6 Best Calendar Apps for Mac Users to Try Out in 2024

For Mac users, it's essential to find a user-friendly calendar app that works seamlessly with Mac devices. The right calendar app is essential for managing work, personal life, and important tasks, but with many options available, choosing the best one can be challenging. 

In this article, we'll highlight the best calendar apps for Mac users, discussing their features, drawbacks, pricing, and more.

What Should You Look for in a Calendar App for Mac?

Selecting the right calendar app for your Mac goes beyond the basics. While all calendar apps, including Apple's default one, cover the fundamentals, some are designed for pro users who need more than just a schedule overview. Our evaluation focuses on these key factors:

Ease of use. The user interface is crucial. How easy is it to add events and invite others? How well does the app handle tasks and integrate with productivity tools like to-do lists?

Design. A visually appealing interface can make managing your time more efficient. Effective time management becomes easier when the user interface is attractive and approachable.

Scheduling features. To elevate your time management, the chosen app should offer additional scheduling features beyond the standard ones. This ensures more efficient coordination, especially when planning with others.

Cost. Considering Apple provides a decent free default calendar app, the cost is a factor. The best calendar apps offer essential features at an affordable price.

Integrations. Compatibility with various calendar services (iCloud, Google, Exchange, etc.) is essential for macOS users. Seamless integration with other apps enhances event and task management.

Cross-platform sync. In a multi-device environment, a reliable calendar app should have an iOS version that syncs effortlessly across all your Apple devices. This ensures consistency in managing your schedule on different platforms.

The Best Calendar Apps for Mac Users to Stay Productive

Let's take a closer look at the 6 best calendar apps for Mac users and explore their features, pros and cons.

1. OneCal

OneCal is a tool for managing all your calendars (Google and Outlook) in one place. There's no need to switch between different accounts anymore; OneCal puts everything together for you. With its easy-to-use interface and reasonable pricing, staying organized becomes simpler and more cost-effective. Plus, you can try it free for 14 days (no credit card needed). Give it a try today.

App Highlights

Reviews: 4.9 out of 5 in G2

Ease of use: 9.7 out of 10 in G2

Price: Starting from $5/month

Free Trial: 14-day trial.

Main Features

Calendar view. With OneCal Calendar View, you can easily merge all your calendars in one view. This saves time, as you won't need to open other applications or calendars to view your schedule.

Share your availability with a link. Sharing your schedule via a link is an easy way to let others book time with you. What makes OneCal appointment scheduling valuable is that others can only book time with you when you're available, taking into account the availability from multiple calendars. OneCal allows you to get booked individually or invite your team to OneCal and get booked as a group.

Calendar synchronization. Managing multiple calendars has its downfalls, the greatest being that you are vulnerable to scheduling conflicts due to the fact that members in one calendar don't know if you have another booking in another calendar when booking time with you. OneCal Calendar Sync allows you to keep your calendars in sync automatically. As soon as an event is added to a calendar, OneCal clones it in your other calendars. This way, everyone knows your real availability.

Invite team members and assign roles. With OneCal, you can invite, organize, and pay for your team. They can use Calendar Sync and Collective Booking links and work together easily with collaborative features.

OneCal Drawbacks

• There is no mobile app yet. Even though you can use OneCal on your web browser, and the app is very mobile-friendly, it's worth noting that it doesn't have a mobile app yet.

OneCal Pricing

OneCal has four different plans that work for everyone. No matter if you are a freelancer, manager, or part of a big team, there is a plan for you.

• Starter: $5/user/month

• Essential: $10/user/month

• Premium: $30/user/month 

• Custom/Enterprise Plans: Contact for pricing

Note: If you bill annually, you get 20% OFF. View OneCal’s full pricing for more details.

2. Motion

Motion is a handy app that uses AI and automation to plan your scheduled meeting. With the platform, you can add tasks, meetings, and calendar events. As it gets to know you, thanks to its AI, it rearranges things based on what's important, deadlines, and how urgent they are.

App Highlights

Reviews: 4.2 out of 5 in G2

Ease of use: 7.8 out of 10 in G2

Price: Starting from $34/month

Free Trial: 7-day trial.

