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Fantastical Unifies Its Mac, iOS, and Apple Watch Calendar Experience With Weather, Tasks, Meeting Proposals, and More
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It’s been over a year, so I don’t remember the person but it was a photo blogger who had a discount code for Capture One for Fuji. (That version is limited to Fuji RAW files, but will also work on any jpegs.) I’ve seen other people provide discount codes as well. I think it was just before the release of version 12, which then became a free upgrade. Also, I found you can order an upgrade at a discount if you buy it from B and H.
I moved to BusyCal a few years ago when the upgrade price for the Mac version of Fantastical shot through the roof. Never looked back! I have a family pack - we use it every single day and couldn't live without a good calendar iOS and desktop app.
BusyCal isn't cheap but does a great job and has 'natural language' functions, so you don't 'lose' that perk if you jump ship. I hope BusyCal doesn’t follow the subscription model trend but suspect they will be watching this all with interest.
This is probably another bugbear.
For someone who is new to fantastical, $40 a year doesn’t seem too bad a deal considering you get the iPhone, ipad and Mac version of the app together. I own the iphone and ipad apps (paid for both), but stopped shy of purchasing the desktop version due to the price.
But for existing users like yourself who paid full price for all three apps, it feels like a kick in the teeth, especially if you purchased it not too long ago.
Looks like this is the trend for subscription apps going forward. Appeal to a niche group of power users who find your app indispensable and are willing to pay an annual fee for perpetuity.
I believe its $50 a year. Also its only $50 a year if you want to pay for the whole year upfront. Think about how much that comes to over a period of a few years. I bought all 3 apps back in 2014. Flash forward 6 years from now I would have paid $300 ($50 x 6). There is no need for a subscription model for a calendar app, especially with the features they are offering. I think I might be ok if they decided to charge us to buy the new version of the app on all 3 platforms. In other words just a one time charge to upgrade. Not a big deal for me, ill just use the stock apple calendar app. One less app on all my devices.
I've paid for Fantastical 1 and 2 on iOS and would like to add the Mac app to the fold. I'm not opposed to paying for software I use, even subscription. Proposed times looks like a great feature, but I'd probably use it once a year at most. The main pull for me is the unified month / events scroll list. It's super nice to have this view pull down from the meny bar.
It's just that AUD66/year is a lot, even for someone earning six figures. I wonder how much more goodwill they'd earn if they introduced this at 50% off for a limited time.
It's just that AUD66/year is a lot, even for someone earning six figures. I wonder how much more goodwill they'd earn if they introduced this at 50% off for a limited time.
Apparently Fantastical 2 owners get what they paid for in a special version for them. This doesn’t seem true. I had travel time as an option before and now it’s been paywalled.
Aside from the poor pricing, completely overlooking this kind of thing is a sure-fire way to tick off your users.
Aside from the poor pricing, completely overlooking this kind of thing is a sure-fire way to tick off your users.
Regardless if I get all the features I used to have, I now get nag screens a lot telling me to upgrade. And every other button in the entire interface triggers a popup as well. Now before I press anything, I need to make sure it doesn’t have that gray star icon next to it. This update is definitely a regression for me. And I can’t go back.
Former paid user for Fantastical 1&2 on iOS, iPad and Mac. I don’t like that the iOS version upgraded me without asking and now won’t open unless I create an account.
I initially purchased Fantastical for natural calendar input but mostly use the native Apple calendar app for most of my work.
I am not a happy camper. I will not be upgrading to the subscription and I am not even sure I am going to create an account to continue using it.
I initially purchased Fantastical for natural calendar input but mostly use the native Apple calendar app for most of my work.
I am not a happy camper. I will not be upgrading to the subscription and I am not even sure I am going to create an account to continue using it.
I am more of a “I want to always be on the latest version of any software I use” kind of person. So regardless of what I get (and don’t get) with my existing version of fantastical 2, it will likely be that I either pay to unlock full functionality, or not use it at all (and maybe go back to the stock iOS calendar app).
