8 best free calendar apps for desktop and mobile in 2023

Published on

June 15th, 2023

Author

What makes an excellent free calendar app?

A great free calendar app should be fun to use above all else!

Many of the apps featured on this list have free versions and paid subscriptions, so read on to learn about the unique features of each app and have fun exploring your favorite options on your own.

Before hitting that download button, here are some things to think about:

Cross-device data syncing is an essential feature for a great calendar app. If you frequently have to update, cancel or reschedule your events, make sure to know how your calendar apps talk to each other for data syncing.
Easy to use: Whether you are a get-in-and-get-out kind of person or you devote time to your calendar planning sessions, a great calendar app must be easy to use.
Clean interface: Visual clutter can be distracting and it’s best to look for an app with a simple interface. Your calendar shouldn’t make you squint to find your meeting details.
Integrations with other apps: Folks who want to upgrade their business calendars might want to pay close attention to app integrations with task management tools, video conferencing apps, and scheduling tools.

Best free calendar apps 2023

1. Morgen

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS

Morgen

I began using Morgen this year and I’ve been loving it so far. The app neatly combines task management, time blocking, scheduling, and calendar events into a pretty interface for desktop, and now on mobile if you’re a paid subscriber. The free-forever plan is sufficient for basic calendering with a single email client.

The app connects to external calendar apps like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Office365, Exchange, and more! For task tracking, you can connect Todoist, Google Tasks, Zapier, Microsoft To Do, and even more popular task management apps are coming soon.

Morgen doesn’t require a credit card to try out the free version of the app and you can get a great sense of the functionality and features for free. Users who want to connect additional email accounts or access more features can easily upgrade for $4 per month.

What users are saying:

“Really enjoyed the experience, and think it's great how quickly their product team iterates and takes customer feedback into consideration!”

- Morgen review, Alex J

2. Timepage by Moleskin Studio

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and macOS

Moleskin Studio

Minimalist design meets must-have features in Timepage by Moleskin Studio. This app offers a free trial and approachable paid plans starting at $2.49 per month. The colors can be fully customized to your preferences and calendar views include month, week, and day views. Timepage is available across all Apple devices including Apple Watch and iPad. Sorry Android users, but this one is not for you.

One of the best features of Timepage is the Daily Briefing notifications on iPhone. Each morning the app sends a high-level schedule overview of your day including the number of calendar events on your schedule and the time and event details of your first event. You can also get weather updates via the app to help you plan accordingly and make your appointments.

The free trial is one week and if you don’t decide to purchase the app, you can still view your events in read-only mode. You won’t be able to make changes to events but you’ll still receive event reminders and eye-pleasing calendar views.

What users are saying:

“This looks fantastic. I'd expect nothing less from the Moleskine.”

- Timepage by Moleskin Studio review, Micah G

3. Google Calendar

Platforms: Desktop, Android, ioS

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is perhaps the reigning king of free calendar apps. With millions of users already using the app and tons of features, this default calendar is the preferred pick for good reason.

Google Calendar makes it easy to share your calendars, create different calendars, and easily link your virtual events to meeting links via Google Meet.

Apple users and Android users get an equaly pleasing app and desktop experience, too. You can easily create events, set reminders, and even use Google Calendar on your Apple Watch. Yay!

4. Amie

Platforms: Desktop, ioS

Amie

Can productivity apps be fun? Amie can turn you into a believer! The app is colorful and easy to use for task management and events. Break out your to-dos by when they’re due and drag and drop them onto your calendar to make time to get things done.

To make things more fun, Amie connects to your Spotify account to track the music you listened to in your calendar. The app is new to the calendar market so there are still some bugs to be worked out. Users have to request access to try the app for free but it shouldn’t take long to get an invite.

What users are saying:

“It's docked, both on macOS and iOS. That should tell you everything — it's that good, and my daily driver. No more calendar or to-do list apps, and no more calendly links.”

- Amie review, Lukas K

5. Fantastical

Platforms: Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch

Fantastical

Fantastical is a feature-rich calendar app for power users. Users love the natural language event creation features and beautiful calendar views including your day, week, month, quarter, and year.

Year view creates a heat map of your events so you can see when you have a lot of events throughout the year. Weather updates are built into the calendar, too so you can dress and plan accordingly for your day.

The free version of this app is impressive compared to other default calendars. You can connect to your Todoist tasks, customize home screen widgets on your phone, and connect multiple calendar accounts to manage everything in one place. The mobile app experience is also really smooth and you can swipe to delete events and clean up your schedule.

What users are saying:

“I'm so excited to see that they've made it a single app across all platforms, supporting the same features. The biggest thing (for me) is supporting Google resources on mobile for booking rooms and the robust ability to see coworker availability. Thanks for the major upgrade!”

- Fantastical review, Daniel A

6. Routine

Platforms: Mac, Windows, iPhone

Routine

The free version of Routine can do some heavy lifting for your time management. The obvious calendar functions like creating and managing events are a given, but then they throw in note-taking, time blocking for tasks, task management, contact management, and a beautiful dashboard.

The app is currently only available for Google accounts and they’re still working on a mobile version. Free users can get up to two app integrations like Notion, Slack, Trello, Zapier, Asana, and more coming soon!

What users are saying:

“I have been looking for a todo list like Routine for a decade! I used to have a notion page where I created my weekly planner and manually dragged and dropped my tasks for every day of the week. Now with Routine, I can automate this process and document all these tasks well!”

- Routine review, Ben S

7. Outlook

Platforms: Desktop, Android, iOS

Outlook

You can’t leave Outlook out of the mix when talking about the best free calendar apps. It’s powerful, easy to use, and integrated well with other Microsoft products. From a feature standpoint, you get all the basics within Outlook. Manage your events, tasks, contacts, recurring events, sharing calendars, and even color-coding. You can also integrate with other calendars like Google Calendar to bring your external calendars into Outlook if you wish.

Other powerful features allow users to track their time, delegate calendar access and email to others, set up rules to automatically process emails, and add filters to keep junk mail at bay.

What users are saying:

“So many feels, I've been using it for at least a week, and I love for the following: - clean UI and UX. - it has thumb reader for security”

- Outlook review, Suzanne N

8. Cron

Platforms: macOS, Windows, web, and iOS

Cron

Cron is a free, powerful, and meticulously designed calendar app available on desktop and mobile devices. The one-click join options for meetings save you time fumbling with your calendar and the time zone displays are clean and easy to read.

You can use Cron to manage your tasks and contacts and the app supports multiple calendars to merge your personal and work schedules. Right now Cron is only available for Google accounts but support for other platforms will hopefully be coming soon.

What users are saying:

“Cron is an amazing calendar app that has truly revolutionized the way I schedule and join virtual meetings. The sidebar feature on the right is particularly helpful, displaying all the information about an event in one place with a special emphasis on the main action, such as a Zoom call. The commands are also great and make scheduling effortless. Highly recommend giving it a try!”

- Cron review, Joseph A

Comments (18)

André J @sentry_co

What about gcal?

Jun 24, 2023

Dmitry Zinenko @dmitry_zinenko1

Great!

Jun 19, 2023

LawRachel @rachel_law

I've been using Cron for 3 months and it does help me organize my time. I tried Outlook and Google Calendar before, but they both failed because they are so integrated with other things, distracting me on trivial things.

Jul 3, 2023