Name: Fantastical Calendar
Rating: 3.85893 (15475 reviews)

User Reviews for Fantastical Calendar

3.86 out of 5

15.5K Ratings

2 years ago, Jomama64

Longtime user, it’s time for me to leave

Hey listen Fantastical, I’ve had your $40 subscription for a couple of years now. I’ve stuck with you even when you would just crash on my macbook every day to the point where I had to uninstall the desktop application entirely. I stuck with you because your mobile app on my phone works great, and I live by my phone calendar. I love being able to type in when and where an event will be and have it autofill the event. But I have to let you go—not only because I’m now in way more student debt and every penny counts, but also because I just spent 30 minutes trying to sign into both the updated desktop application and the iPad app using my Apple ID and had no success. I’m starting a program where I need my calendar on my tablet and my desktop at all times. And yeah I probably could wait to call tech support tomorrow to get assistance, but considering the update to the desktop app took a while for me, I think I’ll pass on waiting for this fix. I’ll probably come back once I can just rely on the mobile app again. Until then, goodbye Flexbits, goodbye Fantastical. PS Originally I had this at 3 stars. I’ve bumped it up to 4 because I truly used this app every day on my phone for years. And it probably works just fine on iPads and macbooks too. But I guess I’ll never know

10 months ago, LcvDave

Embarrassing Problems

This app tries to be helpful with several shortcut features, but they often take effect without notice and actively create scheduling issues as a result. 1) When creating an event, if you make the mistake of putting numbers anywhere in the title, the date and/or time of the event will be changed automatically. This is a very frustrating an unnecessary feature that often creates major problems. If I select October 1 and create a new event, I do not want or need that date to be changed automatically. This feature actively sabotages a basic scheduling task. 2) Time zone shift. This is an embarrassing disaster. If you travel outside your timezone, all of your event times will shift automatically and create massive confusion. 3) Start/end time shifts. If an all-day event is multiple days long and you change the start day, the entire event will be shifted automatically instead of just the start day that you are changing. This, again, creates confusion and incorrect scheduling if you do not happen to double check every setting after making the specific adjustment. 4) Same problem with start and end times. Changing the start time of any event will automatically change the end time. It is exhausting trying to quickly schedule events when making a single adjustment results in silent, automatic changes elsewhere. I have to stop using this app because it has burned me too many times in too many various ways.

2 years ago, Jay_Backpacker

I have LOVE-HATE-LOVE relationship with this app.

I’ve been a user of this app since 2011 or 2012 and i looooved this app. Then few years ago this app became hard to use. It keeps on crashing! I tried the subscription version but it still kept on crashing. I tried looking for a to do app that has similar functionality with this one but sadly nothing comes close. I made a review here(i gave a negative review) and the company contacted me and asked me if I wanted to participate in a beta version group or something and I agreed because I really loved this app and I also want to help improve it. I did it for few years (giving feedbacks) and it still keeps on crashing! So i finally broke up with this app and just forget about this. Fast forward to a month or two ago when I upgraded my phone from iPhone 7 plus to iPhone 14 pro max and I tried using this app again and it was working properly!! The app doesn’t crash anymore! you can just tap the recurring to do list(the feature the i love the most) and it works! I’m guessing that the problem is my phone! I’m giving you Fantastical 4 stars instead of 5 because you didn’t tell me that maybe it’s already time for me to upgrade my phone LOL! and also so that you’ll keep improving the app and not to be complacent because as of right now, THIS APP IS THE BEST TO DO/CALENDAR APP!

4 years ago, Sundayraven

Very nice app, but not quite perfect.

Fantastical has a ton of functionality. This is a huge pro, of course, but it also leads to the app feeling cluttered or chaotic at times. I would love to see more options to have a simpler main screen. I don’t always want to see everything that I have planned for the coming days; it’s a lot easier to focus on immediate tasks if I have the option of only seeing the current day’s tasks and events. Seeing so many future events can feel overwhelming. I would also like to be able to either create custom length tasks or to be able to check off events like you can in Sorted 3. If, say, I want to block off three hours to focus on cleaning the garage and I get finished in two hours, I have no easy way to end that event early which means it will remain visible on my Watch complication and my home screen widget. You can check off tasks, but unfortunately tasks don’t have a duration setting. These are my only two complaints about the app. Unfortunately, they are pretty significant to the app’s functionality for me and I will likely go back to my previous calendar app after a little while. The way I use my calendar apps leaves some aspects of Fantastical lacking, but overall it is a great app and a lot of people would probably find it the perfect fit.

4 years ago, Kraxsis

Really disappointed with Fantastical 3

There is a horrible upgrade. Features they claim were remaining active from Fantastical 2 are not active completely. Had to completely disable calendars from iOS in favor of logging in using a iCloud app-specific-password account, and creating a “free” flexibits account. The free flexibits account is a joke!! All it does is ask me to upgrade to a premium subscription, with no other account settings to mess with. I don’t even have the option to change my account password. Update my email address, etc..., let alone let me see what is actually syncing or what it is doing. This is completely unacceptable. I have also had to completely remove the Apple Watch app for fantastical as it no longer shows any data about my appointments or events. Also it first stated I had to log into my free account to sync anything at all.... what the hell?? I thought all fantastical 2 features were still accessible?? Also the large complication no longer shows events or appointments just the day and date, I have the default watch day and date complication for that!! Seriously, horrible. And you want me to pay for premium features?!?!? How can I trust those will work if your so called free features no longer are useable??!?

4 years ago, danvpeterson

By far the best, and great free upgrades for existing user

Before version 3 I had been actually using a few different calendar apps (including Fantastical 2). Version 3 has brought so many new features, and the feature parity across platforms, that it has fully won me over as my calendar app of choice. The way that they allow version 2 users to upgrade for free, and made sure that we still get all of the same features we previously paid for across each platform, even if some of them are now normally under the new subscription tier, is very well done. It means you get all of the new design improvements (and there are many) at no cost and if you’re happy with all of the features you had before there is no need to pay anything at all. I found all of the new features so incredibly useful though that I immediately signed up for the yearly subscription. $40 for such a great app and across my iPhone, iPad, and Mac? 100% worth it. Seems like they tried hard to make it the fairest for every type of user and I appreciate that. A few minor bugs but no show stoppers so far and they seem to be working toward improving things very quickly. I was on the beta for a little while and saw updates coming fast and furious. Looking forward to seeing what comes next!

