Fantastical - Calendar App Reviews

$49.99 is definitely worth for those who rely heavily on calendar apps

I love this app. Bought it despite many of the negative initial reviews. Went to the Flexibits website and watched the tutorial videos - all 12 of them - and then downloaded the demo version. After a few hours playing with it I had to have it. I did have Fantastical 1 on my Macs and was familiar with the app. The full screen version of the calendar is amazing and well worth the price. The calendar grouping feature is groundbreaking and overall the App is a must have. I don’t feel that the $39.99 is a lot to pay for an app this beautiful. People may balk at the price, but in my opinion, an app that I will use on a regular basis is well worth the price. I had been using BusyCal2 the past few years, which costs even more money, after using Fantastical for a year, BusyCal isn’t even used anymore. With this recent update that supports full Exchange support, I can now do all my calendat work in just 1 app. It is well worth the price!

I routinely use a combination of Google calendars, Microsoft Exchange calenders, iCloud calendars and subscribed Internet calendars. iCal was failing dramatically with all sort of synchronization bugs generated. I hesitated buying Fantastical because its price was a lot more than iCal’s free. However, when I looked at the other alternative apps, there were worrisome bug reports. So now, 3 weeks into using Fantastical: o Smooth integration with all my calendars. And no bugs or synchronization errors. o The full calendar app and the included menu bar quick calendar are beautiful to look at and easier to use than iCal. I am amazed that such core functionality would be better done by a company other than Apple but I guess that’s the whole idea behind an apps-driven platform. Update 4/16: Synchronization problems started cropping up but the latest update (v. 2.2) implemented native Exchange support and presto, it works beautifully. What a relief.

This Calendar app is stable and very well designed. New features are continually being added and this is the premier calendar app in the app store. My favorite aspect is the menubar icon that quickly lets me hit a keyboard shortcut to see all my upcoming calendar events.

I’ve been using this version since the day it came out. I appreciate that the developers have tried to innovate in how we juggle a lot of calendars, but trying to remember which calendars are in which sets and having the list of calendar sets always hidden behind a dropdown menu is fatiguing. I stick with Fantastical because its other features make up the difference to still be better than the default calendar app, but just barely. If calendar sets can click with the way your brain works, you’ll probably love everything about this app.

Fantastical has been a great app on iOS, but no amount of fiddling or forcing — by me or the IT staff at work — would make my work (Exchange) appointments show up on my calendar on the Mac. But, this latest update fixes that. Get the update. I’m giving Fantastical 2 on OS X four stars because I shouldn’t have had to pay a hefty price and then wait this long for it to work right. But, I can easily see new users giving five stars.

I’ve used Fantastical since day 1 and have loved it. However, every since updating to 2.2 on March 31, I have sync errors on all 3 of my computers forcing me to close the app and not allow it to auto start on bootup. It’s wasted so much of my time troubleshooting. If the programers know of this issues, why don’t they send an email out to their users instead of wasting our time?

First off, let me say this is a big update. Compared to the previous version it has “almost” all of the features that I could want. Now that there is native exchange support, I’m wondering if an option could be added to schedule an online meeting using Lync exchange. I know that Lync is a 3rd party app, but it’s an essential part of Office 365 for many businesses. Additionally it does not seem to support attachments which is also a great feature to have. These are the only piece preventing me from completely getting rid of outlook

This calendar app is a good investment. Time management is critical for me. This app does what i need. Appointments, time blocking my day, tracking business expenses through calendar reminders of who i met with and why, etc. I love that i can print out the month and keep with expense report. Yes i had to talk myself into a 50 dollar a year calendar. Then I remembered what i used to spend on paper calendars.

initial review: Been using Fantastical on both iPhone and Mac for some time now; my biggest pet-peeve has been the lack of full calendar view. This want is now a reality. With the addition of voice recognition, this app is a MUST for serious Calendar/Get it Done addicts. Update: Fantastical has matured from version 1 in such a way that its price is completely justifiable, and this update has improved its overall performance, making it an no-brainer purchase. The speed at which I can incorporate entries is impressive. The recognition software behind its functionality is just short of mystical. Considering calendar apps with todo functionality, an interface that reacts to your quick entries, and transforms your text into compartmentalized entries, Fantastical is the only app that fits the bill.

