Fantastical Calendar Reviews

I love this calendar app, but that makes a couple things I don’t like stand out all the more. The first is the way you pull down to pop up the full month. I feel like the natural gesture would be swipe it back up to dismiss it, but instead it acts like an old-fashioned window shade where I pull it down to release the tension. Not intuitive, but there is a tutorial. Just would rather have it the opposite way. The second issue is the way it colors the calendar events. When you sync a Google calendar, it gives the entire calendar one color instead of the individualized event colors that Google’s own calendar app supports. I want all my events in a single calendar, but I want to add some small splashes of color to provide easier identification of certain events. Instead every event is black and hard to distinguish. A final issue is a rare glitch where when I am adding multiple events in a row, I get a weird animation hitch where it took the event, but didn’t snap all the way back to the calendar. Instead it is frozen in a window within a window and the only way out is to force quit FantasticalCalendar . Only happens when adding a lot of events quickly, like my work schedule for the month.

Before version 3 I had been actually using a few different calendar apps (including Fantastical 2). Version 3 has brought so many new features, and the feature parity across platforms, that it has fully won me over as my calendar app of choice.

The way that they allow version 2 users to upgrade for free, and made sure that we still get all of the same features we previously paid for across each platform, even if some of them are now normally under the new subscription tier, is very well done. It means you get all of the new design improvements (and there are many) at no cost and if you’re happy with all of the features you had before there is no need to pay anything at all. I found all of the new features so incredibly useful though that I immediately signed up for the yearly subscription. $40 for such a great app and across my iPhone, iPad, and Mac? 100% worth it. Seems like they tried hard to make it the fairest for every type of user and I appreciate that.

A few minor bugs but no show stoppers so far and they seem to be working toward improving things very quickly. I was on the beta for a little while and saw updates coming fast and furious. Looking forward to seeing what comes next!

Fantastical used to be THE calendar app that everyone needed. FantasticalCalendar was powerful, intuitive, and elegant. Then subscriptions and Flexbit accounts came along. Sure FantasticalCalendar is still elegant, and intuitive but to get the full power (which is needed for basic functionality) for things like joining conference calls, accepting invites, changing calendar color etc. you have to pay a subscription. The subscription is minimal and worth it except for a couple things. One thing, is it has become super finicky with staying connected to calendars. My Gmail and iCloud constantly require the password to be input. This is an app problem as I recently downloaded another cal app and over a 3 month period was asked one time for my passwords. Meanwhile, in the same time Fantastical has requested passwords over 12 times. Another issue is constant errors with syncing. Syncing on appointments that have no changes and 50% of the time if I select keep local changes another sync error is thrown for the same appointment. And then there is Flexbits account and it constantly (like once a week) needs my password input and not keeping settings synced between phone and mac.

I just feel that since subscription have come into play the developers have relaxed a bit on feature and bug fixes and allowed FantasticalCalendar to go from must have and telling everyone about it to meh need to look for alternatives.

I’m upping my rating from 3 to 5 stars. My previous rating reflected my frustration with Fantastical 3 removing features that - as a user of Fantastical 2 - I had already paid for. On top of that, I wasn’t happy with the prompts to upgrade to the premium subscription plastered all over FantasticalCalendar . However, it looks that now most of the features of Fantastical 2 are available for free to existing users. The only exceptions seem to be Calendar Sets and Travel time on the iPhone, which I’m pretty sure were existing features in Fantastical 2 for iPhone and now are gone (unless you subscribe). As it stands now, with Fantastical 3 I still have access to 99% of the features I paid for, plus the iPad app is vastly improved over the previous version, and there are a couple of minor new features like the 3-day weather forecast. That’s fair to existing users. As for the new subscription model, I wish it hadn’t become so ubiquitous. But if the premium features make a big difference in your daily work and productivity, then it’s worth paying for them. Otherwise, the free version is fine for the casual calendar user. I’m still on the fence about subscribing for those premium features, but I’m not angry about it.

