Arsalan Khattak
12 November 2025

React FullCalendar vs Big Calendar

React Big Calendar and FullCalendar are two popular React calendar components. When choosing a component for your app, should you […]

React Big Calendar and FullCalendar are two popular React calendar components. When choosing a component for your app, should you go for the fully open-source React Big Calendar or the more widely used FullCalendar? This article explores the features, setup, and pricing of both calendars, and compares their pros and cons to help you choose the best component for your use case.

FullCalendar

FullCalendar is a JavaScript calendar built for React. It can also be used with vanilla JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, and Vue, or as a web component. FullCalendar Standard is open source and has over 19,000 GitHub stars and over 1 million npm downloads per week. The commercial FullCalendar Premium offers additional features and support. You can browse examples of the available features on the FullCalendar Demos page.

Getting started

Use one of the following methods to add the FullCalendar library to your project:

FullCalendar’s functionality is split into plugins to reduce your project’s bundle size.

Install the core package, the React adapter, and any plugins you need:

npm install @fullcalendar/core @fullcalendar/react @fullcalendar/daygrid @fullcalendar/timegrid @fullcalendar/list @fullcalendar/interaction @fullcalendar/resource-timegrid @fullcalendar/resource-timeline

The @fullcalendar/react package is the React adapter for FullCalendar, which is a React component that wraps the FullCalendar API.

Premium plugins require a license, but you can try them out using the unlimited free trial.

The <FullCalendar> component accepts any of the FullCalendar configuration options as props.

import FullCalendar from '@fullcalendar/react';
import resourceTimelinePlugin from '@fullcalendar/resource-timeline';
import dayGridPlugin from '@fullcalendar/daygrid';
import resourceTimeGridPlugin from '@fullcalendar/resource-timegrid';
import listPlugin from '@fullcalendar/list';
import interactionPlugin from '@fullcalendar/interaction';

const calendarEl = document.getElementById('root');
if (!calendarEl) {
    throw new Error('Calendar element with ID "app" not found');
}

export default function Calendar() {
    return (
        <FullCalendar
            initialDate='2025-12-08'
            plugins={[resourceTimelinePlugin, dayGridPlugin, resourceTimeGridPlugin, listPlugin, interactionPlugin]}
            initialView='resourceTimeGridDay'
            editable={true}
            headerToolbar={{
                left: 'prev,next today',
                center: 'title',
                right: 'resourceTimeGridDay,timeGridWeek,dayGridMonth,listWeek'
            }}
            resources={[
                {
                    id: 'a',
                    title: 'John Adams',
                    eventBackgroundColor: '#eaf3ff',
                }
            ]}
            events={[
                {
                    id: '1',
                    title: 'Client Meeting',
                    start: '2025-12-08T10:00:00',
                    end: '2025-12-08T11:00:00',
                    resourceId: 'a'
                }
            ]}
            eventTextColor='black'
            eventBorderColor='white'
        />
    );
}

You need to add at least one calendar view plugin as a prop, such as the resourceTimeGridPlugin, which lets you display resources as columns.

The headerToolbar property defines the buttons and the title at the top of the calendar. There are two types of data: resources and events. There are different event data sources that you can use. Data can be passed in as an array, a URL that provides the data as a JSON object, or a function. Resource data can be obtained the same way. Events can also be retrieved from Google Calendar or an iCalendar feed.

To sync changes to a backend, you can make use of the available event callbacks such as eventChange, resourceChange, eventDrop, and eventResize.

The calendar has a themeSystem for styling. By default, it uses the minimalist 'standard' theme. Bootstrap themes are also available.

Features

FullCalendar’s extensive API has over 300 settings. Its Standard features include:

The Premium features include:

View the full list of features in the FullCalendar docs.

Pricing

The core features are open source and free. A license is required to access the FullCalendar Premium features. Pricing starts at $480 per developer. The license is valid for one year and includes upgrades, full source-code access, and email support. If you renew your license before it expires, you get a 50% discount. If you renew after your license has expired, you get a 25% discount.

Pros

The advantages of using FullCalendar include:

Cons

Despite its popularity, FullCalendar has several limitations, including:

React Big Calendar

React Big Calendar is an entirely free, open-source, React-only calendar component inspired by FullCalendar. The library has over 8,500 GitHub stars and close to half a million npm downloads per week. You can browse examples of React Big Calendar features in the Big Calendar Docs.

Getting started

Install React Big Calendar using npm:

npm install react-big-calendar

The <Calendar> component accepts configuration options as props:

import { useState, useCallback } from 'react';
import { Calendar, Views, dateFnsLocalizer } from 'react-big-calendar';
import withDragAndDrop, { type withDragAndDropProps } from 'react-big-calendar/lib/addons/dragAndDrop';
import { format } from 'date-fns/format';
import { parse } from 'date-fns/parse';
import { startOfWeek } from 'date-fns/startOfWeek';
import { getDay } from 'date-fns/getDay';
import { enUS } from 'date-fns/locale/en-US';
import 'react-big-calendar/lib/addons/dragAndDrop/styles.css';
import 'react-big-calendar/lib/css/react-big-calendar.css';

const DragAndDropCalendar = withDragAndDrop(Calendar);

const locales = {
    'en-US': enUS,
};

const localizer = dateFnsLocalizer({
    format,
    parse,
    startOfWeek,
    getDay,
    locales,
});

const bigCalendarResources = [
    {
        resourceId: 'a',
        resourceTitle: 'John Adams',
        eventBackgroundColor: '#eaf3ff',
    }
];

