The best shared daily planning tools for small teams, with tasks and calendars

The best shared daily planning tools for teams keep tasks and calendars where everyone can see them, and for most small teams that takes two pieces: one shared calendar in Google Calendar or Outlook for the day's meetings, and one task tool with a calendar view, such as Asana, ClickUp or Todoist, for who does what today. Sunsama and Akiflow are daily planners built around one person's day, with team billing on top. Free plans exist, but each one caps something different: users, projects, storage or the calendar view itself.

We make Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, and we cover it near the end with its limits. It gives a team a shared room for chat, notes and files, and Barside is not a shared team calendar. Everything said here about other products comes from each company's own pricing, product or help pages, read in October 2026. We ran no hands-on tests and took no screenshots, so open each page again before you pay.

What a shared daily plan has to show

A team's day has three parts people look for in the morning: the meetings, the tasks with a name next to each, and the conversation that changes both. A tool that covers two of the three still leaves someone asking in chat who has what. Before you compare products, check these five things.

• Everyone's meetings in one view. A shared calendar lets people add events to the same calendar, or at least see when the others are busy.
• Tasks with a date and an owner. A team list needs a due date and a person on each task, and a calendar view puts the dated ones on the day they belong to.
• One place to talk about the plan. The day changes in conversation, so it helps when the chat sits close to the plan.
• What the free plan caps. Free plans tend to limit users, projects or views. Read the plan table before you invite anyone.
• Who pays, and how. Most team tools bill per user, and many show a lower monthly price for yearly billing than for monthly billing.

Which are the best shared daily planning tools for teams, with tasks and calendars?

The best shared daily planning tools for teams' tasks and calendars fall into three groups: shared calendars, task tools with a calendar view, and personal daily planners with team billing. The table sums up what each company's own pages said in October 2026. Prices are per user a month unless the row says otherwise, and they appear as each page showed them to us; Google's page showed Canadian dollars, so open each page for your own currency.

Shared calendars: Google Calendar and Outlook

A shared calendar is where meeting invitations already land, which makes it the natural home for the meeting half of the day. Google's help page on sharing your calendar lists five permission levels, from "See only free/busy (hide details)" to "Make changes and manage sharing", and you can add a person's email address or a Google group. On a work or school account, your administrator decides whether you can share. To make a calendar just for the team, Google's page on creating a new calendar says new calendars can only be created from a browser, and whoever creates one becomes its owner.

Google's Calendar product page says shared calendars "keep everyone in sync", and that anyone with a personal Google Account can create one booking page that lets others book time with them. For a business account, the Google Workspace pricing page lists Business Starter, Standard and Plus for up to 300 users, with shared calendars on every plan, appointment booking pages from Standard up, and a 14-day trial. As of October 2026, it showed us Business Starter at CA$9.20 per user a month with a one-year commitment.

Microsoft's guide to sharing a calendar in Outlook.com covers personal accounts and offers two levels: "Can view all details" and "Can edit". People on other email services, such as Gmail, can accept the invitation only with an Outlook.com or Microsoft 365 account, though you can also publish an HTML or ICS link that people view read-only. For work or school accounts, Outlook on the web adds "Can view when I'm busy", "Can view titles and locations" and "Delegate", and your organization's settings may limit sharing to colleagues. The help pages we read cover events, so most teams pair the calendar with a task tool.

Task tools with a calendar view: Asana, ClickUp and Todoist

Asana's pricing page describes its free Personal plan as "For one or two people managing personal projects", with 2 users and list, board and calendar views. Starter adds timeline and Gantt views and lists no user seat limits, at $10.99 per user a month billed annually or $13.49 billed monthly, as of October 2026. Asana suits a team that thinks in projects and wants the same tasks as a list, a board or a calendar.

ClickUp's pricing page lists Calendar View among the key features of its Free Forever plan, with 60MB of storage. As of October 2026, its lowest-priced paid plan costs $7 per user a month billed yearly or $10 billed monthly, and Business costs $12 billed yearly or $19 billed monthly. The same page also showed a second set of plans with other names and prices, so check which plan you are buying at checkout.

Todoist's plans and billing FAQ, last updated on October 15, 2026, gives the free Beginner plan up to 5 active personal projects and up to 5 active team projects, with 7 days of activity history and 5 MB file uploads. Its plan table marks the calendar layout as Pro and Business only. Business costs $8 per user a month billed yearly ($96 a year) or $10 billed monthly, as of October 2026, and the pricing page lists a shared team workspace, up to 500 team projects and a calendar layout for team projects.

