Buyer’s guide
How to choose a calendar sync tool
Six questions worth asking before you give anything write access to your calendar. They are written so you could use them to choose something other than BusyWait, because a list that only one product passes is not a guide.
- 01
Which providers does it actually connect?
Google and Outlook are table stakes. iCloud is where a lot of tools stop, because Apple requires an app-specific password rather than a normal sign-in, and CalDAV — Fastmail, Proton, Nextcloud, self-hosted — is where most of the rest stop. If any of your calendars live outside Google and Microsoft, check this before anything else, because nothing else on the list matters if the tool cannot see the calendar.
BusyWaitGoogle, Outlook, iCloud and any CalDAV server, mixed freely across accounts.
- 02
What does a mirrored event actually carry?
This is the question most people do not think to ask, and the one they regret. When the tool copies an event from your personal calendar into a client’s, does the client see “Dentist”? The answer is usually “it depends on a setting”, so find the setting, find out what it is set to when you have not touched it, and find out whether it is per sync or per account. A default of busy-only, changed deliberately, is a very different arrangement from a default of everything, trimmed later.
BusyWaitA start, an end and the status busy. More is switched on per sync, by you, and never per account.
- 03
Free tier, or a trial with a clock?
A fourteen-day trial is not much use for a tool whose entire value is that you stop noticing it. The interesting failure modes — a token expiring, a provider changing something, a sync drifting — show up over weeks, not days. A free tier that keeps working, even a small one, lets you find that out before you commit.
BusyWaitTwo calendars and one sync, free indefinitely. Not a trial.
- 04
Are booking links included, or a second subscription?
Sync and scheduling are usually sold separately, and the combined cost is where the real comparison lives. A cheaper sync tool plus a scheduling subscription is frequently more expensive than one product that does both. Work out the total for what you actually need rather than comparing headline prices.
BusyWaitIncluded from Pro, backed by every connected calendar. No separate scheduling subscription.
- 05
What happens when it breaks?
Everything with write access to your calendar eventually fails at something: a provider errors, a token expires, a notification goes missing. The questions are whether you are told, whether it stops cleanly or half-syncs, whether anything you created can be altered, and what is left in your diary during an outage. If a tool has not written this down anywhere, you are being asked to assume the answers.
BusyWaitPublished in full, including how you are notified and what an outage cannot do.
- 06
What happens if the company goes away?
Small tools are bought, wound down, or quietly stop being maintained. Ask what notice you would get, whether you can export, what happens to blocks already written into your calendars, and whether the user base could be sold on. Nobody likes the question, which is exactly why the answer is informative.
BusyWaitSixty days’ notice, export throughout, blocks stay because they are ordinary events, and the user base is not for sale.
Head to head
Against the tools you are probably also looking at
Each one names where that product is the better answer, because in several cases it is.
BusyWait and Calendly
Calendly is a scheduling product; BusyWait is calendar sync with a booking link attached. Where each one is the better answer, including where Calendly clearly wins.
BusyWait and OneCal
The closest comparison in the category: both do multi-calendar sync plus booking links. Where OneCal is the stronger choice, and where BusyWait is.
BusyWait and Reclaim.ai
Reclaim schedules your time for you; BusyWait has no opinions about your meetings. Where each is the right answer, and where Reclaim is clearly stronger.
Leaving Cal.com
For people who chose Cal.com because the terms were open and are now reconsidering. What BusyWait can honestly offer instead — and what it cannot, starting with source code.
FAQ
Common questions
- What should I look for in a calendar sync tool?
- Six things. Which providers it connects, and specifically whether it handles iCloud and CalDAV rather than only Google and Outlook. What a mirrored event carries by default — whether titles and guests cross over unless you stop them, or only the times do. Whether there is a free tier or only a trial, since sync problems surface over weeks. Whether booking links are included or a second subscription. What it does when a provider errors or a token expires, and whether it tells you. And what happens to your data if the company stops running it.
- Do calendar sync tools copy my event titles?
- It varies by tool and it is usually a setting rather than a fixed behaviour, so the thing worth checking is what the setting is when you have not touched it, and whether it applies per sync or across your whole account. Some tools copy the full event by default and expect you to restrict it; others copy only the time and the busy status unless you enable more. BusyWait mirrors a start time, an end time and the status busy by default, and anything beyond that is switched on for one specific sync by you.
- Can I sync my iCloud calendar with Google Calendar?
- Yes, with a tool that supports both. iCloud requires an app-specific password generated in your Apple account rather than a normal sign-in, which is why some sync tools support Google and Outlook but not Apple — it is worth confirming before you subscribe. BusyWait connects Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud and any CalDAV server, and you can mix them freely across as many accounts as you like.
Six questions, and the answers in one place
BusyWait publishes the field list and the failure behaviour rather than asking you to assume them. Both pages are shorter than this one.