 Ever tried searching for a calendar app in the iPhone app store? Good luck with that. There are hundreds, if not thousands of calendar apps vying for your daily attention. And the truth is, most of them are garbage. But if you dig deep enough, a few of them are truly great. The best ones give you directions, tell you more about the people you're meeting with, and tie in to your favorite services like Facebook and Tripit. But which app should you pick? Sunrise is the best calendar app for most people. Not only does it have one of the largest feature sets of any app I tested, but somehow manages to bundle it all into a very handsome, minimal, and free package. Sunrise does everything you'd expect from a calendar app. Recurring events, birthdays, alerts, Google Maps integration, and more. It's the little things that make Sunrise truly special though. Like its weather indicators, photo avatars for event attendees, smart icons that change to reflect your events, and its integration with popular services like Song, Kick, and Tripit to show upcoming concerts and trips. You can even add interesting calendars for free, like holidays, sports schedules, or World Cup games. Sunrise's Facebook integration is also best in class, importing events and birthdays like no other. The icing on the cake is that Sunrise also makes iPad and desktop apps, which trump Google Calendar in almost every way. There are some rough edges, like a lack of a true week view and month view. Sunrise finds a great balance, however, between useful features and information overload. It not only displays your calendar really well, but adds a whole lot to it. Fantastical 2, on the other hand, doesn't have as many bells and whistles, but is so solid that it's impossible not to recommend it. It comes in a very close second place. Fantastical is easy to read, imports all the calendars you've already added to your phone right out of the box, and has best in class language recognition. That means you can type in, Dinner with David tomorrow at 8pm at Chipotle, press add, and you're done. Even better, as you type Fantastical shows what else is going on in your calendar, so you can plan around upcoming events. The app also includes a true week view, unlike Sunrise, but offers no detailed month view. Fantastical is way more expensive than its competitors, so it might scare off all but the most serious schedulers. Beyond Sunrise and Fantastical, there are several worthy competitors that might be perfect for a certain kind of person. If you desperately need the date on your home screen, for example, the iOS calendar is your only real option. Otherwise, stay away. Calendars 5 by Riedel is a lot better alternative. The app does everything well, from its Fantastical-inspired language recognition to its unique portrait-oriented week view. Its best features are some little touches, like arrows that indicate when you have more going on today, and elegant support for Apple's To Do app reminders. The app's month view is also excellent, letting you quickly zoom into a day, then back out again super fast. Calendars 5 is great, but expensive, and doesn't stand out much from the crowd. If you're looking for a more integrated approach to productivity, however, Cal is a great option. The app ties directly into AnyDo, one of the best To Do apps you can find, and envisions your calendar as a mixture of events and tasks, and tacky stock photography. There's no other calendar app that is integrated with a popular To Do's app like AnyDo, but Cal can be sluggish and buggy enough to make the trip not worth taking. If you want a calendar app that's ultra-minimal, and only includes today's events, Peak might be worth a look. Peak is definitely the most beautiful way to see what you're doing today, but it can't do much else. The app's UI is like nothing I've ever seen, but it also means it's a real challenge to add events and pick out calendars to show or hide. So what good is it? Up2 is like Sunrise Light, offering a similar interface, weather, and interesting calendars, but not much more. Up2's selection of calendars is a standout feature in fact, offering not just sports teams, but also schedules for shows like Game of Thrones, and alternative music releases. The app's real strength, however, is its shared calendars system. It's easy to share specific events so they show up on the calendars of your other family members. But ultimately, Up2 just doesn't have enough features, or even Weekview, which comes standard in most apps. Want another way to look at your day, even if it looks totally bizarre? Mind offers an odd but effective snapshot of your day the moment you open it. The app tells you the weather and what's happening, but also which event is next and how soon you should leave so you aren't late. The app's butt-ugly, but has some unique features like insights about how you're spending your time, and a tool that helps you suggest meeting times to colleagues. A more attractive take on predictive intelligence comes from Tempo. The app can dial conference call numbers for you, pull attachments from relevant meeting emails, and even tell you the latest tweets or mutual friends of an event attendee. There's also one-tap access to directions, flight statuses, and conference calls. Tempo is a bit of an eyesore, especially when you hop into Weekview, but is a well-rounded calendar app that business people should love. Two final options are Week Calendar and Agenda. One's great for looking at the coming week, while the other's good for looking at your agenda over the next few days. Agenda offers a really nice way to see a list of all your events at once. The app has great information density. Week Calendar, on the other hand, has gained a faithful following for its even denser Weekview, which attempts to squeeze everything you're doing this week into one screen. It's pretty ugly, but hey, some people dig that. Unfortunately for you, downloading a calendar app is only the first step towards organizing your life. Inputting events, fulfilling promises, and not being late to your next date is entirely up to you. But there's certainly some effective apps to help you get there.