Fantastical Alternatives

[TopToffee]

There was a discussion (and a lot of strong opinions) on the thread for the recent news story about Fantastical’s subscription model.

The majority of people seemed to be saying “it’s not worth it”, “who’d pay a subscription for a calendar”, “waste of money” and similar. Myself and a couple of others said we subscribe to Fantastical because it’s a key part of our daily workflow.

However I do agree that a one off fee would be preferable to £5 a month.

I asked in that thread but didn’t get any responses, so thought I’d try here. Does anyone have any suggestions for Fantastical alternatives, with a similar (or even better?) feature set.

Must haves are:

• Ability to schedule Zoom and Google Meet calls within the app.
• Visibility of Team Availability
• Mac App (iPhone/iPad apps a plus)

Nice to haves:

• Natural text entry
• Multiple proposed meeting times

Look forward to seeing people’s suggestions.

 

[atmenterprises]

Calendar 366 is the closest I've found.

 

[TopToffee]

Calendar 366 is the closest I've found.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've just downloaded the 30 day trial version. So far as I can see, it doesn't allow either of the first two "must haves" from the list. Unless I'm missing something?

 

[Weaselboy]

I've seen people mention BusyCal as an alternative.

 

[HenryAZ]

I've seen people mention BusyCal as an alternative.

BusyCal for me. I tried Fantastical and it's just too much busyness to suit me. BusyCal is a straightforward calendar app, with all the necessary features, no unnecessary frills and foo-foos, and it syncs with iCloud on all your devices. You can also dictate new events to it.

 

[TopToffee]

I've seen people mention BusyCal as an alternative.

BusyCal for me. I tried Fantastical and it's just too much busyness to suit me. BusyCal is a straightforward calendar app, with all the necessary features, no unnecessary frills and foo-foos, and it syncs with iCloud on all your devices. You can also dictate new events to it.

Does BusyCal have either of those “must haves”? Doesn’t seem to from what I can see?

 

[ericg301]

im not going to tell someone else how to spend their money, but if fantastical meets all your needs, and is quite affordable all things considered, just consider it in investment in your productivity. the amount of time it saves me is well worth it IMO.

you're basically looking for a fantastical clone that has a different business model. let's say you find one — but you have to buy it separately for each platform - mac and ios. then you could potentially be at or near the same cost of a year of fantastical.

obviously the flexibits folks knew there would be a backlash to their subscription model, but only they have crunched the numbers and developed the business plan that required it. fantastical had languished for years — it was way overdue for both a feature and design refresh. and when they finally made the investment to rebuild them from the ground up, everyone freaked out because the business model changed too.

having said all that, if the stock calendar app had half the features of fantastical, i would probably switch back. it's pretty shocking that apple didn't refresh it the way they did the reminders app last year.

 

[posguy99]

Ability to schedule Zoom and Google Meet calls within the app.

Don't know of any clients on the Mac where that works other than Calendar.app, and there not really.

 

[HenryAZ]

Does BusyCal have either of those “must haves”? Doesn’t seem to from what I can see?

The first two "must haves", I've never even looked for, because they're not something I would need or use. Why don't you visit the BusyCal web site and review the features for yourself. There are a lot there that I don't use. As for the third "must have", BusyCal is, and always has been, a native Mac app. There is also an iOS version and the two sync over iCloud. Not sure whether their iOS version works on iPadOS. I've not used an iPad since it ran the same iOS as the iPhone.

As far as "nice to haves", I'm not sure what you mean by "natural text entry". You can dictate events, and it is very good with speech to text recognition.

BusyCal web page.

 

[TopToffee]

im not going to tell someone else how to spend their money, but if fantastical meets all your needs, and is quite affordable all things considered, just consider it in investment in your productivity. the amount of time it saves me is well worth it IMO.

you're basically looking for a fantastical clone that has a different business model. let's say you find one — but you have to buy it separately for each platform - mac and ios. then you could potentially be at or near the same cost of a year of fantastical.

obviously the flexibits folks knew there would be a backlash to their subscription model, but only they have crunched the numbers and developed the business plan that required it. fantastical had languished for years — it was way overdue for both a feature and design refresh. and when they finally made the investment to rebuild them from the ground up, everyone freaked out because the business model changed too.

having said all that, if the stock calendar app had half the features of fantastical, i would probably switch back. it's pretty shocking that apple didn't refresh it the way they did the reminders app last year.

Sorry if I didn’t make it clear - I’m an existing Fantastical subscriber. Think I did say that in the OP, but easily missed.

I love the app, but while I don’t begrudge them there business model, I would PREFER a one-off purchase, if there was another option with feature parity.

But so far nothing else comes close for my use case

Don't know of any clients on the Mac where that works other than Calendar.app, and there not really.

Yeah, doesn’t really work at all in the Stock app

The first two "must haves", I've never even looked for, because they're not something I would need or use. Why don't you visit the BusyCal web site and review the features for yourself. There are a lot there that I don't use. As for the third "must have", BusyCal is, and always has been, a native Mac app. There is also an iOS version and the two sync over iCloud. Not sure whether their iOS version works on iPadOS. I've not used an iPad since it ran the same iOS as the iPhone.

As far as "nice to haves", I'm not sure what you mean by "natural text entry". You can dictate events, and it is very good with speech to text recognition.

BusyCal web page.

Give me a little credit, I’ve been to the website and neither of those features are mentioned, hence asking here.

the third one, well obviously yes there’s a Mac app.