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Add to SafariWhen comparing Lightning Calendar vs Microsoft Outlook, the Slant community recommends Lightning Calendar for most people. In the question“What are the best calendar apps for Mac OS X?” Lightning Calendar is ranked 12th while Microsoft Outlook is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Lightning Calendar is:
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.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
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.
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.
Pro Cross-platform
Wherever Mozilla Thunderbird can be installed, the Lightning calendar can follow:
Windows
Linux
MacOS
Pro Good built-in calendar
The calendar includes agenda, day, and three-day views.
Pro Integration with calendar and tasks
Quick conversion of a received email to a task with the deadline.
Pro Fun to use
clean and smooth experience, very nice and i like it.
Pro Smart lookup
Smart lookup is a feature where the Bing search engine is bundled in the app to allow users to automatically search for relevant websites, information and images based on the word highlighted by users, without need to open external browsers. The results will be shown on the right pane of the window.
Pro Priority messages
Microsoft Outlook comes with feature called "Clutter" to filter out incoming email based on the priority of the message set by user. User will be alerted when the high-priority message is incoming, whereas the low-priority message will be put in a separate folder.
Pro Attach files from cloud
Microsoft Outlook allow users to directly attach an attachment directly from cloud services without need to download an entire file before attach to the intended e-mail.
Pro VBA macros
Pro Conditional formatting
Pro Cloud
can attach files and use cloud, very good.
Cons
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.
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.
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.
Con Requires third-party gmail integration
And it's not supported in 60+. Use the old versions if you want anything to work.
Con Not for all the versions
You have to downgrade Thunderbird just because Lightning didn't upgrade to the last beta version.
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".
Con GUI makes you feel like it's 1995, and not in a nostalgic way
Con It's from Microsoft
Con Rather buggy
Con Crashes frequently
The only issue with Outlook 2017 is that when the Mail folder increases in size, it sometimes crashes for no reason it, causing loss of data.
Con Categorize email IMAP not good
Con Frustrating user experience
The "Clean Interface" approach means that normal and necessary user interface elements have been removed, such as certain scroll bars, and even the "replied to" indicator. This program becomes more frustrating with each new update.
Con No unique Inbox / global folders
Con No portable bundle available
Con No aliases
Outlook does not support email aliases other then outlook aliases
Con The UI is outdated
Con Only available for Windows
