What are the best calendar apps for UNIX-like systems?

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Jan 29, 2024

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Updated

Calendar vs OSMO vs Evolution

vs Calcurse vs KOrganizer vs Google Calendar vs Orage vs Lightning Calendar vs California vs Rainlendar vs Deepin Calendar vs Proton calendar vs When vs khal vs gsimplecal vs gcalcli vs Remind vs Maya vs ical vs MineTime vs Morgen

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IMAP

Exchange Support

POP3

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Linux

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Yes

IMAP

Yes

Exchange Support

Yes

POP3

Yes

Multi-Account

Yes

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Exchange Support

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IMAP

Exchange Support

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Windows, Linux, Mac

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Exchange Support

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IMAP

Exchange Support

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Linux

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GPL

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Multi-Account

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Windows, Mac, Linux,

Search

IMAP

Exchange Support

POP3

Multi-Account

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Publisher

Morgen AG

Supported Calendars

Google, Exchange, Office 365, iCloud, CalDAV

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Exchange Support

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Pros + Cons

Pro
Currently in active development

GNOME Calendar is improved with every release cycle of GNOME.

Comment

Pro
Simplicity

Calendar for GNOME aims to find the perfect balance between features and usability.

Comment

Pro
Synchronisation

It has online accounts integration.

Comment

Con
Poor interoperability with online calendars

Does not connect to Fastmail.

Comment

Con
FAR too tied into the GNOME infrastructure

The UI and configuration presume you are running GNOME, and has the ugliness of a GNOME application. Configuration, as is usual for any GNOME application, is pretty much nonesistent.

Comment

Con
Can't read 'all-day' events with dark theme

Text is white on light blue with dark themes. The workaround: assign all-day events to just one hour.

Comment

Con
Continues to pop-up reminders that are turned off and they cannot ever be removed

The GNOME Calendar displays pop-ups from an old Google Calendar that was used. That Google Calendar has long since been removed from GNOME, and even with the notifications turned off on the GNOME Calendar, the pop-ups still happen.

Comment

Con
Incorrect appointment times when importing .ics calendars

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Con
No support yet for WebCal

No support yet for WebCal, such as those offered by Facebook events. A workaround exists. Since this application uses the same background services as Evolution, installing it and adding the WebCal calendars there, also adds them to GNOME Calendar.

Comment

Con
Google Authentication is Insecure

California uses the less secure authentication with Google. Requires less secure options enabling within Google Apps.

Comment

Con
Local only

No synchronization with remote calendars (neither built-in, nor with helpers like vdirsyncer).

Comment

Con
Crashes suddenly due to segmentation fault

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Comment

Pro
Nice GUI

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Comment

Pro
Sync multiple calendars at once

Evolution allows for multiple calendars to be synced and viewed, even multiple Google account calendars. All one needs is their log-in information and they will be set.

Comment

Pro
Manages contacts, tasks, calendar and memos as well

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Comment

Pro
Ability to change event status

Tentative, Confirmed and Cancelled

Comment

Pro
Excellent GPG support

The integration with GPG is excellent. You can sign, encrypt, decrypt, authenticate and verify GPG signatures and GPG signed/encrypted email messages. All of that is just a setting away.

Comment

Con
Too complex

Although good and well integrated with GNOME, this application also offers email and contacts. If you are looking for an only Calendar application, this is too much for you.

Comment

Pro
Works with vcal calendars, such as Nextcloud

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Comment

Con
Poor integration in any non-GNOME desktop

It is written with GNOME in mind.

Comment

Pro
Supports exchange servers

Evolution is one of the few Linux desktop e-mail clients that's supports exchange servers.

Comment

Pro
Great integration with Gnome environment

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Comment

Con
Can be wobbly with EWS

Don't be surprised if you have to reboot it a couple of times during a working day, because error messages are piling up (e.g. connection lost, can't sync, can't store appointment, read only). Then again, is this Evolution, or what it connects to? And since such an occasional reboot is dwarfed by the fact that MS365 seems to make full IMAP/ SMTP access (close to) impossible (nice meeting invite, THX, but when is it?), just reboot and get some work done...

Comment

Con
RAM heavy

Very heavy on RAM usage.

Comment

Pro
Clean interface with 2 layout variants

Going to View > Preview has the option of switching between "Classical View" and "Vertical View".