I know it doesn’t sound rational (in that fantastical is still a decent calendar app in its current incarnation), but that’s just me.
On a side note, I have also been going through my various subscriptions from 2019 and am in the midst of discontinuing some of them. Maybe we can all share what services we are currently subscribed to and see how we are each faring.
I will post mine later tonight.
I never had travel time as a feature on Fantastical 2 for iOS or iPadOS - only on macos. It kept me going back to the stock calendar app from time to time.
I wouldn’t call it a scam, but this is what gives me pause. Also I need a calendar app for my business all day long and got into Fantastical for reminders integration and natural language. But then I started using Things3 for reminders, and I find myself correcting the natural language a lot. The new meeting time finding function would be nice, but presumably people I use it with would also have to be on Fantastical. I don’t have time for all this. I just looked at Apple calendar again and it really isn’t bad. So, I deleted Fantastical from all my devices.
UPDATE: I've been working all morning using the stock Apple macOS and iOS Calendar apps. I haven't looked at them for a couple of years. Heck, they're not bad at all. In fact I rate them as easier to use in a lot of little ways than Fantastical, for my case-use. The stock Watch app does what I need too. I like too that all my data is within the Apple system entirely.
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Its for their personal enjoyment. They just want to make more money without having to come up with features and all that stuff in-order to justify new version releases. Think about it! They almost make three times the money they did with Fantastical 2 and if you stop paying you loose all the features. For some crazy reason I now have this crazy urge to delete Fantastical from my all my devices. It just seems I don’t like companies who try to abuse their customers.
Thinking about it, the price of Fantastical subscription is around the same consumers pay for Office 365 or the basic G-suite. Actually, I think they are bit cheaper than Fantastical. 🤯
Gosh this forum software is terrible. Anyway...
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Yes, I realised after I posted about it. That's what surprised me about F2 - the braindead decision to only implement what the stock iOS calendar had on Mac. Now, it's something everyone needs to pay for.
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Office is not cheaper. But, Gsuite is the same price...
I honestly believe Flexibits will add a lot to Fantastical - they'll want to keep people subscribed. If they don't do that, they're done for. The problem is, at the moment their roadmap is hidden. And, it's obvious they don't understand the concept of market research. They're just blindly doing what they think is best. It might work out great for their customers... or they might just add a bunch of garbage no one wants, when the app really needs things like feature parity across apps.
YNAB did exactly what Flexibits have done, and props to the YNAB guys - they've made good on what they said they would. Based on Flexibits ignoring suggestions in the past however, I'm not sure I'd want my money funding a hidden roadmap.
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Yes, I realised after I posted about it. That's what surprised me about F2 - the braindead decision to only implement what the stock iOS calendar had on Mac. Now, it's something everyone needs to pay for.
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Office is not cheaper. But, Gsuite is the same price...
I honestly believe Flexibits will add a lot to Fantastical - they'll want to keep people subscribed. If they don't do that, they're done for. The problem is, at the moment their roadmap is hidden. And, it's obvious they don't understand the concept of market research. They're just blindly doing what they think is best. It might work out great for their customers... or they might just add a bunch of garbage no one wants, when the app really needs things like feature parity across apps.
YNAB did exactly what Flexibits have done, and props to the YNAB guys - they've made good on what they said they would. Based on Flexibits ignoring suggestions in the past however, I'm not sure I'd want my money funding a hidden roadmap.
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I was waiting for Fantastical 3 and ready to purchase it when it comes out . Instead, they switched to subscription model so it’s time to say “goodbye Fantastical!”
They had my money if they had wanted it, but they don’t want it, apparently.
It’s too bad that they chose to go after a market that doesn’t exist. Businesses already have enterprise calendar apps, they don’t need Fantastical! RIP Fantastical .
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They had my money if they had wanted it, but they don’t want it, apparently.
