Fantastical - Calendar for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By RBDelaware

  Outstanding, “every-day” utility completely replaces Microsoft Calendar

  I’ve been using Fantastical since its very first version, and it remains to this day my “use-it-every-day-all-the-time” ulitlity, on my desktop, laptop, phones and iPads. Fantastical’s best feature is its “plain language” ability to create new events. Works nearly flawlessly to parse dates, times and complicated recurring events (“first day of the month,” "second Tuesday of the month,” etc.). The user interface is excellent, even on small phone screens. Most importantly, this app is dependable, reliable. It syncs flawlessly with itself on all my devices, very quickly. Handles invitations from Outlook users well, and handles locations/maps well, too. Integrates smoothly with Google calendars and with Microsoft Calendar. Handles shared ICS event files flawlessly. If I have any complaint (a minor one), it’s that I’d prefer to be able to tweak my user interface a bit, such as enlarging text on the iPhone version, adjusting (‘toning down”) the app’s jarring red color banner, etc. The iOS version works well. I’m hoping the developers create a “shortcut” capability (other than Siri, which it already has) to allow users to enter events directly from the new Microsoft “Shortcuts” app, without having to open Fantastical on the phone. This is a first class app, made for people who use it - and depend on it - heavily.

  
  
• By evansc22

  Great App

  The built in Microsoft apps (calendar, reminders, notes, etc) are good. They work fine, but with few bells/whistles. Fantastical 2 nicely combines two of the built in apps, calendar and reminders, both of which I use daily. The biggest feature of F2, for me, is the integration of reminders directly into the interface. Being able to overlay reminders direclty onto a week/month view is extremely helpful. The natural language input is super useful too. Getting information into the app is easy. F2 gets out of the way, for the most part, and let’s you get on about getting things accomplished. The iOS companion app is equally pleasing to use. I put off buying this program for a long time due to price. I believe I got it around a holiday when it was on sale. I COULD do without this app, but I wouldn’t want to. It was worth the money. I know these guys work hard to put out a good product. They need to be compensated. I really don’t have any complaints at this time with F2.

  
  
• By Alex Alexzander

  Really good calendar

  I bought this quite a while ago and don’t write too many reviews unless I really like an app. I tend to be willing to try knew things, but ultimately I’d say 90% of the time I drop an app. I have a nice long list of app purchases that simply don’t provide any value at all. This is not one of those apps. How do I know this? Well, I just bought a new Pc and thought I would pass on installing this. And within 2 days I was running back to my app library to click the install button. It is simply a much better calendar. I like the list on the side. I like the way I can easily enter a new entry. I find it a MUST HAVE on the iPhone. And now without even realizing it, I find it a must have on the Windows as well. You know an app is good when you keep coming back to it. For that to happen it has to provide some kind of value that you will miss if you stop using it. This does that. Let me say one more thing. I’m not someone who is married to the calendar and log every thing to it. And I still find this so much better.

  
  
• By SixthSamurai

  Very good replacement for Windows Calendar; iOS version is tired and confusing

  After several years of resisting, I finally paid to switch to Fantastical 2 from the standard Windows calendar. After using for 2 months, I'm not sure I should have. Pros: cleaner interface, ability to show two timezones concurrently, ability to show reminders in side panel, quick add widget. Cons: natural language parsing often gets it wrong and I have to spend time correcting/finding an entry to redirect it, the price is high for not a whole lot more functionality. Other calendars have improved greatly at much less cost. Bottom line: I like the Windows version a lot and is probably worth the upgrade if you are a heavy calendar user. The iOS version is awful and needs a complete redesign. The "dots" approach versus showing a time-based day is confusing...this really needs to be redesigned. Entering new appointments on the iOS version is also inefficient. Google's iOS calendar is so much better....Fantastical needs to take a look and "flatter them" by redesigning. Maybe best to stay with the basic iOS calendar or use Google's free version other then the lack of uniformity in your workflow.

  
  
• By PaulV230

  Just finished the trial and loved it, but one thing would make it perfect for me

  I've been using Fantastical on iOS since v2, and when I heard about v3 and the subscription model, I was hesitant at first but wanted to give it a fair shot. After reading through the features and going through the tutorial videos, I started a trial and took the new Fantastical for a spin. From the first launch, it’s clear that the team at Flexbits has put a lot of time and effort into v3—from the wide variety of display options to features like location-based calendar sets. It's not just loaded with helpful new features but it also has a lot of "nice to have" features too. It’s also clear that the team is working hard on bug fixes and updates—just check out the version history to see the frequency of updates and the number changes with each version. So what’s holding me back from subscribing to Fantastical Premium? Simply put, the cost is too high for the value I'd get out of it. Fantastical 3 has a lot of great features that support collaboration, but I use it exclusively for individual productivity. As much as I wish I could use those collaboration features, I simply have no need for them. Now if Flexbits offered a subscription geared for individual users without the collaboration features and at a lower price, I’d be all in!

  
  

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