Daily planners with team features: Sunsama and Akiflow

Sunsama's pricing page says plainly: "Sunsama doesn't have a free forever plan and doesn't plan to." It offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and the Pro plan is $17 a month billed yearly or $22 billed monthly, in US dollars, as of October 2026. Its FAQ says that when someone is added to your Sunsama workspace, they are added to your plan and your monthly bill updates. The FAQ also quotes a per-person figure that differs from the plan card, so check the total before you add teammates.

Akiflow's pricing page says "Akiflow has no free plan" and offers a 7-day trial that needs a card. Pro is $19 a month billed yearly ($228 a year) or $34 billed monthly, as of October 2026. The page lists "Team collaboration" and "Availability sharing" and says team pricing is handled by Akiflow directly, without describing what the team features include.

Both are strongest when each person plans their own day around a calendar the team already shares. If you want an app to place tasks into open time for you, our guide to AI planner apps that auto schedule tasks compares the options.

Choosing the best shared daily planning tool for team calendars and tasks in 2026

To choose the best shared daily planning tool for team calendars and tasks in 2026, start from two numbers: how many people you are, and what you will pay per person each month. The plan caps above do most of the sorting for you.

• Two people, no budget. Asana's free Personal plan covers 2 users with a calendar view. Pair it with a shared Google or Outlook calendar for meetings.
• Three to ten people, no budget. Keep a shared calendar, and add ClickUp Free Forever, which lists a calendar view, or Todoist Beginner if a list of tasks without the calendar layout is enough.
• A small team with a budget. Asana Starter, ClickUp's paid plans and Todoist Business all put dated tasks on a calendar.
• Already on Google Workspace. Shared calendars come with every Business plan, so you only need the task tool.
• Each person plans their own day. Sunsama or Akiflow on top of the team's shared calendar, budgeted per person.
• The calendar is settled, and the team needs a place to talk and keep notes. A Barside Space, which is free, next to the calendar you already share.

A worked example, with list prices as of October 2026 and nothing else assumed: five people on Todoist Business billed yearly pay 5 × $96 = $480 a year. The same five on Asana Starter billed annually pay 5 × $10.99 × 12 = $659.40 a year. Add the calendar you already have, and that is the whole bill for the tasks half of the day.

Which free team calendar sharing app should you use in 2026?

For a free team calendar sharing app in 2026, most teams start with the calendar service they already sign in to: Google Calendar or Outlook.com. Microsoft's Outlook.com guide is written for personal accounts, and Google's sharing guide also covers work and school calendars, where an administrator decides if you can share. Neither page we read states a price, so we can't quote one.

The two differ in detail. Google offers five permission levels and sharing with a Google group, which suits a team that changes members. Outlook.com offers view or edit, and asks people on other email services to accept with a Microsoft account, or you publish a read-only link instead. Pick the one most of your team already uses, since every invitation lands there.

For tasks on a calendar at no cost, ClickUp's Free Forever plan lists a calendar view, and Asana's free plan does for 2 users. Todoist's free plan shares team projects but leaves the calendar layout to Pro and Business, and Sunsama and Akiflow have no free plan. For more on free planners that read Google Calendar, see free daily planner apps that sync with Google Calendar.

Free alternatives to Google Workspace for a small team's calendar and tasks

The free alternatives to Google Workspace for a small team's shared calendar and tasks are usually a mix: a calendar account for the schedule, a free task plan for the work, and a free place to talk. Workspace bundles more than that, with shared calendars on every Business plan, appointment booking pages from Standard up and room for up to 300 users, so compare against what you would use.

A free mix could look like this:

1. A team calendar in Outlook.com or a personal Google account, shared with everyone at the edit level.
2. A task tool on a free plan: ClickUp Free Forever for a larger group, or Asana Personal for two people.
3. A place to talk and keep notes, such as a Barside Space with chat, shared notes and files.

One thing to settle early is ownership. Google's help page says only the owner of a calendar can permanently delete it or transfer ownership to someone else. Decide who creates the team calendar, so it doesn't leave with the person who made it.

