BlipcalvsMeetingBar

Blipcal vs MeetingBar

A free meeting launcher and a paid menu bar calendar compared: next meeting in the menu bar, one-click join, month view, event editing and time zones.

Try Blipcal MeetingBar's site

MeetingBar does one job, the next meeting and a join button, and does it free with 50+ services and a direct Google connection. Blipcal does that job too and adds the calendar: month grid, agenda, editing, quick add, time zones and reminders. If you only need to join meetings, use MeetingBar.

Facts checked 6 November 2026: meetingbar.app, its App Store listing and GitHub.

Blipcal vs MeetingBar at a glance

	Blipcal	MeetingBar
Price	$19 once	Free, optional patronage
Open source	No	Yes
Month grid	Yes	No
Create and edit events	Yes	No
Next meeting with a countdown	Yes	Yes
One-key join	Eleven named services	50+ services
Direct Google Calendar connection	No, through macOS accounts	Yes
Fullscreen meeting reminders	Later	Yes
Shortcuts and AppleScript	Later	Yes
Minimum macOS	14	12
Mac App Store	No	Yes

MeetingBar 5.0.0 on the Mac App Store, macOS 12 or later, free with optional patronage, checked 6 November 2026. "Later" means on the Blipcal roadmap.

What MeetingBar does well, and what Blipcal adds over MeetingBar

What MeetingBar does well

Free and open source, with about 5,400 GitHub stars
One click to join across 50+ meeting services
A direct Google Calendar connection and bookmarks
Shortcuts, AppleScript and fullscreen reminders
A 5.0 rewrite, on the App Store since November 2026

What Blipcal adds

The calendar itself: a month grid with event dots and an agenda
Add and edit events in place, with plain-English quick add
Time zones in the menu bar and in a strip you can scrub
Reminders in the agenda, with an Overdue section
Week numbers, a date icon and your own clock pattern

Running both

They coexist. If MeetingBar already shows your next meeting, turn off Blipcal's next-event text in Settings under Menu bar, or the reverse.

Same ⌘J to join
Same macOS calendars
No account in either

MeetingBar questions, answered

Is MeetingBar really free?

Yes. MeetingBar is free and open source (Apache-2.0), with optional patronage through Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee or in-app purchases on the App Store (6 November 2026).

Does Blipcal join Teams and Zoom?

Yes. ⌘J joins the first live meeting, from Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Chime, Jitsi, FaceTime, Slack huddles, Whereby, Around or Discord, with Outlook Safe Links unwrapped. MeetingBar detects more services (50+).

Does Blipcal connect to Google directly?

No. Like Apple Calendar, it reads the Google calendars you add in System Settings under Internet Accounts. MeetingBar can sign in to Google directly, which also reaches delegated calendars. How calendar access works.

Try Blipcal beside MeetingBar

Today's date and your next meeting in the menu bar, a month grid and agenda one click away, and events you can add and edit in place. Pay once if you keep it.

Download the free trial See pricing

macOS 14 or later
14-day free trial
Both can run at once