Decided to splurge and go premium, in hopes to find a reliable & user friendly calendar. App just freezes up and can't do anything on it. Trying to give it the benefit of a doubt, I passed Blame on my phone being the issue. So I did a soft reset on my iPhone but to no avail. So then I decided to download it on my MacBook in hopes of setting it up and just syncing it to my phone from there(🤞🏻🙄🤞🏻).
Ha. . . I guess that joke is on me- since now FantasticalCalendar is frozen at the welcome page on my computer. I've tried rebooting & updated FantasticalCalendar on both devices now, but still won't work.
So it's been right at one month since I first got this, and not one time have I been able to enjoy using it. Disappointed is an understatement.
***Update:*** No fairy tale update though... Just wanted to warn you all that trying to cancel this is not like the norm where you can simply go to your subscriptions and stop this one. You have to jump through hoops to even find the option to do it! Took me over two months to successfully do so and that was only because I had to email them to ask to cancel only to find out I had to go to their website on a computer.... Log in.... Go to settings and then billing and finally you have the option to cancel at that point. It is unreal the effort required to do this. Zero stars all the way around for me.... Now I get to waste more time requesting a refund for this unusable app!

I’ve waited over a year to write this review for Fantastical. I don’t get paid for this nor am I bot. I just don’t believe in writing a review after using an app for 5 minutes. I’m also a person who changes apps every couple of months bc I get bored. I haven’t changed from Fantastical since downloading.

That being said, FantasticalCalendar’s is so well designed. It’s aesthetically pleasing with your choice of dark / light modes. You have the ability to link all kinds of calendars: ones you subscribe to (for the sport parents out there), google calendars, etc. Seamlessly syncs between devices (MacBook, iPhone, ipad, etc). No annoying ads (yes, this is a plus).

Perhaps the best and well developed feature is the natural input language. You can literally right “Study Group /school calendar every Tuesday 1pm until June 25th” and it’ll enter it properly as a repeat event on Tuesdays that stops on June 25th. This is 1000% better than clicking on multiple fields to enter 1 event. The developers don’t just focus on the look, but they emphasize on the user experience. Not easy to do when you have to manage the masses. So highly recommend FantasticalCalendar for those who are looking for a good calendar app.

I’ve been using FantasticalCalendar for years. It has always deserved 5 stars in my opinion, specifically for the widget. I’ve always had the classic widget active. However, since this new app update to accommodate the ios14 new widget style, the classic widget is gone. And now the entire widget area on my phone is messed up because not only does the new widget style not move to where I need it to be moved to, but it looks different as well. Please give us back the classic widget as well. Until then, I’ll have to rate FantasticalCalendar 2 stars because the main reason I use it is for the classic widget, which is unavailable to me now. My classic widget turned into the new style on its own after FantasticalCalendar updated & now the option is gone to add the classic widget. I won’t be using FantasticalCalendar until that option comes back, so I really hope it does. It might be a glitch because in FantasticalCalendar it shows instructions to use the classic widget style as well as the new widget style, so I’m hoping you guys can fix it! I will change my rating when you do. Thank you!

Update: once you restart the phone it comes back. Hopefully this is the end of the widget disappearing! Changed my rating to 5 stars!

I like the integration of reminders/tasks viewed with calendar event to see the full picture. But, there is one HUGE PROBLEM! I’ve been re-reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. He discusses use of a calendar and lists. The combination of the two in FantasticalCalendar hits that mark, but fails to address the one concept I’ve incorporated that can be done in the Apple Reminders app. The features is sub-tasks. I’ve been spending time re-organizing myself. I’ve been looking around for new software that can incorporate both the calendar and tasks with sub-task functions while using iCloud and have a Mac companion app so I don’t have to start over and can continue sharing I’ve already have in place with the family. I’ve found apps that address these issues part. FantasticalCalendar is the closest to hit all the marks except sub-tasks. If this feature was added, would rate it 5 ⭐️s and purchase the subscription immediately.

Update: Now knowing the Reminders API is proprietary and cannot make subtasks, I have to say it’s a great app. I’ve modified my processes and it works for me. Definitely a tool to help keep yourself organized and keep you productive without falling behind.

