A sync is a round trip. Not a one-way flight.
Your events leave for Google Calendar, Outlook or any CalDAV server the moment you save them. Then the edits you make over there come home again. Two legs, one connection, nothing to pay.
Round trip · calendar sync
your-schedule.eventschedule.com
- Direction
- out · back · both
- Carriers
- Google · Outlook · CalDAV
- If deleted there
- keep / cancel / delete
One setting per schedule. Different schedules can fly different carriers and different directions.
What leaves here
Save it once. It is already gone.
The outbound leg is not a nightly job you wait for. It leaves on the save.
On save
Create, edit, delete
All three travel. Add a date and the entry appears; change the time and the same entry moves; delete the event and the entry goes with it. There is no "sync now" button you have to remember.
The wording
Say it your way
A calendar description template decides what the entry says, using the same variables as event graphics: name, date, time, venue, city, link. Leave it empty and the event description travels as-is.
Online events
A meeting, not just a slot
Switch it on and an online event with no venue leaves Outlook as a Microsoft Teams meeting. The join link is written back onto the event when it does not already have one, so the calendar entry is the thing people click.
Set the direction to out and you are done: a publish-only pipe from your schedule to your calendar app, and nothing you do in the calendar app can move your public listings.
What comes back
The leg everyone else forgets to sell you.
Plenty of tools will push a copy of your events into a calendar. The return leg is the one that matters on a Tuesday, when the change happens in the calendar app you already had open.
In your calendar app
On your schedule
You added an event
It appears on your schedule, filed properly: your slug pattern applied, your default event category set, and the location line turned into a venue rather than left as a line of text.
You moved it, renamed it, or changed the place
The same event is updated in place. It is matched by the id we stored when the copy was made, with a name-and-time fallback behind that on Google and Outlook, so you do not end up holding two of them.
You deleted it
Whatever you told the schedule to do: keep it here, mark it cancelled, or delete it. Events with ticket sales or live ad spend are hidden rather than destroyed.
Loop-safe on purpose: something that arrives on the return leg is not turned round and pushed straight back out again, so a single edit does not ping-pong between the two systems.
A push, not a wait
FreeGoogle and Microsoft both notify us the moment something changes on their side, so the return leg normally runs within a minute or two of you closing the dialog.
Only what changed
FreeEach connection keeps a cursor, so a sync reads the handful of entries that moved instead of the whole year. A CalDAV calendar whose tag has not changed is skipped entirely.
A sweep behind it
FreeA scheduled sweep runs every fifteen minutes for all three carriers, so a notification that never arrives costs you a quarter of an hour, not a missed show.
Three carriers. Both legs on all of them.
Every column below runs the round trip. The differences are how you sign in, how fast the return leg is, and how much you have to set up if you selfhost.
| Feature | Google Calendar | Outlook / Microsoft 365 | CalDAV |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you connect | Google sign-in (OAuth) | Microsoft sign-in (OAuth, Graph) | Server URL, username, password |
| What triggers the return leg | A push notification from Google, plus a sweep every fifteen minutes | A Graph subscription, plus a sweep every fifteen minutes | A poll every fifteen minutes, skipped when the calendar tag has not moved |
| Pick which calendar | Yes, per schedule | Yes, per schedule | Yes, discovered from your server |
| Direction | Out, back, or both | Out, back, or both | Out, back, or both |
| Deleted in the calendar app | Keep it, mark it cancelled, or delete it | Keep it, mark it cancelled, or delete it | Not applied: CalDAV brings back new and changed events only |
| On a selfhosted install | Needs your own Google API credentials | Needs your own Azure app registration | Nothing to register, just the server URL |
The third leg
Get on their calendar, not just yours.
Two ways in, depending on whether somebody wants one night or everything you do.
One night: add to calendar
FreeEvent pages carry an Add to Calendar menu, except where the page is already leading with a Register or Buy tickets button. No account, no sign-up, no app.
Being straight about it: this leg is one way, and it should be. It hands over a copy of one event, so if you later move the start time, their entry does not hear about it. Anybody who wants to stay current wants the feed instead.
Everything: the feed
FreeYour schedule has an iCal feed URL, sitting on the Integrations tab next to an RSS one. Anybody can subscribe to it in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, and their calendar re-reads it on its own.
- A recurring event arrives as one entry per date for the next ninety days, not as one vague repeating blob.
- Each entry keeps the same identifier every time the feed is re-read, so a subscribed calendar updates the entry it already has rather than collecting duplicates.