Comment

Pro
HTML rendering is great

Of the many email clients available on GNU/Linux, Evolution has the best HTML renderer. It renders HTML and the entire email content exactly like it would appear on a full blown web browser. Not many email clients are capable of doing that.

Comment

Con
Tied to Gnome

Pulls in Gnome.

Comment

Pro
Good support for Google's services

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Comment

Con
Only available on Linux

If you have to switch to another platform for whatever reason, you will need to search for a different email client.

Comment

Con
It's fat, bloated, and too dependent on fat, bloated Gnome

Installing pulls in too much Gnome dreck to be fast and efficient. Try Thunderbird instead there's less overhead.

Comment

Con
Calendar too basic

No color coding for events which is essential for daily use

Comment

Con
Broken CalDAV Support

Does not connect to Fastmail.

Comment

Con
Can't choose different settings for each mail account

Settings have to applied to all mail accounts.

Comment

Con
Does not allow one to view notes attached to Google Calendar events

There is no way to see attached notes in a synced Google Calendar event, so if there is important information contained withing those notes using Evolution will mean the user will never see them.

Comment

Con
Broken Gmail support

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Comment

Con
Not made for app users

If you come to any professional or console software, expecting it to just behave like your Windows GUI apps, … you’re gonna have a bad time. You will need to know what you want, and actually tell the program so, by configuring it. So that then, it will fit you like a glove instead, of you having to fit into a dumbest common denominator mold. Like all professional software.

Comment

Pro
Supports arbitrary backends

E.g. CalDAV. Via its load/save hooks.

Comment

Pro
Efficient

Uses very few resources, starts in the blink of an eye.

Comment

Pro
Scriptable

You can use it in scripts via its command-line interface, and run scripts from it via hooks. So you can automate everything away, instead of being forced to use a GUI. A powerful feature.

Comment

Pro
Fully customizable

Shortcuts, data sources, you name it. As real software should be.

Comment

Con
No built-in help

The “help” function only tells you that you can use help on the program’s functions. But not what functions there are! How can you know what to ask for when you don’t know what there is? It’s like a text adventure game or Family Feud all over again.

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Con
Keybindings also used by certain graphical terminals

The keybindings of either program have to be changed in that (rare) case.

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Pro
Simplicity

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Pro
Multi-category

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Pro
Long-time support

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Pro
Integrated into KDE

It can be used by clicking on the datetime in the bottom right corner.

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Pro
Imports well from Google Calendar

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Pro
Easy and intuitive to use

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Con
Search events by text shows empty results for existing events

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Con
Has issues with recurring events with exceptions

Has trouble with recurring events that have exceptions to them. If recurring even has an exception to the pattern at some point KOrganizer seems to not display any of the recurring events. Thus making it useless for complex calendars. After verifying that the akonadi back end did have the full set of events, KOrganizer just does not interpret them correctly.

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Con
Does not connect to secure CalDAV server

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Con
Does not connect to Fastmail

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Con
Crashes even whilst trying to launch the app

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Con
Crashes when trying to add new event

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Con
Requires KDE

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Con
Privacy concerns

Google integrate all their services to connect and mine information on an individual to better profile and target advertising.

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Con
Web app

No native application with native notifications and such available.

Comment

Pro
Integrates well with other Google services

Google Calendar is part of the Google ecosystem, it integrates with services like Google Now, Google Maps and Gmail.

Comment

Con
Proprietary web app

Being that this is a Google app it is proprietary which means Google holds full control of the app. Though there are APIs there is no official app on offer other than a Chrome Webstore app and the webpage. This can limit how one uses the official interface of the app.

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Con
Google knows your schedule

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Con
Not minimalist

There's a lot of unnecessary complexities.

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Pro
Allows setting e-mail reminder notifications

Google calendar allows setting how many reminders are needed with each having the ability to set how long before the event the notification should remind.

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Pro
Integrates with Google Maps for directions

The app leverages Google Maps when adding location for an event by offering suggestions as well as offers opening Maps to help get directions to an event.

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Pro
Color-coding for events and calendars

The app will color-code different calendars in different colors as well as allow selecting a different color for each event.

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Con
It is not reliable

Sometimes it silently doesn't register a change in an event, making you look dumb when you miss an appointment.

