The 7 best free online calendars for 2024

Online calendars make it easy to manage and organize your schedule, appointments, events, and tasks. At their most basic, online calendar apps offer features like:

• Creating, editing, and deleting events

• Automating event reminders and notifications

• Sharing calendars with others

• Syncing across multiple devices

Many online calendars also offer meeting and appointment scheduling tools that sync with your personal and professional calendars. You can share your availability with others and find a time to meet in just a few clicks — no back-and-forth emails or calendar cross-referencing required.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose the right online calendar for your needs. We’ll also walk through seven of the top online calendars currently available — all of which offer free plans!

What to look for in an online calendar

As you consider different options, keep these questions in mind:

1. Is it easy to use? The more intuitive the software, the sooner you’ll be able to get organized! Your online calendar should be easy to set up and navigate for you, your teammates, and anyone booking time with you, so everyone has a great experience. For example, automatic time zone detection makes it simple to collaborate across locations without having to do the mental math.

2. Does it sync with other calendars? If you use Apple Calendar for your personal life, and an Outlook calendar at work, you run the risk of double-booking. Look for a tool that syncs with multiple calendars, so meetings don’t get scheduled over important events (or vacations!).

3. How much control do I have over my schedule? Scheduling software should give you more control over your calendar, not less. Look for a tool that lets you set the number of meetings per day, which holidays are blocked off, how close together meetings can be, and how far in advance meetings must be scheduled.

4. Can I schedule and manage different kinds of events? Some calendar apps only work for scheduling internal meetings, while others are focused on a single use case, like managing a family calendar or booking one-on-one appointments. If you need to schedule a variety of events with different combos of people, look for a calendar with flexible group scheduling, shared calendars, and multiple event types. 

5. How customizable is it? Can you customize your calendar and event communications? Some calendar apps built for teams let admins set templates for calendar events and pre- and post-meeting communications.

6. Can I use it across devices? Mobile apps and browser extensions make it extra simple to manage your schedule whenever and wherever you need. Look for a scheduling tool that works across desktop and mobile devices.

7. What can I automate? Does the tool send automatic event confirmations, reminders, and other notifications via SMS and email? What about follow-up communications? Different apps offer different levels of automation, from simple reminders to more advanced workflows.

8. Does it integrate with the other tools I use? You can have top-notch software, but if your tools don’t play well together, you’ll miss out on opportunities to keep info organized and get more done. For example, if you host meetings on Zoom, look for a calendar app that automatically adds Zoom meeting details to new events.

7 online calendars to manage your busy schedule

1. Calendly

Calendly is a scheduling app that makes it easy to manage your schedule, share your availability, and find meeting times without all the back-and-forth. Users connect their calendar(s) and share their booking link, and invitees can instantly choose from available times. Real-time availability means you never have to worry about double bookings.

For professional teams of all sizes, Calendly’s team scheduling features bring the right combination of people together at a time that works for everyone — whether you’re booking sales calls, internal team brainstorms, product demos, vendor and partner meetings, or all of the above. 

Calendly features

• Automatically block off holidays, avoid back-to-back and last-minute bookings, and set custom schedules.

• Share your calendar by embedding meeting availability in emails, LinkedIn messages, and more.

• Use Calendly wherever you work with Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and LinkedIn extensions and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

• Find the best time for one-off meetings with up to 40 people via Meeting Polls. Once everyone votes, you choose the best time, Calendly schedules the meeting for you and automatically sends calendar invites and meeting details to everyone who voted.

• Integrate Calendly with the tools you use every day, including calendar apps (Google Calendar, Outlook, Exchange, Office 365), video conferencing, marketing tools and CRMs, payment processing, and workflow automaton. 

Calendly pricing

Calendly has four pricing tiers:

• Free plan: Includes one connected calendar, one meeting types, Meeting Polls, event confirmation emails, and more

• Standard: $10 per user per month (billed annually)

• Teams: $16 per user per month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger organizations that need advanced security, control, and customer support

Explore Calendly’s Teams features with a 14-day free trial.

2. Google Calendar

Google Calendar is the go-to calendar app for Gmail users and teams using Google Workspace. You can access Google Calendar via any internet browser or download a dedicated app for Android, iPhone, or iPad. Google Calendar also offers appointment scheduling features.

Google Calendar features

• View multiple calendars at once, color-code your work and personal events, and view your schedule by the hour, day, week, or month.

• Automatically add new events from your Gmail inbox to your calendar.

• Create group calendars to keep team members on the same page about upcoming events and recurring meetings.

• See teammates’ availability side-by-side to find time slots that work for internal meetings.

• Automatically add Google Meet or Zoom video conferencing details to virtual events.

• Connect Google Calendar with the organization and communication tools you use every day, like Slack, ClickUp, and Asana.

If you want to get more out of your Google Calendar, you can connect Calendly for free. Calendly makes it easier to share your Google Calendar availability, book multi-person meetings with any combination of attendees, and automate the admin tasks around scheduling.

(See how Google Calendar compares to Calendly.)

Google Calendar pricing

Basic Google Calendar features are available for free to anyone with a Google account.

To access all of Google Calendar’s appointment scheduling options, your business needs a Google Workspace subscription. (All plans require a one-year commitment.)

