BusyCal Review — Is This The Best Calendar App For iOS and macOS?
Why is nobody talking about BusyCal?
As someone who lives a busy lifestyle, I manage multiple calendars and to-do lists to ensure I stay on top of everything.
I have a personal calendar, a shared family calendar, a side hustle calendar, a content creation calendar and a work calendar. That’s a lot of calendars!
In the past, I just used the default Apple Calendar app for managing all of these calendars and in all fairness, I think that the default Apple Calendar app is excellent. But I wanted something more, and that’s where BusyCal comes in.
After discovering Setapp earlier this year, I started experimenting with various apps that were available as part of the subscription, and one of the apps that I discovered happened to be BusyCal.
For those of you who have never heard of Setapp before, it’s basically the Netflix of app stores. For a fixed monthly price, you gain access to over 200 apps, and BusyCal is one of them.
I pay $12.49 per month and that provides me with access to over 200 apps for 1 Mac and up to 4 iOS devices and best of all, you get the first 7 days free! As a paying customer, I am a big fan of Setapp, that is why I am leaving my affiliate link.
But without any further ado, here is my review of BusyCal…
What is BusyCal?
BusyCal is a powerful calendar app available on macOS, iOS, and watchOS. It’s highly customisable and packed with many useful features, which I’ll be discussing later in this article.
I’ve been using BusyCal as my default calendar app for several months, and I doubt that I’ll be moving away anytime soon.
Based on my experience with the app, I’m very surprised that more people aren’t talking about it and that I haven’t discovered it sooner. That is why I decided to share my experience in the form of a review.
In this review, I will be sharing the features of the app as well as the things I like about it and the things that, I think, should be improved.
Let’s start with the features!
Useful Features
BusyCal is packed with numerous useful features, many of which aren’t found in other calendar apps.
Customisation
Most of the calendar apps that I’ve used over the years give you the ability to switch between day, week, month, year, and list views.
But what makes BusyCal different is that you can customise the views. For example, you can choose the number of weeks shown in the month view and the number of days shown in the week view.
You even have an option to customise the calendar font, size, calendar colours and time format. Furthermore, you can customise the information that appears on the info panel, which displays the event intimation. I can decide what information to include in the panel, which, I think, is fantastic as it means that I am able to only see the information relevant to me and remove the unnecessary fields.
Travel Time
Another feature I like and use very frequently is travel time. Travel time allows you to block out the time before an event.
For example, if I need to travel to a meeting on the opposite side of town, I can simply add the travel time to the calendar event. Doing this will not only serve as a reminder that I need to leave for that meeting, it will also block out that time slot which will prevent it from being booked in other apps.
You can determine the travel time manually or get it automatically using the location services and Apple Maps. You can even receive alerts when it’s time to leave if the traffic conditions change. How cool is that?
Integrated Task List
I must admit, I don’t use this option within the calendar app, primarily because I now use Things as my default task app.
But I fully see the potential in seeing your to-do list in your calendar app. It’s a feature I enjoyed using when I used the Google Calendar and Google Tasks apps.
That’s another thing I love about this app, it is packed with useful features, but if the feature you like doesn’t work for you, you don’t have to use it and can have it disabled.
Menu Bar App
As a Mac user, I tend to make the most out of the menu bar, and I like having apps pinned to it, especially when they serve a useful purpose.
In this case, not only does the menu bar app show a real-time counter for ongoing and upcoming events, but when I actually click the counter, it shows me a detailed calendar.
I know that it’s only a small thing, but it helps me tackle a busy lifestyle by helping me manage my time effectively during and before events. That’s what this app is all about!
Tags
Another feature that I am a big fan of is the Tags feature. BusyCal allows you to tag events, which you can use for tracking and filtering.
Tags are labels which you as the user define and can use to categorise events.
Other Useful Features
BusyCal has many other useful features. For a full list of features, I recommend checking out their website.
But the app has many other useful features, such as the ability to display a live 8-day weather forecast in the calendar, which helps when planning events.
The app also features a dark mode, which looks really nice.
What I Like About The App
I’ve already discussed some main features of the app, and I think that these features seriously make it a great app.
But there are other things that I like about the app, starting with the interface. As someone who’s used various calendar apps in the past, I feel that the interface offered by BusyCal is perfect. It’s clean and includes all the information that is relevant to me and the way I want to use my calendar.
That’s what makes this app special to me, many apps don’t offer this level of customisation, some even go as far as spamming users with features that they don’t need, which can affect productivity.
The app is also incredibly compatible with other services, such as Outlook, Google Calendar, iCloud, Yahoo and more!
I also love the fact that together with BusyContacts they are available on Setapp, which makes the apps more affordable.
Moreover, the app also has a brilliant mobile and watch app, which I use a lot. In fact, my default watch face has the BusyCal Calendar widget on it, which helps me keep track of time even further.
What I Think Should Be Improved
Like with many things in life, there is always room for improvement, starting with the fact that BusyCal is only available on Apple devices. I think that it will be very nice to see this incredible app available on other platforms such as Windows and Android.
The second thing I wanted to discuss is AI. To many AI may sound unnecessary, but as someone who uses AI for many things in my daily life, I think I would appreciate it if some AI features were introduced to the app.
Due to the fact that BusyCal syncs directly with external services instead of a central account, the initial setup process can be a bit slow when setting up other devices. But it doesn’t impact the use of the calendar once it’s set up.
Final Thoughts
After using BusyCal for several months, I definitely think that it’s a keeper. Not only has moving to BusyCal helped me manage my time more effectively, but it also helped me keep on top of things, as someone who lives a busy lifestyle.
That’s what this app is all about!
BusyCal is ideal for anyone who lives a busy life and needs a straight-to-the-point calendar app that is relevant to them.
Price-wise, if you don’t like the idea of a Setapp subscription, the app on its own is priced at $49.99 or if you want to buy BusyCal with BusyContacts together, it’s $79.98. This isn’t bad considering the fact that BusyContacts on its own costs $49.99.
I think that this price is very reasonable for what you are getting, I mean, based on my experience, I believe that it’s a brilliant app!
Overall, based on my experience with the app, I can definitely recommend BusyCal to my friends and family, and I will continue using this app for the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, I am now trying out BusyContacts, to see what it’s like.
Disclaimer: This post contains Setapp affiliate links.
Busymac did not sponsor this article, nor do they know I’m writing it. This review is based purely on my experience with the app.