Picture this: a beautifully organized, visually appealing list of all work meetings, deadlines, and events that brings your entire team together, transforming them into a well-oiled machine. That’s the magic of a shared calendar!
In this article, we’re going to explore the top five shared calendars for SharePoint Online. We’ve assessed them based on carefully selected criteria such as ease of use, customization options, and seamless integration with other tools. Keep reading as we guide you toward the ideal solution for keeping your team organized, efficient, and in perfect harmony.
Overview: SharePoint Online Shared Calendars
A SharePoint shared calendar, also known as a SharePoint group calendar, is a user-friendly tool for managing team schedules, meetings, and other occasions. They enable teams to collaborate on projects, track milestones, and stay up to date. Shared calendars can be easily customized and integrated with other Microsoft 365 tools, ensuring that everyone in your team is on the same page. By using a shared calendar, crews can overcome scheduling conflicts and improve overall efficiency.
The main features of SharePoint Online shared calendars are:
- Centralized event management: Your team members can view and manage events in a single location, thus saving time on switching between apps and searching for information.
- Customizable views: You can choose from different calendar views, such as monthly, weekly, or daily, depending on your needs and preferences.
- Integration with Microsoft Teams: With this handy integration, you can schedule and join meetings directly from the SharePoint online calendar.
- Event reminders and notifications: Set up reminders and receive notifications of upcoming events, so you don’t miss important meetings.
- Color-coding and categorization: SharePoint Calendar color-coding makes it easier to differentiate between various types of events and projects.
- Permission management: Administrators can control who has access to specific calendars, making sure that sensitive information is protected.
- Recurring events: With third-party apps like Calendar Overlay Pro, you can create recurring events for meetings that occur regularly, saving you time.
- Calendar overlays: SharePoint calendar overlay is one of the most in-demand features that allows showing multiple calendars in a single view.
Shared calendars are indispensable tools for teams aiming to enhance collaboration. If you seek to centralize scheduling for your team, create a SharePoint calendar and enjoy easy tracking of events and milestones.
Criteria for Choosing the Best Shared Calendars
To identify the top five shared calendars for SharePoint Online, we took into account five essential criteria that cater to the needs of modern users. We encourage you to carefully review these points to understand why they play a significant role in selecting the ideal Microsoft 365 shared calendar:
- Ease of use: The shared calendar should offer an intuitive interface and be easy to navigate, regardless of your teams’ technical expertise.
- Integration with Microsoft Teams: The calendar should integrate with Microsoft 365 tools, especially with the messenger Microsoft Teams, making the user experience better, not more challenging.
- Customization options: Users should be able to customize the calendar to suit their individual needs, such as color-coding events, adding custom fields, and setting up alerts.
- Support for multiple calendars: The shared calendar should support calendar overlays from different sources – the more, the better.
- Security and permissions: The calendar should offer robust security features and flexible permissions to ensure that confidential data is safe.
Top 5 Shared Calendars for SharePoint Online in 2023
For you to better understand the differences between the top shared calendars for SharePoint Online, we’ve looked at both their strengths and weaknesses. At the end of this section, you will find a comparison table showing the main features of all the calendars we describe.
SharePoint Calendar
The native SharePoint Calendar is a simple, yet effective, tool that provides essential scheduling and event management features for teams of small to medium sizes. It offers a straightforward way ofkeeping everyone in sync, making it a solid choice for teams seeking a hassle-free solution for their day-to-day planning.
Pros:
- Native integration with Microsoft 365 tools
- Free to use with Microsoft 365 subscription
- Easy to use and simple, but still effective for most team requirements
Cons:
- Limited color-coding and calendar overlay options
- May require additional SharePoint Calendar add-ins for advanced features
- May not be suitable for large teams or teams with specific customization needs
Virto Calendar Overlay
Calendar Overlay Pro by Virto is a robust shared calendar in SharePoint and Teams, with advanced customization options and comprehensive features catering to the needs of all kinds of companies, whether they are small startups or enterprise-level businesses.
Pros:
- Infinite calendar overlay and color-coding possibilities
- Recurring events feature
- Able to overlay calendars from external sources
- Highly customizable alerts and reminders when paired with an app
- Advanced customization options
Cons:
- Steeper learning curve due to advanced features
Calendar Plus by Bamboo
Calendar Plus by Bamboo is a versatile shared calendar that offers a user-friendly interface, making it easily adaptable to different requirements. Its flexibility and intuitive design allows your team to stay on top of tasks with ease.
Source: bamboosolutions.com
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Supports infinite calendar overlays and color–coding
- Adapts to various team requirements
Cons:
- The price is higher than that of other calendars
- Cannot be added to Microsoft Teams as a separate tab
Cloudwell Calendar Overlay
Cloudwell Calendar Overlay is a straightforward shared calendar solution that emphasizes simplicity without sacrificing functionality. Its clean design and efficient features make it an excellent choice for teams, enabling them to stay productive without becoming overwhelmed by complexity.
Source: cloudwell.io
Pros:
- Simple yet powerful shared calendar solution
- Supports infinite calendar overlays and color-coding
- Easy to navigate and use for most team members
Cons:
- Not as feature-rich as some other options on this list (no recurring events, limited number of views, limited event customization)
Rhythm of Business Calendar by Microsoft
Rhythm of Business Calendar by Microsoft is a comprehensive shared calendar designed for large organizations with complex scheduling needs. There are almost zero reviews of this calendar on the web, maybe because of the difficulty of use, or because no one knows about it due to the lack of marketing. This Microsoft shared calendar was released in October 2022.
Source: appsource.microsoft.com
Pros:
- Native integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem
- Free to use with Microsoft 365 subscription
- Advanced customization options, best for large companies
Cons:
- May seem complicated initially due to the number of features
- May require IT support for setup
Summary
Quite unexpectedly, we’ve chosen Calendar Overlay Pro by Virto as the top shared calendar for 2023! Start the instant trial and you will see why we are so self-assured.
Our fantastic solution brings together:
- an easy-to-use interface
- advanced features
- great customization options
- smooth integration with Microsoft 365 tools
It is undoubtedly an excellent choice for organizations of various sizes and business requirements.
To conclude, here are two important tips we want to give new SharePoint calendar users:
- Establishing shared calendar usage rules to color-code SharePoint Calendars in a way that ensures every team member is always on the same page.
- Add your SharePoint calendar to Microsoft Teams as a separate tab so you don’t waste time switching between applications. To learn more about the best shared calendars to use in Microsoft Teams, read our article.
Following these two tips will help you to create a healthy collaborative environment and ensure that everyone is up to date with ongoing and upcoming tasks.
