MacRumors Exclusive: Get 50% Off Your First Year of Flexibits Premium for Fantastical and Cardhop

[iDento]

If you don't have a PA to deal with all your appointments for you in the first place, maybe you're not that busy to need an advanced calendar app.

We are a team of 6, with shared calendars. I use sets to have a minimalist clean looking calendar that helps me focus, which is a luxury these days. I use the reminders integration because it helps me keep my task manager “Things 3” as manageable as possible. I will say it again, 40$ annually is nothing.

 

[wolfe48]

I purchased Fantastical before the insane subscription implementation. It works as is for me right now without subscribing. Yeah it could do reminders, but it does sync my sub tasks. No other app other than Apple Reminders will show my sub tasks correctly.

One of my gripes about the features is calendar sets… multiple calendar sets are only available with a subscription?

Subscriptions are getting out of control. I’d rather pay $40-50 upfront for lifetime over 40-50 each year. Paying a subscription fee for an app that can pull data form local calendars or reminders is asinine. That goes for all apps, not just Fantastical.

Fantastical is definitely one of the top calendar apps, I’ve tried them all. It UI and widgets are top notch.

 

[LogicalApex]

We are a team of 6, with shared calendars. I use sets to have a minimalist clean looking calendar that helps me focus, which is a luxury these days. I use the reminders integration because it helps me keep my task manager “Things 3” as manageable as possible. I will say it again, 40$ annually is nothing.

That's where my confusion comes in here though...

Calendar sets were in Fantastical when I purchased it in Version 2. Why should I have to rent that feature into perpetuity?

The "value" the developer argues the user gets from the subscription model is frequent updates with meaning without needing to "wait for a major release". I looked over the Fantastical release notes there isn't much there for all of 2021.

Fantastical for Mac | Release Notes

Changes made in past versions of Fantastical for Mac.

flexibits.com

Doesn't surprise me though as what can you add to a calendar app every quarter or year? Even Microsoft had to bolt it onto Outlook to build a value case for paying for upgrading the calendar app in Office.

The other argument from developers is to cover the ongoing costs of supporting the servers needed to store the data to make the feature work. That would make sense for Fantastical if they needed servers for this... But I'm sure 99% of their customers are using calendar systems where their data is stored somewhere else! For me, that's my own Exchange server for others it is a Web DAV setup or Google Calendar or whatever else...

Things 3 is a great counter example. They have a proprietary sync infrastructure and they sell their apps without a subscription...

I could entertain the sub if the price was reasonable, offered a lifetime unlock, and they had a compelling story for it. It has to be more than just "rent the features into perpetuity so I have passive income"...

 

[Frostbear44]

Just rage cancelled my subscription, no more money from me after February '22. Bonkers I've been paying for this. Thanks to previous posters for helping me really think about paying repeatedly for a calendar app - I mistakenly thought like Things 3 I had paid for this once and for all ??‍♂️

 

[pertusis1]

No, it’s not nothing. And it’s not just $40. It’s $40 every year for as long as you want to keep using the app. If you can afford/justify that and earn enough money to dismiss $40 as “nothing” then good for you, but at least have some self-awareness about it.

I have no question that this Calendar app is worth $40 to me. Over time, that design saves me an awful lot of pinching, squeezing, and scrolling on my phone.

I love Apple, but their calendar app is worthless.

I could use a Google calendar, and I would become the product, available to the highest bidder for my data.

I could use Microsoft, but I don’t really need their other products.

I choose off my own free will to reduce time wastage and frustration by exchanging value for value. My $40 for their product. Well worth It.

 

[pertusis1]

$40 is nothing?

Awesome - DM me so you can send me $40!

Provide me with something worth $40 to me and I will. ?

 

[LogicalApex]

Provide me with something worth $40 to me and I will. ?

If it needs to have value then $40 is something to you ?

 

[iDento]

That's where my confusion comes in here though...

Calendar sets were in Fantastical when I purchased it in Version 2. Why should I have to rent that feature into perpetuity?

The "value" the developer argues the user gets from the subscription model is frequent updates with meaning without needing to "wait for a major release". I looked over the Fantastical release notes there isn't much there for all of 2021.

Fantastical for Mac | Release Notes

Changes made in past versions of Fantastical for Mac.

flexibits.com

Doesn't surprise me though as what can you add to a calendar app every quarter or year? Even Microsoft had to bolt it onto Outlook to build a value case for paying for upgrading the calendar app in Office.

The other argument from developers is to cover the ongoing costs of supporting the servers needed to store the data to make the feature work. That would make sense for Fantastical if they needed servers for this... But I'm sure 99% of their customers are using calendar systems where their data is stored somewhere else! For me, that's my own Exchange server for others it is a Web DAV setup or Google Calendar or whatever else...

Things 3 is a great counter example. They have a proprietary sync infrastructure and they sell their apps without a subscription...

I could entertain the sub if the price was reasonable, offered a lifetime unlock, and they had a compelling story for it. It has to be more than just "rent the features into perpetuity so I have passive income"...

Fair enough. I think that’s why they’re bundling CardHop for free now when you subscribe to Fantastical. I hope there next thing would be a Mail app, that would be a great bundle for 40$.

Things 3 is a great piece of software, but we can bet on Things 4 being a subscription.

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

Provide me with something worth $40 to me and I will. ?

lol no. Either $40 is “nothing”, and therefore has no real material value to you, or it is indeed “something” and then your above post doesn’t make sense.

 

[Abazigal]

I for one am quite happy that there is pushback against abusive pricing and greed. To me 40$/y for a calendar app is on the same tier as paying $30/m for an email client. Absolutely disgusting, will not enable them, and will call out the grift whenever I am given the chance.

You do know there’s a $100/year email service, right?

Apart from the discussion about this subscription model, I wonder how many people can actually redeem this MR exclusive. First you have to be a frequent visitor of this site and second if you already have an account at Flexibits you won't get the 50% discount.

There aren’t many other places where such a promotion would make sense. Most people visiting Macrumours would be Apple users and likely own multiple Apple products (I find the service really only makes sense if you have at least an iPhone and a Mac; I particularly enjoy the iPad interface).

We have a few vocal members who are against subscribing to a calendar app, but I personally like that on iOS at least, there is at least the option to pay for nice things (the Google play store is noticeably lacking access to staples like overcast, Tweetbot, notability and Apollo), and I feel this is really what it boils down to - being open to paying for “niceness”.

Let’s hope this gets the company a few more subscribers at the end of the day.