Google Calendar vs Rainlendar

Google Calendar

• Anyone who already has a Google Account and wants a free calendar
• Organizations standardizing on Google Workspace for mail, files and meetings
• Taking bookings through a single free appointment page

Rainlendar

• People who want upcoming events and tasks always visible on the desktop
• Households or offices that mix Windows, Mac and Linux computers
• Users who like to restyle an app with skins and scripts
• Buyers who prefer a small one-time payment to a subscription

Google Calendar

• The paid version is only sold as part of Google Workspace, which also includes Gmail, Drive and Meet.
• Personal accounts and Business Starter get one booking page; extra schedules, payments and reminders need Business Standard or higher, or an eligible Google One plan.
• Time Insights and working hours and location are limited to work or school accounts, and Time Insights can only be viewed on a computer.
• No desktop app is listed; Google offers it on the web and as Android and iOS apps.

Rainlendar

• No mobile or web version. The site suggests syncing both Rainlendar Pro and a phone with Google Calendar instead.
• Sync with Google, Outlook.com, CalDAV and the other online services is limited to Pro, and Outlook support is Windows only.
• The Pro license is sold in euros, at 9.95 EUR; the purchase page shows no US dollar price.
• Rainlendar does not merge calendars from different sources; each stays a separate calendar shown in the same window.

Google Calendar

Appointment booking pages

Publish a page where others pick a time on your calendar. Eligible paid plans allow several schedules, Stripe payments, email verification and up to 20 co-hosts.

Shared and layered calendars

Create calendars shared with a team or a whole organization, and view several calendars together, color-coded by category.

Scheduling from Gmail with Gemini

On Workspace plans, Gemini in Gmail can suggest meeting times and add events detected in an email with one click.

Google Meet and attachments

Events can carry a Google Meet video link and attached files, so the call and its documents open from the invitation.

Time Insights and working location

Work and school accounts can see how much time goes to meetings and who they meet most, and can share working hours and location.

Tasks on the calendar

Items from Google Tasks appear on the calendar next to events.

Rainlendar

Events and tasks on the desktop

Events and tasks are kept in separate lists that sit on the desktop, and both can also be shown in the calendar window. Several windows can be shown at once, such as the current and the upcoming month.

Alarms with snooze

An alarm can fire ahead of an event or task and be snoozed for later. A single event or task can carry more than one alarm.

Skins and Lua scripting

Skins change how the windows look and can be mixed together, categories change how individual events appear, and Lua scripts can alter how a skin behaves or fetch content from the internet.

Standard iCalendar storage

Events and tasks are saved in the iCalendar format (RFC 2445), by default in a local .ics file, and can be exported or imported as .ics. Settings and events are backed up automatically every day.

Sync with online calendars (Pro)

Pro connects to Google Calendar and Tasks, Office 365 / Outlook.com, CalDAV servers, network shared calendars, Remember The Milk and Toodledo, and to Microsoft Outlook on Windows.

Quick Add and printing

A Quick Add widget creates an event or task from one line of text, including a recurrence pattern and a category. Events and tasks can be printed as a list or a calendar layout, or written to a PDF.

Google Calendar

• Personal Google Account$0

  Calendar for personal use with a single appointment booking page and no premium booking features.

• Business Starter$7

  per user / month, 1-year commitment ($8.40 flexible)

  Google Workspace with 30 GB pooled storage per user. Calendar is still limited to one booking page.

• Business Standard$14

  per user / month, 1-year commitment ($16.80 flexible)

  2 TB pooled storage per user, plus premium appointment schedules: multiple booking pages, payments and reminders.

• Business Plus$22

  per user / month, 1-year commitment ($26.40 flexible)

  5 TB pooled storage per user, with the same premium appointment schedule features as Business Standard.

• EnterpriseCustom

  For organizations beyond the 300-user limit of the Business editions; priced through Google sales.

Rainlendar

• Rainlendar Lite€0

  Events, tasks, alarms, skins, printing and iCalendar import and export, with data kept in local files.

• Rainlendar Pro€9.95

  one-time purchase, lifetime license per user

  Adds sync with Google Calendar and Tasks, Office 365 / Outlook.com, CalDAV, Remember The Milk, Toodledo and Outlook on Windows, plus CSV import and export.

Google Calendar

• Annual discount

  Lower rate with a 1-year commitment

  Business Starter costs $7 per user per month on the Annual/Fixed-Term Plan versus $8.40 on the Flexible Plan. Standard drops from $16.80 to $14 and Plus from $26.40 to $22.

• Nonprofit

  Google Workspace for Nonprofits at $0

  Verified nonprofits get Google Workspace for Nonprofits at $0 per user, or Business Standard at $3.50 and Business Plus at $6.16 per user per month on a 1-year commitment.

• Education

  Education Fundamentals at no charge

  Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals is available at no charge to qualifying institutions.

• By country

  Lower price shown to buyers in India

  On 9 October 2026 Google's Workspace pricing page showed Starter at ₹270 per user a month to a reader in India. Google's help page gives the US rate for Business Starter as $7, or $8.40 without a 1-year commitment.

Rainlendar

• Lifetime license

  Lifetime Pro license with free upgrades

  The purchase page describes Pro as a single purchase of a lifetime license. The homepage says existing license holders upgrade for free, and the FAQ says one license covers one user on several computers.