What is the best free calendar app for iPhone?

Apple Calendar, for most people. It's already installed, there's nothing to buy, and it shows your iCloud, Google and Exchange calendars in one view. If someone you plan with uses Android, get Google Calendar.

Which free calendar app works for a family with iPhone and Android?

Google Calendar or TimeTree. Both are free, both run on iPhone and Android, and everyone on a shared calendar can add events. TimeTree adds a chat inside each event, and its free version shows ads.

Is Fantastical free on iPhone?

Yes, with limits. The free version keeps typed events and tasks, your iCloud, Google and Exchange accounts, and home screen widgets. Invitations, time to leave alerts and the Apple Watch app need the paid plan, at US$6.99 a month or US$56.99 a year.

Which free calendar apps don't track you?

Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Fantastical, Proton Calendar and Notion Calendar list no data used to track you on their App Store pages. Calendars by Readdle, TimeTree and Outlook do. Proton also says its app has no ads and no trackers.

Which free calendar app works on an older iPhone?

Notion Calendar, which needs only iOS 15. Proton Calendar needs iOS 16 and Fantastical iOS 17.6. Google Calendar and TimeTree need iOS 18, Calendars needs iOS 18.2 and Outlook needs iOS 26.

Do I need to pay for a calendar app on iPhone?

No. Apple Calendar is free and already sends invitations, gives time to leave alerts and runs on Apple Watch, three things Fantastical charges for. Its paid plan adds polish on top: calendar sets, travel time and a 10-day weather forecast.

8 best free calendar apps for iPhone in 2026, no trials

How we chose

For most people the best free calendar app for iPhone is Apple Calendar. It came with the phone, it has nothing to sell you, and it puts your Google and work calendars next to your iCloud one. Every other app here had to stay free for good, not for 14 days, and beat Apple's at one job.

Free on the App Store covers three different deals. Some apps have nothing to buy. Some keep a free version and sell a paid plan on top. Some pay for the free version with ads, or with data they list as used to track you. We left out every app you can only try for a while.

Five questions decided the list:

What does the free version do, and what does it keep for paying users?
Does it show ads, or does its App Store page list data used to track you?
Which iOS version does it need? Several want iOS 18 or newer.
Can the people you plan with use it, on an iPhone, an Android phone or a laptop?
What does it do better than Apple Calendar? No answer meant no place.

Every feature and price below comes from the maker's own site or its US App Store page, read on 30 October 2026, in US dollars. We didn't test the apps by hand, so there are no star ratings or scores here. Happy to pay? The best calendar apps for iPhone, free and paid adds the paid ones.

The 8 best free calendar apps for iPhone

Read down until one sounds like your week. Most people can stop at number one.

1. Apple Calendar: best for most people

Apple Calendar is on your iPhone already and costs nothing. Its App Store page says it connects iCloud, Exchange and Google accounts and shows them together in List, Day, Week or Month view, each calendar in its own colour. Your reminders from the Reminders app sit beside your meetings, and you can tick them off right there.

The free extras are the ones other apps charge for. Give an event a location and you get a notification when it's time to leave. Subscribe from the web to a calendar for your football team or a TV show, or turn on holidays and your contacts' birthdays. Its App Privacy section lists no data used to track you.

Sharing has one limit. Apple's sharing page lets you share an iCloud calendar with other iCloud users and let them add or change events. Anyone else gets a read-only public link.

Pick it if everyone you plan with has an iPhone. Skip it if a partner or flatmate on Android has to add events to your shared calendar, because the public link only lets them look.

2. Google Calendar: best when someone you plan with has Android

Google Calendar on the App Store is free, and Google says the same calendar runs on Android, iOS, the web, Wear OS and Apple Watch. Share a calendar and the people on it can see it, add events or change them, on either kind of phone.

Flight, hotel and restaurant bookings from Gmail land on the calendar by themselves. Tasks sit between your events, and your iCloud and Exchange calendars show up beside the Google ones. Booking pages and a working location are the parts that cost money, since they need a paid Google Workspace or Google One plan. The app needs iOS 18 or later.

Pick it if your email is Gmail, or the family calendar has to work on Android too. Skip it if every plan you have already lives in iCloud. Apple Calendar shows the same events with one app fewer.

