When comparing Sunrise vs Business Calendar, the Slant community recommends Sunrise for most people. In the question“What are the best free calendar apps for Android?” Sunrise is ranked 5th while Business Calendar is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Sunrise is:
The interface is easy to use. The app's main view combines an agenda view with a two week view above it. This lets you keep an eye on your high level schedule over the next few weeks while also seeing the highest priority upcoming events. The two week view can be expanded into a month view by swiping down on it. Swiping to the right from the main view gives access to a 3-day view that's split into hours. Agenda view includes various informative details such as information about upcoming weather conditions, a countdown for upcoming events and contextual icons, such as "meeting", "movie", "food", "flight" to events to help get a quick overview of what's planned at a glance. It also looks good with a monochrome base design that's accented with colored icons, titles and profile pictures.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great interface
The interface is easy to use. The app's main view combines an agenda view with a two week view above it. This lets you keep an eye on your high level schedule over the next few weeks while also seeing the highest priority upcoming events. The two week view can be expanded into a month view by swiping down on it. Swiping to the right from the main view gives access to a 3-day view that's split into hours.
Agenda view includes various informative details such as information about upcoming weather conditions, a countdown for upcoming events and contextual icons, such as "meeting", "movie", "food", "flight" to events to help get a quick overview of what's planned at a glance.
It also looks good with a monochrome base design that's accented with colored icons, titles and profile pictures.
Pro Integrates with many third-party apps
Sunrise will automatically pull important information such as Facebook events, Asana tasks and Evernote reminders and add them to the calendar. Currently Sunrise integrates with Facebook, TripIt, Asana, Producteev, Evernote, GitHub, LinkedIn, Songkick, Foursquare, Twitter, and there are new integrations added on a regular basis.
Pro Allows easily creating events using natural language input
The application allows natural language input for events. For example, typing in "Lunch with Stuart Kearney at 2pm" will set the appointment and even send and invite to Stuart if needed.
Pro Google Maps integration
Sunrise integrates with Google Maps to display the location of an event, making it easy to find where to go for any appointment.
Pro Gives weather updates
Sunrise will show inline weather updates for current and next day.
Pro Widget support
Sunrise Calendar includes a widget for use on Android devices that displays the agenda view and allows adding events. Widget's agenda view also includes details such as context-aware icons and location information.
Pro Pulls information about people with which meeting have been scheduled
The app will show information about people with which meeting have been scheduled. The information is pulled from social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Pro Can send event invites from within the app
Sunrise makes it very easy to send invites to events from within the app by using the contact list on the device.
Pro Adjusts timezone based on location
Sunrise will display the event information and notifications in users current timezone.
Pro Includes calendars for holidays, sports, TV shows and more
As part of "Interesting Calendars" Sunrise includes over 25,000 calendars covering things like name days, holidays, sport teams (with score updating in real time), and TV shows.
Pro Helps quickly schedule one-to-one meetings
Sunrise includes a feature called "Meet" that's designed to help two parties that wish to schedule a meeting to find a time that works for them both. Sunrise user can select available times for a meeting and then send a URL to the other party that will allow the other party to select one of the available times.
Pro Widget support
Business Calendar offers configurable widgets in many sizes for displaying Days, Weeks, Months or Agenda views on a user's home screen.
Pro Free ad supported version available
Business Calendar comes in a free ad supported version.
Pro Smooth zoomable user interface
Business Calendar has a user interface that supports scrolling and pinch zooming.
Pro Search function
Business Calendar has a search function that allows searching the calendar for dates and events.
Pro Integrates with Google Maps
Users who input locations can use Google Maps from an event to find the directions and location.
Pro Move Calendar events from one Calendar to another
The only app that has the ability to move an event to a different calendar if it was accidentally created in the wrong calendar. This app is an essential addition to any device and for anyone with multiple calendar accounts.
Pro Events can be created using the share menu
Pro Can manipulate with multiple events at a time
The app allows selecting multiple events and move or delete them together.
Cons
Con Discontinued
Sunrise was discontinued in August 2016 with promises that Microsoft Outlook would gain some of its features
Con Missing search in Android version
Sunrise lacks search in Android version making it very hard to use.
Con Widget is not customisable
There is no way to change the layout etc of the widget for Sunrise. Some other calendar apps offer a lot more control over what data is shown in their widgets.
Con Likely no longer in development
Shortly after Microsoft’s appquisition of Sunrise, development stopped. The future of the service itself is uncertain.
Con It requests extra permissions
Requests access to everything not just the calendar.
Con Can't quickly distinguish between multiple calendars
Dev dictates that everyone's calendars should look the same and to this day refuses to provide an option to color code individual calendars.
Con Poor visual design
The design of the app looks a bit dated, something out of the early 2000's. While this does not impede the usefulness of the application, it still is a sore point when compared to some of the other popular calendar apps available on Android.
Con Widgets don't show week numbers correctly on some devices
Widgets on certain devices have been showing week number incorrectly for more than 2 years. The issue hasn't been addressed and there is no sign that it will be.
Examples from S4:
Con Poor support
The developers provide virtually no help with issues.