4 years ago, spinningidly

Revising my previous review

I’m upping my rating from 3 to 5 stars. My previous rating reflected my frustration with Fantastical 3 removing features that - as a user of Fantastical 2 - I had already paid for. On top of that, I wasn’t happy with the prompts to upgrade to the premium subscription plastered all over the app. However, it looks that now most of the features of Fantastical 2 are available for free to existing users. The only exceptions seem to be Calendar Sets and Travel time on the iPhone, which I’m pretty sure were existing features in Fantastical 2 for iPhone and now are gone (unless you subscribe). As it stands now, with Fantastical 3 I still have access to 99% of the features I paid for, plus the iPad app is vastly improved over the previous version, and there are a couple of minor new features like the 3-day weather forecast. That’s fair to existing users. As for the new subscription model, I wish it hadn’t become so ubiquitous. But if the premium features make a big difference in your daily work and productivity, then it’s worth paying for them. Otherwise, the free version is fine for the casual calendar user. I’m still on the fence about subscribing for those premium features, but I’m not angry about it.

3 years ago, Poker Fanatic

The Only Calendar You Need

I’ve waited over a year to write this review for Fantastical. I don’t get paid for this nor am I bot. I just don’t believe in writing a review after using an app for 5 minutes. I’m also a person who changes apps every couple of months bc I get bored. I haven’t changed from Fantastical since downloading. That being said, this app’s is so well designed. It’s aesthetically pleasing with your choice of dark / light modes. You have the ability to link all kinds of calendars: ones you subscribe to (for the sport parents out there), google calendars, etc. Seamlessly syncs between devices (MacBook, iPhone, ipad, etc). No annoying ads (yes, this is a plus). Perhaps the best and well developed feature is the natural input language. You can literally right “Study Group /school calendar every Tuesday 1pm until June 25th” and it’ll enter it properly as a repeat event on Tuesdays that stops on June 25th. This is 1000% better than clicking on multiple fields to enter 1 event. The developers don’t just focus on the look, but they emphasize on the user experience. Not easy to do when you have to manage the masses. So highly recommend this app for those who are looking for a good calendar app.

3 months ago, mtipp10

Mostly awesome, MAJOR pain point is the language processing “feature”

I’ve had fantastical for years, and I recently ended up getting a new, blank phone, and decided I wanted to find a new calendar app because the language processing “feature” had caused me so much trouble in the past. (For example, any event that had “Christmas” in the title would end up on Christmas Day, whether or not that’s when I actually meant for the Church Christmas Dinner or Family Christmas Party or Christmas Concert to be.) It drives me bonkers and honestly has messed up some important appointments without me noticing. BUT I did not find anything that displayed my calendar in a better way. Other calendar apps are seriously lacking compared to this one. It really is a fantastic calendar app in almost every way. I’ve read in forums that fantastical is so proud of their language processing, considering it to be their “most important feature,” but I wish they would recognize that many users would prefer to have an option to TURN IT OFF. I 100% don’t want it. (I know I can use quotes to work around it, but that’s not ideal to me.) There’s my two cents!

4 years ago, SterlsJ

Waste of time and money. Can't open app.

Decided to splurge and go premium, in hopes to find a reliable & user friendly calendar. App just freezes up and can't do anything on it. Trying to give it the benefit of a doubt, I passed Blame on my phone being the issue. So I did a soft reset on my iPhone but to no avail. So then I decided to download it on my MacBook in hopes of setting it up and just syncing it to my phone from there(🤞🏻🙄🤞🏻). Ha. . . I guess that joke is on me- since now the app is frozen at the welcome page on my computer. I've tried rebooting & updated the app on both devices now, but still won't work. So it's been right at one month since I first got this, and not one time have I been able to enjoy using it. Disappointed is an understatement. ***Update:*** No fairy tale update though... Just wanted to warn you all that trying to cancel this is not like the norm where you can simply go to your subscriptions and stop this one. You have to jump through hoops to even find the option to do it! Took me over two months to successfully do so and that was only because I had to email them to ask to cancel only to find out I had to go to their website on a computer.... Log in.... Go to settings and then billing and finally you have the option to cancel at that point. It is unreal the effort required to do this. Zero stars all the way around for me.... Now I get to waste more time requesting a refund for this unusable app!

4 years ago, cheesecake 13

Good, but...

I like the integration of reminders/tasks viewed with calendar event to see the full picture. But, there is one HUGE PROBLEM! I’ve been re-reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. He discusses use of a calendar and lists. The combination of the two in this app hits that mark, but fails to address the one concept I’ve incorporated that can be done in the Apple Reminders app. The features is sub-tasks. I’ve been spending time re-organizing myself. I’ve been looking around for new software that can incorporate both the calendar and tasks with sub-task functions while using iCloud and have a Mac companion app so I don’t have to start over and can continue sharing I’ve already have in place with the family. I’ve found apps that address these issues part. This app is the closest to hit all the marks except sub-tasks. If this feature was added, would rate it 5 ⭐️s and purchase the subscription immediately. Update: Now knowing the Reminders API is proprietary and cannot make subtasks, I have to say it’s a great app. I’ve modified my processes and it works for me. Definitely a tool to help keep yourself organized and keep you productive without falling behind.

4 years ago, BriBriRexa

Classic Widget Removed :(

I’ve been using this app for years. It has always deserved 5 stars in my opinion, specifically for the widget. I’ve always had the classic widget active. However, since this new app update to accommodate the ios14 new widget style, the classic widget is gone. And now the entire widget area on my phone is messed up because not only does the new widget style not move to where I need it to be moved to, but it looks different as well. Please give us back the classic widget as well. Until then, I’ll have to rate this app 2 stars because the main reason I use it is for the classic widget, which is unavailable to me now. My classic widget turned into the new style on its own after the app updated & now the option is gone to add the classic widget. I won’t be using this app until that option comes back, so I really hope it does. It might be a glitch because in the app it shows instructions to use the classic widget style as well as the new widget style, so I’m hoping you guys can fix it! I will change my rating when you do. Thank you! Update: once you restart the phone it comes back. Hopefully this is the end of the widget disappearing! Changed my rating to 5 stars!

