Menu Bar Calendar For Mac

macOS lacks a quick-access calendar that would be useful for checking a date without opening the actual Calendar app. It’s something you get on Windows, and you’ll definitely miss it if transitioning to macOS.

Menu Bar Calendar is a straightforward app true to its name. It adds a basic calendar to the menu bar, which you can bring up with one click and navigate without unnecessary context switching.

When you launch the app, you’ll see a new icon in the menu bar. Clicking it brings up a basic calendar, which you can navigate via clicks or the arrow keys. While holding down Option, you can cycle through years instead of months.

Design-wise, the calendar blends in very well with the system interface. The menu bar icon can be configured to display the current day of the month, should you want to get rid of the default macOS date display.

Aside from changing the default icon, you can also configure the app to show week numbers in the calendar. The first day of the week is based on your macOS preferences.

While not set up initially, you can also create a shortcut for toggling the calendar on or off. This can be helpful if you’re working on something and don’t want to move the cursor to the menu bar when checking dates.

This is the same developer behind Dato, a more complex menu bar calendar that supports more customization, events, world clocks, notifications, and quite a few other features. It’s a great app, which I’ve used for a few years now, but it’s not free.

Menu Bar Calendar only includes basic functionality, but it’s great for users who only want something like the Windows system tray calendar. It’s lightweight, unobtrusive, and very easy to use.