I was hesitant to spend $40 per year on a calendaring app, on any personal app for that matter, but I believe the ROI justifies the cost. With a single subscription, I get a unified calendaring experience across desktop, iPad, and iPhone, and my productivity is significantly better with managing my scheduling and tasks. I use a combination of Exchange, Google, and CalDAV calendars with Reminders and Zoom integration. Compared to the alternatives, including built-in calendars with Outlook and my favorite email client Spark (sorry Readdle, but I do LOVE Spark for email for the same reasons here), Fantastical puts every other solution to shame. This is also the only stand-alone calendaring solution where I could see Exchange calendars delegated to me... the Calendar sets feature makes flipping between personal, work, and colleague’s calendar a breeze!

I’m sorry I waited so long to subscribe, believing the other reviews here were indicative of what I would experience and at what cost. However, as a real-life, self-designated “power user”, the cost is returned many times over with efficiency and fewer scheduling conflicts. It simply has no equal in the Apple world. Thanks Flexibits!

Update: Thank you for the reply. Still only two stars for your subscription plan. Nowhere in your reply did you address my suggestions. What you are offering is a subscription in perpetuity. I would gladly pay for any updates that you roll out over a given period of time, say one years time, if it allowed me to keep all those updates that happen in that time period without the obligation to continue paying for the next years updates. Again, look at the Agenda app and how they structured their pricing plan. I honestly think you would win back some burned customers.

Fantastical is a nice piece of software, but the new subscription model is a big turn off. The Agenda app is free, with no time limits. There are also extra premium features that require purchase to unlock. When an upgrade is purchased, all current features are permanently unlocked across all of the user’s Macs and iOS devices. The purchase is good for one year and all updates that they roll out you have access to. After the year is up you can choose to upgrade or not, but you get to keep the software that you’ve paid for. You don’t automatically lose access to your calendar. If fantastical switched to that style of subscription, I would be much more inclined to stay with them.

I have been a longtime Fantastical user and have been pretty happy with FantasticalCalendar , until now. Up until the recent update, FantasticalCalendar always worked pretty flawlessly. But then came version 3. Let's start with the introduction of the subscription nags. The upgrade notes indicate that v2 users won't need to pay the subscription to keep using FantasticalCalendar . But the reality is, it sure doesn't feel that way. FantasticalCalendar has popped up the box to subscribe multiple times with no apparent way to close that box (aside, of course, from clicking on the Buy button.)

But here's the main issue with the latest version - reminders are no longer showing up. To be clear, some reminders appear and others don't. It seems to be fairly random. In v2, reminders and everything else worked perfectly. The *sole* purpose of FantasticalCalendar is to aggregate events and reminders. If FantasticalCalendar can no longer provide that functionality, it's 100% useless - hence the one star rating. The latest version of the Fantastical app (v3) simply does not provide the most basic functionality it is designed for. In this case, the developers made sweeping changes that no one asked for or wanted, in order to introduce a subscription revenue stream. In the process, they broke FantasticalCalendar 's most basic core functions. Unfortunately, it seems that like many other people are saying, it's time to start looking for an alternative app.

Please Read!!! The new price is very fair. $40 to keep your life in order. That is a couple weeks at Starbucks. Come on. The developers have bills too. FantasticalCalendar consolidates all my scheduling needs. Most other apps don’t even duplicate? Anyway. I see the bad reviews about the previous Fantastical2 buyers. When they rolled out V3 it did gripe you to subscribe but they fixed that. So previous users have everything they loved before and even more freebies plus updates “FOR FREE”. So please go back and change your reviews people. Please be fair and don’t immediately jump out of your skin when you see the word “Subscribe”. Just remember the pre smart phone days when software like this cost a couple hundred dollars each version.

Old review
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I've been using a mobile phone calendars ever since the palm pilots and blackberries. Tried every iOS cal and keep coming back to this one. Fantastical has the most usable interface with all the bells and whistles you could want but most importantly they are well implemented. A must have if you use and rely on your calendar all day like me. Download now.