4 years ago, gpnagy

Wish there was a way to go back to v2

I have been a longtime Fantastical user and have been pretty happy with the app, until now. Up until the recent update, the app always worked pretty flawlessly. But then came version 3. Let's start with the introduction of the subscription nags. The upgrade notes indicate that v2 users won't need to pay the subscription to keep using the app. But the reality is, it sure doesn't feel that way. The app has popped up the box to subscribe multiple times with no apparent way to close that box (aside, of course, from clicking on the Buy button.) But here's the main issue with the latest version - reminders are no longer showing up. To be clear, some reminders appear and others don't. It seems to be fairly random. In v2, reminders and everything else worked perfectly. The *sole* purpose of this app is to aggregate events and reminders. If the app can no longer provide that functionality, it's 100% useless - hence the one star rating. The latest version of the Fantastical app (v3) simply does not provide the most basic functionality it is designed for. In this case, the developers made sweeping changes that no one asked for or wanted, in order to introduce a subscription revenue stream. In the process, they broke the app's most basic core functions. Unfortunately, it seems that like many other people are saying, it's time to start looking for an alternative app.

4 years ago, shane20715

Definitely worth the price.

Please Read!!! The new price is very fair. $40 to keep your life in order. That is a couple weeks at Starbucks. Come on. The developers have bills too. This app consolidates all my scheduling needs. Most other apps don’t even duplicate? Anyway. I see the bad reviews about the previous Fantastical2 buyers. When they rolled out V3 it did gripe you to subscribe but they fixed that. So previous users have everything they loved before and even more freebies plus updates “FOR FREE”. So please go back and change your reviews people. Please be fair and don’t immediately jump out of your skin when you see the word “Subscribe”. Just remember the pre smart phone days when software like this cost a couple hundred dollars each version. Old review ——————————- I've been using a mobile phone calendars ever since the palm pilots and blackberries. Tried every iOS cal and keep coming back to this one. Fantastical has the most usable interface with all the bells and whistles you could want but most importantly they are well implemented. A must have if you use and rely on your calendar all day like me. Download now.

4 years ago, jeeves78

SEVERELY Disappointed in 3.0

I’ve been a longtime supporter of Fantastical. Their products are notorious for having a premium price (both on Mac, and iOS platforms), and at that, you still have to purchase the app multiple times to use it on every platform. Needless to say, I bit the bullet and paid their premium price, on each platform, because it really is such a great app. That being said, I find it utterly mind-blowing that the already premium price was not enough, and the app has now transitioned to a subscription-based business model. This is completely ridiculous. Version 2 had minimal updates over the years (at least to justify re-paying annually), and I wouldn’t expect version 3 to offer valuable updates annually either - this is a calendar app, plain and simple. When other apps transition to subscriptions, it can make sense when there are server costs for holding the users’ data and running servers for the APIs - this is definitely not true for a calendar app (that sources data from third-party calendar providers). Granted it’s a great calendar app, but version 2 covers all of my needs quite effectively (and more). Again, the apps were expensive in the first place and I’ve been a loyal supporter, as I enjoy using this app. Switching to an annual subscription just screams money-grab. If you want more money, charge outright for version 3.0 and give PDF customers a heavy discount.

4 years ago, Twich321

Why the negativity

A lot of people are giving this app poor ratings due to the new subscription option. I just don’t get it. You get all the old features, plus a few new ones without having to pay for the upgrade. Paying for the upgrade just gives you access to even more new features, which to be honest, unless you’re a power user of the app, you probably don’t need. The developers need a steady income to ensure continuous support and growth and I’m all in on helping that. It’s $5 a month for more features and helping the developer. A cup of coffee. That’s more than reasonable considering how good this app is. Fantastical has been my go to calendar app for years and there’s good reason for it. It’s beautifully designed, simple to understand, quick to add new events and has tons of features for people who use it all the time. I rarely ever experience crashes and it’s become one with my life. If I didn’t have this, who knows how much more of a pain my busy schedule would be. Keep it up developers, the naggers will leave and come back when they realize you’ve done nothing to the app they treasure

2 years ago, iToNeG

This application had a place on my phone and iPad for years

Same page as everyone else ... a one time charge i would of did to get some of the features and just pay for the time they spent on the facelift ... now i have a paid application that has advertisements of premium all over it. Every calendar on the market has multiple views, customizable icons, even weather options with no subscriptions... it worked good at what it did .. now they added many bells and whistles that the average person might not want with an elaborate subscription price tag. Maybe they should make feature based purchases ... you want custom home screen icon and 10 day forecast, 1.99 one time purchase. Why would i pay a monthly fee for that. I can see many people jumping ship and many long time customers choosing elsewhere. Maybe its not too late for them to change their price structure before people start purchasing other calendar apps for a one time price. For the business person that can fully unlock this apps power it’s worth it. But for personal user that maybe wants to be to customize alert sounds, calendar views & colors, Home Screen icon, that should just be one time charges for UI appearances.

4 years ago, HipHapa

The BEST Apple ecosystem calendar

I was hesitant to spend $40 per year on a calendaring app, on any personal app for that matter, but I believe the ROI justifies the cost. With a single subscription, I get a unified calendaring experience across desktop, iPad, and iPhone, and my productivity is significantly better with managing my scheduling and tasks. I use a combination of Exchange, Google, and CalDAV calendars with Reminders and Zoom integration. Compared to the alternatives, including built-in calendars with Outlook and my favorite email client Spark (sorry Readdle, but I do LOVE Spark for email for the same reasons here), Fantastical puts every other solution to shame. This is also the only stand-alone calendaring solution where I could see Exchange calendars delegated to me... the Calendar sets feature makes flipping between personal, work, and colleague’s calendar a breeze! I’m sorry I waited so long to subscribe, believing the other reviews here were indicative of what I would experience and at what cost. However, as a real-life, self-designated “power user”, the cost is returned many times over with efficiency and fewer scheduling conflicts. It simply has no equal in the Apple world. Thanks Flexibits!

