Almost everyone already has Google Calendar on their phone. So it's natural that many families try to use it to run the household. But does a general-purpose calendar really work well for a family, or is a dedicated family planner the better fit? An honest comparison.
What Google Calendar does well
- Free and everywhere — everyone knows it and it works on every device.
- Powerful calendar — reminders, recurring events, multiple calendars side by side.
- Shareable — you can share a calendar with your partner or family.
- Integrations — works with Gmail, Meet and countless other apps.
For pure calendar management, Google Calendar is excellent. If all you want is to share appointments, it's more than enough.
Where it falls short for families
A family is about more than appointments. And that's exactly where a general-purpose calendar stops:
- No shared shopping or to-do lists. Those still end up in WhatsApp or separate apps.
- No family structure. Google thinks in separate calendars, not in "our family" with a colour per child and one overview everyone shares.
- No recipes, no "who does what". The daily realities of a household simply aren't in it.
- Privacy and ecosystem. Your data lives inside the Google ecosystem — a trade-off for anyone who wants to be deliberate about family data.
- Scattered islands. Calendar in Google, shopping in one app, tasks in another — the overview is exactly what you lose.
What a family planner does differently
A dedicated family planner like Planninn is built from the ground up around a family or team. You get one shared calendar with tasks, shopping lists and recipes in the same place. Everyone sees the same overview, with a colour per member. Your data is stored encrypted in the EU, with no ads. And because it installs as an app (PWA), it's always to hand — and works for a sports team or club too.
Importantly, it needn't be either/or. Planninn can import external calendars via iCal, so your Google events stay visible alongside your family planning.
So, which should you pick?
Stick with Google Calendar if you purely want to share appointments and handle the rest (shopping, tasks) separately. Choose a family planner if you want everything — calendar, tasks, shopping, recipes — in one clear, privacy-friendly place that the whole family (or team) uses. For most busy families, that's the bit of calm that makes the difference.
Written by the team behind Planninn (IT-Consolidated BV). We aim to describe Google Calendar fairly; features may change. Checked July 2026.