A lot of people are giving FantasticalCalendar poor ratings due to the new subscription option. I just don’t get it. You get all the old features, plus a few new ones without having to pay for the upgrade. Paying for the upgrade just gives you access to even more new features, which to be honest, unless you’re a power user of FantasticalCalendar , you probably don’t need. The developers need a steady income to ensure continuous support and growth and I’m all in on helping that. It’s $5 a month for more features and helping the developer. A cup of coffee. That’s more than reasonable considering how good FantasticalCalendar is.

Fantastical has been my go to calendar app for years and there’s good reason for it. It’s beautifully designed, simple to understand, quick to add new events and has tons of features for people who use it all the time. I rarely ever experience crashes and it’s become one with my life. If I didn’t have this, who knows how much more of a pain my busy schedule would be.

Keep it up developers, the naggers will leave and come back when they realize you’ve done nothing to FantasticalCalendar they treasure

I’ve been a longtime supporter of Fantastical. Their products are notorious for having a premium price (both on Mac, and iOS platforms), and at that, you still have to purchase FantasticalCalendar multiple times to use it on every platform. Needless to say, I bit the bullet and paid their premium price, on each platform, because it really is such a great app.

That being said, I find it utterly mind-blowing that the already premium price was not enough, and FantasticalCalendar has now transitioned to a subscription-based business model. This is completely ridiculous. Version 2 had minimal updates over the years (at least to justify re-paying annually), and I wouldn’t expect version 3 to offer valuable updates annually either - this is a calendar app, plain and simple. When other apps transition to subscriptions, it can make sense when there are server costs for holding the users’ data and running servers for the APIs - this is definitely not true for a calendar app (that sources data from third-party calendar providers). Granted it’s a great calendar app, but version 2 covers all of my needs quite effectively (and more).

Again, the apps were expensive in the first place and I’ve been a loyal supporter, as I enjoy using FantasticalCalendar. Switching to an annual subscription just screams money-grab. If you want more money, charge outright for version 3.0 and give PDF customers a heavy discount.

I tmhave been using FantasticalCalendar for almost two weeks now and it has completely transformed the way I interact with, and more importantly, how often I actually use my calendar! I’ve actually purchased several other calendar apps and while they all were supposed to be “amazing” ( at least according to the reviews), something about them made it seem too... daunting.

Enter Fantastical. It’s really a big improvement over the standard calendar app and it is definitely worth the money. I love the natural language input function and the overall functionality of FantasticalCalendar . It works extremely well and has many handy features like automatically adding an event to you calendar when it’s detected in your inbox (think: you purchased concert tickets and once you receive the confirmation email it will auto-create a fully filled in calendar event)

With that being said, I would love some customizability in terms of the color scheme and the window layout. Also, GET RID OF THE “DOT SYSTEM” for tracking events. It’s really confusing and unacceptable to look at.

I really wanted to like Fantastical (for iOS), and I used it as long as I could until one small UI design issue fouled me up for the umpteenth time: When looking at the calendar view at the top half of the iPhone screen and the list view is at the bottom, it REALLY messes me up that if you pick a date that has nothing on it the list view, while updating to that particular date (showing nothing on the list), it also shows the continued list, showing the next day or days (depending on how many event entries you have).

Three times in the span of a week I went to schedule business meetings and travel plans, believing I was looking at events on, say, a Tuesday, when the list was showing Tuesday (no events) and then a list for Wednesday (with a couple meetings already set) right beneath it. I didn’t notice Tuesday was empty. It catches me EVERY time I go to look for availability and find an empty day right next to a busy day.

I’ve reluctantly switched back to the native iOS (and iPadOS) calendar app, which shows only the list for the day you’re on. Between my law practice calendar and my legislative calendar, I can’t afford any misfires with scheduling. Time is my stock in trade!

