clear my phone of apps and shuffle the native, un-deletable stock iOS apps off into a folder. Then, I’d download all the Google apps I thought I might use in the course of my daily business. Then, just for fun, I decided that if I needed an app that wasn’t a Google product, I’d at least make sure it exists in the Google Play store for Android users. And if a Google app could replace a third-party app, I’d try to use the Google app instead.
The apps I downloaded: Google, Calendar, Chrome, Docs, Inbox, Maps, Google Play Books, Google Play Music, Google Play Newsstand, Google Photos, and (ahem) Google+.
What did I find out? Google works hard to provide alternatives. But it can’t—in part because of Apple’s rules—provide an entire ecosystem across iOS. Overall, some of the apps were pretty good. Some of the apps were merely OK. And one was Google+. (Suffice it to say: It wasn’t long before the Facebook and Twitter apps reappeared on my phone.)
Flip a coin
There are some areas where Apple’s and Google’s offerings run neck-and-neck on iOS.
Apple Music made its debut just a couple of weeks before my experiment, and there’s a lot to like about the new service. Before that update, though, the current iteration of Google Play Music might’ve beat it handily since it already offered a Spotify-style streaming service. The problem? If you just use the mobile version of the app—and for a week, that’s what I did—you can come away not knowing that streaming service even exists and thinking Google’s music offering is more of a Pandora competitor. Why? Because there’s no in-app signup for the service.
Go to the service’s website and sign up for $10 a month, and suddenly your mobile music choices are much broader. It has Sonos support (which Apple Music doesn’t have yet), comes with access to YouTube Music Key beta, and you can upload up to 50,000 tracks a la iTunes Match for no extra fee. I still like Apple Music more, for two main reasons. First, Beats 1 radio is awesome, and Apple appears ready to expand on that success. Second, for $15 a month, I can share my Apple Music account with my entire family. It’s a nice option that saves me money.
As for Chrome: While it’s my default browser on my Mac, it’s iffier on iOS, thanks in part to Apple’s mobile browser restrictions. The advantages: Chrome had better voice search options than Safari, and it has a Notification Center widget. But I like Safari’s ability to save bookmarks as app icons. A toss-up, but I lean Safari here.
Finally, Google Docs is in many ways inferior to Pages, which offers more sharing options (including AirDrop compatibility) and more templates for starting precisely the kind of document you want to create. If you’re wanting to collaborate with other people on a document—a feature both services offer—well, more of your friends and colleagues are probably using the Google option. Because so much of what I do is straight-ahead text composition—no fancy newsletters for me—I’ll stick with Google Docs, but if you’re an advanced word processing app user, Pages might be the way to go.
Where Google beats Apple
There are places, though, where you can see Apple’s future in Google’s work.
The most obvious spot is Google Play Newsstand. It looks less like Apple’s about-to-be-defunct Newsstand—which was a container for separate apps for each periodical—and more like Apple’s forthcoming News app that will launch with iOS 9. Publishers feed their content directly to Google, which standardizes the layout and fonts across all the publications. Now that Google Reader is long dead, this is a pretty handy newsreader—and it’s staying on my phone, at least until iOS 9 debuts and I can see how Apple’s new offering performs.
I’m also a big fan of Google Calendar, mostly because, well, it looks pretty. My default is to use the app’s “agenda view,” which just shows me a list of my upcoming appointments—a feature that isn’t available in my iPhone’s default Calendar app. Google Calendar also automatically overlays some types of items with appropriate artwork, making organization a bit more fun to peruse.
It won’t surprise you, perhaps, to discover that Google Maps is still more useful than Apple’s native Maps offering, especially for city-dwelling public transit users. In Google Maps, I can click on my location and see what buses are coming by that corner and when. When I tried to discover similar information in Apple Maps, the app helpfully showed me other apps that could help—including Google Maps. I don’t need to be told twice. Apple Maps will be getting public transit support for 10 major U.S. cities when iOS 9 launches—and my home town of Philadelphia made the cut—but in the meantime, I’ll stick to Google Maps.
One thing that did surprise me? How much I liked using Google Photos. I’ve never been much inclined to use iCloud, in part because of the expense: Flickr’s terabyte of free storage is too good for me to pass up. Google Photos will store unlimited photos at what Google calls “high resolution,” which tops out at 16 megapixels—plenty for iPhone photos, with the exception of big panoramas. Or you can opt to store your photos at their original resolution, which Google recommends for people who shoot with a DSLR, for example. That option will hit your 15GB of free Google Drive storage first, and once that’s gone you’ll pay $2/month for 100GB or $10/month for 1TB.
I’m fine with the free unlimited tier—and perhaps as a result, Google also seems to upload photos much more quickly. I’m also tickled by Google’s “assistant” feature, which automatically creates pictorial storybooks and short videos out of the images your capture. You can edit them, discard them, or share as-is.
Where Apple wins
Where Google fell short the most, interestingly enough, was in the realm of communications. Apple’s default Mail app makes it easy to sort good communications from bad—just award a VIP star to your correspondents whose missives you can’t miss. Google’s Inbox app tries to separate good from bad, but does so by dividing your mail into three inboxes: Inbox (where your important mail is supposed to live), Updates, and Promos. That leaves you shifting between boxes more often, which is kind of a pain. If it or the regular old Gmail app in iOS behaved more like its Android counterpart—that is, if it let you tie in Exchange corporate accounts—I’d be tempted to use it. One advantage it has over the native app? It opens links directly into Chrome, if you have it, instead of insisting on Safari.
Best Free Apps For Mac
Apple’s Mail, meanwhile, is also more likely to work with your work email: It’s compatible with Microsoft’s Exchange system used by many large companies. During my Google Week, I made my company’s Outlook account forward emails to my Gmail account, but it was far from a perfect solution when you know an integrated email app is available. (Better yet? Microsoft’s Outlook app does incorporate Gmail, and does a terrific job of separating priority email from less-important stuff.)
Email is not the only way to communicate, of course. In truth, I’ve long preferred Google Hangouts’ video-chat feature to FaceTime, if only because so many of my relatives and friends use Android phones, making FaceTime untenable. My mistake? Thinking I could use Hangouts to replace SMS messaging on my iPhone. I turned off SMS and missed a few texts from my wife. (Sorry, honey.)
Who’s better, who’s best
Where Google fell short the most—on iOS anyway—was with its plain old Google app. It’s clearly meant to replace, or at least be an alternative, to Siri. You can leave reminders to yourself on this app, and you can do voice-enabled searches on the app. It wants to be an assistant, letting you know when your next flight is, or how the weather it is today, or even your favorite team’s score.
The problem: There’s no widget for Apple’s Notification Center, which limits the Google app. You have to click through to do a search or to see your reminder. Which means if you’re trying to use Google instead of Siri or Reminders or for searching, you’re moving a bit slower.
Here’s the thing: Google would prefer you do your business on all of its apps—the company builds its business on all the information you generate when you interact with it. Apple, too, has reasons for wanting to create a seamless ecosystem so you’re never tempted to leave iOS-land. A smart user doesn’t have to let either company get the upper hand, though—and based on my week with this experiment, there’s no reason to.
There are some things Apple does better than Google—certainly, at least, on iOS. But there are some things that Google does better, even on Apple’s own platform. Me? I don’t mind having a hybrid Apple-Google ecosystem to reach my max productivity, with just a touch of Microsoft thrown in.