Howbout Alternatives: 4 Shared Calendars for Friends (2026)

The short answer. If you want to start without inviting anyone first, or you want to plan from a laptop, try SoKal. If everyone in your group already has Google Calendar, a shared Google Calendar is the free option with no new app. If you want one shared calendar a whole club or household edits, use TimeTree, and if it's just you and a partner on iPhones, use Raft.

I built SoKal, so read my take on it with that in mind. I've tried to be fair to every app here, including Howbout, and each section says where the app falls short as well as where it fits.

What Howbout does well, and why people look elsewhere

Howbout earned its user base, and it's a big one. It's on iPhone and Android, and its best idea is the availability overlay: your friends see when you're free without seeing what you're doing. Every plan gets its own chat, and polls settle the details nobody wants to decide. If your whole group is on it and happy, you probably don't need this post.

People who do go looking tend to have one of a few reasons. Some users report having to invite friends, reviews mention three, before the app becomes usable. Others are unhappy that custom colors moved behind the Howbout+ subscription, a change Howbout acknowledged in its own reply to a Google Play review. Reviews also mention Android sign-up getting stuck for some users. And Howbout is a phone app, with no web or desktop version, which matters if your group plans from a laptop.

So the alternatives below are grouped by reason. Find yours and skip the rest.

What if you don't want to invite friends before you can start?

SoKal. SoKal is a full calendar first, so it's useful on day one with nobody else on it. Connect Google Calendar, which syncs both ways from your phone or the browser, or Apple Calendar, which syncs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and your schedule is already there. When you do want people in, anyone you invite to a plan can RSVP from a link sent by text, WhatsApp or anywhere else, with no app and no account.

The limit: it's the smallest network on this page. Your friends probably aren't on SoKal yet, so seeing their availability still means they join.

Google Calendar. The other way to skip recruiting is to use the calendar your friends already have. Nobody installs anything, and sharing is an email address away. The trade-off is that you share a whole calendar, and the most you can do for a single event is hide it from everyone, and there's no view that answers "who's free Saturday" across a group of friends.

What if you want features free that Howbout now charges for?

If the colors change was the last straw, check what each app's free tier covers today before you move a group onto it. Free tiers change, and that cuts both ways.

• SoKal is free for personal use, with no subscription tier.
• Google Calendar is free with a Google account, with no ads in the calendar.
• TimeTree is free with ads. TimeTree Premium removes them, and it's per person, so a group that wants it ad-free pays more than once.

Is there a Howbout alternative you can use on a laptop?

Yes, and this is the biggest practical gap, because Howbout has nothing outside the phone.

SoKal runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, has a Mac app, and works in any browser at sokal.app/calendar. On Windows you install that same web app from the browser.

TimeTree has a real web version alongside its phone apps, which makes it a solid pick for a group that wants one shared calendar everyone can edit from anywhere. It doesn't have an iPad app or a desktop app, so on a computer it's a browser tab.

Google Calendar also works well in a browser, though there's no Mac or Windows app.

What if you want to choose what each friend sees?

To be fair to Howbout, its overlay already hides what you're doing. Where it differs is when you want to show some friends a plan and not others.

SoKal lets you set each event to everyone, no one, or specific people. Events you sync in from another calendar are private by default, and anything you haven't shared shows to friends as Busy, with no title or details. So you can share the Austin trip with three people and keep your Tuesday appointment to yourself.

Raft also shares one event at a time, out of the calendars already on your iPhone, and it's well designed for a couple or a few close friends. The catch is that it's iPhone only, so everyone you share with needs an iPhone.

Google Calendar and Apple Calendar can't do this friend by friend. Their sharing is set per calendar, so the workaround is a second calendar for the things you'd share.

What if everyone already uses Google Calendar?

Google Calendar on its own may be enough. Make a shared calendar for the group and add everyone by email. You can give each person free/busy only, full event details, or the ability to make changes. Just know that the level you pick covers the whole calendar, apart from events you mark Private, which show as Busy. And you'll be scanning colored blocks to find a free evening.

SoKal fits on top of that if you want the friend features too. It syncs with Google Calendar both ways, from your phone or the browser, so you keep using Google and nobody's schedule is copied by hand. For the full picture of what Google's sharing can and can't do, see Google Calendar sharing: what it does (and doesn't do).

Howbout and its alternatives compared

For Cozi, Apple Calendar, Outlook and the rest, the full comparison of shared calendar apps covers eight apps in more depth.