Google Calendar
The most recommended of 4 calendar apps
Syncs across devices and fits into the Google suite with a familiar interface. Common caveat: spam invites and a clunky search view.
Syncs across devices and fits into the Google suite with a familiar interface. Common caveat: spam invites and a clunky search view.
62 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 35
- approval share
- 44%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Integrates with Gmail and Google suite
“People who aren't programmers use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Stripe Invoicing, etc for those various use-cases.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” “without the rest of the GSuite (Maps, Gmail, Chrome, Calendar, Translate) it was dead in the water”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Windows 8 Desktop Environment for Linux” “It's the integration of both that makes Google (and, I guess, Nextcloud) useful”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Opencloud – An alternative to Nextcloud written in Go” - Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Googleworkspace/CLI”
- Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Google Cloud Run cost me $4,676 in 6 weeks with zero traff”
Syncs across devices, responsive
“Syncs across devices. Notifications. Share with Family & Work.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)” “In my opinion Google Calendar, even on iOS, is much better.”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Apple iPhone 18 Pro Camera test” “it's also a lot more responsive than nextcloud web”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Why Nextcloud feels slow to use” No new interface to learn
“That's a plus because people don't have to learn a new design”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Thunderbird's Desktop Calendar Visual Redesign” “No new interface to learn. Just calendar events.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “In my Google Calendar, every event is an AI task” Event descriptions hold agendas and notes
“make a calendar event and write the content I want in its description field”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Web app that lets you send email time capsules” “It's a great spot to place an agenda, meeting notes, action items, etc.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “How to Attend Meetings”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Spam and unwanted invites
“some apps still add events to the (apparently default) Google calendar even after I disabled Google Calendar app”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Samsung Galaxy update removes Android recovery menu tools, including sideloading” “the massive number of google calendar invites I've been getting as payment/billing notifications lately”
Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account” “my two biggest sources of daily spam are Google Calendar Notifications and Random Firebase Accounts”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Blackholing My Email” Clunky search and drag-and-drop
“the search view will not show the latest calendar entries unless you manually scroll to the bottom and hold the scroll view there”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in ““It works better in the app”” “Go to calendar app with account 2, switch to desktop mode so I can actually click on the meeting invite”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Apple: Our philosophy is to provide software for our machines free (1976)” “the built-in calendar (Google calendar) doesn't support drag and drop for adjusting event times.”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Block the "Upgrade to Tahoe" Alerts” Trust concerns over Google data
“The downside (significant IMO) is that "unknown senders" is based on Google Address Book + Other Contacts”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Is it even possible to stop Google Calendar Spam?” “I think the bigger issue there is that you're trusting Google with your health data.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in ““It works better in the app”” Limited API and timezone handling
“Google Calendar doesn't seem to provide a nice API where you can just say "give me the events for these days"”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard” “google calendar by default translates them into the current (GPS-based) timezone”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Pikaday: A friendly guide to front-end date pickers”
Other calendar apps people recommend
The three most recommended other calendar apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google CalendarThis page | 27 | 35 | 44% | 10 | — | — |
| Apple Calendar | 18 | 19 | 49% | 10 | — | — |
| Remind | 7 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Proton Calendar | 5 | 6 | 45% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 68 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“have been incredibly helpful”
“the only halfway decent calendar app is Google Calendar and even that is mostly meh.”
“Google Calendar (the only calendar app approaching decent) doesn't play nice with it”
“In my opinion Google Calendar, even on iOS, is much better.”
“the search view will not show the latest calendar entries unless you manually scroll to the bottom and hold the scroll view there”
“I think the bigger issue there is that you're trusting Google with your health data.”
“they make sure there's more friction adding a calendar from outside than adding someone else's Google calendar”
“Google does it, I wish they went further.”
“That's a plus because people don't have to learn a new design”
“Google does pretty good, but it's still not nearly as good as the integrated corp experience”
“Google has run away with the ball on all of those”
“Google Calendar has had a problem with my organization's iCal files for the past four weeks.”
“I've personally moved onto google's free gmail calendar scheduling tool”
“the massive number of google calendar invites I've been getting as payment/billing notifications lately”
“my two biggest sources of daily spam are Google Calendar Notifications and Random Firebase Accounts”
“except their consumer productivity tools — Gmail, Calendar, and Meet”
“some apps still add events to the (apparently default) Google calendar even after I disabled Google Calendar app”
“the built-in calendar (Google calendar) doesn't support drag and drop for adjusting event times.”
“Google Calendar doesn't seem to provide a nice API where you can just say "give me the events for these days"”
“Those tools are reliable and cheap”
“I was tired of manually typing my wife's shift roster (D/N codes) into Google Cal.”
“No new interface to learn. Just calendar events.”
“Go to calendar app with account 2, switch to desktop mode so I can actually click on the meeting invite”
“The downside (significant IMO) is that "unknown senders" is based on Google Address Book + Other Contacts”
“Google Mail and Calendar was fine”
“without the rest of the GSuite (Maps, Gmail, Chrome, Calendar, Translate) it was dead in the water”
“People who aren't programmers use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Stripe Invoicing, etc for those various use-cases.”
“It's just laughable to me to bother with a "ends five minutes early" option. It just doesn't work”
“Google Drive & Calendar are some of the most outdated pieces of SaaS software”
“I have enabled some google services to play with (maps, calendars)”
“by default it sends an email reminder, so the stuff I didn't do yet stay as unread emails in my inbox”
“Syncs across devices. Notifications. Share with Family & Work.”
“make a calendar event and write the content I want in its description field”
“It's a great spot to place an agenda, meeting notes, action items, etc.”
“google calendar by default translates them into the current (GPS-based) timezone”
“The thing that actually makes Google/Nextcloud calendars useful is that they enable a workflow”
“It's the integration of both that makes Google (and, I guess, Nextcloud) useful”
“Google Calendar is the single most indispensable feature of the entire Google suite”
“Google Calendar is the single most indispensable feature of the entire Google suite for me”
“it's also a lot more responsive than nextcloud web”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.