Google Calendar

Google Calendar

Updated May 8, 2026
Awardedby editors.

Fast Event Capture, Purposeful Design, Smart Features, Scheduling, and AI Assistance

Google Calendar
Google Calendar screenshot
FTC
Review
Comparison11

Review Summary

Review Summary

Google Calendar is the core foundation for all the best calendar and daily planners on the market. If you're a business, you should be using Google Calendar. Although we recommend using a tool on top of it for a better user experience.

Best Scheduling Software? (Calendly vs Cal.com vs SavvyCal vs Chili Piper vs TidyCal)

Best Scheduling Software? (Calendly vs Cal.com vs SavvyCal vs Chili Piper vs TidyCal)

Google Calendar Alternatives

Google Calendar Alternatives

Not sure if Google Calendar is the right fit for you? Check out these alternatives:

  1. Superhuman Mail
    Superhuman Mail

    Best calendar for those already using Superhuman Mail

    Best calendar for those already using Superhuman Mail
  2. Sunsama
    Sunsama

    Best pen and paper alternative

    Best pen and paper alternative
  3. Motion
    Motion

    Best AI calendar that schedules tasks around meetings

    Best AI calendar that schedules tasks around meetings

What is Google Calendar?

What is Google Calendar?

Google Calendar, while is just the official google calendar app that comes with your Google account (Google Workspace and Gmail) is also the foundation of some of the best calendar apps and best daily planner apps on the market.

So view Google Calendar more as a foundation to be built atop of, versus it being the end-all be-all calendar app for your business. It is a direct competitor to Outlook calendar in Microsoft Outlook and Apple calendar.

Who is Google Calendar for?

Who is Google Calendar for?

Everyone! Billions of people around the world use Google Calendar.

Key Features

Key Features

Calendar

Calendar

While Google calendar is a great foundation, it's not the nicest looking calendar app out there. Google Calendar has looked the same for the past 6+ years, but it's because they are building the web app, android app, and iOS app for billions of users. With that, they can't be that innovative without upsetting many users.

Scheduling

Scheduling

When comparing something like Motion vs Google Calendar, you see first-hand how basic scheduling is when it comes to Google Calendar. In-fact, we wrote an entire post comparing these three scheduling apps when Google recently released their Appointment Scheduling functionality.

Task Management

Task Management

Google Calendar does have Google Tasks which is used for basic time blocking.

Integrations

Integrations

Google Calendar integrates deeply with other Google Workspace features like Google Meet. For example, when creating a new event, you can have it automatically create a Google Meet and attach it to the event for all guests to be able to access. This is a feature that you can disable in settings if you primarily do in-person events or use a different software like Zoom or Dialpad Meetings.

Pricing

Pricing

Google Calendar is free.

Final Verdict

Final Verdict

We understand that many people using Google Calendar might just be using it for personal use and not for work, so pricing might be more of a concern in that case. If so, and you're looking for a free alternative to Google Calendar for improving your calendar view experience (e.g. weekly view, day view, and creating a new event, viewing multiple calendars, basic time management), then your best bet would be to check out our best calendar apps list.

Categories

Categories

Google Calendar fits into multiple categories based on what it actually helps you do. Each category highlights a different strength and the efficiency points it earned, helping you compare tools not just by features, but by how well they actually perform.

CalendarMain
Scheduler

Keep exploring the best software across categories, or explore Google Calendar alternatives