4 years ago, TexasYankeeATX

Agenda Has a Better Subscription Model

Update: Thank you for the reply. Still only two stars for your subscription plan. Nowhere in your reply did you address my suggestions. What you are offering is a subscription in perpetuity. I would gladly pay for any updates that you roll out over a given period of time, say one years time, if it allowed me to keep all those updates that happen in that time period without the obligation to continue paying for the next years updates. Again, look at the Agenda app and how they structured their pricing plan. I honestly think you would win back some burned customers. Fantastical is a nice piece of software, but the new subscription model is a big turn off. The Agenda app is free, with no time limits. There are also extra premium features that require purchase to unlock. When an upgrade is purchased, all current features are permanently unlocked across all of the user’s Macs and iOS devices. The purchase is good for one year and all updates that they roll out you have access to. After the year is up you can choose to upgrade or not, but you get to keep the software that you’ve paid for. You don’t automatically lose access to your calendar. If fantastical switched to that style of subscription, I would be much more inclined to stay with them.

4 years ago, lovesugarsync

Not sure why review websites love version 3

Fantastical was my favorite iOS calendar app by far. I liked the UI and the ease to input events, see event info at a glance, and most useful, provided Time To Leave reminders for my appointments that included travel. Fantastical had published many different times that ALL features from version 2 remained accessible to those customers who would choose not opt-in to their subscription model. This is not true. In "fine print" at the bottom of a web page they admit that there are two features not carried over to legacy users, one of which is Travel Time. No longer having access to this feature is truly a deal breaker for me. Apple's native iOS calendar app has this feature but it is not as easily executed as Fantastical's and doesn't have event color coding for different calendars but I'm going back to it since I can't use Fantastical as efficiently and I also CAN'T STAND the new home screen appearance. IT'S UGLY and DISTRACTING. Flexibits, I will not move to a subscription for your products but please at least consider giving back Travel Time to your legacy users, or fully disclose up front that that's a feature you did revoke, and offer a UI skin of version 2 as it was much nicer to look at. I'd re-review your product with higher stars if you do that.

5 years ago, Urbina68

Final Touches

I tmhave been using this app for almost two weeks now and it has completely transformed the way I interact with, and more importantly, how often I actually use my calendar! I’ve actually purchased several other calendar apps and while they all were supposed to be “amazing” ( at least according to the reviews), something about them made it seem too... daunting. Enter Fantastical. It’s really a big improvement over the standard calendar app and it is definitely worth the money. I love the natural language input function and the overall functionality of the app. It works extremely well and has many handy features like automatically adding an event to you calendar when it’s detected in your inbox (think: you purchased concert tickets and once you receive the confirmation email it will auto-create a fully filled in calendar event) With that being said, I would love some customizability in terms of the color scheme and the window layout. Also, GET RID OF THE “DOT SYSTEM” for tracking events. It’s really confusing and unacceptable to look at.

4 years ago, HoptownMovieMan

Niche UI design issue sent me back to the native app

I really wanted to like Fantastical (for iOS), and I used it as long as I could until one small UI design issue fouled me up for the umpteenth time: When looking at the calendar view at the top half of the iPhone screen and the list view is at the bottom, it REALLY messes me up that if you pick a date that has nothing on it the list view, while updating to that particular date (showing nothing on the list), it also shows the continued list, showing the next day or days (depending on how many event entries you have). Three times in the span of a week I went to schedule business meetings and travel plans, believing I was looking at events on, say, a Tuesday, when the list was showing Tuesday (no events) and then a list for Wednesday (with a couple meetings already set) right beneath it. I didn’t notice Tuesday was empty. It catches me EVERY time I go to look for availability and find an empty day right next to a busy day. I’ve reluctantly switched back to the native iOS (and iPadOS) calendar app, which shows only the list for the day you’re on. Between my law practice calendar and my legislative calendar, I can’t afford any misfires with scheduling. Time is my stock in trade!

4 years ago, Xyz ur da One

Can’t Access any of the Features without Upgrading to Premium and paying $4.99/month

I was using Fantastical for over 3 years (I had paid for the most advanced version) and was happily running and paid for V2. It was a way for me to integrate multiple calendars into one place. Then a couple of weeks ago I started getting a pop up message saying I had to upgrade to Fantastical Premium to access and use the same features that I had been using for the past threeyears. I can’t even look at the “full month” calendar view without upgrading to Fantastical Premium and that costs $4.99/month. I think when you have had a customer for so long you can’t just downgrade them and the features they are use to using like this. You can’t even do the most basic of things Without premium. It’s nasty that a company would treat a long time customer like this. It says a lot about who they are and I would trust them with my business anymore. I’ve got many friends who are paying $9.99 for the year to buy a calendar app that does pretty much everything that Fantastical does. Do yourself a favor and search online. I just found many more calendar adds/ organizers that are a fraction of the price and do the same thing. Sadly you all lost a loyal customer by not honoring all the previous investment I had made into your brand.

3 years ago, nwmtnguy

Sneaky app replacement by dev

I’m fine if a developer wants to introduce a new version of its app with subscription-based features. The market can decide if it’s the right move. However, what Flexibits did was borderline unethical. Instead of launching a new app, it effectively switched all of its customers to a new and different app by pushing it out as a regular software update. Now users who paid full price for the app are stuck with a different app which is full of prompts to pay for a subscription. Now it feels like one of those free apps that’s constantly trying to get you to upgrade, except in this case you’ve already paid. Since there’s no easy way to roll back to a previous version you’re stuck with the new one. Flexibits, if you’re confident in your product put it out there and let people switch over to the new version on their own - if it offers compelling value they’ll do it - but don’t do a middle of the night bait and switch. I’m not opposed to subscriptions because I respect that developers need to earn a living, but the way you’re treating loyal users is really poor. I had actually been considering buying one of your other apps but you’ve lost my trust as a customer.

4 years ago, Yollp

Conflicted. Notifications are broken.

I honestly don’t mind paying a subscription for an app like this (though i wish you could add in sub tasks....), everything seems to be pretty good, but unfortunately the app is broken for me. For whatever reason, push notifications essentially do NOT work, as well as any sort of alert before an event...they only push to my Mac, I have yet to have them consistently push to my iPhone or iPad (iPhone is the worst out of the three). When they do push, it’s usually only at the time of the event itself, if it does decide to do anything. I have tested it over and over again, creating events just to test this: lets say i type an event for “Lunch at 12:45”, with an alert at the time of event, and an alert for travel time or one 30 minutes before. I will not get an alert before/travel time alert, and i MIGHT get one at 12:45 if I’m lucky, but that’s very sporadic. On my Mac, no issue...all my settings on all devices are correct as far as I’ve checked. If this were to be fixed, I would be an instant subscriber, but alas Flexibits have neglected to remedy this (as far as not responding on Twitter), etc. i just want this fixed!

