Comparisons
Menu bar calendars
for Mac, compared.
We make one of these, and we have written the version we would want to find: real prices, real macOS requirements, and the cases where another app is the better buy.
Prices and requirements checked 20 October 2026
Itsycal
FreeFree, tiny, endlessly adjustable
The closest one on features, and free. The difference is whether you want an app you configure or one you open. Itsycal has no event search and no way to change an event without Calendar.
Awning vs Itsycal
Dato
$18.00Time zones, reminders, power-user options
Broader: world clocks, reminders, a date calculator, fifty video services. If you work across time zones, that is the one to buy. For a month and today’s meetings — searchable and editable in the panel — that is us.
Awning vs Dato
Menu Bar Calendar
FreeA month grid and nothing else
Free, same OS floor, from the developer of Dato. Intentionally simple: a grid, no agenda. Their free Today app is the other half, so the free route is two apps and two menu bar icons.
Awning vs Menu Bar Calendar
MeetingBar
FreeGetting into calls, with no month grid
Free, open source, back to macOS 12. An events list with joining attached, naming forty-plus services. If the question you keep asking is “what am I late for?”, it is the better answer.
Awning vs MeetingBar
Fantastical
$4.75/moRunning your whole calendar, everywhere
Not really a competitor. It is the app you live in, Awning is the glance. Plenty of people run both. Worth reading if you were about to start a subscription because Calendar.app is slow to open.
Awning vs Fantastical
Which should you buy?
For most people
Awning
Your month and today’s meetings, one click from the menu bar, working the moment you install it. Drag the divider for a week or a month. Join is on the row. No account, no subscription, nothing collected.
$0.99 once
Choose something else if
- Your Mac isn’t on macOS 26
- Itsycal or MeetingBar, the only two here that will install
- You never want an agenda, just a date picker
- Menu Bar Calendar, free
- You never look at the month, just the next call
- MeetingBar, free
- You work across time zones
- Dato, $18
- You run your whole life from your calendar
- Fantastical
Not sure you want one at all? Itsycal is free, and trying it costs nothing. Awning is for the version of this you do not have to set up.
Click the date. That’s the whole thing.
$0.99, once. No subscription, no account. Requires macOS 26 or later.
Awning is a Mac app. Open this page on your Mac to install.