5 School Calendar Software Tools to Bring Your School Into the 21st Century

Nick Morpus profile picture
By Nick Morpus

Published
6 min read

When I was in high school, each student was given a school calendar at the beginning of the year which laid out every sporting event, school play, teacher in-service day, and major festivity for that year. Some calendars made it home, while others were introduced to the trash bin.

Even if these calendars made it to the fridge, the problem with printing out calendars a year at a time is the uncertainty of what might happen months from the time they are created. Who could predict snow days, power outages, and (dare I say it) bomb threats which disrupt activities and change schedules.

school calendar

Yes, my senior year of high school had more than one bomb threat, all of which turned out to be “pranks.”

Since then, my old high school has upgraded their calendar to the internet, making these adjustments much easier to implement and notify parents about.

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Unfortunately, not all schools have made the transition from paper to the digital age (nor have they even implemented school administration software), but luckily there are plenty of tools out there make these changes. Whether you have money to burn or you are running your school on a tight budget, there are software options available to bring your calendar online either for free or at a cost.

(Software options were chosen based on the availability to be used by staff, students, and parents and their integration capabilities)

Best School Calendar Software Options

1. Tandem

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While calendars are the main focus of Tandem, their scope extends far beyond simple dates and times. Their calendar acts as the backbone for all other operations on the software, including events planning, communication between team members (or in this case, teachers and administrators), scheduling updates, third-party calendar integration, and and member notifications (aka parents).

Tandem touts its software as the perfect tool for organizations, schools, nonprofits, sports teams, and enterprises.

Features:

(Free Edition)

  • Unlimited schedulers

  • Unlimited events

  • Unlimited groups and locations

  • Unlimited members

  • Unlimited notifications

  • Onboarding

  • Scheduling conflict checkers

(Enterprise Edition: $40/month)

  • Priority software support

  • Event archives for two years

  • Special access permissions

  • Equipment inventory

  • Outside software integration

  • Custom event reporting

  • Website integration

  • Data recovery and rollback

  • Facility rentals and scheduling

  • Transportation management

2. Pinwheel

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Pinwheel was made entirely with schools in mind. This interactive calendar software brings administrators, teachers, students, and parents together so that no one is left out of the loop when important assignments, tasks, and major events are all around the corner. As a web-based software, it’s available to all users on any internet capable device.

Pricing: Varies based on user numbers and student count

Features:

  • Event planning and scheduling

  • Webpage customization

  • Facility rentals

  • Hall monitor management

  • Athletics scheduling

  • Student assignment planning and notifications

  • Parental notifications (assignments, events, and practices)

  • Website integration

  • Outside calendar integration

3. CalendarWiz

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CalendarWiz tailors their calendars based on the industry purchasing their software, such as nonprofits, small-large businesses, clubs, and in this case, primary/higher education.

This software gives schools the option to either integrate their calendars on their own websites, leave their calendar up on the CalendarWiz website, or both depending on the needs of students, parents, teachers, and administrators. The one difference between this calendar software and others on this list is the emphasis on events and announcements rather than student assignments.

General Features (included in all pricing tiers):

  • Mobile app

  • Multi-user editing

  • Website calendar plugins

  • Branding and colors

  • Private and public calendars

  • Scheduling conflict prevention

  • Import/export data

  • RSVP invites

  • Social media integration

  • Calendar event categories

  • Locations and facilities

  • Email marketing

Basic ($9/month):

  • Ten users

  • Three event categories

  • Unlimited visitors

  • Free support

Standard ($15/month):

  • Twenty users

  • Eight event categories

  • Unlimited visitors

  • Free support

Professional ($25/month)

  • Forty users

  • Twenty event categories

  • Unlimited visitors

  • Free support

Enterprise ($45/month)

  • One hundred users

  • Forty event categories

  • Unlimited visitors

  • Free support

4. Google Calendar

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Google Calendar is a tool that I constantly use, not only here at Capterra, but also to keep track of everything I need to do in my personal time. The great thing about Google Calendar is the ecosystem in which it is built, such as Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail. In fact, these Google apps are all available in a school-based format for free under Google Apps for Education.

Google Calendar is the perfect tool for schools looking for a free software solution on a stable platform.

Features:

  • Calendar sharing

  • Event invitations

  • Public calendars

  • Mobile access and integration with iOS and Android calendar apps

  • Event searching

  • Gmail and Microsoft Outlook integration

5. Localendar

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Localendar was not made specifically for academic institutions, but its versatility makes it useful for all types of organizations including schools. One cool feature of Localendar is the extent to which you can customize your own calendar, more so than other options in this list.

While the base calendar is not much to look at, the customization options allow for event photos in each day block, themes, banners, and text.

The basic Localendar software is free, but does include ads as well as limits on features. This makes Localendar a good choice for schools with a small operation budget.

General Features:

  • General calendar creation

  • Website integration

  • Mobile optimization

  • Custom HTML in event titles

  • Provided clipart

  • Custom event categories

  • Repeat event functionality

  • iFrame support

Webmaster ($49.95/year):

  • No ads

  • Upload your own clipart

  • Task editor

  • Calendar merging

  • Public printable view

Cobrander ($149.95/year):

  • No ads

  • Upload your own clipart

  • Task editor

  • Calendar merging

  • Public printable view

  • Premium sub-accounts

Bring the Rest of Your School’s Calendar Online

Now that you’ve made the first step towards bringing your school into the internet age, perhaps it’s time you looked at other ways you can upgrade your educational experiences.

Be sure to check out these other pieces I’ve written about new technologies in school:

Have you used any of these calendar software options in your school? If so, let me know in the comment section below what you thought of it, what you liked best, and what you didn’t care for. While you’re at it, if you feel particularly strong about a school calendar software listed here or otherwise, be sure to leave a review!


Looking for School Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best School Management software solutions.

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About the Author

Nick Morpus profile picture

Nick Morpus is a former Capterra analyst.

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