- Only what is actually public travels. Drafts, private events, cancelled events and password-protected events stay off the feed.
Want the schedule on your own website as well? Embed the calendar
The rest of the itinerary.
Six things that decide whether a sync survives contact with a real season.
Deleted over there is a decision, not an accident
FreeDecide once, per schedule, what a deletion in the connected calendar means here.
Keep it here
The calendar is a working copy. Your listing is the record.
Mark it cancelled
Hidden from the public page and reversible. The right answer once tickets exist.
Delete it here
Gone. Except where money is involved: events with sales or live ad spend are hidden instead.
Which calendar, exactly
FreeYour calendar list is read from the account you connected, and you pick one per schedule. Gigs on the work calendar, the choir on another, nothing landing in the wrong place.
One schedule, several calendars
Google sync also has a per-member setting, so each person on a schedule can point it at their own calendar instead of sharing the owner's. Worth knowing where the line is: the setting costs nothing, but a schedule with more than one team member is on the Enterprise plan.
A recurring night leaves as one entry
FreeA weekly night is one event here: a day-of-week pattern with exceptions for the dates it skips. The outbound leg carries it the same way, as a single calendar entry at the date and time on the event, so your own calendar does not fill up with fifty copies. The feed is the surface that expands the pattern, one entry per date, for anybody who wants every night in their own calendar.
Selfhosted
FreeAll three carriers work on your own server. Google wants its own API credentials and Outlook wants an Azure app registration; CalDAV wants a URL and nothing else, which is why it is the usual answer for a private install.
Turn one leg off whenever you like
FreeDirection is one setting per schedule with four choices: out, back, both, or off. Nothing about connecting a calendar is a one-way door, and disconnecting stops the trip without touching the events either side.
Booking the trip
Three settings, once, on the schedule's Integrations tab. Then nothing.
Connect the account
Sign in to Google or Microsoft once from Account Settings, or type a CalDAV server URL, username and password.
Pick the calendar and the direction
Choose which calendar this schedule uses, then out, back or both. Different schedules can make different choices.
Decide about deletions
On Google and Outlook, say what a deletion in the connected calendar should mean here: keep it, mark it cancelled, or delete it. Then stop thinking about sync.
Step by step, with screenshots, in the calendar sync guide.
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Frequently asked questions
Everything people ask before they connect a calendar.
How do I connect Google Calendar?
Connect your Google account once in Account Settings, then open your schedule, go to Edit and open Integrations. On the Google Calendar tab, pick which calendar this schedule uses and pick the direction: out, back, or both. If you chose out or both, events start moving from your next save. It is on the free plan.
How often does the calendar sync?
Google and Outlook push a notification the moment something changes on their side, so the return leg usually runs within a minute or two. A sweep also runs every fifteen minutes as a backstop, and only re-reads what actually changed. CalDAV has no push, so it is polled on that same fifteen-minute schedule and skipped entirely when the calendar tag has not moved.
Is the sync two-way?
Yes, and you choose. Out sends events to your calendar. Back brings events from your calendar onto your schedule. Both runs the round trip. Events you create, edit or delete here go out when you save, and events created or edited in your calendar app come back on the return leg. Deletions come back from Google and Outlook, where you decide what they should mean; CalDAV brings back new and changed events only. A change that arrives on the return leg is never echoed straight back out again.
Can attendees add events to their personal calendars?
Yes. Event pages carry an Add to Calendar menu for Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Microsoft Outlook, and no account is needed. The exception is a page already leading with a Register or Buy tickets button, which takes that spot. Either way it is a one-way copy of one event. For somebody who wants everything you do, the schedule also has an iCal feed URL they can subscribe to, which keeps updating as you add and edit events.
What happens if I delete an event in my calendar app?
That is a per-schedule setting with three options: keep it here, mark it cancelled here, or delete it here. Cancelling is the reversible one and is the right choice once tickets are sold. If you choose delete, events that have ticket sales or live ad spend are hidden instead of destroyed, so the sales records survive.
Does calendar sync cost anything?
No. Google Calendar, Outlook and CalDAV sync are all on the free plan, in both directions, and selfhosted installs get them too. The paid plans are about ticketing, graphics and branding, not about your calendar.
Free on every plan
Book the round trip. Both legs included.
Connect Google Calendar, Outlook or any CalDAV server, choose your direction, and stop keeping two calendars in your head.
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