const bigCalendarEvents = [
    {
        id: '1',
        title: 'Client Meeting',
        start: new Date(2025, 11, 8, 10, 0, 0),
        end: new Date(2025, 11, 8, 11, 0, 0),
        resourceId: ['a']
    }
];

export default function DnDResource() {
    const [myEvents, setMyEvents] = useState(bigCalendarEvents);

    const moveEvent = useCallback(
        ({
            event,
            start,
            end,
            resourceId,
            isAllDay: droppedOnAllDaySlot = false,
        }) => {
            const { allDay } = event;
            if (!allDay && droppedOnAllDaySlot) {
                event.allDay = true;
            }

            setMyEvents((prev) => {
                const existing = prev.find((ev) => ev.id === event.id) ?? {};
                const filtered = prev.filter((ev) => ev.id !== event.id);
                return [...filtered, { ...existing, start, end, resourceId, allDay }];
            });
        },
        [setMyEvents]
    );

    const resizeEvent = useCallback(
        (data: withDragAndDropProps['onEventResize']) => {
            const { event, start, end } = data;
            setMyEvents((prev) => {
                const existing = prev.find((ev) => ev.id === event.id) ?? {};
                const filtered = prev.filter((ev) => ev.id !== event.id);
                return [...filtered, { ...existing, start, end }];
            });
        },
        [setMyEvents]
    );

    return (
        <DragAndDropCalendar
            defaultDate={new Date(2025, 11, 9)}
            defaultView={Views.DAY}
            events={myEvents}
            localizer={localizer}
            onEventDrop={moveEvent}
            onEventResize={resizeEvent}
            resizable
            resourceIdAccessor="resourceId"
            resources={bigCalendarResources}
            resourceTitleAccessor="resourceTitle"
            selectable
            showMultiDayTimes={true}
            step={30}
            eventPropGetter={(event) => {
                let backgroundColor = 'blue';
                console.log(event.resourceId);
                if (event.resourceId[0] === 'a') {
                    backgroundColor = '#eaf3ff';
                }
                if (event.resourceId[0] === 'b') {
                    backgroundColor = '#fff1ec';
                }
                if (event.resourceId[0] === 'c') {
                    backgroundColor = '#e9faeb';
                }
                if (event.resourceId[0] === 'd') {
                    backgroundColor = '#fff1ec';
                }
                return {
                    style: {
                        backgroundColor,
                        color: 'black'
                    }
                };
            }}
        />
    );
}

To render the calendar, you must choose a localizer, which is an adaptor that handles date internationalization and localization.

The drag-and-drop feature requires an addon and manual setup. You need to handle event movement and resizing logic yourself, unlike for FullCalendar, which provides this functionality out of the box.

For date handling and localization, you need a third-party library such as date-fns:

npm install date-fns

When you include React Big Calendar in your app, you need to include the core styles. The library provides a precompiled stylesheet (react-big-calendar/lib/css/react-big-calendar.css). To customize the styles, you can change the color and sizing variables in the SASS files.

Features

The React Big Calendar features include:

Pricing

React Big Calendar is completely free and open source under the MIT license. It has no premium features and requires no licenses or subscription costs. All features are available for use without restrictions in both commercial and non-commercial projects.

Pros

The advantages of using React Big Calendar include:

Cons

React Big Calendar has several disadvantages:

Choosing between FullCalendar and React Big Calendar

When you compare the two libraries’ features, it’s clear that FullCalendar is the best choice in almost every scenario. The only reason to choose React Big Calendar is if you need to use resource views for free.

FullCalendarReact Big Calendar
Easy to customize✔️❌
Advanced features❌❌
Data fetching helpers✔️❌
Handle large datasets❌❌
Styling themes✔️❌
Open source✔️✔️
Accessibility✔️❌
React, Angular, and Vue support✔️❌
TypeScript support✔️✔️
Time zone support✔️✔️
Custom rendering✔️✔️
Export to Excel❌❌
Export to ICS format❌❌
Formatting for printing✔️❌
Module splitting✔️❌
Resource views✔️ *✔️

* Only for the Premium license.

While React Big Calendar is completely free, its hidden cost lies in development time. React Big Calendar requires extensive manual implementation for basic functionality, like drag-and-drop and data change events. Even simple tasks, such as changing event colors, require custom logic.

FullCalendar’s out-of-the-box features, extensive documentation and API, community support, and cross-framework compatibility make for a better development experience.

Bryntum Calendar

If neither FullCalendar nor React Big Calendar meets your needs, consider using Bryntum Calendar, a React UI component that offers enterprise-grade calendar functionality with comprehensive features out of the box. Bryntum Calendar readily supports Vue, Angular, and other frameworks and smoothly integrates with modern web development tools.

Bryntum Calendar includes all essential features such as drag-and-drop, a built-in event editor, resource views, and exports to Excel, ICS, and optimized print formats.

The component also provides advanced enterprise features that neither FullCalendar nor React Big Calendar offer:

Bryntum products come with a set of UI widgets, including buttons, date pickers, toasts, modals, and dropdown menus, which you can use to achieve a consistent design across your application.

While Bryntum Calendar requires a commercial license, it significantly reduces development time by providing professional-grade features that could take months to implement yourself. You can sign up for a free 45-day trial to test whether Bryntum Calendar is the right fit for you. Bryntum offers a discount for startups, charities, environmental organizations, and educational use cases, or when you describe how you use our products on your company’s website.

Visit the demos page to explore the full range of features, customizations, integrations, and beautiful themes available.

Arsalan Khattak

Bryntum Calendar