What Barside gives a team, and what it doesn't

Barside is a free desktop app on Windows, Linux and Mac, and its team features live in Spaces. Open Spaces, sign in with Google or an email code, and choose Create Space with a name, a description and a color. Spaces you create are private and invitation only, and Barside charges nothing per member. The guide to team chat in Spaces covers every setting.

Each Space has five tabs: Chat, Notes, Resources, Files and Members. Chat has replies, reactions, @mentions and polls with 2 to 10 options, and owners and moderators can pin up to 50 messages, such as this week's call link. In Notes, you write a shared note with New note, or share one from your library with Share note to a Space. A shared note keeps its formatting, so a plan with headings and a checklist reads the same for everyone, and anyone can choose Save to my workspace to keep an independent copy.

Around the Space, Barside adds the rest of a team's day:

• Meetings. Video meetings for up to 6 people, scheduled with a repeat such as every weekday. With Barside emails the invitation on, each person gets Join meeting and Add to calendar links, and the Meetings tab lists your meetings and the ones you're invited to, by day. See free video meetings for small groups.
• Your calendar beside your notes. The Calendar view reads up to 10 calendars from Google, Outlook or any iCal link and shows today and the next 7 days. See the calendar next to your notes.
• Your tasks. Every checklist item in your notes shows on the task board, grouped as Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 days, Later and No due date.
• Team Mode. It keeps meetings, Spaces, your calendar and follow-ups in the sidebar and opens on Meetings.

The limits matter for this search. Barside is not a shared team calendar: its calendar only reads calendars, and it never adds, moves or deletes events, so the team calendar stays in Google Calendar or Outlook. The task board is personal too, because it is built from the notes on your own computer. Each Space has one chat, with replies that quote the earlier message, so separate topics need separate Spaces. Everyone needs the app and a free Spaces account, and Barside has no phone app. For a fuller comparison with team chat apps, read the Slack alternative guide.

How to run a team's day with Barside next to your shared calendar

This setup keeps the schedule where it is and puts the conversation and the plan in Barside.

1. Keep the shared calendar in Google Calendar or Outlook, as described above.
2. Install Barside. Each person downloads Barside and opens Settings & backups, scrolls to Calendars and chooses Add calendar. Paste the calendar's Secret iCal address, choose Check address, then Add calendar.
3. Create the Space. The team lead opens Spaces, chooses Create Space, then invites people from Manage Space with Invite someone, by email address. Invitations expire after 7 days.
4. Schedule the standup. In Meetings, choose Schedule, set the time and the repeat to every weekday, and add everyone's email address.
5. Write the day's plan. Start from the daily standup template, with one table that holds everyone's yesterday, today, blockers and status, and a Blockers to clear today checklist. Share it into the Space with Share note to a Space.
6. Plan your own part. Open Library & briefing and the Daily briefing tab for the rest of today's calendar, due reminders and unchecked tasks on one page. See the daily briefing.

Press Alt+Shift+Space in any app and type task and a few words to add a task without leaving what you're doing.

Examples of setups that work

These are made-up examples that show each setup; they are not real teams.

• Example: a four-person design studio. A "Studio" calendar in Google Calendar, shared with everyone at "Make changes and see event details". Client work lives in ClickUp on its free plan. The studio's Barside Space holds the morning chat, a pinned message with the week's call link, and the day's standup note.
• Example: two founders. Asana's free Personal plan holds their tasks with a calendar view, and an Outlook.com calendar holds investor calls. A Barside meeting every weekday at 9:00 replaces the morning message thread.
• Example: a volunteer group of eight with no budget. A shared calendar for events, a poll in the group's Space to pick the next date, and the event checklist as a shared note that each volunteer saves to their own workspace.

Privacy: where a team's plan lives

A shared calendar lives with Google or Microsoft, under their policies. In Barside, Spaces are online: messages, shared notes and files travel over HTTPS and are stored with Supabase, Barside's hosting provider, and the server checks membership for every read. Spaces are not end-to-end encrypted, so Barside's hosting administrators can access the data. Read Spaces and your data.

Your own notes and tasks stay on your computer unless you share them or turn on Barside Plus sync. Barside stores each secret calendar address encrypted on your computer, leaves it out of backups, and downloads the calendar straight from Google or Microsoft; see how calendar feeds are stored. Barside also counts which features are used, by name only, with a switch in Settings to turn that off.

Works well with