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Pro
Supports non-Google calendars

Google Calendar can be integrated with any calendar that supports iCalendar format, including Exchange and iCloud, via URL, but it has to be done using the web client.

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Pro
Free and ad-less

There are zero advertisements in the web app and it is offered for free. This is done in order to get users to their services where they will then learn about a person to use targeted advertising in other areas.

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Pro
Allows subscribing to public calendars

Through the Google Calendar's web client, it is possible to subscribe to any public calendar. Google also maintains a list of public calendars for various sports events and holidays in different countries and for different religions.

Comment

Pro
Events can be added using natural language

The application allows natural language input for events. For example, typing in "Lunch with Stuart Kearney at 2pm" will set the appointment.

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Pro
Offers creating events from e-mail messages based on content

Google Calendar integrates with e-mail for quickly creating events from e-mails that contain the word "meeting" or dates or times, or any other information about events or plans that it can understand.

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Con
Once you create a event on a Calendar, you can't move to a different Calendar

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Comment

Con
Almost no configurability

Configurability is very minimal. If you need anything proper, you’re out of luck. (Assume Apple levels of choice.) … So it’s not suitable for professional work. (Esp. in the EU, where it’s straight-up illegal due to GDPR.)

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Con
Not free

You just pay with your data. Everything you enter, will be used against you. (E.g. in advertisement on any site using google for advertisement.)

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Con
Cumbersome and slow to get things done

Everything takes more work than it should, because you have to avoid and undo all the “smart” “automagic” stuff that is only useful for the smallest common denominator of users.

Comment

Pro
Calendar widget

Simple and easy to use widget once the app is installed.

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Pro
Advanced functionality available through IFTTT

With IFTTT support users can extend the functionality of Google Calendar with things such as Evernote integration or weather notification support.

Comment

Pro
Comes pre-installed on most Android devices

Google Calendar is a free Android calendar app without ads that comes already installed on Android devices that have stock support for Google Services.

Comment

Con
Strenuous event creation procedure

Instead of just being able to drag, the user has to submit a lot of info such as start time, location, etc.

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Con
Cannot see Exchange calendar

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Pro
Can set on-screen and e-mail reminder notifications

Google calendar allows setting how many reminders are needed with each having the ability to set how long before the event the notification should remind and if it should be done via on-screen or e-mail notification.

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Pro
Clean design with 5 different views including an excellent schedule view

Google Calendar has a monochrome base design that's accented with colored-coded events and image banners that separate months in schedule view. The app has 5 different views - schedule, day, 3-day, week and month. Day, 3-day and week views split up the days horizontally and hours vertically. Month view lays out all days in a grid and displays up to 3 events in a day. Schedule view displays an agenda view that allows browsing all events by swiping vertically. Additionally, the way events are displayed in the agenda view is context-aware. For example, adding an event called "gym" will display the event on a background with a dumbbell. All views except for month view can be split horizontally to display a condensed month view at the top that can be navigated by swiping horizontally. Events can be added from any view by clicking the red plus button that's available at the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Comment

Pro
Straightforward event creation with autocomplete

All views have an option of adding a new event by tapping the plus sign at the lower right corner of the screen. This opens up a form and allows the user to add a location, start/end times, guests, description, color-code as well as choosing if it's an all day event, how often it repeats, how many and what kind of reminders are needed and setting the users availability and privacy settings.

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Pro
Awesome flairs / images view inside the agenda view / event page

Whenever you enter agenda / event title with the keywords (when available), the event will show up interesting flairs whenever the keyword inside the agenda / title you typed matches the flairs that are available inside the system, examples such as haircut, cycling, swimming, coffee, movie etc.

Comment

Con
Setting up CalDAV or iCAL from other sources is not working or not working well

A lot of people share events between different sources: professional, private, family or friends. Not everybody is on Google and of course a lot of corporations.

Comment

Pro
Lots of third-party widgets

Google Calendar comes with a home screen widget, and there are also many third party widgets developed for this calendar app.

Comment

Con
Unable to make notes about appointments

You used to be able to make notes about appointments and location, but the current version does not allow you to do any of that. Also, it is almost impossible to tailor the calendar app to eliminate things like others posting to your calendar or types of holidays in which you are not interested.