3. Fantastical: best for typing a plan in one line

Fantastical's free version keeps the trick it's known for. Type a plan as a sentence, say "Swim with Mia Thursday 7am", and it becomes an event. Start the line with "todo" and you get a task with a due date. Flexibits' pricing page also puts your iCloud, Google and Exchange accounts, full day to year views, tasks from Reminders, Todoist and Google Tasks, and home screen widgets in the free column.

A lot sits in the paid column: time to leave alerts, travel time, the Apple Watch app, calendar sets, and sending or receiving invitations. On the App Store that plan costs US$6.99 a month or US$56.99 a year after a 14-day free trial. Fantastical needs iOS 17.6 or later.

Pick it if you add plans all day and want each one done in a line. Skip it if you invite people to things. Invitations are in the paid plan, and Apple Calendar sends them free.

4. Calendars by Readdle: best for tasks and events on one screen

Readdle's Calendars is free to download, and Readdle's FAQ spells out what the free version covers: syncing your calendars, managing tasks, adding events by typing them, and working with other people. It reads Google, Outlook, Exchange and iCloud calendars. It also keeps working offline and catches up when you're back online.

The subscription adds AI help, unlimited habit tracking and more ways to change the look. It's US$3.99 a month or US$19.99 a year on the US App Store, and the app needs iOS 18.2 or later. Its App Privacy section lists identifiers used to track you.

Pick it if your to-do list and your calendar belong in one app, across iPhone, iPad and Mac. Skip it if your iPhone can't run iOS 18.2.

5. TimeTree: best free calendar for a family or a group

TimeTree is a shared calendar first. Make one for the family, the band or the five-a-side team, send the invite, and everyone sees the same plans. Its App Store page adds a chat inside each event, shared memos and to-do lists, photo albums, and a web version for the laptop. It can also copy in the other calendars on your phone, Google's included.

The free version shows ads, and its App Privacy section lists identifiers and usage data used to track you. US$4.49 a month or US$44.99 a year removes the ads and adds file attachments, a vertical view and pinned events. TimeTree is on Google Play as well, so Android phones can join. On iPhone it needs iOS 18.

Pick it if your group keeps asking "what time?" and "where?" in a separate chat. Skip it if ads inside your calendar bother you and nobody in the group will pay.

6. Proton Calendar: best for keeping your plans private

Proton Calendar encrypts your events end to end. Its App Store page says event names, descriptions and the people invited are stored with zero-access encryption, with no ads and no trackers. Proton is based in Switzerland.

You get it with a free Proton account. Proton's pricing page gives the Free plan 3 personal calendars and lets you send and receive invitations. Mail Plus raises that to 25 calendars for US$4.99 a month, or US$3.99 a month billed yearly. The app has agenda and day views, several reminders per event and repeating events. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, and needs iOS 16.

Pick it if you want nobody, Proton included, able to read who you're meeting and where. Skip it if you need more than three calendars and won't pay.

7. Notion Calendar: best for planning across time zones

Notion Calendar is free, and Notion's FAQ says it syncs Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars. On the iPhone app you pull the time zone column across to add more cities, so you can see the hour in Sydney before you book a call with your cousin there. There are six home screen widgets and a lock screen widget, and your Notion pages and project dates show up beside your events.

The App Store marks it iPhone only, and Notion says a tablet version is in the works. There's an Android app, plus desktop apps for Mac and Windows. It needs iOS 15, the oldest version any app here accepts.

Pick it if you plan with people in other time zones, or your notes and projects already sit in Notion. Skip it if you do your planning on an iPad.

8. Microsoft Outlook: best if your work email is Outlook

Outlook for iPhone is free and keeps your email and your calendars in one app. It works with Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud, and when someone wants to meet you can share the times you're free with a tap. The Copilot features need a paid Microsoft 365 plan.

Check your phone first. The App Store page says Outlook requires iOS 26 or later, and its App Privacy section lists usage data used to track you.

Pick it if work invites arrive in Outlook and your iPhone runs iOS 26. Skip it if you want a calendar with no inbox attached.

What each free version leaves out

Prices are in US dollars as of October 2026, from each maker's site or App Store page. Tracking means the App Privacy section on the App Store lists data used to track you across other companies' apps and websites.