Main Features

Calendar scheduling. Motion’s intelligent calendar takes your meetings, tasks, to-do list, and activities and creates an optimized schedule to get them all done.

Meeting assistant. You can develop templates for various types of meetings, such as client calls, investor calls, and lead discussions. The app lets you tailor each template with specific meeting durations and personalized schedules.

Task management. You can set up recurring tasks, including daily or weekly assignments. Motion will allocate time slots on your calendar each day or week to accomplish them. You can execute tasks according to your schedule and establish and choose personalized time frames for tasks.

Motion Drawbacks

Although Motion offers useful features, it also has some downsides.

• Limited event reminder customization. Motion Calendar offers limited options for customizing event reminders, making it less flexible for catering to specific user needs.

• Limited flexibility in task management. Motion Calendar restricts flexibility by imposing certain frequencies and durations for tasks, and it lacks the ability to assign recurring tasks to a specific project. Also, the absence of a task duplication feature makes task management less efficient, requiring tasks to be created from scratch.

• Shorter free trial. Motion only offers a 7-day free trial, while OneCal provides a longer trial period of 14 days without requiring your credit card information. This may not give you enough time to test the tool fully.

• Higher starting price. Motion's starting price is $34 per month, which might be difficult for freelancers and small teams to afford. Consider trying OneCal instead, which starts at $5 per month. See OneCal’s full pricing here.

Motion Pricing

Motion does not offer a free plan, and the paid plan starts at $34/month.

• Individual: $34/month

• Team: $20/user/month

3. Any.do

Any.do is a convenient app for keeping everything in check. It’s also a daily planner and collaboration powerhouse. You can manage projects and timelines and create separate calendars for their personal and business needs. Any.do integrates with various calendars, including iCloud, ensuring syncing between your devices.

App Highlights

Reviews: 4.2 out of 5

Ease of use: 9 out of 10

Price: $5 per month (billed annually)

Free Trial: 7 days Free Trial for the Premium plan.

Main Features

To-Do lists. Create lists to tackle tasks efficiently, ensuring you stay focused and on top of your priorities.

Reminders. You can set reminders to never miss a crucial meeting or forget an important task, helping you stay on schedule.

Team collaboration. Task assignments, comments, and chat features foster seamless teamwork, enhancing communication and project progress.

Templates. You can easily streamline your workflow and boost productivity with customizable templates that kickstart your planning process.

Integrates with common calendars. With Any.do, you can seamlessly integrate with calendars such as iCloud and connect to over 5,000 other apps through Zapier for added functionality.

Any.do Drawbacks

• Limited team accommodation. The calendar app might struggle to accommodate larger teams, potentially posing challenges for organizations with extensive team structures.

• Restricted features and customization in the Free Plan. The free plan has limitations, offering fewer features and customization options. Users may need additional functionalities beyond the scope of the free version.

• The Premium plan offers a 7-day free trial. Any.do has 4 plans, but you can test only the premium one, which doesn't provide many features.

Any.do Pricing

Any.do has four plans, including the forever free plan.

• Free Plan: Personal

• Premium: $5 per month (billed annually)

• Family: $8 per month (billed annually)

• Teams: $8 per month (billed annually)

4. BusyCal

BusyCal is calendaring software compatible with most cloud services, such as Reminders, iCloud, Google, Exchange, and Office 365. The tool also connects to online conferencing tools, such as Google Meets, Zoom, Webex, and GoToMeeting, and keeps you in control of your schedule.

App Highlights

Reviews: 4.6 out of 5 on G2

Price: $49.99

Free Trial: 30-day trial.

Main Features

Manage calendars from multiple sources. With BusyCal, you have the ability to handle calendars from multiple sources. This means you can easily organize and keep track of your schedules from various platforms all within the BusyCal app. It allows you to see all your calendar events in one place, giving you a complete overview of your schedule.

Integration with conference platforms. BusyCal goes beyond scheduling by integrating with popular conference platforms like Zoom and Webex, streamlining the coordination of virtual meetings and events.

Task syncing with reminders app. BusyCal enhances task management by syncing with the Reminders app for Mac 10.14, ensuring a cohesive experience for users having multiple responsibilities.