3 years ago, OklieDoklie

Almost perfect but not quite

I’ve moved away from the Google/Apple calendars because I don’t like having to click each day to see what I have going on. In this regard Fantastical is fantastic. I have a much better sense of what my day/week/month looks like, all on one convenient page. I don’t pay for the full version but have enjoyed the free version nonetheless. Though there are other minute issues others have pointed out in their reviews, I have one enormous gripe with this app. An annoyance big enough that it spurred me to write my first ever review: whenever you write the title for your appointment, for example, “Sally in webinar for vaccine information”, the app will automatically take “in webinar for vaccine information” and move it to “Location”, leaving your event titled “Sally.” I have to move the text from Location back into Title every single time. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but when you’re trying to schedule an appointment on the fly it’d be really nice not to have to take the extra time to REWRITE what you just wrote. App developers, I’m begging you, PLEASE change this! Or at least make it an adjustable setting!

4 years ago, seegzilla

Wonderful Update

I have not experienced the other issues that others have. From my perspective, v3 is a winner and has replaced BusyCal as my desktop and mobile calendar of choice. 1. While other apps state they have regular updates, Fantastical actually updates my calendars regularly and smoothly. I’ve finally been able to ditch keeping google calendar app on hand to ensure I don’t miss appointments updates or notes. 2. The customization is... Fantastical. I love that I can pick my browser and map client if choice, as I use Brave and Waze but can’t set them as defaults in iOS directly. I can in Fantastical, awesome. 3. Personally, I’m happy to pay a $39 annual fee for all of the platforms (iPhone, iPad, macOS), to get a quality product that’s updated regularly with responsive support. With all of the above, of still like to see some additional integrations with other best of breed apps, such as AnyList. As well, a Dark version of the FantastiPal icon would be much appreciated, as well as customizable icons for the desktop version.

6 months ago, marissa_m

Have loved this app for years

I was an early adopter of Fantastical. I wasn’t happy when it switched to a different company; the subscription price was pretty steep for me at the time. Especially since I had already made a one-time payment for the app before subscription models. I’ve tried to find another calendar app as good as Fantastical and I haven’t. It provides me with flexibility and ease to create events and sync across calendars. My favorite view is month with a list of upcoming events shown below. I haven’t found anything close or comparable and other free calendar apps are more simple than I’d like. I’m using the free version of Fantastical and it’s still pretty powerful. Now that Fantastical has a monthly subscription fee, I might sign up again. (Yearly is cheaper but I can’t shell out all that money at once.) I will look at their updated premium features. This is the best iPhone calendar app (beats native calendar for me) I’ve ever used and I’ll probably will stick with it for a long time.

1 year ago, occasional downloader

They did right by Fantastical 2 users

I was one of the paid Fantastical 2 users who were angry when they switched to a subscription model. Yes, they could have communicated better, and the first new versions were buggy and had in-your-face nags to upgrade. But you know what? Fantastical *could* have abandoned Fantastical 2—and us—and introduced the new version as a separate, subscription-only entry in the App Store. Instead, we’re still getting all the features we paid for, including updates for bugs, security issues, and compatibility with new versions of iOS, plus a few additional perks like weather icons for the next few days. I’m not part of the target audience for the new subscription version—I don’t have to constantly arrange meetings with four or more people and repeatedly try to find times that are open for all of us—but I’m still enjoying all the features I paid for, thanks to their sense of responsibility to their existing customers.

6 years ago, jmacpeek

Allows Me Access to ALL My Calendar Data!

I have a habit of using the Apple Calendar app to keep track of my family’s activities and even medical information, because I write up the results of any doctor or veterinary visits, once they are complete. The stock app will fail to allow me to search for and reliably retrieve such info, once the data ages past a certain point. However, Fantastical WAS able to provide me with a COMPLETE search results list of calendar entries matching my search term(s), so I use it any time I need to find anything, since the stock Calendar app’s Search feature is unreliable, at best. We found Fantastical back when I NEEDED access to “old” calendar data that I KNEW existed, but that the stock Calendar app refused to locate for me. I love the fact that I can continue to use the app to which I am accustomed, and only need to use Fantastical when I need it for a data search; this is possible because anything I do in either app automatically bounces off the Cloud and populates the other app. SO COOL!

4 years ago, rusljb1

2.9 and Sinking Fast!!!

It’s quite understandable why this is happening. Those of us that were loyal fans and customers of Fantasical and Fantastical 2 feel as though we have been cheated or duped with this move to the subscription model after having already paid for this app. Yes, it is said that we will keep all the features that we paid for on Fantastical 2, but this doesn’t seem to be the case with a number of customers, including myself. I’m terribly sorry to give such a low rating of one star to an app I have loved and relied upon for many years, but until I see the developers begin to respond to all the negative comments, this is where the rating stays. I hope Flexbits realizes that the fast decline in their rating is not helping them and that disappointed customers are hard to get back once they leave. Prospective customers read these reviews and rely upon them when making their decision to use/buy an app. Too many negative reviews are a real turn off, especially when they’re sudden and most current. It’s interesting to note that the developer has not commented or responded to very many of these negatives...very very few!!! It might better their situation if they did. But right now, sad...very sad!!!

1 year ago, “_M_”

The Calendar App that should be standard

Seldom do I pay for apps that duplicate a built in app on iOS but Fantasical is one of the few exceptions to this rule. The speed & ease at which I can enter a new event or look up my schedule make this the app that should have shipped with iOS. If I were Apple, I would buy Flexibits to make Fantasical standard on iOS. There are a lot of Calendar apps out there but Fantasical is the best I have found at interpreting “meet JT at coffee habit in Campbell 2PM to 5 august 15” and making it an appointment on the right day & time. Just that alone makes it worth the price, but when combined with a great navigation UI make this worth using & paying for both the iPhone & iPad versions. (I only wish it was a single app with an iAP for the iPad layout so I knew which was which at a glance.) They went to a subscription model in the last few years which greatly diminishes the attractiveness of this app. It’s still great, but now it’s a constant money drag.

