Fantastical are focusing on the professional market where $5 a month for a sophisticated calendaring application is a huge productivity gain and an absolute bargain. Fantastical has already been priced towards the high-end, and it makes total sense.
They'll undoubtedly have less customers by adopting this subscription model, but I am sure they will make a lot more money every year. Having less customers to support for more money sounds like a big win for me, and they'll have more consistent revenue to invest more in the product.
People also need to keep in consideration you are getting the app across all platforms for this price. So if you've previously purchased Mac, iPad and iPhone versions, the new monthly all-inclusive price will sting less.
Bottom line - yes, this will be a huge turn off for most normal users now. They will make similar comparisons that you have done and conclude not worth it. But to be honest, Fantastical was always overkill for people who just wanted a nice-looking calendar app that was a bit different to the one Apple builds-in. This really has always been an app aimed to solve the time is money problem for professional people.
This explanation may well be correct. But, either way, this explanation absolutely is ridiculous. Flexibits forced F3 onto F2 userbase. F2 a consumer app and so this a dumbass move if indeed Flexibits looking to focus on professional market. But on the other hand: Flexibits committing a dumbass move would not be surprising! Afterall they save most TestFlight invites for podcast pundits.
Also: F3 and 'sophisticated' don't belong in the same breath. It's just the latest calendar app. Some of those have apps some strong suits, others have other strong suits. F3 has got middling features, undeserved hype. F2 a worthy purchase--not a perfect app but yes a worthy purchase--and so there's a big halo effect at play.
There's plenty good calendar apps with sensible pricing. Just because F3 requires subscription does not mean it's well-suited (let alone optimized) for professional usecases. It's a calendar app with middling features, nonsense pricing, massive hypetrain. No more and no less.
Oh wait. It's also got dickish developers and, on this forum, two sad evangelists. *Now* I can say 'no more and no less' lol.
Let's say you use this app for 4 years. Is $160 worth it?
I for one would pay $160 for purchase but not for rent. Not 160 dollars for rent and not even 160 cents for rent. Flexibits reluctant to add 'buy to own' option because it counts on uninformed users to make comparisons between F3 and stock calendar app not between F3 and, for instance, Informant 5 Calendar (which has $25 'buy once' pricepoint alongside subscription options).
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I've had Fantastical for about that long, and they haven't been adding amazing features all this time (without asking me to pony up another $40). So what makes you think signing up with them for $3.33/mo will bring added updates?
Yup!
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Did you pay for version 2? (I have to suspect you did but don't remember if there was a totally free version)
The only thing that I can think of - I had bought F2 directly, not through MAS. Where did you get your copy?
Flexibits talks about F3 being simplified, streamlined but those jerks impose in F3 artificial constraints -- constraints that once were legit but now are out of date. F2 apps have different calendar views depending on device platform -- e.g., F2 for iPad has year view but F2 for iPhone does not have year view. Flexibits *says* F2 users receive F3 upgrade for **features** they've paid for. But yet Flexibits refuses to remove the fragmentation by device. In other words: Users who paid for both iPad and iPhone versions of F2 (alternately 'users who paid for pretty-much all *features*') still, in F3, have no year view on iPhone even though users who pay for F3 subscription do get year view on iPhone.
One way that Flexibits could have given an olive branch, to F2 users who bought all *features*, is by removing the fragmentation by device (e.g., putting year view on iPhone). Flexibits doesn't do that -- and this weird stance absolutely justifies the widespread belief that Flexibits has 'become greedy'.
This is a legit gripe and I wonder why none of the podcast pundits talks about it. Perhaps they themselves don't pay for the nonsense pricing they're pushing.