Comment

Con
Setting up non-Google calendars requires accessing web client

There is no ability in the Android app to access other calendars. This limits the usefulness for people that use more than one calendar, such as OSX and iOS users.

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Con
Time zone is incorrect no matter what's done

For example, timezone for Moscow is 1 hour off. This makes the calendar unusable in Russia.

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Con
Weak default view

Even if month is set as default view, as soon as you touch a day or an event, you have to carefully select twice to get back to month view.

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Con
No natural language input support

The Android app has no natural language input support, while it's available using the web client and in a limited capacity using Google Now.

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Con
Slow syncing of external calendars

Google Calendar is known to sync external calendars very slowly, takes hours if not a full day before the updated events are reflected.

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Con
No vertical scroll

Like iOS and outlook for Android.

Comment

Con
Some recurrence options not available

If you want to add a recurring event based on quirky (but normal) calendar rules, it's not supported by Google Calendar. For example, if you set up a financial calendar in Google Calendar and an event falls on a weekend or bank holiday, Google Calendar cannot schedule the occurrence properly. Worse yet, if you submit those calendar occurences via VEVENT details, Google Calendar displays different information if you use the mobile calendar vs. the desktop web calendar.

Comment

Con
Does not work well with Apple / iCloud calendar

Apple and Google calendars have syncing issues, which is annoying if you want to have shared calendars with friends / family.

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Con
Month view shows limited information about the event

Month view does not show how many events there are in each given day or color-code them in any way, only informs of their existence.

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Con
No weather forecast

The Android app version of Google Calendar does not show any weather forcast information, even if it is added as an extra calendar in the web application. Being that weather is tied into Google Now, the absence is surprising.

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Con
Google tasks do not show on Google Calendar

You can create tasks in your desktop Google Calendar but they will not sync nor show up in your android Google Calendar.

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Con
Time zone is incorrect no matter what's done

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Con
Horizontal Scroll

Does not vertically scroll like ios calendars on outlook calendar.

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Con
Unable to make notes about appointments

Used to be able to make notes about appointments and location, but the current version does not allow one to do any of that. Also, it is almost impossible to tailor the calendar app to eliminate things like others posting to your calendar or types of holidays in which one is not interested in.

Comment

Pro
Supports non-Google calendars (requires accessing web client)

Google Calendar can be integrated with any calendar that support iCalendar format, including Exchange and iCloud, via URL, but it has to be done using the web client.

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Con
Very clunky interface

There's a lot going on, just generally bad design

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Pro
Integrates nicely into the taskbar

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Pro
Set visual as well as audio alarms

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Con
Complicated setup

Some features are hard to set up. For example, setting up Monday as starting day for a week is not intuitive.

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Pro
Online integration is possible by setting up a foreign calendar with a caldav sync

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Pro
Import calendar data via ICS export file

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Con
No online integration whatsoever

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Pro
Free, open source

Lightning Calendar (just as Thunderbird) is completely free and open-source meaning that anyone can use it as well as look through the code or even use the code for their own projects.

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Pro
Easily keep track of tasks

Bundled in with the calendar options is a tasks option that makes for an easy way to keep track of tasks in the same location as ones events.

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Con
Available only as part of Thunderbird

No standalone version of the calendar app is available. And if you're just interested in Lightning Calendar and not Thunderbird, the app will have additional functionality and interface elements that will get in the way of using the calendar.

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Pro
Cross-platform

Wherever Mozilla Thunderbird can be installed, the Lightning calendar can follow: Windows Linux MacOS

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Con
Does not always clear old events from the display, even when the event has been deleted

When accessing Google Calendar, every check shows that the event does not exist anymore.

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Con
No full CalDAV support

CalDAV support is more hackish than working reliably. E.g. certain fields are not supported, or alarms can lead to duplication of events or changes being reset. As CalDAV support is not truly built-in, and the extension does not have a high quality.

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Con
Requires third-party gmail integration

And it's not supported in 60+. Use the old versions if you want anything to work.

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Con
Not for all the versions

You have to downgrade Thunderbird just because Lightning didn't upgrade to the last beta version.

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Con
Long term availability/ support

Although Thunderbird has an impressive track record and many years of reliable service, its continued existence has been doubtful more than once). For now, all seems good, but it would not be surprising if tomorrow it turns out Thunderbird "has left the building".