App	Paid plan from	Needs	Tracking
Apple Calendar	Nothing to buy	Built in	No
Google Calendar	Google plans	iOS 18	No
Fantastical	US$6.99 a month	iOS 17.6	No
Calendars	US$3.99 a month	iOS 18.2	Yes
TimeTree	US$4.49 a month	iOS 18	Yes
Proton Calendar	US$4.99 a month	iOS 16	No
Notion Calendar	Nothing to buy	iOS 15	No
Outlook	Microsoft 365	iOS 26	Yes

Only Apple Calendar and Notion Calendar have nothing to buy at all. Three apps list tracking data, and TimeTree shows ads on top. For most people the real price of a free version is its limit: Fantastical keeps invitations back, Proton stops at three calendars, and TimeTree fills the gaps with ads.

Check a free app's App Store page before you install it

Two minutes on the listing tells you what free means for that app. Read it top to bottom:

The price line under the name. Free on its own, as on Apple Calendar and Notion Calendar, means there's nothing to buy. Free with In-App Purchases means a paid plan exists.
The In-App Purchases list near the bottom. It shows every price, like Fantastical's US$6.99 and US$56.99.
The description. Search it for "trial". A trial ends, and a free version doesn't.
App Privacy. A heading called Data Used to Track You lists the data the app can use to follow you across other companies' apps and websites.
Compatibility. A line like "Requires iOS 18.0 or later" rules out an older phone. Your version is in Settings, General, About.

Then give the app one week with your real plans before you move anything else into it.

What Apple Calendar does free that others charge for

Fantastical's paid plan is the one most people weigh up, so put its paid column next to the app you already have. Each row comes from Flexibits' pricing page and Apple Calendar's App Store page.

In Fantastical's paid plan	Free in Apple Calendar?
Time to leave alerts	Yes, add a location
Apple Watch app	Yes
Sending and receiving invitations	Yes
Sports and TV calendars	Yes, subscribe from the web
Weather in the calendar	No

Four of the five come free with the calendar already on your iPhone. So what does the money buy? Polish: calendar sets that switch by place or time, event templates, travel time blocked out before each event, and a 10-day weather forecast where the free version shows 3 days. Pay for those if you'll use them every week, not because Apple's app looked plain on day one.

Plenty of complaints about the built-in app come down to accounts that were never added. Before you shop, sync your work and personal calendars into the one view.

Which free calendar fits your week

Find the line that sounds like you.

Everyone you plan with has an iPhone: Apple Calendar.
Someone uses Android, or your email is Gmail: Google Calendar.
You type plans all day: Fantastical's free version.
Your tasks matter as much as your events: Calendars by Readdle.
A family, club or band shares one calendar: TimeTree, or Google Calendar if ads put you off.
Nobody else should read your plans: Proton Calendar.
Half your calls cross time zones: Notion Calendar.
Your office runs on Outlook: Outlook, on iOS 26.

Whichever you pick, keep one app you open every morning and point every account at it. Two calendars you each check half the time are worse than one you trust. If your days fill up before your own plans get a slot, block the hours with a time blocking app or build a daily schedule first.

Not every plan is an appointment. In ActivityTracker a daily routine, like a study hour or an evening walk, gets a time, and if that time comes and it isn't done, the assistant nudges you.

See how routines nudge you

One free setup for a crowded week

Made-up example: Ana works shifts at a cafe, coaches an under-10s football team on Saturdays, and shares driving their dad to his Tuesday bowls club with her brother, Luis, who has an Android phone. Her plans live in three places: the cafe's printed rota, a group chat and her head.

Sunday: she makes a Google calendar called Dad, shares it with Luis with editing on, and adds her Google account to Apple Calendar so it sits beside her iCloud calendar in its own colour.

Sunday evening: she types her six cafe shifts into Apple Calendar with a one-hour alert each, and adds the cafe's address to the early ones so a time to leave notification comes too.

Monday: Luis swaps Tuesday's drive to Thursday from his phone, and the change appears on Ana's iPhone in the Dad colour.

Wednesday: the team's parents want one place for fixtures. She starts a TimeTree calendar for the squad and sends the invite, and 11 parents join, four of them on Android.

Saturday: the match moves from 9am to 10am. She edits the event, and two parents ask about parking in the event's own chat instead of the group chat.

Sunday, one week in: 6 shifts, 2 drives, 1 match, nothing missed, and nothing paid. She opens Apple Calendar for her own week and TimeTree on match days.