Not a terrible app but not worth the money and after a week of exposure, I preferred version 1 and don’t see how this can be worth $49.95….just not at all worth that price. What Fantastical offers (both v1 and v2) is a very handy place to see your calendar, visible in the top icon bar. You click to expand it / click to collapse it. Very handy and I use that all day long with my work. BUT the new version only connects to online accounts (for me that’s Google calendar and iCloud). But v1 connected to local calandars as well so all my locally stored stuff does not show with v2. For me, that translates to “useless”. Once Fantastical is open, I find one handy tool missing that is common to iCal, Apple’s newer Calendar, BusyCal, Google calendar online, Sunrise Calendar and that is the handy ability to show/hide calendars in the sidebar. In Fantastical 2 you can opt to bring up a floating window (like other calendars) but to hide/show calendars, you have to create calendar sets for showing/hiding. For me, this means an added work PLUS and added thought process which contradicts the one advantage Fantastical offers over the others which is (or rather “was”) a simple, quickly accessed interface. So…. I hope Flexbits continues to review the user experience with this new version. My response from them when I wrote to them about this was very dry and didn’t inspire much hope for my wishes. I bought this in good faith based on v1. However, it was $50 wasted.

Fantastical 2 is amazing for natural speech input. The UI was very nice. The newest updates speeds up everything-which was the one thing which kept it from being my daily driver. Great job.

I think this is an amazing app that works seamlessly with any other calendar/reminder accounts. $50 is a bit pricey for a calendar app, but when you really use, it totally pays off!

I was very nervous for the past few weeks deciding on if I should or should not buy the Fantastical 2 for my ’15 Macbook Pro that I just recently bought from Apple store about two months ago because of the price that they set for Fantastical 2. I was thinking why should I buy fantastical 2 when the Apple’s own Calendar is great as it is or good enough as it is, but then as few weeks goes by I kept staring at the buy button here for Macbook for Fantastical 2 and I decided to take a leap on the faith based on several recommendations or the raves that several technology news were talking about how great Fantastical 2 is for Macbook. Once I bought the Fantastical 2, after downloaded it then for few minutes I was taking a test drive to see what’s all fuzz its about and now I understand why Fantastical 2 is so highly recommended. Sure the Apple’s own Calendar is great, so great that it’s almost irreplaceable but what difference between Fantastical 2 and Apple’s own calendar is that Fantastical 2 has more features therefore Fantastical 2 have more edge to it. If calendar is your friend, that you must check your calendar on regular basis (every hours for example) then Fantastical 2 is the choice for that because it’s meant to be some sort of advanced calendar if you will and Apple’s own calendar is simple but still good. Either way I highly recommend Fantastical 2 for all the devices because they sync with each others such as Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod and even Apple Watch which is one of two reasons that I really like Fantastical 2 for.

I love Fantastical 2. I use it on my iPhone, iPad and Macs. The app is wonderful, but I have one request for a future release on the Mac version. When a reminder (for a reminder) pops up in the notification center, I am given two options, “Close” or “Snooze”. I would love to see a “Completed” option that would mark the reminder as complete. As it is today, I have to click the reminder which opens the app, then click the box next to the reminder to mark it complete. I would love to be able to do this from the reminder (of the reminder) itself. Would be much more effiecient. Developers, please consider in a future update.

NEW REVIEW: Thank you!!!! Finally, Fantastical is practically perfect in every way. Only deeper Google Calendar/Reminder/Task integration could possibly improve this wonderful app! OLD REVIEW: Come on guys. The app is clean and great for quick calendar entries, but not being able to switch events from an Exchange calendar to a non-Exchange calender (or vice versa) is a little lame. Please fix this.

I purchased Fantastical for one feature……...to get a view with my tasks integrated with my Calendar. It does that very well. After using it for a week, I’m not sure it it was worth the cost. The tasks are a re-skinning of the Apple Reminders app. Not a horrible thing, just make sure you have enabled Apple “Reminders” in your icloud settings. The date & time recognition works, but if seems gimmicky to me, and sometimes gets in the way. For example, If I create a task “Finish Design of T-shirts for 4th of July Parade", it automatically enters the reminder on my calendar (which I didn’t want) on July fourth. It does this even when I force the app not to do this during the creation of the event. This forces me to go in and make a correction to the task after the fact. I wish I could turn this feature off. I like the dark theme, the ability to set colors to tasks from different lists, and the menubar quick view option for both tasks and calendars. If you have the $50 to spend, I’d say it’s worth it…..especially if you spend a lot of time in your Calendar and Reminders app, and you want a combined task/cal view. If not, just use Apples built in calendar application. I think Flexbits would sell a lot more of this app if the price point were more like $29.95. Bottom line: very nice app. Absolutely 5 stars. However, two points off for price point.

My problems with Microsoft Exchange were fixed in the 2.2.1 release. Thanks!