5 Best Calendar Apps for iPhone You Should Try

Calendars are important productivity tools, and while the default calendar app on the iPhone is good enough, sometimes you might need additional features. It’s times like these when we all turn to the App Store, looking for similar apps that have better functionality. However, the App Store has such a large number of apps, that it’s not easy to separate the good ones from the ones that are not worth your time. If you are looking for a calendar app for your iPhone, you’re in luck! I’ve dug through the internet and picked out these 7 apps (or at least one), that I think you’ll love. So, here are the 7 best calendar apps for iPhone:

1. Fantastical 2

Quite simply the best calendar app that iOS currently has (and it’s difficult to imagine something better), Fantastical 2 is the cremè de la cremè of calendar apps. If you’re looking for an app that will not only make it easy to schedule and manage tasks on your iPhone, but will make it something you’ll positively love doing, then look no further. At $4.99, I wouldn’t call the app inexpensive, per se, but it’s well worth the price.

The app starts off with a very well designed main screen, and shows all of your events, and reminders, in a neat looking table. You can swipe down on the “day ticker” to switch to “month view”, and again to switch back. One of the good things (and there are many) about Fantastical 2, is the fact that it displays your to-dos right alongside your events, because, well, where else should they be?

However, that’s not the best part about Fantastical 2. This is the best part – Fantastical 2 supports Natural Language for creating events and reminders; so you can type in something like “Flight to Lucknow on Sunday at 12:30”, and Fantastical will automatically create an event on Sunday, at 12:30, titled “Flight to Lucknow”. If you wanted to add a to-do, instead, you can simply toggle the switch from the “calendar icon” to the “tick mark icon”, and you’re done.

Another really great feature that Fantastical boasts of, is the awesome widget it has for iOS 10. Seriously, that widget is extremely useful, and can be toggled (“Show Less”, “Show More”) between a full size widget showing the entire month, and a smaller version, that only shows the next event that you have scheduled for the day. In the larger version of the widget, you can tap on individual days of the month to see the events you have on that day.

Aside from all of those great features, Fantastical 2 also offers a Dark Theme, and a lot more customisation than most other calendar apps do.

Install Fantastical 2 ($4.99)

2. Calendars by Readdle

Readdle has established themselves as one of the “go-tos” for productivity apps. If you doubt it, you should use their email app, “Spark”. The Calendars app, by Readdle is no different. To start with, it offers the ability to sync with both your Google Calendar, and the iCloud calendar. Then comes the home screen – it is simply great. All of your events are placed in the form of cards, that are color coded according to the calendar you added them to. Tap on an event and you’ll get a small pop-up with the details (provided you’re not like me, and you’ve actually added some).

The default view that the app opens up in, is the “Week view“, but you can switch between “List”, “Day”, “Week”, and “Month” views whenever you want. Also, if you prefer your calendar to open on the day view, or the month view, etc, you can easily adjust that in the settings. You just need to go to “View Options”, and change the default “Show on start” view from the list. Personally, I think the week view is amazing, and the day view is a close second. However, we all use our calendars differently, and you might prefer something else, which is why it’s a good thing that “Calendars” offers the ability to set the default view.

The app does support “Natural Language” for creating events, but it’s not available in the free version. You’ll have to upgrade to the pro version for that. However, the free version is pretty useful as it is. The pro version offers features such as a “task manager“, “invites and attendees”, the ability to set “recurring events“, etc, which brings me to my biggest complaint (and it was hard to find one) about this app. I think that the ability to create recurring events should not be something users should have to pay for. It’s one of the basic features of a calendar app, and one that the default app supports natively.

Install Calendars (Free, with In-app purchases)

Note: You can either buy the pro version of Calendars by Readdle, or if you so desire, you can simply purchase Calendars 5 (also by Readdle), which comes with all the features that the paid version of Calendars offers. The price, either way, will come in at $6.99

3. Timepage by Moleskine

Another really good calendar app for iOS, is Timepage. The Timepage app, developed by Moleskine, is a minimalistic take on calendars (which, usually are a cluttered mess).

Just launching the app, you’ll realise that it has been very meticulously crafted, to make the task of managing a calendar feel “as good as it possibly can”. The app is extremely well designed, and looks so good, you might just want to keep it open at all times. The timeline in the app is a continuous page, and you can simply scroll up and down till all eternity. Long pressing on a day in the timeline reveals the weather forecast for that day (as well as for the other days visible in the timeline).

You can also adjust the number of days that are visible on a single screen of the app, by pinching in and out to adjust the number from 3 – 10. I did, however, notice that the gestures were not always properly recognised, and more often than not, I ended up tapping on a day, instead; which leads me to the next great thing about Timepage. When you tap on a day in Timepage, you are taken to a page that shows all your events for that day. You can tap on these events to edit them, and if you press and hold on the “moon/sun” icon on the bottom, the app promptly displays the weather for the day, with a slider that you can move around to get predictions, as well.

