Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) vs. Google Calendar

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
iCal
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
The Apple iCloud Calendar (formerly iCal), is the calendar tool associated to Apple's productivity product suite.N/A
Google Calendar
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service, from Google, available as part of its productivity tool suite.N/A
Pricing
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Google Calendar
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
iCalGoogle Calendar
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Google Calendar
Considered Both Products
iCal
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
I prefer iCal for it’s overall design. Many of my colleagues use Google Calendar because it is more common across other organizations. I’ve also used Calendly in the past, which can tie into other calendar systems to help schedule appointments. The overall experience with iCal …
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
Apple calendar with family share allows me to communicate my work schedule with my family's various activities to prevent scheduling conflicts. Because all of our calendars are synced among all of our devices, we are able to plan accordingly without the need of scheduling, …
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
For our Mac and IOS users, the use of the native iOS calendar and the cloud associated with it was an obvious choice for us, especially with the distribution of Apple products to our teams out in the field. For android users, it is easy to access the same services using the …
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
apple ical has the tools i need at work to schedule everything and now i can sync my Google Calendar there to manage my accounts in one app.I used to miss meetings or be late for a conference because I had my calendars from different email accounts in separate managers and that …
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
As a native app for Apple devices, it is great - but I think that Google Workspace (and Calendar) is better, especially as the Meet default for a video call is built in. I have and do use Office 365 - and with Teams you can schedule a video or Teams call too, but I don't like …
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
The both work just great. Still, having a iOS device based company, iCal has been of great ease of use throughout. Also, the interphase with the user is a bit more comfortable to us.
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
Google Cal and Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) are comparable. I like the ability to add Google Meetings easily within that app.
Google Calendar
Chose Google Calendar
Google Calendar is much easier to use than iCal in my experience simply because it is more reliable. It particularly seems to work better with the Microsoft suite of products as some of my coworkers who lean on iCal occasionally miss meeting invites as they don't sync correctly …
Chose Google Calendar
There are a lot of overlapping similarities between iCal and Google Calendar, which made it difficult to land on one at first. Ultimately, since we have some folks in Apple environments and some in Microsoft environments, Google was the best option to bridge those workspaces. …
Chose Google Calendar
I've used Apple Calendar before, and it's ok for my phone, but for doing things on my computer, I trust google calendar much more.
Chose Google Calendar
Notion is great for organizing personal tasks, which Google Calendar isn't the best for. However, Google Calendar is the best for co-working due to its direct Google Meets links, simplicity, and ability to view other people's schedules. Google Calendar is also better to access …
Chose Google Calendar
Google Calendar seems much cleaner and easily syncs to multiple devices. I like that there are multiple views available at a time so as to not have to switch back and forth between daily/weekly/monthly views. The fact that it syncs with Google Meet makes it very easy to not …
Best Alternatives
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Google Calendar
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Google Calendar
Google Calendar
Score 9.3 out of 10
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Google Calendar
Likelihood to Recommend
5.2
(13 ratings)
9.3
(26 ratings)
Usability
5.7
(2 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Google Calendar
Likelihood to Recommend
Apple
Especially if they use apple devices, I would recommend this over other cloud based calendars for its tight integration with apple devices. You can generally add events by simply highlighting the relevant information and adding to the calendar. Or Apple mail will often automatically detect an event and give to the option to add it to your iCal with a single click of a button.
Read full review
Google
I think it's appropriate for everyone that meets with customers, meets with people within their businesses. I even put my personal calendar on my work calendar. I'm just looking at it every day, so I think everyone could use it.
Read full review
Pros
Apple
  • Perfectly syncs between all devices
  • It allows me to set multiple reminders before a meeting
  • When I add an address it automatically links to Apple Maps so I can see where i am going and also how long it will take me. I can easiy click on the link and it will start navigation for me, pretty cool
Read full review
Google
  • Enables the creation of designated Focus Hours
  • Enables users to set their "working hours" and others can see if they are setting up a meetings a moon symbol next to their name to show it is outside of that invitees working hours
  • Allows you to easily create scheduled tasks directly on your Google Calendar
Read full review
Cons
Apple
  • I would love it to have more visualizations and not just the classic one in a common calendar and that it could be customized
  • You have the possibility to have a face-to-face call by sharing a link that, in my opinion, could be improved by creating groups of only contacts and limiting access to the meeting.
Read full review
Google
  • Being able to group a team much easier so I don't have to add the same people over and over again without having to have access right to create a Google group
  • Room or space management, because of repeating events the rooms of the office tend to be always "occupied" but not everyone is there due to how the new hybrid way of working is
  • Better way of working together in the calendar events where it's easier for the team to prepare if I give a clearer better UI of all the documents/presentations they might need to look over
Read full review
Usability
Apple
As I've said, Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) does not work well when integrated with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook calendars. It's not very usable. Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) does not stay in sync well at all with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook. You will waste a lot of time manually resyncing your calendars and you will never be able to fully trust Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal).
Read full review
Google
It's a bit outdated on how things should be working, the UI per say hasn't changed much and I believe there is still a lot more room for improvement in how the calendar shows, the creating process, the parameters on setting up an event and it could be better integrated with the g-suite and other tools
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Apple
For our Mac and IOS users, the use of the native iOS calendar and the cloud associated with it was an obvious choice for us, especially with the distribution of Apple products to our teams out in the field. For android users, it is easy to access the same services using the web-based client, and iCal allows various account types to be added to calendar invites. The iCal application allows the addition of 3rd party email and calendar accounts allow to be seamlessly integrated. All of the calendar accounts can be overlayed along with the native iCloud accounts. Google Calendar by comparison struggled to do all of these things as well, preferring their google Meet as the conference software and preferring Gmail accounts over all other types.
Read full review
Google
Most of the other services we would use don't have the same integration with other Google services that Google Calendar has. The ability to view and set things from your email is very convenient. So is the ability to have your notifications automatically show up on an Android phone as a reminder.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Apple
  • As mentioned previously iCal provides more info to me than just an appointment
  • i can add attachments like notes or links to other services inside the appointment and these will synchronise across my devices.
  • The search functionality in iCal allows me to save items in the notes and then find them at a later stage. An example - I save key information about meetings or activities and then when I am looking for it at a later stage i can jjst search iCal and find it without having to look for documents or through my notes.
  • There is no default video call setting (like Google has Meet as a default and Microsoft has Teams) this is a problem in that I can't schedule video calls so the work around is that I sync to a Gmail calender and then schedule the video call (Meet) in Google
Read full review
Google
  • Very significant improvement in employee productivity (more than 10%), because people spend much less time arranging meetings.
  • Essential tool to develop remote work within the company during Covid.
  • No need to build an email infrastructure (significant cost reduction in IT infrastructure).
Read full review
ScreenShots