The 4 Best Calendar Apps for Windows

No matter what you do at your office, university, or home, time is your most valuable resource. You need to make sure you're spending that time wisely, and your calendar is your budget. That's why it's so important to find the best calendar apps for work.

We considered and tested several dozen calendar apps to discover the best options. Here's what we found. We've prepared a list of what we consider to be the best options today, so we invite you to continue reading this post.

What makes a great calendar app?

Calendars, of course, show you your schedule. Every calendar app handles that; the best calendars, however, aren’t just functional. They give you clarity on how you spend your time, and some rare finds are even a joy to use.

When we decided to find out which were the best calendar apps, we focused on the tools that guarantee these features:

• Easy to use. Calendar apps are easy to use when they require minimal clicks and menu navigation. It's always a good thing if they are intuitive tools that don't demand a lot of attention.
• Designed with intention. Does the app do what it says it's going to do? And does it do it well? All calendars focus on showing you when you have an appointment, but do they really deliver on their promises to do more?
• Feature-packed and customizable. If you work as a developer and want to excel at your job, advanced features, views, and other integrations should help you get the most out of your calendar. For apps that don't have many features, we look for customization options that make the app fit your style.
• Easy to share. You probably don't work alone, and neither should your calendar. The best apps let you share appointments or even your entire calendar. We only considered apps that allowed sharing.
• Available for multiple devices. When considering apps for this list, we gave preference to apps that are accessible on more than one platform. Ideally, you should be able to view your calendar no matter where you are or what device you have on hand.

The best calendar apps

Please note that, for the most part, we focus on calendar platforms; we do not consider mobile- only or desktop applications designed primarily to sync with other services.

1.- Google Calendar (Android, iOS, Web)

Much of Google Calendar 's popularity stems from the fact that you can create multiple calendars in one place with a Google account and then transfer those entries to almost any other online calendar. Google Calendar also works with almost everything else on the market.

You can connect your Google Calendar not only to other calendar apps, but also to business apps and services that have calendars as part of their features, such as Trello and Asana.

Color coding for individual calendars makes it easy to see which area of ​​your life an event applies to. You can also show or hide calendars, so you can focus on specific types of events. As you'd expect from the company that started out as a search tool, Google Calendar offers excellent search capabilities.

It also integrates with Google Workplace (formerly G Suite) applications , allowing you to create a calendar event from Gmail, for example.

When used across an organization, Google Calendar gives you the ability to check your coworkers' schedules alongside your own. Inviting other people to your calendar is also a breeze. You can choose to share an entire calendar or just use the invite option to add people to an event.

Although there is no desktop application, the Google Calendar web app and mobile apps for Android and iOS are sufficient to keep schedules in order.

If you want a nicer user interface or more robust features, you can always connect Google Calendar to virtually any other app on this list.

2.- Microsoft Outlook Calendar

The most dedicated of calendar apps, Microsoft Outlook Calendar is more of a personal information manager than a place to check your next appointment. The desktop application unifies your calendar, email, notes, tasks, and contacts in a single view. Outlook's mobile apps aren't quite as comprehensive, but they do at least combine your calendar and email.

Outlook, part of Microsoft Office , lets you share calendars with teammates, and that's its real strength. With Exchange Server accounts and the appropriate permissions, team members can view and manage each other's schedules and subscribe to each other's calendars.

Outlook offers options to view multiple calendars at once: side by side or with calendars combined in an overlay view.

Even if you don't use Outlook within an organization, you might still appreciate the many features of the calendar. You can drag and drop an email onto the calendar icon in the navigation menu to turn it into an appointment (available only in the Windows app ), or quickly send a meeting invitation from email or the calendar. It also supports multiple time zone views. There's a lot to explore.

You can get a free online version of Outlook, called Outlook.com, which is more streamlined and has fewer features. Outlook.com allows family sharing, so you can add other household members to your account so others can access your calendar.

The Mac version of Outlook isn't as robust as the Windows version, but if you like having everything in one place, this is an all-in-one productivity tool to consider.

3.- Calendar.com

It's hard to think of a simpler name for a calendar than Calendar.com , but thankfully, that's not all this app has to offer. Everything you need to manage your appointments is here, in a site with a modern design and full support for collaboration. This is a well-thought-out app.

But it's not just a calendar app: It also works as an appointment scheduler. Sign up for Calendar.com and you'll get a public profile, such as calendar.com/michaelscott. You can set the times you're available and then allow anyone with the link to schedule an appointment with you.

There are many appointment scheduling apps that do this, but as far as we know, Calendar.com is the only full-featured calendar app that also offers a comprehensive scheduling feature like this. That alone makes it worth trying.

4.- Woven

At first glance, Woven doesn't look that different from other calendar apps. The main difference is in the left sidebar, next to your calendar. Click on an appointment and you'll see all the details there, instead of in a pop-up window. It's a subtle change, but it makes navigating your appointments much easier.

And this sidebar contains all sorts of information, most notably an Analytics tab . It breaks down all your appointments and shows you how you're spending your time: how many hours you have free for focused work, how many hours you spend in meetings, and even who you spend the most time with in meetings. There's even a note about the number of hours you spend on video calls.

Time is money. Woven does a good job of turning your calendar into a budget.

We hope that each of our recommendations is very useful for you. Once you try them, do not hesitate to tell us about your experience in our comments section. Also, if you want to stay informed, be sure to visit our portal where we have information of interest for you.