When comparing Google Calendar vs MyLifeOrganized, the Slant community recommends MyLifeOrganized for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” MyLifeOrganized is ranked 40th while Google Calendar is ranked 65th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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 via shortcut on a reminder notification.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Integrates well with other Google services
Google Calendar is part of the Google ecosystem, it integrates with services like Google Now for creating events, Google Maps for directions and Gmail for pulling information about planned flights.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Allows subscribing to public calendars through web client
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.
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.
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.
Pro Advanced functionality available through IFTTT
IFTTT offers over 198 channels to plug into the users Google Calendar.
Pro Pretty good Android app with Widget
Pro Helpful community
They're using google groups, but they're really responsive and friendly, also to beginners.
Pro Native windows app
Pro Hierarchy-based to-do list
If you have a complicated to do list, this app can organize it into group of items. In fact, this is the main feature of the software.
Pro Excellent search, filter and custom views
The text search is excellent. It comes with some default views, but you can create custom hierarchical and flat views, using some quite powerful logic, to focus on tasks by almost any criteria you can think of.
Pro Custom views
Create custom views by numerous filters and triggers.
Pro Many customizable keyboard shortcut
Quickly and deeply manage your tasks .
Pro Context include other contexts
Each Context may include other Contexts. This can form a hierarchy (or even a net) of contexts. For example Contexts "Phone" and "Internet" can be included to the Context "Work" as well as to the Context "Home".
Pro Open/closed hours for contexts
A Context may have a schedule: specific times during which it is open or closed. If a Context you select as a To-Do filter is closed at the moment, the tasks associated with this Context will not be shown in the To-Do list.
Pro Calendar view and google calendar sync
This feature help user to visualize their daily workload in a graph form (mobile version) , so it assist to plan future tasks and events in a sense of work/life balance. Just simply connect to google calendar, you could view your events and tasks, and plan effectively.
Pro Input parsing
MLO can parse or interpret the text you enter in Inbox on mobile and in some text input fields on Windows. For example you can enter "in 30 min" or "next Friday at 2pm" in date and time pickers. In Rapid Task Entry dialog you can even type: "Call Bob about the party tomorrow at 3pm remind 10 min in advance". The parameters of the task will be converted from the text automatically.
Pro Hierarchy-based to do list
If you have a complicated to do list, this app can organize it into group of items. In fact, this is the main feature of the software.
Pro PocketMod report
MLO (Window) can print PocketMod, which is a A4 paper that you can fold into a small booklet. Each page of this booklet can contain different information you select from the MLO app. It's very helpful especially on the occasion that you need to rely on paper only, such as camping, retreat, outdoor gaming activity, etc.
Pro One-time purchase
It is much cheaper than subscription-based apps . MLO license doesn't expire. Upgrade is optional and offered with a discount.
Pro Highly customisable
Easy to create your own workflow.
Pro Flexible recurrence options
Robust implementation of recurrence options. You can set it to repeat every N day every N months, repeat N day after the completion the main task can recurs once all/any subtasks are completed, and other.
Pro Auto prioritization of To-Do
MLO automatically sorts the tasks in To-Do based on user input.
Pro Best for GTD
Excellent for organizing in the GTD style of David Allen.
Cons
Con No vertical scroll
Like iOS and outlook for Android.
Con Privacy concerns
Google integrate all their services to connect and mine information on an individual to better profile and target advertising.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Con Once you create a event on a Calendar, you can't move to a different Calendar
Con Horizontal Scroll
Does not vertically scroll like ios calendars on outlook calendar.
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.
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.
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.
Con Time zone is incorrect no matter what's done
Con Timezone for Moscow is incorrect
Timezone for Moscow is 1 hour off. This makes the calendar unusable in Russia.
Con No web client
It would be great if they developed a web-based client.
Con No linux and mac client
There is support for Windows, iPhone, iPad, and both Android phones and tablets.
Con Expensive one-off cost, slow in releasing free updates
MLO does have quite a high price. However, this is a one-off price (per major version), so is much cheaper than web-based, subscription apps. The cloud synch feature, if you choose to have it, is low cost, so overall costs are low over the lifetime of the product.
Although the app is very solid and reliable (even for beta testers like me), updates And requested features can be long in development.
Con No support for previous versions
Con Complicated to start with
It needs some brains to set it up.
