InstaCal for Mac — Menu Bar and Full Calendar

One app, every scale

A glance, a panel or the whole calendar.

InstaCal gives each job the right amount of space, from the strip at the top of the screen to a planning window with three working panes.

The InstaCal panel open in the macOS menu bar: a July month grid above an agenda showing today's events with a live countdown, a Zoom link, due reminders, and weather in each day header — **Menu bar panel** — Month, agenda, reminders, weather and Join in one fast surface.

InstaCal's full calendar window in dark mode: the agenda sidebar, a month grid with Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year and List view options, and an event's details open in the right-hand inspector — **Full calendar** — Six views with the agenda and event inspector beside them.

InstaCal's event editor showing calendar selection, start and end times, duration chips, location, alert, invitees, notes, and repeat and availability options — **Complete editor** — Times, attendees, alerts, repeat, availability and attachments.

New planning tools

Built for the part after you glance at the day.

InstaCal now helps shape the week, not just display it.

Smart Filters

Save the calendars, search, rules and view for a reusable project or planning workspace.

Find a Time

Set working hours and minimum breaks, see conflicts and choose from open meeting slots.

Templates

Reuse only the event or reminder fields you choose, under a name that stays meaningful.

Availability Sharing

Turn proposed open times into text, an image, PDF or calendar file without publishing your calendar.

Conflict Blocking

Mirror selected private commitments as generic Busy blocks on another calendar without copying details.

Countdowns

Link a calendar event or add a standalone important date, then feature it in widgets without duplicating the event.

The guest question

Before an edit, reschedule, move or delete reaches the people you invited, InstaCal asks whether to email them — the same Send / Don't Send choice Google Calendar offers.

Native Mac workflows

Power when you need it. Quiet when you do not.

Keyboard first

Open, type, Return, Escape — and focus is back where it started.

Global shortcuts open the panel, start an event or jump to reminders. Every menu command and calendar view can take a shortcut you choose.

Search, Quick Add and English Quick Edit in one field
Arrow-key panel navigation
Command-1 through Command-6 for the six calendar views
Focus returns to the app you were using

InstaCal's calendar window on Mac in Month view with the sidebar set to Months and Calendars — a scrolling run of months above the calendar list

The window, your shape

Choose what sits beside the calendar — or nothing at all.

Settings › Calendar › Sidebar decides whether the column beside the grid is your agenda, a scrolling run of months, the calendar list, both together, or gone entirely. With no column, the toolbar moves up beside the month title and the calendar takes the whole window.

Month runs continuously; Quarter is thirteen weeks with the month boundaries ruled as seams
Year is a run of month rows, four across
Week slides sideways through two to seven days at a time — three by default
About six years of events are mirrored locally, so 2024 and 2029 open as fast as today

InstaCal's event card on Mac showing a conflict card reading “Overlaps Podiatrist for 15 min” over “Both busy 10:45 AM – 11:00 AM”, both events drawn on one timeline, and the ways out beneath it: three open times to move to, ending it early, marking it free, deleting it, ignoring the conflict, or never conflicting with the Personal calendar

Conflicts, priced

An overlap says what it costs you, then offers the ways out.

A collision gets a card of its own: the other event named, the exact minutes in dispute, and both drawn as bars on one shared axis. Click anywhere on it and the answers open underneath.

Open times to move to, measured against the same calendars that called it busy
Shorten it to the minute the other event starts, or mark it Free
Ignore one collision, or keep a whole calendar out of conflict checking
An hour outside your working day reads as a note, not an alarm

InstaCal's event editor on Mac for an event on the Work calendar in iCloud, with an Add Zoom Meeting row switched on between the location and alert rows

Meetings you create

A Zoom call on a calendar whose provider has none of its own.

Connect Zoom once under Settings › Accounts and the event editor can mint a meeting for any non-repeating event — including one on an iCloud or CalDAV calendar, where Meet and Teams are not on offer.

The meeting belongs to the event, not to the calendar
It travels with the event when you move it between calendars
It goes away when the event does
Google Meet and Teams still come from their own providers

Ten widget designs

The right slice of the calendar, directly on the desktop.

Next Event, Now + Next, Days Ahead, Week Map, Reminders, Today, Month, Up Next + Calendar and Countdowns cover every useful widget size.

Interactive reminder completion
Multi-day events drawn as continuous bars
Per-widget System, Light or Dark theme
Explore every widget and size

The Mac app in short

Calendar sources: Apple, Google and Microsoft 365 — plus iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo, Fruux and any other CalDAV server, signed in inside InstaCal rather than in System Settings.
Adding an account: iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo and Fruux arrive with their server address already filled in and a link to the page where that provider issues an app-specific password; anything else standards-based goes in under CalDAV. A webcal, .ics or HTTPS feed subscribes with an optional password and a re-check interval you choose.
Tasks: Apple Reminders and Todoist sit in the same day: add, reschedule, complete and reopen either one, with priorities intact.
Notifications: System Notifications or InstaCal's dedicated Alarms window, with event, reminder, invitation and leave-by actions.
Files: View and manage supported attachments, import and export ICS calendars, preview duplicates and print the visible schedule.
Customization: Theme, accent, panel size and background, agenda density, calendar colors, menu bar format, week numbers, weather and a second time zone.
Privacy: InstaCal contains no analytics and no tracking. Account tokens and app-specific passwords stay in Apple's Keychain, and events sync directly between your device and your calendar provider — there is no server of ours in between.
Requirements: macOS 15 Sequoia or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

FAQ

Questions about InstaCal for Mac

What does InstaCal require?

macOS 15 Sequoia or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. InstaCal is a native Swift app — not a web wrapper — so the panel opens instantly and uses very little power.

Is InstaCal only a menu bar calendar?

No. The menu bar is the fastest surface, and the same Mac app includes a full window with Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year and List views, and a sidebar you set to your agenda, a run of months, the calendar list, both, or nothing.

Which accounts can I connect?

Apple, Google and Microsoft 365 — plus iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo, Fruux and any other CalDAV server, signed in inside InstaCal rather than in System Settings. Calendars already set up in macOS appear on their own, and everything else is added inside InstaCal rather than in System Settings. iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo and Fruux arrive with their server address already filled in and a link to the page where that provider issues an app-specific password; anything else standards-based goes in under CalDAV. A webcal, .ics or HTTPS feed subscribes with an optional password and a re-check interval you choose.

Can InstaCal show my Todoist tasks?

Yes. Connect Todoist and its tasks sit alongside Apple Reminders in the same day, with their priorities intact — add, reschedule, complete and reopen them from InstaCal.

Does InstaCal collect any data?

No. InstaCal contains no analytics and no tracking. Your account tokens and app passwords live in Apple's Keychain, and your events sync directly between your device and your calendar provider — there is no server of ours for your data to visit.

How much does InstaCal cost?

InstaCal is $19.99 once, down from $29.99. One App Store purchase includes the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps. There is no subscription, separate mobile purchase, Pro tier, InstaCal account or in-app purchase.

Put your whole calendar one keystroke away.

InstaCal for Mac, with iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch included. $19.99 once.

Download on theMac App Store

~~$29.99~~ $19.99 once. One purchase includes InstaCal for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. No subscription, InstaCal account or ads.

Keep exploring

The calendar your menu bar was missing.