Google CalDAV versus BusySync

Google recently announced that Google Calendar now supports the CalDAV protocol enabling users to sync calendars on Google Calendar with iCal.

BusySync offers similar functionality for syncing iCal with Google Calendar. We have received many questions about how BusySync compares to Google CalDAV. Here’s a summary of the key differences:

	BusySync	Google CalDAV
Setup	Syncs calendars hosted in iCal and Google	Syncs only calendars hosted on Google
iPhone/MobileMe	Calendars sync to iPhone as read-write	Calendars do not sync to iPhone
iPhone/iTunes	Calendars sync to iPhone as read-write	Calendars sync to iPhone as read-only
ToDos	Supports ToDos in iCal	Does not support ToDos in iCal
Alarms	Syncs alarms created in iCal and Google; choice of popup, email or SMS	Syncs only alarms created on Google; popups only
OS Support	Leopard and Tiger	Leopard only

Read on for more details...

Setup
BusySync enables users to sync calendars hosted in iCal or Google. Once a source calendar is selected (in iCal or Google), BusySync automatically creates a corresponding destination calendar and keeps the two in sync.

BusySync can sync calendars hosted in both iCal and Google

Calendars synced from Google to iCal with BusySync appear in iCal as normal calendars.

BusySync calendars in iCal

Google CalDAV only syncs calendars hosted on Google, which means you cannot sync pre-existing calendars in iCal. To sync pre-existing calendars in iCal, each calendar must exported and deleted from iCal, imported into Google, and synced back to iCal.

Google can sync only calendars hosted on Google

Each Google CalDAV calendar will then appear in iCal under its own heading, adding unnecessary clutter to iCal.

Each Google CalDAV calendar appears under its own heading in iCal

iPhone
Calendars synced with BusySync will sync to the iPhone as read-write calendars, whether syncing the iPhone wirelessly with MobileMe or syncing via USB with iTunes. Changes made to events on the iPhone will then sync to iCal and Google Calendar.

Google CalDAV calendars do not sync to the iPhone at all when syncing an iPhone wirelessly with MobileMe. And Google CalDAV calendars sync as read-only when syncing an iPhone over USB with iTunes, prohibiting the ability to edit events on the iPhone.

iPhone Syncing	BusySync Calendars	Google CalDAV
Wireless/MobileMe	read-write	—
USB/iTunes	read-write	read-only

Incidentally, the same limitation applies to WebDAV calendar subscriptions in iCal (like Holiday calendars) -- they will not sync to the iPhone. But BusySync will allow you to work around this limitation as well to sync calendar subscriptions to the iPhone.

Connection Errors

Google's servers are frequently unreachable due to maintenance or network errors.

BusySync handles this situation gracefully and continues to attempt to connect to Google in the background without interrupting the user.

With Google CalDAV, if the server is not reachable, a modal dialog is displayed in iCal that you are forced to respond to. If you're syncing with Google CalDAV every minute, the error alert will appear every minute. The only way to get it to stop is to quit iCal. Very annoying.

Google CalDAV connection errors cause obtrusive alerts in iCal

ToDos
iCal supports ToDos, but Google Calendar does not.

BusySync supports ToDos in iCal. The ToDos will not sync to Google (because Google doesn't support them), but the ToDos will remain intact and editable in iCal.

Google CalDAV does not support ToDos in iCal. If a ToDo is created on a Google CalDAV calendar in iCal, an obscure error message is displayed and the ToDo is deleted!

 

ToDos cannot be created on Google CalDAV calendars

Alarms
BusySync syncs alarms created in both iCal and Google. And message alarms in iCal can be mapped to popup, Email, or SMS alarms on Google.



BusySync's Alarm syncing options

Google CalDAV syncs alarms created on Google but not alarms created in iCal. And it only syncs popup alarms; Email and SMS alarms are not synced.

Tiger
BusySync supports both Leopard and Tiger.

Google CalDAV is only supported in Leopard.

Summary
BusySync offers a more robust and full featured syncing experience than Google CalDAV. The lack of iPhone syncing in Google CalDAV is a show stopper for most; not to mention the lack of support for ToDos, one-way alarm syncing, and Leopard-only requirement. The best thing Google CalDAV has going for it is its price — free. But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Comments

[Roland J Young]

Can i ask you mention 'BusySync syncs alarms created in both iCal and Google. And message alarms in iCal can be mapped to popup, Email, or SMS alarms on Google ' where can you do this?

[John]

Roland, you can specify if/how you want to map alarms when syncing with Google in BusySync > Google > Settings.

http://www.busymac.com/busysync/userguide.html#google

[Kyle Johnson]

This is a very useful comparison, but you left out one thing. Free/Busy schedules. If your organization uses Google Apps, using CalDAV allows you to see the free/busy schedule of your colleagues and schedule meetings. I don't get the impression I can do that with Busy Sync.

[John]

Kyle, that is true. But did you really expect to find an impartial comparison on the BusyMac blog? :)

If you're a large organization and are using Google Apps (or Leopard Server), the biggest advantage CalDAV offers is the ability to see free/busy time and schedule meetings with other users in your domain.

We're not targeting large organizations with complex scheduling requirements. BusySync is focused more on families and small workgroups.