Comparison

HiCal vs GroupCal

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HiCal

This app facilitates collaborative event planning and scheduling for groups. Share timetables, receive real-time updates on changes, and communicate via comments. Ideal for students, project teams, and organizations to stay synchronized.

Highlights
  • Group event scheduling
  • Real-time push notifications
  • Event comments and discussion
  • Shared timetables
  • Private and public groups
  • Event repetition support
Read full description

Organize yourselves for your classes, projects, or company with HiCal, the collaborative calendar! Create or join your class’ or club’s group, and get your shared timetable in your pocket. You can be part of multiple groups. You will receive Push notifications each time that a group’s event is modified, or an event is commented. Event repetition is supported (including “once every two weeks”). HiCal helps you to organize yourself and to collaborate with your friends and colleagues in different situations: - Students and pupils: Add comments to a lesson at a given day, to indicate homework and exams for example, and they will instantly be synced across smartphones and tablets, and shared with your class. You will not ever ask yourself again what is left to do: the answer will be in your pocket, up-to-date, at any moment. Even if only one person indicates the exams to come, everyone will be aware: one for all, and all for one! - Projects: Determine deadlines with your teammates, and discuss them in the comments! Your project is a secret? Then create a secret group, which will be hidden from the group search results. Only the people you add will be able to join the group. - Companies, clubs and organizations: Write down meetings’ or activities’ dates and locations, suggest or edit in real time, and instantly update all your fellows of a schedule change, thanks to push notifications. - Organize public events: Create a group, open to everyone, to let people stay tuned about your upcoming events! In this kind of group, only the group’s administrators can create or edit events. Thus, you can share your events, your live sessions for example if you’re a band, while keeping control. And if something unexpected happens, you can inform group’s members thanks to comments and push notifications! - Education: If you are an educational institution (school, college, university...), you can also use HiCal, by creating a group for each class or course, and inviting your students in them. Simplify your teachers’ and students’ life with HiCal!

About

GroupCal

Easily create and share calendars for families, teams, or any community. Invite members via phone number or link and receive real-time updates on events. Integrates with existing calendars for a unified view.

Highlights
  • Create multiple shared calendars
  • Invite via phone number or link
  • Real-time event updates and notifications
  • Integrates with existing calendars
  • Public calendars for businesses and communities
  • Color-coded calendars and customization
  • Event attendance tracking
Features
Read full description

GroupCal is the most powerful platform for individuals and businesses, to share calendars with groups, families, customers, followers and any community. Inviting members to a shared calendar is quick and easy. Simply send a link to members, or invite them using their phone numbers from your contact list. They will be able to instantly view the calendar on any device. Members of shared calendars get real time updates when events are added or updated. GroupCal is free, easy to use, and available on any mobile device. ==== GroupCal - Main Features ==== SHARED CALENDARS FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES People use GroupCal to create shared calendars such as: • Family calendar for parents and children • Calendar for businesses with all activities and events • Calendar for teams to share meetings, projects and schedule • Calendar for students, teachers and classes • Calendar for a group of friends • Calendar for a group with a common interest • Public calendar for universities, clubs, bands and brands - anyone can search and join it CREATE MULTIPLE SHARED CALENDARS EASILY Create multiple shared calendars for different topics and groups. Each calendar is used for its own topic and with its own members. INVITE USING PHONE NUMBERS. NO NEED FOR EMAIL ADDRESS Invite members using their phone numbers, right from your contact list, or by sending a link via Email, Messenger, WhatsApp, or SMS. No need to have email addresses of the members. ALL YOUR CALENDARS IN ONE PLACE Your Existing Calendars are also in GroupCal. Your private schedule from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook is presented in GroupCal, side by side to the shared calendar you create or join using GroupCal. You get a unified view of all your calendars on one screen and in one place. BUSINESSES - CREATE PUBLIC CALENDARS Set calendars as “public” to have them visible to anyone around the world. Public calendars are searchable by GroupCal users. REAL TIME NOTIFICATIONS Members of shared calendars get real time updates and notifications when they are added to the calendar, and when events are added or updated. JOINING SHARED CALENDARS IS SO EASY Either click on a link a member sent to you, or join an existing public calendar on GroupCal by using the search option: discover your University's schedule, Yoga class schedule, your favorite band’s concerts and more. COLOR CODED CALENDARS AND SPECIAL CUSTOMIZATION Select a color and a photo for each calendar to easily distinguish between calendars and their events. KNOW HOW’S ATTENDING Get a better visibility about each event: see when the event was delivered per member, and who accepted or declined participation. MINIMALIST DESIGN & USER FRIENDLY GroupCal has a simple and clear design that makes it super easy to use. It’s built to be very user friendly and intuitive. Features in the app are accompanied with short explanations so you don’t have to spend much time to learn and get used to it. ADD REMINDERS AND TASKS TO CALENDAR EVENTS Use advanced features such as recurrence to events, multiple reminders for each event, or notes and subtasks which are assigned to events. ADVANCED CALENDAR PERMISSIONS Choose the permission level for each shared calendar. Assign admins, set whether the calendar’s name and photo can be changed, who is allowed to add or update events, and whether members can add other new members to the calendar. CROSS PLATFORM GroupCal is available worldwide for all major platforms.

Screenshots

HiCal4 screens
GroupCal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HiCal at none against GroupCal's 10. HiCal also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). GroupCal's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 55%) and ratings volume (810 vs 23). On price, rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. GroupCal sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. HiCal asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for HiCal against 4.7 for GroupCal. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: GroupCal has 810 ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 55% of HiCal's written reviews are positive against 79% of GroupCal's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HiCal ships an update every 2 months, GroupCal fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
HiCal versus GroupCal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHiCalGroupCal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (23 ratings)4.7 (810 ratings)
Positive reviews55.0% of reviews79.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings23810 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB74 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNakagawa Yugo24me

Customer experience

HiCal

All ratings23 ratings
Positive91.3%
Neutral4.3%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive55.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative35.0%

GroupCal

All ratings810 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews537 reviews
Positive79.1%
Neutral5.8%
Negative15.1%

Bugs and requests

HiCal

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

GroupCal

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Inability to delete shared calendars
  • Calendar events not syncing properly
  • Phone number verification issues

Requested features

3 requests
  • Color-coding for individual calendars
  • Improved recurring event scheduling
  • Integration with other calendar apps

In-app purchases

None

HiCal

No in-app purchases

9 purchases

GroupCal

Subscriptions9
  • Pro7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Pro$14.991 Month
  • Business7 Days trial$74.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • GroupCal Pro1 Year trial2 variants$119.991 Year
  • GroupCal Pro7 Days trial$119.991 Year
  • Business +7 Days trial$224.991 Month
  • GroupCal Business1 Year trial$599.991 Year
  • Business7 Days trial$599.991 Year
  • Business +7 Days trial$1000.001 Year

Questions

Is HiCal free?
HiCal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is GroupCal free?
GroupCal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HiCal or GroupCal?
HiCal and GroupCal are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 23 and 810 ratings respectively.
Do HiCal or GroupCal have ads?
Neither HiCal nor GroupCal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HiCal or GroupCal?
HiCal ships an update every 2 months, and GroupCal fortnightly. Most recently, HiCal was updated on October 4, 2026 and GroupCal on October 18, 2026.

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