Vimcal vs Google Calendar

Vimcal markets itself as "the calendar for people with too many meetings." It’s an iOS-focused calendar aimed at helping heavy schedulers, mainly executive assistants, coordinate complex meetings more efficiently.

We initially loved the idea of Vimcal, as they are trying to portray themselves as the "Superhuman of calendar," and we love Superhuman Mail. The thing is, they missed the mark on what actually makes Superhuman Mail special in our eyes.

Vimcal confuses "productivity" with having keyboard shortcuts for everything (talking about every single UI component). This is at the cost of simplicity, making Vimcal feel quite a bit more overwhelming and over-engineered than it needs to be.

Where Vimcal has tried to differentiate themselves is becoming a calendar + scheduler for EAs in one (e.g. helping EAs coordinate meetings across timezones with 5-10+ participants). We've covered their scheduling capabilities on our best scheduler list.

• Natural language event creation
• Free iOS calendar app
• Better design than Google Calendar

• iOS-only (no Android support)
• iOS app can feel laggy/buggy
• Over-engineered interface with too many shortcuts

You can type things like “Coffee tomorrow with Alex,” and Vimcal will try to parse the event details and pull contacts from your phone.

This is one of the main reasons I downloaded it on my phone, since most calendar apps don't have this feature.

When it works, it works and feels delightful. But an annoyingly, it doesn't always work.

For example, saying "meeting Alex for coffee" doesn't work, but if I write "meeting with Alex for coffee" then it does. These little details make it quite frustrating to use, because I expect it to work, and when it doesn't and I'm left cleaning up the calendar event it just starts to make me wonder why I'm even using it in the first place.

Vimcal makes scheduling across time zones easy with its "Time Travel" view.

Instead of doing mental math to convert times, you can shift the calendar across time zones and see what time it is for someone else and where your work hours overlap.

It also highlights shared availability windows, so you can quickly find meeting times that work for everyone. You can also switch between multiple time zones directly in the calendar.

Vimcal is free on iOS, but you need to upgrade to use it on desktop. This is their "lead magnet" which we'd say is quite smart.

• Free (iOS Only): Free forever. Best for individuals who only need a simple personal calendar on iPhone.
• iOS & Desktop: $20/mo per user ($200/yr or $16.67/mo billed yearly). Best for founders, executives, and professionals who schedule frequently and want booking links, polls, team scheduling, and desktop apps.
• Enterprise: Unlisted. Includes dedicated support, SAML SSO, and advanced security controls for teams and organizations.
• Vimcal EA: $70/mo per user ($750/yr or $62.50/mo billed yearly). Best for executive assistants scheduling on behalf of executives with advanced delegation, calendar holds, and scheduling analytics.

Google Calendar is the official calendar app that comes with your Google account (along with Google Workspace and Gmail). You can schedule events, set task reminders, and share your calendar with others, all the stuff you'd expect from a calendar.

For most people, Google Calendar is more than enough. But the truth of the matter is, it’s built for the masses, which means the interface is cluttered and it's less thoughtfully designed than newer purpose built calendar apps. It 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 tons of their users. Move one button and the whole world is up in arms.

Its biggest strength is being the universal backbone of some of the best calendar apps and best daily planner apps on the market.

• Works on desktop, iOS, and Android
• Deep integration with Gmail and Google Workspace
• Allows multiple calendars in one place
• Serves as the backbone for most third-party calendar apps
• Excellent mobile app experience

• UI feels built for the masses (can feel cluttered)

Many calendar apps on this list rely on Google Calendar as a foundation for syncing, permissions, and event management. If you upgrade to another calendar app later, you'll still be using Google Calendar underneath.

While Google Calendar is a great foundation, it's not the nicest-looking calendar app out there.

Google Calendar is the most feature-rich calendar you can get, and they've done a great job of integrating natively with Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Workspace. So that means it's easy to create events directly from emails, gaining it some productivity points. You can also attach Meet links automatically and share calendars across teams, essentially locking you into their ecosystem.

Google Calendar’s mobile app is one of the best free calendars. It almost seems like they put more care and effort into the mobile app because the UI is very clean and responsive compared to desktop or web.

• Free: For those who have created a Google account
• Included in Google Workspace plans (Business Starter, Standard, Plus, Enterprise — pricing varies by tier)