Top React calendar components

Choosing the right React calendar component can save you days of work and keep your app both performant and accessible. In this guide, you’ll find a curated list of the top React calendar libraries, complete with feature breakdowns, pros and cons, and use-case recommendations. Whether you need a lightweight date picker or a full event scheduler, you’ll know exactly which package to pick and why.

What to look for in a React calendar component

Before we jump into specific libraries, here are the key criteria to evaluate:

• Bundle size and performance
• Customisation and theming
• Accessibility and keyboard support
• Feature set (range selection, event slots, drag and drop)
• Mobile and responsive design
• Community activity and maintenance

Keep these in mind as you compare options below.

React calendar

React Calendar is the go-to library if you want a no-frills, accessible widget for selecting dates or date ranges in React JS calendar projects.

Copy
import React, { useState } from "react";
import Calendar from "react-calendar";
import "react-calendar/dist/Calendar.css";

export default function CalendarExample() {
  const [value, setValue] = useState(new Date());

  return (
    <div style={{ maxWidth: 320, margin: "0 auto" }}>
      <Calendar value={value} onChange={setValue} />
      <p>Selected date: {value.toDateString()}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

Features

• Supports month, year, decade, and century views
• Built-in range selection
• Fully ARIA compliant
• Straightforward theming via CSS variables

Pros

• Minimal bundle size (≈14 kb gzipped)
• Excellent documentation
• Frequent releases and active maintainers

Cons

• Limited event-scheduling features
• No built-in time picker

Best for

Simple date pickers or range selectors in forms and dashboards.

React big calendar

React Big Calendar wraps the popular Google-style calendar view into a React-based calendar app. It’s ideal when you need month, week, day, and agenda layouts with event management.

Copy
import React from "react";
import { Calendar, dateFnsLocalizer } from "react-big-calendar";
import { parse, startOfWeek, getDay, format } from "date-fns";
import "react-big-calendar/lib/css/react-big-calendar.css";

const locales = { "en-US": require("date-fns/locale/en-US") };
const localizer = dateFnsLocalizer({ format, parse, startOfWeek, getDay, locales });

const events = [
  { title: "Team Meeting", start: new Date(), end: new Date() }
];

export default function BigCalendarExample() {
  return (
    <Calendar
      localizer={localizer}
      events={events}
      startAccessor="start"
      endAccessor="end"
      style={{ height: "75vh", margin: "0 auto" }}
    />
  );
}

Features

• Customizable views (month, week, day, agenda)
• Drag and drop support via React DnD.
• Localisation and custom date formats
• Selectable time slots

Pros

• Rich event handling API
• Pluggable styling with CSS or styled components
• Active community and ecosystem

Cons

• Larger bundle size (≈100 kb gzipped)
• Steeper learning curve for custom views

Best for

Enterprise applications that require complex event scheduling.

Fullcalendar React

Fullcalendar React is the official React wrapper around Fullcalendar’s powerful vanilla JS core. It excels if you need advanced interactions and timeline views.

Copy
import React from "react";
import FullCalendar from "@fullcalendar/react";
import dayGridPlugin from "@fullcalendar/daygrid";
import "@fullcalendar/common/main.css";
import "@fullcalendar/daygrid/main.css";

export default function FullCalendarExample() {
  return (
    <FullCalendar
      plugins={[dayGridPlugin]}
      initialView="dayGridMonth"
      events={[{ title: "Conference", date: "2025-07-07" }]}
      height="auto"
    />
  );
}

Features

• Timeline and resource management
• Recurring events
• Intelligent date and time parsing
• Plugins for Google Calendar and spreadsheet feeds

Pros

• Battle-tested in production by thousands of companies
• Highly extensible plugin architecture
• Detailed event display controls

Cons

• Biggest bundle size among calendar React libraries (≈250 kb gzipped)
• Commercial license for premium plugins

Best for

Applications that need advanced booking systems or resource planning.

React day picker

React day picker focuses on accessibility and customizability in a lightweight package for React JS calendar needs.