It’s too bad that they chose to go after a market that doesn’t exist. Businesses already have enterprise calendar apps, they don’t need Fantastical! RIP Fantastical .
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That is one good thing about companies moving to the subscription model - it’s saving me time and money since I won’t make the switch with them!
This is my most used app besides the calcaulator on my phone I reckon!
I did pay a premium for it (twice, F1, and F2), and am thankful for a free upgrade. Wasn't overly thrilled to be asked for pay each month for it though?
If I had to, I'd buy it again - I'd like some of those premium features. Just thankful it wasn't forced on me and it's an option to or not.
I did pay a premium for it (twice, F1, and F2), and am thankful for a free upgrade. Wasn't overly thrilled to be asked for pay each month for it though?
If I had to, I'd buy it again - I'd like some of those premium features. Just thankful it wasn't forced on me and it's an option to or not.
The app is being flooded with negative reviews on the App Store, and its score has dropped from 4.2 to 3.7 within a day.
I hope this serves as a cautionary tale to other developers. There are other apps that successfully transitioned to a subscription-based model with less backlash, because they made sense (recurring cloud service), are reasonably priced, and didn’t make ridiculously poor design decisions to insult existing users. In this case, the developer got snarky and dismissive on Twitter, and insisted that they were being generous (at least in the earlier hours, possibly due to denial.) I don’t consider that I have retained the same functionality when the app relies on UI traps to badger me into subscribing. The biggest functionality was a clean interface without ads, and we don’t have that now.
I hope this serves as a cautionary tale to other developers. There are other apps that successfully transitioned to a subscription-based model with less backlash, because they made sense (recurring cloud service), are reasonably priced, and didn’t make ridiculously poor design decisions to insult existing users. In this case, the developer got snarky and dismissive on Twitter, and insisted that they were being generous (at least in the earlier hours, possibly due to denial.) I don’t consider that I have retained the same functionality when the app relies on UI traps to badger me into subscribing. The biggest functionality was a clean interface without ads, and we don’t have that now.
This is spot on.
I think Flexibits is catering to the “I can’t live without a great calendar app for work” crowd, not the casual calendar user. That would explain most of the features that are locked behind the subscription. Collaboration, better calendar views, etc.
Oh and stop calling them greedy. If this was your job you’d try to get paid as much for it as possible too. The non-sub free version isn’t nearly as bad as everyone is making it out to be. It’s still a good calendar app.
I don't have app auto-updates turned on. After reading all the comments here it sounds like going to 3 will be a loss of functionality I already paid for as well as annoying upgrade notices (preventing this is precisely why I've always updated my apps manually).
Fingers crossed I don't accidentally hit the update button every time I update my other apps going forward.
Fingers crossed I don't accidentally hit the update button every time I update my other apps going forward.
QuarterSwede, if that were true, why have we got 'interesting calendars' as a premium feature instead of something helpful, like being able to choose individual calendars on Mac without having to use calendar sets?
Personally, I think the guys are just spitballing a combination of whatever they think is cool, combined with some user requests. I don't think they have much of a plan to target any particular group.
Personally, I think the guys are just spitballing a combination of whatever they think is cool, combined with some user requests. I don't think they have much of a plan to target any particular group.
They are cheaper indeed. It is so much expensive that you can use Google cal with g suite, have you + 30 gb drive and wonderfull mail service. LOL.
I am one of those guilty ones who hits the update all apps button first thing every morning.
Honestly, it's not that bad. I like it more than V2. However, everything's just a mess if you're a V2 user. The iPhone app lets you use 1 calendar set, but the iPad app (you need to download a new one for some dumb reason) says you can't use any unless you pay for premium. If you make an account, you soon realise it's for no reason at all.
And, you're stuck with Flexibits' moronic decisions they made in V2, to fracture the living hell out of the app, so you have month view everywhere but on the iPhone, calendar sets on the Mac only, and... well the list goes on. If you were happy with that idiocy with V2, you may as well upgrade to V3. The iPad app is a lot better.