The Best Tools for Working Across Time Zones

No single tool solves every cross-timezone problem, but a few combinations cover most of them.

Finding when everyone can meet

meetwhen — Add time zones, see the overlap window instantly. Free, no sign-up, shareable via URL. Good for ad-hoc scheduling and for showing the overlap to someone who doesn’t believe there is one.

World Time Buddy — Side-by-side comparison with a drag interface. The visual layout makes it easy to explain constraints to someone who isn’t used to thinking across zones.

Every Time Zone — A single scrollable page showing current time in major cities. Not a scheduling tool, but useful for a quick sanity check.

Booking meetings with customers or candidates

Calendly — The most recognised booking link tool. Visitors see your availability in their local time and pick a slot. Worth using if you’re doing a lot of customer calls.

Cal.com — Open-source alternative to Calendly. Self-hostable if that matters to your team.

Google Calendar appointment scheduling — Built into Workspace. Good enough for most purposes if you’re already in the Google ecosystem.

Reducing how many meetings you need

Loom — Record a short video instead of scheduling a call. Underrated for cross-timezone teams where finding overlap takes more effort than the meeting is worth.

Team visibility tools

Time Zone Pro (macOS menu bar) — Multiple city clocks visible without opening a browser. Useful if you’re constantly checking “what time is it for them.”

Clockwise — Integrates with Google Calendar to protect focus time while keeping meetings inside everyone’s working hours. Better suited to teams that already have a lot of meetings than to teams trying to have fewer.

The honest answer: UTC

For distributed teams, agreeing to use UTC as the reference in all written communication solves most time zone communication problems without any tool. No daylight saving shifts, no ambiguous abbreviations. Just a number everyone can convert from.