One Key Calendar review: Attempting to bring Google Calendar to Windows 10

Keeping on top of various calendars and appointments can be a challenge. One Key Calendar — Calendar for Google is a simple calendar that makes it easy to view tasks set for the day, week, and other periods of time. It also syncs with Google Calendar, so you don't have to create another calendar just for your PC.

One Key Calendar — Calendar for Google is available on Windows 10 for $9.99. It's important to note that there are two versions of One Key Calendar, one that supports Google Calendar and one that doesn't. Both cost money as well so don't assume the paid version supports syncing with Google Calendar.

See in Microsoft Store

Clean and simple

One Key Calendar is a basic calendar app. It has a clean layout that lets you view all of your Google Calendars in different views including day, week, two-week, three-week, and month.

There are a few little touches that enhance the viewing experience as well including narrowing certain days or showing different hour formats.

One Key Calendar lacks a dark theme, but its light theme is attractive.

Falls short of the competition

While One Key Calendar is simple to use, it has issues that make me question who would use it over competition such as Outlook. First, syncing appointments seems to require a manual sync which is done every time you open or close the app. This needs to be done in the background and without users having to approve it each time.

Next, syncing only worked in one direction in my testing. If I created an event inside One Key Calendar it would show up perfectly in my Google Calendar. But if I tried it the other way and created the event in my browser, it didn't show up on One Key calendar. There's always a chance that this is just an isolated bug, but I tried it multiple times and couldn't get it to work in both directions.

Third, One Key Calendar doesn't support multiple accounts. You can use all of your Google Calendars from one account, but you can't use your work and personal Google accounts within the app.

Lastly, One Key Calendar lacks some intuitive features that are available in other calendar apps. For example, in Outlook you can drag an event around to change when it is or how long it is. One Key Calendar seems like it's supposed to do this, but it doesn't work. You can click and drag an event, but it doesn't stick where you place it.

There are some things I like about One Key Calendar that not all calendar apps have. Its two week and three-week views are very nice. Popping the table of different hour formats is also helpful. But despite these features, it just falls short in my opinion.

Overall thoughts on One Key Calendar

I was excited to review One Key Calendar. I thought it would be another well-made app dedicated to bringing the Google experience to Windows 10 users. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in multiple ways. One Key Calendar lacks features of free competitors and also has issues syncing with Google Calendar, which is one of the main draws of the app.

The clean design and motivation behind the app are promising, but the app has a long way to go to compete within a crowded calendar app space.

Pros

  • Syncs with Google Calendar (mostly).
  • Clean design.
  • Multiple viewing modes.

Cons

  • One-way synchronization.
  • No multiple accounts support.
  • Lacks some features.
  • Pricey.

See in Microsoft Store

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.