4 years ago, AMILkita

Such A Disappointment

I’ve been a longtime user, frequently recommending to friends and clients, but in its current state I can no longer in good conscience do so. I was initially excited for the upgrade because of all the newly added features. But now my excitement has turned to deep disappointment. My gripe is not with having lost any of the features from ver.2 as they are all still there, it’s with having lost functionality on some of my most used ones. At the moment I can no longer confidently perform searches because it fails to find most of the events and items I regularly need to reference for work. The app constantly freezes for a few seconds when typing, scrolling, or doing just about anything. It now takes me 1-3 minutes to enter a new event when it would normally take seconds. The efficiency I relied upon is no longer there, forcing me to have to go back to Apple’s Calendar app in order to be able to do my daily work in a timely fashion and without losing any more hair out of frustration. I reached out to Support for help. After waiting for days they finally reached out to ask for screen recordings of what I was experiencing. I promptly replied the same day with 2 recordings showing exactly what’s happening. That was a week ago and am still waiting to hear back, despite following up with them multiple times via email and Twitter, to no avail. All I’ve received is silence. Definitely not worth the subscription asking price.

1 year ago, dapjang

The Subscription model is not the problem.

Update: 1 year later and still can’t add invited members without making a flexbits account (used to work just fine with google account in version 2 before this new model). Plenty of companies have switched to the subscription model successfully. Usually by keeping reasonable pricing, being transparent about the change, and keeping existing features the same for users who already paid for the app. Fantastical has failed on all these fronts. The pricing is way too high, there are clearly obtrusive buttons prompting an already paying user to upgrade, and the new app ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT have all the same features for existing Fantastical 2 users no matter how much they try to gloss over this. They say oh no it's the same features, you just have to hand over your information, add all your calendars to our *free* account... yeah did I have to do that before? No? Then it's not the same features... This isn't a matter of "I don't like how the new version looks". People can disagree on preferences. The facts are simple: I paid for an app with certain features, now the app was updated to make some of those features inaccessible.

4 years ago, Emma_Vi

Read this

Hi. There isn’t a single app I’ve experienced more trepidation over about updating after all the negative reviews. I‘ve loved Fantastical so, so much and it’s changed my life. Well! I’ve tried the free update so you don’t have to, and I say go ahead 👍🏻. Positives. The new features and redesign are AWESOME. Having the weather forecast so cleanly integrated is FANTASTIC. Take the time to explore, really! Negatives? Some reviews complain about aggressive nagware. Nothing like that as of 02/04. Premium features have a visible star icon next to them, that’s it. Missing features? I’m struggling to find any - 0.01%, if anything. I’m a student, and I do wish they would reconsider the cost or offer a discount. Why the change? I did some research that helped me empathize. Apple takes 30% of all one-time purchases/upgrades, but only 15% of sub payments after someone’s been subscribed for a year. So subscription models have a HUGELY positive business impact. Income stability for an increasingly saturated market. Ongoing, improved support across 3 platforms takes time and money. I hope the change motivates them to not only elevate Fantastical but to start innovating by developing new apps & services that are included in the subscription to make the cost more worth it. Change my life again. I don’t like subs, but I love Fantasical, so I am will try this out. I spent too long on this review.

4 years ago, Literroy

Disappointing for what it costs

Still doesn’t have great Siri Shortcut support. Doesn’t play well with iPad multitasking. If they’re asking $40/year for a calendar app, I feel like it should at least be a better iOS citizen. Also, they do the really annoying thing where they don’t write release notes for the actual version they’ve released - i.e., the notes shouldn’t be the same for version 3.0.2 as it was for 3.0. But as someone who bought and paid for Fantastical 2, I do appreciate getting the new design for free and keeping all my old features. I just can’t imagine spending the money on the premium subscription, nor can I imagine recommending it to someone who is new to the app. I get that subscriptions are an easier way for developers to maintain an income flow than developing new products and charging a reasonable one-time price for them, which used to be what we expected companies that wanted to stick around to do. It’s just that, as a consumer, it doesn’t make sense for an app like this, especially when the app doesn’t support some pretty basic things that pro users would want.

3 years ago, a ninja muffin

Will try again later.

**iOS 15 update** Decided to give it another shot after an entire iOS update was pushed. Tried multiple times, but could not get my watch to get past the login screen. Too much bloat for this to work nicely without major troubleshooting. **iOS 14 update** Now with iOS 14, the exact same problem is even more apparent as my review below. The new widgets barely show any information, while the native calendar app is cleaner, less cluttered, and has smaller text to simply display more information. **iOS 13 - Fantastical 3 update: I bought this app for it’s widget; The compact nature and that you could see a monthly view was the entire reason I bought Fantastical 2. Fast forward to the Fantastical 3 release, I’m happy that all of the same functionality is available to me. I’m not a power user, so the new features are not for me. However, the update has brought in this bloated layout. Text is bigger. Spacing is larger. The compact nature that I was initially happy with is gone. The widget takes up so much space when you have multiple events on any give day. It’s a real disappointment. Why try and change something that worked so well?

4 years ago, Paco II

I was a naysayer, but no longer. This is the best calendar app.

You can see my original review below. But I was wrong. Because $40/year is not getting you some stagnant app. In addition to Fantastical being the most full featured and gorgeous calendar app in the app store, the developers are working their butts off every day to fix issues and add functionality. How do I know? Because I regularly ask for features and report minor issues I've found. And those features are added and those bugs are squashed. And quickly. Look at the version history to see how much love this app gets. The low reviews are from people (and formerly me) that feel the price does not justify the return. They are wrong. There is no doubt in my mind that I am getting $40/yr in value from this app. My original review: The new version is gorgeous. It's what the app should have been in 2.0. I'd happily pay a decent single time payment. But I couldn't possibly justify $40/year for a calendar app on my phone.

5 years ago, rachael vanilla

Disabled the one troublesome feature and now it is perfection

This app was everything my husband and I needed to stay in the loop on each other’s schedule. There was one major flaw — on several occasions, while scrolling through the agenda, I accidentally dragged one of my husband’s events to a different date. There’s no way to see the original date of the event, so you can see how this is potentially catastrophic. I decided to look for a new app, but none were as good as this one. Finally, out of desperation, I used the developer’s contact form to explain the issue. I received a super speedy reply (within 30 minutes) with instructions on how to access the hidden option to disable drag and drop. (Pasted below in case anyone is having the same issue.) I opened the app and fixed the problem with just a few taps. So awesome! Go to Fantastical's in-app settings and pull down from the top of the screen four times. On the next screen, tap Options > Disable Drag and Drop.