• Business Starter: $6 per user per month

• Business Standard: $12 per user per month

• Business Plus: $18 per user per month

• Enterprise: Custom pricing

3. Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, and Bookings)

Microsoft 365 is a suite of business tools, including Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Bookings, and Outlook email and calendar. There are a few ways to create, manage, and share calendars within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Microsoft 365 features

• Outlook Calendar: Create dedicated calendar folders for specific teams or projects, share your entire calendar with people inside or outside your organization, and set permissions for other users to edit your events and appointments.

• Use Microsoft Teams channel calendars to create shared calendars for team events and project deadlines. This option works best for small, internal-only teams.

• When booking an internal meeting via Teams, use Microsoft Teams Scheduling Assistant to see attendees' time zones, schedules, and availability during different time slots.

• Use Microsoft Bookings to create an online booking page where customers and clients can schedule appointments in just a few clicks. Your scheduling page shows availability based on your Outlook calendar.

• Schedule on the go with Outlook and Teams apps for Android and iOS.

If your organization works in Microsoft 365 and needs more flexible scheduling options, consider adding Calendly to the mix. Calendly syncs with your Outlook calendar, offers an Outlook add-in for email, and integrates with Microsoft Teams for video conferencing.

Microsoft 365 pricing

If you don’t need any professional team scheduling features, you can sign up for a free personal email and calendar via Outlook.

Microsoft 365 for business offers three pricing tiers:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 per user per month (billed annually)

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user per month (billed annually)

• Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $22 per user per month (billed annually)

All plans include a one-month free trial.

4. Cozi

If you’re looking for a way to manage your family’s busy schedule, Cozi helps keep everyone on the same page about upcoming events, appointments, holidays, vacations, to-do lists, and more.

Cozi features

• See a daily agenda at a glance with Cozi Today

• Add color-coded sub-calendars for each family member

• Create meal plans and grocery lists with the Recipe Box & Dinner Planner feature

• Use Cozi wherever you are with iPhone, Android, and web browser apps

• Automatically remind family members about upcoming events

• Connect Google, Apple, and Outlook calendars to push read-only versions of events to/from Cozi

Cozi pricing

Cozi offers an ad-supported free version with basic features. You can upgrade to ad-free Cozi Gold for extra features like calendar search, multiple reminders, mobile calendar month view, and birthday tracker.

5. ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management tool with calendar features that help teams stay on top of project timelines.

ClickUp features

• Organize projects and visualize deadlines with Calendar, Gantt, Workload, and Timeline calendar views. Filter by day, week, or month to get a high-level view of team and individual workloads.

• Drag-and-drop tasks across a date range to instantly (re)schedule time for any task.

• Build customized timesheets to see where your team’s time was spent. Mark time as billable to easily track invoices.

• Share a project calendar with teammates in just a few clicks, or easily get a URL to share public calendars.

• Sync with iCloud calendar, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook calendar to get a complete picture of your schedule.

• Integrations: Connect over 1,000 other work tools, including Calendly, Slack, and Loom.

ClickUp’s calendar functionality gives you a timeline of projects, tasks, and due dates, but there’s no real-time scheduling feature. Good news: You can integrate ClickUp with Calendly for the best of both worlds! Plan, prepare for, and follow-up on meetings scheduled via Calendly alongside your other ClickUp projects and tasks.

ClickUp pricing

ClickUp offers four pricing plans:

• Free 

• Unlimited: $7 per member per month (billed annually)

• Business: $12 per member per month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: Custom pricing

All plans come with a 14-day free trial.

6. Apple Calendar

Apple Calendar — sometimes called iCloud Calendar or iCal — is the built-in calendar on iOS and Mac devices. It syncs across Apple devices via iCloud, so you can see your up-to-date schedule wherever you are.

Apple Calendar features

• Create and color-code calendars for work, personal, family, and more

• Automatically add events from emails and text messages to your calendar

• Connect other iCloud, Google, Outlook, or Yahoo calendars to see all of your events at a glance

• Invite attendees from your Contacts app

• Customize event reminders for set intervals and/or based on travel time

Apple Calendar pricing

Apple Calendar is available for free on iOS and Mac devices and iCloud.com. 

7. Zoho Calendar 

Zoho offers a wide range of business apps, including CRMs, marketing tools, HR platforms, and team collaboration software. Zoho Calendar is an online business calendar that works best for internal team meetings. The tool works similarly to Google Calendar.

Zoho Calendar features

• See teammates’ availability when booking a meeting, so you can find times that work for everyone

• Create shared calendars to keep teammates on the same page about upcoming events and projects

• Manage multiple calendars from a single dashboard

• Automate email and pop-up reminders 

• Sync with other calendars using the native Google Calendar integration or a HTTP-based protocol called CalDAV (Apple Calendar, Thunderbird Calendar, Outlook, etc.)

Zoho also offers a separate appointment scheduling platform designed for sales teams: Zoho Bookings. Customers and prospects can self-schedule meetings from your booking page.

Zoho Calendar pricing

Zoho Calendar is available for free.

Zoho Bookings is included in the Zoho One app suite. If you want to sign up for Zoho Bookings on its own, there's a limited free plan (one-on-one, online meetings only). Paid plans start at $6 per user per month, billed annually.

Take control of your schedule

Whether you’re booking one-on-one client calls, coordinating big team meetings, or wrangling family members’ schedules, the right online calendar makes scheduling easier and faster. Take Calendly, for example: A study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that Calendly saved a composite organization more than 9,000 hours over three years.

That means spending less time emailing back-and-forth or cross-referencing calendars — and more time connecting with the people that matter.