How to Add a Calendar to Your Website (4 Approaches Compared)

Most organizations — churches, schools, sports leagues, HOAs, community groups — eventually ask the same question: how do we put our calendar on the website? The answer turns out to be more nuanced than it first appears, because "add a calendar to your website" can mean four very different things.

You could display a visual calendar grid. You could embed an iframe from Google Calendar. You could add a subscribe button that sends visitors to their own calendar app. Or you could build a custom events page from scratch. Each approach has a different level of effort, a different look, and — crucially — a different impact on whether people actually see your events.

This post walks through all four, with code examples and a straight answer about which one works best for most organizations.

Approach 1: Embed Google Calendar

This is the most commonly suggested option, and it's where most people start. Google Calendar lets you generate an embed code that drops a calendar view directly into your webpage.

How to do it

1. Open Google Calendar and go to Settings for the calendar you want to share.
2. Under Access permissions, check "Make available to public."
3. Scroll down to Integrate calendar and copy the embed code.
4. Paste the <iframe> snippet into your website's HTML.

The embed code looks something like this:

<iframe
  src="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=your_calendar_id%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York"
  style="border: 0"
  width="800"
  height="600"
  frameborder="0"
  scrolling="no">
</iframe>

Pros

• Free. No additional tools required.
• Always up to date. When you add or change events in Google Calendar, the embed reflects it automatically.
• Quick to set up if you already manage your calendar in Google.

Cons

• It looks like Google Calendar. The embedded view uses Google's fonts, colors, and layout. It won't match your website's brand without significant hacking.
• Poor mobile experience. The iframe doesn't resize gracefully on small screens. On a phone, it often renders as a tiny, unreadable grid.
• GDPR and privacy concerns. Embedding Google Calendar loads tracking scripts from Google's servers. If your audience is in the EU, this can create compliance obligations.
• Requires a Google account. Your organization is tied to whoever manages that Google Calendar. Staff changes become a calendar access problem.
• Visitors don't subscribe. People view your events on your website, but the events don't go into their own calendar. They have to remember to check back.

Approach 2: A Subscribe Button (Recommended for Most Orgs)

Instead of forcing your calendar onto your webpage, give visitors a button that lets them add your calendar to their calendar app — Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook, or any other app that supports iCal subscriptions.

The button links to your calendar's subscription URL, which can use the webcal:// protocol to open directly in their calendar app:

<a href="webcal://syncourschedule.com/cal/your-calendar-id.ics"
   style="display:inline-block;background:#ff6b35;color:white;
          padding:12px 24px;border-radius:6px;text-decoration:none;
          font-weight:600;">
  📅 Subscribe to Our Calendar
</a>

Or you can link to a subscribe page (like the one Sync Our Schedule generates) that walks visitors through the subscription process step by step, for any device:

<a href="https://syncourschedule.com/subscribe.html?id=your-calendar-id">
  Add to Calendar
</a>

Pros

• Works on every device. No iframe sizing issues. The button is just a link — it renders perfectly on phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Events appear in people's real calendar. When someone subscribes, your events show up alongside their own appointments. That's where people actually look.
• Automatically syncs. When you add or update events, subscribers see them without doing anything.
• No Google dependency. Works with any calendar tool that exports a subscription link.
• Works even if your website is down. Once someone subscribes, they have a live feed of your events regardless of your website's status.

Cons

• Requires a calendar tool that generates a subscription link. Not every tool does this. Google Calendar does (with a workaround), but tools like Sync Our Schedule make it straightforward.
• Visitors leave your website. If you link to a subscribe page, they navigate away. (You can mitigate this with an iframe — see Approach 3.)

Approach 3: Iframe Your Subscribe Page

If you want the subscribe experience to stay on your website without any Google branding, you can embed your subscribe page in an iframe. Tools like Sync Our Schedule generate a dedicated subscribe page for each calendar, and that page can be embedded directly.

<iframe
  src="https://syncourschedule.com/subscribe.html?id=your-calendar-id"
  width="100%"
  height="480"
  style="border:none;border-radius:12px;"
  title="Subscribe to our calendar">
</iframe>

Pros

• Branded and clean. No Google UI in sight. The subscribe page is designed to be embedded.
• Works on mobile. Subscribe pages are built responsively, unlike a Google Calendar embed.
• No Google dependency. Visitors subscribe to a real iCal feed that works with any calendar app.
• Easy to set up. Just paste one line of HTML — no API keys, no developer required.

Cons

• Fixed iframe height. You'll need to set a height that works for your content. If the subscribe page is taller than the iframe, you'll get a scrollbar inside the iframe. A little CSS testing gets you to a good result.
• Still an iframe. Some page builders make iframes fiddly to size correctly.

Approach 4: Build a Custom Events Page

For organizations with a developer on hand, the most powerful option is pulling events from a calendar API and rendering them in your own HTML and CSS. This gives you complete control: custom card layouts, filtering by category, a design that perfectly matches your brand.

The typical approach uses an iCal feed (a .ics URL) and parses it server-side, or uses a calendar API that returns JSON. Your developer fetches events and renders them however you want.

Pros

• Full design control. Events look exactly the way you want them to.
• Can include filtering, search, category tags. Whatever your content requires.
• No third-party UI in your page.

Cons

• Requires a developer. Not a copy-paste solution.
• Ongoing maintenance. If the API changes or the parsing breaks, someone has to fix it.
• Still doesn't solve the "get into people's calendars" problem on its own — you'd need to add a subscribe button alongside.

Comparison at a Glance

The Best Approach for Churches, Schools, and HOAs

For most community organizations, the right answer is a subscribe button paired with a subscribe page. Here's why:

Your goal isn't to get people to look at your website more often. Your goal is to make sure people actually show up to your events. Those are different problems. A calendar embed on your website only helps people who are already on your website and who think to look at it. A calendar subscription puts your events into the app people check every single day — their personal calendar.

When someone subscribes to your church calendar, your Christmas Eve service shows up next to their dentist appointment. When your HOA meeting is on their calendar, they don't forget. That's what a visual embed on your website can never do.

Step-by-Step: Adding a Subscribe Button to Your Website

Here's how to do it using Sync Our Schedule (free to start):

1. Create your calendar at syncourschedule.com. Add your events — recurring or one-time.
2. Get your subscribe page URL. Sync Our Schedule generates a shareable subscribe page for your calendar automatically.
3. Add a button to your site. Paste this into your page's HTML, replacing the URL with your own:

<a href="https://syncourschedule.com/subscribe.html?id=YOUR-ID"
   style="display:inline-block;
          background:#ff6b35;
          color:white;
          padding:14px 28px;
          border-radius:6px;
          text-decoration:none;
          font-family:sans-serif;
          font-weight:600;
          font-size:1rem;">
  📅 Subscribe to Our Calendar
</a>

For WordPress

Add a Custom HTML block anywhere on your page or sidebar and paste the code above. It will render as a button immediately — no plugin required.

For Squarespace

Add a Code block to your page layout and paste the HTML. Make sure you're in the Code block editor (not the Markdown block) so the HTML is rendered, not displayed as text.

For Wix

Use Wix's Embed Code element (found under Add > Embed > Embed Code) and paste the button HTML there. Wix doesn't allow raw HTML in text blocks, so the Embed Code element is the right container.

That's it. No API keys. No Google account required. No configuration beyond swapping in your calendar ID.