7 years ago, user2840457

Great design both visually and functionally

Fantastical has a wonderful design both visually and functionally. It not only looks great all over iOS (the app itself, the widget, watch app, an especially the iPad app) but it also carries that thoughtful design with it through its functionality. From natural language parsing, to the flow of elements, to the extended keyboard for adding events, it keeps things simple yet complex in a well refined way. My only complaints are that it can take a little to sync across devices on occasion but that may be the fault of iCloud or Google. One thing I really wish it offered was an auto snooze for reminders. I appreciate that it gives me multiple manual snooze buttons but often I have my hands full and can’t snooze. If it goes a few minutes without a manual snooze or completed, it should keep reminding you until acknowledged so as to truly help you never forget. Overall great app though, worth every penny, I hope to see many more improvements over time.

4 years ago, ChuckHarris3

It was the best calendar app!

UPDATE: Had to change my previous review. Everything is behind a pay wall. Those of us who purchased every app for every device are now relegated to the basic + level of this app. That’s total unfair for longtime customers. Airmail did the same thing and look how much business they lost because of it. Fantastical is now deleted and I’m back to the stock calendar app. What a shame. I had always used the stock calendar app on every iPhone/Mac/iPad that I had ever owned. I thought it was the best calendar that I could use...that was until I came across Fantastical 2. I know the stock app lets me put all my calendars together just like Fantastical 2, but where the stock app fall short is on the natural language integration. I’m able to type my events in plain English and Fantastical 2 will create my event in a snap! It keeps me organized and allows me not worry about whether or not my app syncs across each device. Highly recommend this app!!!

4 years ago, casacramer

WHHHHHHHY

This has been my favorite calendar app for YEARS. Most user friendly, organized, maximized screen usage. WHY IN THE WORLD does the month name default to a 500pt font and therefore make it so I can see only meetings underneath my calendar now. Horrible I wish I didn’t upgrade to this version and DEFINITELY not upgrading on my other phone. I’m addition now I have to add my accounts with calendars to fantastical vs using them through iOS on the app in order to send out an invitation to anyone? I am not going to add my accounts to your app- ridiculous! You have never needed my log in and password before as demonstrated by the last five years I have used the app. Hate this app now. Looking for a new one. Horrible. Horrible horrible. The worst. Someone clearly thought the large month looked “cool”. We are looking for functionality not aesthetics and in fact the aesthetics are horrible. Please let me maximize my screen usage on my phone so I can see my month and list of appointments below. With the upgrade I can see maybe two appointments yet with the old version can see 15. Horrible. I’m so mad this is on my work phone and almost as bad as apple’s native calendar now. ☹️☹️☹️😭😭😭😭😭whyyyyyyyyyyy

4 years ago, SeekerJones

Useless With Persistent Pop-up Ad

Since the pop-up Ad for the new premium version 3 can NOT be disabled, it is a disruptive intrusion that turns Fantastical into an unpleasant experience rendering the app USELESS! Subscription model is just another curse on the human race. It’s limited lifespan expected to implode Tech 3.0 within the next few years as even power users are opting out of all but what they consider their essential 10 subscriptions for everything. If App or Software development is your gig, you’d better hope that whatever it is that you develop is considered by users as one of the 3-4 most important Apps or Software in existence. Otherwise, the subscription model your banking on is “the wrong economic business model (Forbes, Oct. 2019).” The Wall Street Journal’s recent advice to consumers is to stop wasting money on all but “the essential few subscriptions.” Apple has been the most egregious and irresponsible party in their promoting the subscription based economy for mobile app development. They see it as a win-win scenario for themselves as they no longer have to put in concerted efforts in developing unique built in features to iOS. They like having independent developers do their work for them.

4 years ago, floridian kiwi

Bloatware

UPDATE September 2020: I've been using the default Apple Calendar for many months now and what's remarkable is how weak the value proposition is for Fantastical in 2020. As I noted in my original review, it's *fine*. Little about Fantastical is revolutionary or, indeed, more useful than the default calendar these days. It certainly doesn't merit the steep price the developers are charging. If you download the app, you'll see its... ok. It's certainly not BAD. It's just a lot of features in search of a purpose being sold as a premium product when, at its core, it's simply an ok calendar. ORIGINAL: What used to be a clean and powerful alternative to a bloated but nonfunctional default calendar app now finds its situation exactly reversed. It's ok for what it is, but there is just no compelling case for the vast majority of people to spend money on Fantastical now, as it simply doesn't add meaningful value. If you want to support independent developers, great. They produce quality product, and Fantastical certainly isn't *horrible*. But it doesn't distinguish itself like it used to. It's merely ok. So I've moved on (to the default calendar app, much to my surprise).

6 years ago, Beebeebee19

So far, it’s fantastic!!!!

I wanted to find a calendar that didn’t require a monthly fee, has no ads, would synch with my iPad and iOS calendars, and had the same interface as the calendar I was using. This fit the bill! I purchased the two separate apps for my phone and IPad. I love how my phone reminders are also integrated into my daily list view and how when you turn the phone horizontally it provides an extended view. I also really like how you can do a light or dark theme and shade the weekends out. I just figured out how to integrate my FB events and I love how I can add the date to the icon. They have a great website that helps guide you through the interface and FAQ’s. Every time I discover a new feature, I’m even more impressed and in love with this calendar app. I finally feel like my life and plans are streamlined, simple and in one place. The search bar feature is so handy. Thanks Fantastical - keep up the good work! This is a lifesaver.

4 years ago, GummyKibble

So much ⭐️ fail everywhere now

I had bought the Mac and iPad/phone/watch versions of this once-great app, but now I have to pay an extra $40 per year to keep the features I'd already had? Technically Agilebits has added in a lot of new stuff (that I'm not the target market for and don't care about), but old stuff has gone missing. For instance, did you used to change your "Start Week View On: Monday" setting? That's $40 now. That one feature isn't that big of a deal, but it's a death by a million cuts. Also, even though I paid a lot of money for the previous version, now my whole app is littered with little red ⭐️ icons showing the stuff I could be using if only I weren't now tagged as a cheapskate. The stock calendar app isn't great, but it costs $40 a year less and isn't trying to upsell me to the full version all throughout the app. I'm absolutely certain that there are people who need these new features, but I'm only willing to pay so much for what to me comes down to a prettier UI. Sorry, Fantastical, but I've deleted you from all my devices. You'll be missed (but not $40 per year much).

