How Does Google CalDAV Compare to Spanning Sync?

Cross-posted from the Spanning Sync Blog:

We've gotten several emails asking how Google's CalDAV support compares to Spanning Sync. There are a number of important differences, but here are the ones that we think will affect the most people:

1. Cost
   Google CalDAV is free, and what could be better than free? Simple: something that makes you money, which is exactly what the Spanning Sync does with our Save 5+Make 5 program.

   Several people have already made over $1,000 just by including their personal referral code in blog posts, Twitter tweets, and comments. Brian Dusablon is one of those people, and here's what he had to say:

   It's pretty easy to get four referrals, and if you get five or more, you're at a profit already. [Within eight weeks] I hit $1,000. I'm donating half to charity, and I'm buying a Drobo.

   We think saving money is great, but making money is even better.

2. iPhone Support
   Calendars synchronized using CalDAV become read-only on iPhone. One of our customers recently rolled out 700 iPhones and 200 iPod touches. This lack of iPhone compatibility makes Google's CalDAV solution a non-starter for them, and for anyone else looking for bidirectional sync between iPhone and Google Calendar.

   Calendars synchronized with Spanning Sync are editable on Google Calendar, iCal, and the iPhone calendar, and changes made in any of those places will show up on all three (after syncing your iPhone using iTunes).

3. Customer Support
   Sync is inherently complex, but when problems do crop up they can usually be solved quickly with just a little customer support. Unfortunately, Google doesn't provide any. They've even said publicly that it's "not feasible" for them to respond to individual requests for support.

   At Spanning Sync, we provide support our customers have called "tremendous", "excellent", and "stellar", regardless of whose software is causing the problem: Google's, Apple's, or ours.

4. Contact Sync
   Spanning Sync syncs not only calendars but also contacts, including contact photos. Click here to see a video. And of course contact sync works great with or without iPhone, just like our calendar sync.

Spanning Sync also supports existing iCal calendars, read-only Google calendars, MobileMe sharing, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", and true Mac-to-cloud "push", none of which are supported by Google CalDAV.

Over 100,000 people in 58 countries have used Spanning Sync, and we invite you to become one of them. To start a fully functional 15-day free trial, just download Spanning Sync, install it, and log in with your Google account information.

If you have any questions, we're always ready to answer them on our discussion group or at support@spanningsync.com. And to our customers: thanks again for supporting Spanning Sync!

Comments

[Brian Dusablon]

the iPhone deal is HUGE. I need to be able to edit my calendar on my iPhone while I'm away from my PCs.