Customizing Appearance and Behavior of Time Date Picker ActiveX

Best Alternatives to Time Date Picker ActiveX in 2025The Time Date Picker ActiveX control (commonly known from older Microsoft technologies like VB6 and classic ASP) has been a simple, straightforward way to let users choose dates and times in desktop and legacy web applications. However, ActiveX is outdated, insecure in many contexts, and incompatible with modern browsers and platforms. In 2025, developers need cross-platform, secure, accessible, and customizable date/time pickers. This article examines top alternatives, compares features, and offers migration guidance and recommendations.

Why move away from Time Date Picker ActiveX?

Limited compatibility: ActiveX works primarily in older Internet Explorer and legacy Windows desktop environments; modern browsers (Chrome, Edge Chromium, Firefox, Safari) do not support it.
Security concerns: ActiveX can execute native code and historically has been a vector for malware.
Poor cross-platform support: No native support for macOS, Linux, iOS, or Android.
Accessibility and UX expectations: Modern users expect responsive, touch-friendly controls with keyboard and screen-reader support.

What to look for in a modern date/time picker

When choosing an alternative, prioritize:

Cross-platform/browser compatibility (modern browsers + mobile)
Accessibility (WCAG, ARIA)
Customizability (formatting, localization, themes)
Size and performance (bundle size, lazy-loading)
Integration ease (framework support: React, Vue, Angular, plain JS)
Time-zone and i18n support
Maintenance and community support

Top alternatives in 2025

Below are robust alternatives spanning native HTML, JavaScript libraries, framework components, and desktop UI toolkits.

1) Native HTML and

Best for: Simple forms, minimal dependency projects.
Pros: No library required, lightweight, basic accessibility and localization handled by browser.
Cons: Inconsistent UI across browsers, limited customization, weak combined datetime handling.

Use cases: internal tools, quick forms where consistent styling isn’t critical.

2) Flatpickr

Website: flatpickr.js.org
Best for: Lightweight, highly customizable date/time picker.
Pros: Small footprint (~30 KB gzipped), supports date, time, range, plugins (week select, confirm), good localization, and keyboard navigation.
Cons: Styling requires customization to fully match app, not framework-specific (but has wrappers).
Integration: Plain JS + wrappers for React/Vue/Alpine.

Example strengths: fast, good defaults, excellent plugin ecosystem.

3) Pikaday + Moment/Day.js

Best for: Simple, modular datepicker with moment/dayjs formatting.
Pros: Small, easy to integrate, flexible date parsing/formatting via popular libs.
Cons: Pikaday is date-only; needs additional code for time or rely on Day.js plugins.

Use when you want light date UI and custom date handling.

4) React Datepicker / Mantine / Radix UI + Date Libraries

Best for: React applications requiring component-driven UI, strong accessibility.
Options:
- react-datepicker — popular, easy to use.
- Mantine DatePicker — modern styling, built-in themes, TypeScript support.
- Radix UI primitives paired with a calendar component — unstyled accessibility-first primitives you can style.
Pros: Deep framework integration, robust API, TypeScript support, composability.
Cons: Tied to React ecosystem; bundle impact depends on library.

5) Vuetify / Quasar / Element Plus date/time pickers

Best for: Vue.js applications using component frameworks.
Pros: Theme-consistent, well-integrated, mobile-friendly.
Cons: Requires using or adding a UI framework.

6) Angular Material Datepicker / NGX-Bootstrap

Best for: Angular apps.
Pros: Well-supported, integrated with framework idioms, accessible.
Cons: Framework coupling.

7) Luxon / Temporal + Custom UI

Best for: Apps needing robust timezone and datetime arithmetic.
Approach: Use modern datetime libraries (Luxon or the ECMAScript Temporal proposal polyfills) to handle parsing/formatting/timezones, while implementing or integrating a UI date/time picker.
Pros: Correct timezone handling, reliable ISO support.
Cons: Requires more development to pair UI and logic.

8) DayPilot / FullCalendar (for scheduling-heavy apps)

Best for: Scheduling, event-driven calendars and complex date/time interactions.
Pros: Rich scheduling features, drag-and-drop, resource views.
Cons: Heavier than simple pickers; license considerations for paid features.

9) Native mobile pickers (iOS/Android) within hybrid apps

Best for: Mobile-first apps or native wrappers (React Native, Flutter, Capacitor).
Options: React Native DateTimePicker, Flutter’s showDatePicker/showTimePicker.
Pros: Native look-and-feel, better accessibility and performance on mobile.
Cons: Not for web; requires native runtime.

Feature comparison

Alternative	Cross-platform	Time support	i18n/Localization	Accessibility	Bundle size
HTML input[type=date,time]	Yes (browser-dependent)	Yes (separate inputs)	Depends on browser	Basic	None
Flatpickr	Yes	Yes	Yes	Good	Small (~30 KB gz)
Pikaday + Day.js	Yes	Limited (date-only)	Yes	Good	Small
React Datepicker / Mantine	Yes (React)	Yes	Yes	Very good	Medium
Vuetify / Quasar pickers	Yes (Vue)	Yes	Yes	Very good	Medium-Large
Angular Material	Yes (Angular)	Yes	Yes	Very good	Medium
Luxon + custom UI	Yes	Yes (excellent TZ)	Excellent	TBD	Varies
FullCalendar/DayPilot	Yes	Yes	Yes	Good	Large

Migration strategy from ActiveX

Inventory usage: list every place the ActiveX control is used, what features are required (date-only, time, ranges, timezones).
Choose target platform(s): web, desktop (WinForms/WPF), mobile, or hybrid.
Map required features to alternatives (e.g., need timezone support → Luxon + custom picker; need cross-browser web UI → Flatpickr or React/Mantine).
Prototype: build small prototypes in the final environment and verify localization, accessibility, keyboard and touch behavior.
Data and format compatibility: ensure date formats, server parsing, and serialization remain consistent (ISO 8601 recommended).
Rollout: replace incrementally; provide fallback for older browsers where necessary.
Testing: automated tests for parsing/formatting, manual QA on devices, accessibility audit (axe, Lighthouse).

Security and accessibility notes

Avoid client-side code that executes native binaries or plugins. Prefer JS libraries and native HTML controls.
Ensure ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, focus management, and screen-reader compatibility.
Validate and sanitize dates server-side; client-side UI is for convenience only.

Recommendations (by scenario)

Simple web forms with minimal styling: native HTML inputs or Flatpickr.
React apps: Mantine DatePicker or react-datepicker (with Luxon/Day.js for parsing).
Vue apps: Vuetify/Quasar/Element Plus pickers.
Angular apps: Angular Material datepicker.
Apps needing timezone accuracy: Luxon or Temporal plus a UI picker.
Scheduling-heavy applications: FullCalendar or DayPilot.
Mobile native look-and-feel: platform-native pickers (React Native/Flutter).

Example: replacing ActiveX date+time in a web form with Flatpickr + Luxon

Use Flatpickr for the UI (date and time mode).
Use Luxon to parse/format values and handle timezones before sending to server.
Store/transport using ISO 8601 (e.g., 2025-08-31T14:30:00Z).

Closing thoughts

ActiveX-era controls belong in the past. In 2025, there are multiple modern alternatives that provide better security, cross-platform compatibility, accessibility, and developer ergonomics. Pick a solution that matches your platform stack and feature needs, prototype quickly, and prioritize timezone handling and accessibility during migration.