Fantastical was my favorite iOS calendar app by far. I liked the UI and the ease to input events, see event info at a glance, and most useful, provided Time To Leave reminders for my appointments that included travel.
Fantastical had published many different times that ALL features from version 2 remained accessible to those customers who would choose not opt-in to their subscription model. This is not true. In "fine print" at the bottom of a web page they admit that there are two features not carried over to legacy users, one of which is Travel Time. No longer having access to this feature is truly a deal breaker for me. Apple's native iOS calendar app has this feature but it is not as easily executed as Fantastical's and doesn't have event color coding for different calendars but I'm going back to it since I can't use Fantastical as efficiently and I also CAN'T STAND the new home screen appearance. IT'S UGLY and DISTRACTING.
Flexibits, I will not move to a subscription for your products but please at least consider giving back Travel Time to your legacy users, or fully disclose up front that that's a feature you did revoke, and offer a UI skin of version 2 as it was much nicer to look at. I'd re-review your product with higher stars if you do that.

I was using Fantastical for over 3 years (I had paid for the most advanced version) and was happily running and paid for V2. It was a way for me to integrate multiple calendars into one place. Then a couple of weeks ago I started getting a pop up message saying I had to upgrade to Fantastical Premium to access and use the same features that I had been using for the past threeyears. I can’t even look at the “full month” calendar view without upgrading to Fantastical Premium and that costs $4.99/month. I think when you have had a customer for so long you can’t just downgrade them and the features they are use to using like this. You can’t even do the most basic of things Without premium. It’s nasty that a company would treat a long time customer like this. It says a lot about who they are and I would trust them with my business anymore. I’ve got many friends who are paying $9.99 for the year to buy a calendar app that does pretty much everything that Fantastical does. Do yourself a favor and search online. I just found many more calendar adds/ organizers that are a fraction of the price and do the same thing. Sadly you all lost a loyal customer by not honoring all the previous investment I had made into your brand.

I’m fine if a developer wants to introduce a new version of its app with subscription-based features. The market can decide if it’s the right move. However, what Flexibits did was borderline unethical. Instead of launching a new app, it effectively switched all of its customers to a new and different app by pushing it out as a regular software update. Now users who paid full price for FantasticalCalendar are stuck with a different app which is full of prompts to pay for a subscription. Now it feels like one of those free apps that’s constantly trying to get you to upgrade, except in this case you’ve already paid. Since there’s no easy way to roll back to a previous version you’re stuck with the new one. Flexibits, if you’re confident in your product put it out there and let people switch over to the new version on their own - if it offers compelling value they’ll do it - but don’t do a middle of the night bait and switch. I’m not opposed to subscriptions because I respect that developers need to earn a living, but the way you’re treating loyal users is really poor. I had actually been considering buying one of your other apps but you’ve lost my trust as a customer.

I’ve moved away from the Google/Apple calendars because I don’t like having to click each day to see what I have going on. In this regard Fantastical is fantastic. I have a much better sense of what my day/week/month looks like, all on one convenient page. I don’t pay for the full version but have enjoyed the free version nonetheless.

Though there are other minute issues others have pointed out in their reviews, I have one enormous gripe with FantasticalCalendar. An annoyance big enough that it spurred me to write my first ever review: whenever you write the title for your appointment, for example, “Sally in webinar for vaccine information”, FantasticalCalendar will automatically take “in webinar for vaccine information” and move it to “Location”, leaving your event titled “Sally.” I have to move the text from Location back into Title every single time. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but when you’re trying to schedule an appointment on the fly it’d be really nice not to have to take the extra time to REWRITE what you just wrote.

App developers, I’m begging you, PLEASE change this! Or at least make it an adjustable setting!

Edit: After this update FantasticalCalendar no longer goes backwards by 2 months when you scroll to the top in list view, thank you Fantastical for making this 5 star adjustment.

I primarily use FantasticalCalendar in list view as a daily planner and organizer. When I scroll to the top of my list I don't want it to go back 2 months at a time and have to tap the month every time to reset to the current month. It is annoying to need to do this and easy enough to just scroll back within the calendar to need this useless feature. The lack of ability to turn this off is my biggest issue with FantasticalCalendar .

