When comparing aCalendar vs Cal, the Slant community recommends Cal for most people. In the question“What are the best calendar apps for Android?” Cal is ranked 4th while aCalendar is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Cal is:
As long as Facebook is already set up on the device, Cal integrates with it with a single click to show all birthdays.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Good Tasks integration
Tasks get shown in the calendar, although there is also a separate tasks view. It supports Google Tasks and recurring tasks.
Pro Very convenient user interaction
Switching from day<->week<->month views by swiping laterally is a powerful feature.
Pro Lots of customization options
The settings menu is rather detailed and includes a good selection of color themes to choose from, possibility to adjust font-size, set beginning and end of day, ability to choose what views to use and more.
Pro Free, ad-less version available
aCalendar is an Android app that comes in free, ad-less version as well as this paid version.
This paid version aCalendar+ adds more features like agenda view, home screen widget and the ability to manage Google Calendars. The developer also donates some of the profits from this Pro version to help protect the endangered mountain tapir.
Pro Nice presentation
The three views are very convenient, particularly the week view, which shows the week position inside the month
Pro Good fullscreen widgets for all views
The app has widgets for day, week and month views.
Pro Color-coding support
The app has 48 calendar and 12 event colors.
Pro Can add public holidays to calendar from over 35 countries
For the 30+ available languages for the app, there are holiday calendars available to be added.
Pro Lunar calendar support
aCalendar can be set up to use a calendar based on cycles of the lunar phases.
Pro Unique Week overview
Its week overview is very well suiting for tasks and all day events. It shows everything at once.
Pro Drag'n'Drop
Drag'n'drop functionality is available in day view with this paid version of the application.
Pro Useful 3-finger tap to go to today
By utilizing a three finger tap shortcut users can easily got to the today view from anywhere in the app.
Pro Available in 30 languages
There are 3o user made translations available for the app, making for a good calendar to use in different countries.
Pro QR and NFC barcode sharing of events
Using both QR codes as well as NFC, users can share events wirelessly and easily
Pro Can import Facebook birthdays with one tap
As long as Facebook is already set up on the device, Cal integrates with it with a single click to show all birthdays.
Pro Clean interface with beautiful background images
The app displays agenda as a combination of events and to-do list items and uses different background images for each calendar day based on chosen themes.
Pro Integrates with Any.do for task management
Cal integrates with Any.do to-do list app for task management.
Pro Integrates with Waze, Uber and Google Maps for navigation
Cal uses Google Maps to show event location, Waze for real-time traffic information and Uber for hailing a car to the event.
Pro Clean widget with event creation
Cal has a good-looking resizable widget that has a shortcut for event creation.
Pro Nicely designed actionable notifications before, during and after meetings
A feature called HeadsUp will show pop-up notifications on phone's homescreen specifically designed for meetings. The content of the pop-up will change based on whether it's before, during or after a meeting.
Before a meeting it will show shortcuts for getting a taxi or a car, seeing attendees, getting directions and notifying other attendees if the user is late via e-mail or Skype. During a meeting it will give shortcuts for setting the phone on vibrate, taking photos, video or audio-recording, adding tasks that will be synced with Any.do or e-mailing a summary. After the meeting it offers sharing task list and scheduling a follow-up.
Pro Predictive text
While adding an event the app will offer suggestions, help invite other people, pick a location, allow making a note and set it as a recurring event if needed.
Pro Voice entry support
Cal allows adding events simply by speaking.
Cons
Con Free version is very limiting
Free version of the application does not include common things like the agenda view, actionable notifications or attendee management among many other more advanced features.
Con Somewhat overwhelming amount of options
Con Cal may give your personal and non-personal information to thrid parties
In the privacy-policy of any.do the following is stated:
"We may share your Personal Information to third parties (with or without compensation) including potential and actual advertisers, sponsors, our third party service providers and partners. We use commercially reasonable efforts to only engage or interact with third parties that post a privacy policy governing their processing of Personal Information."
and
"Use of Non-Personal Information. We may collect Non-Personal Information in order to provide and operate the Service, including for statistical and research purposes; to enable us to further develop, customize and improve the Service based on users’ common preferences and uses; to create and provide our business partners and affiliates with aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-Personal Information. We may also disclose Non-Personal Information (with or without compensation) to third parties, including advertisers and partners. We are not aware of the identity of the user from which the Non-Personal Information was collected."
Con Not actively developed any more
Last update was January 2016, and any.do includes a calendar by now.
Con Forces creating an Any.do account
An Any.do account as well as the app has to be used to create tasks, that then will show in the calendar, but cannot be created from the calendar. This can be not only inconvenient but also quite slow.
Con Shallow Any.do integration
Any.do tasks can't be managed from within the app, it requires the user to switch applications.
Con No natural language input support
Cal does not support natural language input, though it may get added in the future.
Con Can be sluggish and buggy
Cal has issues with freezing, sluggishness and other buggy behaviors.
Con Lacks weather information
There is no way to add a weather calendar to the normal calendar view, meaning no weather integration.