BusyCal Drawbacks

• Frequent update notifications. Frequent update notifications can be bothersome, potentially causing users inconvenience.

• Comparatively high price. The pricing is relatively high when compared to other alternatives in the market.

BusyCal Pricing

• BusyCal: $49.99 - Purchase a new single-user 

• BusyContacts: $49.99 - Purchase a new single-user or multi-user perpetual license

• BusyCal + BusyContacts: $79.98

5. Calendly

Calendly is a simple and user-friendly scheduling platform designed for teams of any size. All you have to do is link your calendars, share your booking page, and let invitees pick a time that suits them.

App Highlights

Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 in G2.

Ease of use: 9.3 out of 10

Price: Starting from $12/seat/month

Free Trial: 14-day free trial only on Teams tier.

Main Features

Unlimited event types and meetings. Schedule various kinds of meetings with no limits – whether it's a quick 15-minute discovery call or a longer 30-minute in-person coffee chat.

Easy integrations: You can connect with tools like Hubspot, PayPal, Stripe, and many others to make your scheduling process even smoother.

Automated workflows. Set up automatic reminders, follow-ups, and messages for your events to ensure everyone stays on track and has a great experience without the hassle of no-shows.

View analytics and insights. You can discover trends like popular meeting days, top performers, and in-demand meeting types, all at a glance for better planning and understanding.

Calendly Drawbacks

While Calendly offers many features and benefits, some users are experiencing issues. 

• Complexity in one-off meeting planning. Planning one-off meetings may not be as simple as scheduling other time slots, posing a bit of a challenge for users looking for straightforward scheduling.

• Challenges with hybrid team integration. Integrating team members in a hybrid team, particularly when using round-robin scheduling, might be a bit tricky and needs thoughtful consideration to ensure smooth collaboration.

• Apple Calendar integration needs improvement. While Calendly integrates with Apple Calendar, there's room for improvement. Enhancements are needed to offer more detailed preferences for shared Apple calendars, providing users with a more tailored and seamless experience.

Calendly Pricing

• Free Plan

• Standard: $12/seat/month

• Teams: $20/seat/month

• Enterprise: Starts at $15k/year

6. ClickUp

ClickUp is a comprehensive task management tool available via web and mobile applications. It offers various features, including a user-friendly calendar interface, scheduling work tasks or managing personal reminders.

App Highlights

Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 on G2.

Ease of use: 8.5 out of 10

Price: Starting from $7/user/month.

Free Trial: No free trial.

Main Features

Calendar view for work schedule. ClickUp's calendar view helps you organize your projects, plan timelines, and visualize your team's work effortlessly on a flexible calendar, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Easy task scheduling. Any task with a start and/or due date automatically appears on your calendar. You can drag and drop tasks around to change dates. If a task has a time estimate set, dropping it into the calendar will allow it to span that specific amount of time.

Efficient filtering. With ClickUp, you can filter your schedules and projects, saving time and focusing on what's important. You can display subtasks in the Calendar view for a quick look at your work details.

ClickUp Drawbacks

• Occasional app lag. You might experience occasional app lag, which is especially noticeable after adding a new task. It's not a major issue, but there might be a slight delay before the task appears on the list or calendar, prompting a change of view.

• Limited flexibility in start and stop dates. There's some limitation in flexibility with start and stop dates, particularly for editorial calendaring. Users desire more options, like a specific "Publish Date," in addition to project start and stop dates, to enhance functionality.

• No free trial. While Clickup has a free plan still, no free trial for paid plans.

ClickUp Pricing

ClickUp has four plans tailored to your needs, including here the free plan. 

• Free Plan

• Unlimited: $7/user/month

• Business: $12/user/month

• Business Plus: $19/user/month

Simplify Your Schedule with OneCal: A User-Friendly Solution for All

While OneCal doesn't have its own mobile app just yet, it works smoothly on any web browser.

OneCal syncs multiple Google and Outlook calendars in just a few minutes. It handles your personal and work schedules without any hassles.

Unlike some other tools, OneCal is for everyone – whether you're an individual, part of a small team, or a big company.

Sign up today for free to experience the simplicity and effectiveness of OneCal.