Also you cannot edit imported calendars like a holiday/birthday calendar so those calendars span six years and the events cannot be deleted. In order to make a holiday calendar I have to manually enter all of the holidays into my work calendar and just use it instead which is also annoying. The lack of being able to edit things like these are what is keeping this for me from being a 5 star app otherwise FantasticalCalendar is perfect for my needs and still easily the best calendar app available.

First of all, I really really like FantasticalCalendar. I love having my reminders and calendar in the same app and have everything sync with my Mac via iCloud. FantasticalCalendar is FantasticalCalendar Apple should have built by default, and does the little things much better!
That being said there is one feature that is missing. In the reminders section, I wish I could prioritize my reminders somehow, instead of having them all in one unorganized list. As a busy student with lots of reminders constantly, I wish I could order them the way I wanted.

To the developer, if you’re still reading, another feature that would be excellent would be the ability to somehow view the month view in a way similar to google calendar’s month view. That was the best feature about google calendar and was why I used it for years. I recently switched to this and like it a lot, but I do admit I miss that view a lot. Thanks for reading!

I have a habit of using the Apple Calendar app to keep track of my family’s activities and even medical information, because I write up the results of any doctor or veterinary visits, once they are complete. The stock app will fail to allow me to search for and reliably retrieve such info, once the data ages past a certain point. However, Fantastical WAS able to provide me with a COMPLETE search results list of calendar entries matching my search term(s), so I use it any time I need to find anything, since the stock Calendar app’s Search feature is unreliable, at best. We found Fantastical back when I NEEDED access to “old” calendar data that I KNEW existed, but that the stock Calendar app refused to locate for me. I love the fact that I can continue to use FantasticalCalendar to which I am accustomed, and only need to use Fantastical when I need it for a data search; this is possible because anything I do in either app automatically bounces off the Cloud and populates the other app. SO COOL!

All calendar apps essentially offer the same basic info, however, FantasticalCalendar is my main calendar app for one very important reason: it is easy to read, especially at a quick glance. Being easy to read is so much more valuable than other app developers seem to realize.

One thing that would be nice is the ability/option to cancel a meeting but it remains on your list as grayed out. Right now, you can only delete a meeting that gets canceled. So many times I would have liked to have been able to look back and find what day a meeting had originally been scheduled for before it was canceled. Sometimes, if it gets rescheduled at a later date, I have to re-enter everything as it was deleted rather than just canceled. Also, this option would be great to keep a meeting on my schedule that I know I won't make and don't want it show as active and don't need a reminder, but still want it to show on the list as grayed.

FantasticalCalendar was everything my husband and I needed to stay in the loop on each other’s schedule. There was one major flaw — on several occasions, while scrolling through the agenda, I accidentally dragged one of my husband’s events to a different date. There’s no way to see the original date of the event, so you can see how this is potentially catastrophic. I decided to look for a new app, but none were as good as this one. Finally, out of desperation, I used the developer’s contact form to explain the issue. I received a super speedy reply (within 30 minutes) with instructions on how to access the hidden option to disable drag and drop. (Pasted below in case anyone is having the same issue.) I opened FantasticalCalendar and fixed the problem with just a few taps. So awesome!

Go to Fantastical's in-app settings and pull down from the top of the screen four times. On the next screen, tap Options > Disable Drag and Drop.

Fantastical has a wonderful design both visually and functionally. It not only looks great all over iOS (FantasticalCalendar itself, the widget, watch app, an especially the iPad app) but it also carries that thoughtful design with it through its functionality. From natural language parsing, to the flow of elements, to the extended keyboard for adding events, it keeps things simple yet complex in a well refined way.

My only complaints are that it can take a little to sync across devices on occasion but that may be the fault of iCloud or Google. One thing I really wish it offered was an auto snooze for reminders. I appreciate that it gives me multiple manual snooze buttons but often I have my hands full and can’t snooze. If it goes a few minutes without a manual snooze or completed, it should keep reminding you until acknowledged so as to truly help you never forget.