Copy
import React, { useState } from "react";
import { useDayPicker, SelectSingleEventHandler } from "react-day-picker";
import "react-day-picker/dist/style.css";

export default function DayPickerExample() {
  const [selected, setSelected] = useState();
  const { DayPicker, dayPickerProps } = useDayPicker({
    mode: "single",
    selected,
    onSelect: setSelected as SelectSingleEventHandler
  });

  return (
    <>
      <DayPicker {...dayPickerProps} />
      {selected && <p>You picked {selected.toLocaleDateString()}.</p>}
    </>
  );
}

Features

• Headless architecture for full control over markup
• Support for range, multiple, and single date selection
• Month and year navigation helpers
• Localisation via date-fns or Moment

Pros

• Smallest footprint when used in headless mode
• Excellent for custom designs
• Strong emphasis on accessibility

Cons

• Requires more boilerplate to style
• Fewer out-of-the-box features compared to Fullcalendar React

Best for

Design-driven projects where you need full control over calendar markup.

React modern calendar datepicker

React Modern Calendar Datepicker delivers a polished, out-of-the-box UI for common date-picking patterns.

Copy
import React, { useState } from "react";
import { Calendar } from "react-modern-calendar-datepicker";
import "react-modern-calendar-datepicker/lib/DatePicker.css";

export default function ModernDatepickerExample() {
  const [selectedDay, setSelectedDay] = useState(null);

  return (
    <Calendar
      value={selectedDay}
      onChange={setSelectedDay}
      shouldHighlightWeekends
      colorPrimary="#4f46e5"
    />
  );
}

Features

• Built-in year and month dropdowns
• Keyboard navigation
• Compact mobile layout
• Theming via styled components

Pros

• Sleek default styles
• Minimal setup
• Responsive by default

Cons

• Limited customisation compared to headless libraries
• Smaller community

Best for

When you want a visually appealing datepicker that works instantly.

React datepicker

React datepicker is a popular, battle-tested library with extensive configuration and built‑in time picker support.

Copy
import React, { useState } from "react";
import DatePicker from "react-datepicker";
import "react-datepicker/dist/react-datepicker.css";

export default function DatepickerExample() {
  const [startDate, setStartDate] = useState(new Date());

  return (
    <DatePicker
      selected={startDate}
      onChange={setStartDate}
      showTimeSelect
      dateFormat="Pp"
    />
  );
}

Features

• Select a time alongside a date
• Financial quarter and week number support
• Multiple-month display
• Highlighted and disabled dates

Pros

• Nearly 1 million weekly downloads
• Comprehensive API and hooks
• Built‑in localisation

Cons

• Additional bundle size (~30 kb gzipped)
• Styling via CSS overrides only

Best for

When you need date and time selection in a single component.

React infinite calendar

React infinite calendar offers a mobile‑focused experience with infinite scrolling through months.

Copy
import React from "react";
import InfiniteCalendar from "react-infinite-calendar";
import "react-infinite-calendar/styles.css";

export default function InfiniteCalendarExample() {
  return (
    <InfiniteCalendar
      width={350}
      height={400}
      selected={new Date()}
      displayOptions={{ showHeader: false }}
      todayHelperRowClassName="today-helper"
    />
  );
}

Features

• Infinite scroll through past and future months
• CommonJS, UMD, and ES6 builds
• Built‑in keyboard navigation

Pros

• Smooth mobile UX
• Customizable theming
• Small runtime overhead

Cons

• Fewer built‑in scheduling features
• Community maintenance is episodic.

Best for

Mobile apps that need seamless month‑scroll calendar navigation.

DronaHQ calendar and date/time controls

Instead of a React‑only wrapper, DronaHQ offers native UI controls you can bind directly in your apps:

• Calendar control – Displays events in month, week, day views; supports create/update/delete, theming, and click events.
  
• Date picker – Single date selection with keyboard and mobile support
  
• Date range picker – Select start and end dates in one control.
  
• Date time picker – Combined date and time selection in a unified interface.
  
• Time picker – Select hours and minutes with AM/PM or 24h modes.
  
• Range picker – Select numeric or date ranges with a dual-thumb slider.
  
• Timeline – Display events along a horizontal time axis for visual schedules.
  

These controls integrate seamlessly with DronaHQ data sources and actionflows, so you can bind events or user input without additional code.

How to choose the right library

Use this quick guide to match your project needs:

• Simple picking: React calendar or React modern calendar datepicker
• Design‑heavy custom UI: React day picker in headless mode
• Date & time combined: React datepicker or DronaHQ date time picker
• Infinite mobile scroll: React infinite calendar
• Event scheduling: React Big Calendar or DronaHQ Calendar Control
• Resource planning or timeline views: Fullcalendar React or DronaHQ timeline

Next steps

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, try each library or control in a minimal sandbox. Test your theming requirements, check performance in your build, and verify accessibility with keyboard and screen‑reader tools. Start building >