4 years ago, Txaggie2008

Loving It!!!! Loving it!!!! Loving it!!

I juggle a lot between personal, work and volunteer and I needed a calendar that let me pull everything into one app. I love how easy it was to add all 8 calendars I manage, RSVP to events and even join meetings from right in the app! Having the weather update right on the date is great for outdoor activities! Im using the app across all Apple devices. I haven’t yet figured out if I can download something or browser widget for my work PC. Only big negative I’ve seen so far: when in Fullscreen Month mode, you aren’t able to click on a day and it show the calendar for that day. You can however use the calendar in list view. This shows a small monthly calendar on top with dots as the events on the days and down below has a list of the events for that day selected. Small minor thing really for me. Overall, if you are trying to take control of your calendar then this is the solution for you!!!

2 years ago, IHeartMyDogs

Fabulous app and even better tech support

I use Fantastical on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac: Love, love, and love how well the apps all work. It’s become my default calendar app and I can’t imagine going back to the native Mac apps (sorry, Apple) But let’s face it- blips happen. In my case, the Mac version wouldn’t accept my Exchange password (kind of a big deal for me). I checked the FAQs but was worried that deleting the account and reinstalling it might mess up my iPad and iPhone versions (and I’d lose all my appointments). I contacted support and received a reply with instructions within a few minutes. The directions were clear and within 2 minutes I was up & running again. Summary: great program and if you do have a glitch (this was first ever problem I had with any version of the app), the support team will work quickly to fix it for you. Two thumbs up and six stars if I could give them.

3 years ago, DDFrit

Missing some features

I like the app and it looks nice, but some features I need are missing. I would like to be able to reorder my tasks in the order I would like to do them (without assigning a specific time). Instead, they are in alphabetical order. I also wish I didn’t have to create a task 4 times to have it repeat weekly every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. There is not an option to choose which days the task applies to, so I have to create a task for each day I need it on and set it to repeat weekly. This is cumbersome. Also, I use the reminders app on Apple Watch and created a Fantastical calendar set without tasks for my watch so tasks wouldn’t show on my lists—this is because the reminders app shows MUCH more of the text whereas Fantastical only shows a word or two on the watch, making me click/tap into each task to see what I need to do. I also wish I could disable day and week views on the iPhone. They are far too cluttered so I just use Calendar and Dayticker views, which are functional and beautiful.

4 years ago, Betterman2

ESSENTIAL APP and well worth 11cent/day for premium features

Fantastical is BY FAR the best calendar app I have ever used (and I have tried many over the years). The user interface is easy on the eye, and more importantly well organized and easy to navigate. Fantastical’s feature set is unique and light years ahead of Apple’s stock calendar and other third party calendar apps. Being an essential app that I use multiple times, the yearly subscription fee of $39 comes down to about 11cent/day and is more than appropriate for what I get. Also, when I needed help with something, customer service is always friendly and prompt. PS: I have been a Fantastical user from before they switched to the subscription model and owned the stand alone app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. The way the did the transition was with a high degree of professionalism and integrity and I can only commend them for that.

Description

Fantastical is the award-winning calendar app with powerful features including intuitive natural language text parsing, beautiful full calendar day, week, month, quarter and year views, tasks, time zone support, and much, much more. TRY FANTASTICAL FOR FREE • Beautiful, clean, and easy to use calendar app allowing you to manage basic events • The DayTicker and calendar makes your schedule look the nicest it ever has • Full screen day, week, month, quarter, and year views • Full task support including Todoist and Google Tasks • 3 day weather forecast (powered by AccuWeather) • 14 day free trial for Flexibits Premium UPGRADE TO FLEXIBITS PREMIUM FOR EVEN MORE (requires subscription) • Includes Fantastical on all devices: Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad • Openings: Schedule events based on your availability • Proposals: Create meeting polls • Add Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, and Microsoft Teams calls • Extended 10 day weather forecast with RealFeel and MinuteCast up-to-the-minute weather data (powered by AccuWeather) • Browse and instantly subscribe to interesting calendars, including sports, TV shows, holidays, and much more (powered by SchedJoules) • Calendar sets - quickly toggle multiple calendars on or off with a simple click or automatically when you leave or arrive, based on location • Event and task templates • Sync calendar sets and templates across devices • Apple Watch app with Up Next and Weather (and works over LTE) • Parser autocomplete recommendations for invitees, locations, and calendars/task lists • Propose multiple times to easily ask people when they can meet • Combine duplicate events across multiple calendars • Invitees and availability lookups • Respond to event invitations • Default alerts • Time zone override • Favorite time zones • Push updates for Google and Exchange • Set event travel time and receive time to leave notifications • Custom event colors • Custom home screen icons • Custom alert sounds • Hide events without deleting them • Add attachments to events on iCloud, Google, and Exchange • Priority email support ADDING NEW EVENTS OR TASKS IS FAST AND FUN • The easiest and fastest way to add new events or tasks • Type in your details or use dictation and watch your words magically turn into an actual event or task! • Powerful parser features, including: - Create tasks by starting your sentence with “task” ”reminder", "todo", or "remind me to" - Powerful and expressive repeating events such as third Thursday of every month, every weekend, last weekday of the month, and more - Create alerts with phrases like "remind me tomorrow at 3PM", "alert 1 hour before", or "alarm 3PM" THE BEST TASKS APP, TOO • See your events and dated tasks together in the main list • Add tasks directly from the Tasks list or new event screen - just flip the switch to toggle between events and tasks • Set dates, times, and geofences (when I arrive/when I leave) • Support for iCloud Reminders, Todoist, and Google Tasks WORKS THE WAY YOU DO • Connects to your favorite calendar services including iCloud, Google, Exchange, Office 365, Todoist, and more • Automatically add alarms to your new events • Fantastical is fully localized in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese • Start typing your event or task in any of these languages and Fantastical will automagically understand! EVEN MORE FANTASTICAL • Lots and lots of iOS and iPadOS widgets • Background app updating enables events, tasks, and alerts to be pushed to Fantastical even if you don't launch the app often • Birthdays and Anniversaries - see your contact’s details or send a quick birthday or anniverary greeting • Handoff support between Fantastical for Mac, iPhone, and iPad • Time zone support including floating time zone support • Dark and light themes • Stickers • Accessibility support • And much, much more!