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Con
GUI makes you feel like it's 1995, and not in a nostalgic way

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Pro
Integrates with the desktop in order to provide notifications

California offers desktop notification on most major DEs in Linux, which is great to know when events are happening while not having to have the app open in the foreground.

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Con
Currently not in active development

Yorba, the group that developed California, is no longer actively developing software. While Geary (Yorba's mail client) has been adopted by the elementary teams as "Pantheon Mail", both elementary and Gnome have their own calendar projects and it is unlikely that either of them will contribute to California in the future. That being said, California uses evolution data server for all backend/sync/storage related tasks, which should hopefully make it possible to use it even if 3rd party vendors change their APIs/protocols etc. As long as EDS does not introduce backward incompatible changes or any major California bugs occur (it has been working fine for me so far), the current state of California should remain usable for quite a while.

Comment

Con
Currently no drag and drop support

There is no way to drag events in the app for easy switching, it all has to be done manually which can be a lot of work to move many things around.

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Pro
Events can be added using natural language

The application allows natural language input for events. For example, typing in "Lunch with Stuart Kearney at 2 pm" will set the appointment.

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Pro
Blends in with the desktop

This calendar stays out of your way while remaining readily available to tell you what's coming up. The Shadow skin make it look like a wallpaper calendar but has the benefit of being interactive.

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Pro
Integration

Your calendar data doesn't need to be stored with your computer. Data can be retrieved from Google, RTM, and even Outlook. (With the pro version removing annoying unregistered marks)

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Con
Can be unstable

The calendar crashes from time to time when entering new data.

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Con
Local calendar looses sync sometimes

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Pro
Customizable

Take control of your calendar by scripting new functionality, take skins already created, or just disable all the fluff. Rainlendar provides a platform to present your data in the way you desire.

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Pro
Works on Linux and Windows

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Comment

Con
More like a "wall calendar", not a meeting/appointment manager

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Con
Still in beta

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Con
No native client

No net, no calendar. In addition, some might say that Proton is "better" than Google. Is it? Probably depends how much you want the world to inform about your next waxing appointment.

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Con
No search function

No way to search for entries.

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Pro
Very simple

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Pro
Gnome style calendar with handy event panel

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Con
Event panel needs bug fixes - often displays events out by a day, if at all

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Pro
Easy to setup

Connecting to service accounts (such as Exchange) is easy and straightforward.

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Pro
Great user interface

Visually this is a nice application to look at and use.

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Pro
Google synchronization

Connects to your Google accounts via OAuth.

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Pro
Supports Exchange calendars

You can connect multiple Exchange, Outlook or Office 365 accounts. Credentials only stored locally.

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Con
Closed source

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Pro
Provides analytics tools

You can visually see how often you met any person in your calendar in the last months.

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Pro
Beta support for iCloud accounts

This feature for iCloud account and generic CalDAV calendars is now in the beta stage.

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Con
Paid only

Free trial is there but after 14 days you have to pay, no free tier is available.

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Con
Software as a service / Subscription model

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Con
Privacy policy means no privacy

Using the app shouldn't mean sharing so much with them.

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Con
Does not connect with Fastmail

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Con
Very heavy on RAM usage

With a lot of calendars from online sources, it seems that MineTime uses a lot of RAM.

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Con
Requires you to create an account

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Con
Requires FUSE to run

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Con
They provide an empty source package

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Pro
NLP for event creation

Use Natural Language (English) to add events quickly. For example, "Meeting with John tomorrow at 11"

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Con
Manages to completely destroy your GUI

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Comment

Pro
Provides Scheduling Links

For the basic needs, replaces other tools like Calendaly. Moreover, Morgen checks the availability on all calendars, including CalDAV.

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Pro
It's free

Basic features are free to use. A subscription is needed for more advanced use cases.

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Pro
Connects with all calendars

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Pro
Modern, fresh UI

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Pro
Native Integrations with task lists applications

Integrates already with Todoist, Microsoft ToDos, and Google Tasks, and also integrates with outlook (flag an email and it appears in Morgen as a task with a link back to the original email!!!). More integrations are coming next.

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Pro
Works offline

You can edit calendars and tasks offline.

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Pro
Integration with Virtual Conference apps

It already integrates with Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meets, more integration to come.

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