Swipe right on the home screen, and you’ll see a month overview, with individual days colored light to dark based on how busy you’ll be (darker is busier, by the way…just in case you were wondering). Here, you can also tap on the little multi-colored dots on the bottom, to view events by individual calendars, such as your “Work” calendar, or your “Gmail” calendar, etc. It’s all very nicely animated, and the app works smoothly.

The app also comes with an Assistant, that you can access by swiping left on the home screen, and tapping on “Assistant”. Your assistant can warn you about rains, give you daily briefings, remind you to follow up with people and a lot more.

Install Timepage ($4.99)

4. Informant

Informant, previously known as Pocket Informant, is a calendar app that has a lot of power features, but comes with a little bit of a learning curve. Once you get to know how to use it, though, the app is rather great. One complaint that I do have with this app (and it’s a rather irritating one), is that it feels a little slow to respond, almost all the time. It’s not slow to the point of being sluggish, but it is visibly slow, nonetheless.

The app supports a variety of views, including “day”, “week”, and “month” view among many others. It also has a “year” view, where you can scroll up and down between years. I tried scrolling down to see what the last year it supported would be, but got tired at 2442. The point, though, is that it will last longer than your iPhone, you yourself, and most likely all of humanity, at the rate we’re going. So, you know, it’s got you covered.

Jokes apart, the app does offer some really great features, such as the ability to set multiple alarms for an event, which can come in useful if you keep forgetting things. You can also set custom colors for events, if that is something you want to do; however, the feature is only available if you upgrade to the pro version of the app. The free version sets the event color depending on the calendar you’re adding the event to. You can even set a passcode on the app, or use TouchID, if you don’t want any one else gaining access to your calendar for some reason.

The pro version of the app also offers a lot of other features such as the ability to add weather forecasts to the calendar, create custom event/task templates, printing, sharing, and a host of other features that you may find useful. You can unlock the full upgrade for $14.99, and the Power Feature Pack at $4.99.

Install Informant (Free, with In-app purchases)

5. Google Calendar

If you’re looking for a simple, free calendar that syncs with your Google account, then why not use Google’s own offering – Google Calendar? The app stays true to Google’s design philosophies, and displays your events throughout the day in nice, large, colored cards. While I’m usually against the Google designing on iPhone apps, this app carries it with style, and does it so well, you can’t hate it. Not for the UI/UX, at least.

The app supports a number of views ranging from day, and week, to a “3-day” view, and a month view, as well. The events are displayed in a neatly organised manner, and they do look really good. Plus, the calendar syncs with your gmail account, so all of your Google calendar events will be synced across devices.

The app allows you to customise your calendar to some extent, although not as much as Fantastical, or Calendars by Readdle do. You can change the day that will be treated as the start of the week, set a custom time zone, if you don’t want your device timezone to be used by default. There are some more settings that you can play around with, but don’t expect to be amazed by any of them.

The app is meant to be used as a calendar, and that’s all. You can easily add events, reminders, and even goals, simply by tapping on the pencil icon on the bottom right of the screen. Events, reminders, etc can even be set as recurring events, if you want. This is exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned “Calendars by Readdle”- repeating events is a fundamental feature in a calendar app, one that should not need to be paid for.

Install Google Calendar (Free)

Bonus: Rolo Calendar

aka: If you don’t like calendar apps, you might like this.

Rolo Calendar’s punch line goes something like “It’s a calendar for people who don’t like calendars”, and that is actually somewhat true. The app presents a completely new way of working with calendars, and days, weeks, even months, are displayed in the form of a ring with events filling them up. You can rotate the ring to move back and forth in time, and see what events are coming up next. The app is very simple, and doesn’t offer a lot of features, but it is compelling, nonetheless.

You can add new events to the calendar by tapping on the plus icon at the bottom of the screen, rotating the ring to select a start and an end time. Then, you get the option to select the kind of event that you’re creating; options vary from breakfast, and lunch, to meetings, appointments, and even parties. You can add a location to the event, and even add the people who will be attending the event with you.

That’s basically all that the app does, but it does it really well, and as far as simple calendars go, this might just be what you’re looking for. The app does stay true to it’s philosophy of being a calendar for people who hate calendars, but for people who love calendars, and for power users, the app will definitely feel underpowered.

Install Rolo (Free)

SEE ALSO: 7 Newton Mail (CloudMagic) Alternatives for Android and iPhone

Manage Your Day With These Calendar Apps

With calendar apps as powerful as the ones mentioned on this list, managing your day will definitely become an easy task (pun intended). All of these apps are very good, in their own way, and you will definitely find one that meets your requirements in this list, be it power features, natural language capabilities, or just a simple free calendar app that syncs with your Google account; we have covered them all. So, which calendar app do you like the best? Also, if you know of a calendar app for the iPhone that you think deserves to be on this list, do let us know about it in the comments section below.