Overall great app though, worth every penny, I hope to see many more improvements over time.

I wanted to find a calendar that didn’t require a monthly fee, has no ads, would synch with my iPad and iOS calendars, and had the same interface as the calendar I was using. This fit the bill! I purchased the two separate apps for my phone and IPad. I love how my phone reminders are also integrated into my daily list view and how when you turn the phone horizontally it provides an extended view. I also really like how you can do a light or dark theme and shade the weekends out. I just figured out how to integrate my FB events and I love how I can add the date to the icon. They have a great website that helps guide you through the interface and FAQ’s. Every time I discover a new feature, I’m even more impressed and in love with this calendar app. I finally feel like my life and plans are streamlined, simple and in one place. The search bar feature is so handy. Thanks Fantastical - keep up the good work! This is a lifesaver.

I'd heard good things about Fantastical for a long time, but held back because of price and my worry about integration compared to the Apple apps (Calendar and Reminders). Turns out, Fantastical does a great job integrating. And the GUI for both this iPhone app and the Mac app (I purchased both at once, 3 weeks before writing this review) is really nice. It has helped quite a bit with my family calendar, which is crowded. I was having trouble staying on top of it all with Calendar. And I used Reminders occasionally, but it being a separate app was a barrier. Now, using Fantastical, I'm finding things easier and even more fun. I like using Siri to set reminders and then I can see them on my Fantastical calendar. I find the navigation much nicer on a calendar with many items. I hope FantasticalCalendar has a long life. I’m a complete convert and wouldn’t want to do without it.

I definitely recommend a 3rd party calendar app like this one. This one is great, but could use just a little work. I think I like the widget more than FantasticalCalendar itself, and having the Reminders app sync with this is awesome.

Suggestions: Add the current month/day like Apple’s calendar app has for the icon so I don’t have to lock my iPhone to check the date. Add the ability to see the whole calendar year & future years on one screen like Apple has where we can scroll up and down. You have to slide month by month to get to your desired one, or you can use the “Go to”, but none of these are useful since they’re time consuming and I don’t know what day of the week a particular date will fall on with the “Go to”.

Lastly, I emailed customer support for the first time, and they’re more like- “ok thanks bye”.

*August 30, 2017 *

It is well worth noting how small, nimble companies like Flexibits continuously improve their products and never rest on their laurels. They already have by far the best calendar apps for all of Apple's platforms, and yet they continuously update with minor improvements to help make their products even better and make life better.

For example, this release adds alert times for 1 week and 2 weeks prior to an event. This saves a few taps by avoiding having to make "custom" alerts. Very simple and minor, but it's the attention to detail that is so much appreciated.

* July 7, 2017 *

I have come to terms with the fact that Apple has essentially abandoned creating good "core" apps for both macOS and iOS alike. Since I am resolved to (in most cases) having to pay to replace those core apps, the question becomes which third-party app is best for a particular function. For calendars, the hands-down winner is Fantastical. I've purchased three (3) versions thus far:

* iPhone
* iPad
* Mac

I don't own an Apple Watch, but if I ever do, Fastastical will be one of my first app purchases for that as well.

No regrets on any front. The natural language recognition and parsing is great. As is the layout and overall UX. Widgets are excellent too.

Highly recommended.

I’ve been using FantasticalCalendar for years. I can’t take it anymore.

Randomly switches time zones for no reason, even when I haven’t traveled anywhere in months. Completely messes up scheduled events due to this.

But the worst part is that this calendar tries to be too smart. If I put, “buy Christmas presents” on my calendar for tomorrow, it won’t be there because it will automatically think I want it to be on my calendar for December 25, since the word Christmas is in it. If I put “take baby’s 3 month photos” on my calendar for tomorrow, it will put it on my calendar for 3 months from now because all it sees is “3 months” and thinks it’s doing me a favor by putting it on my calendar for 3 months from now.

Sometimes it will randomly throw half of my title in the location field because it thinks it’s helping. It’s not. Then important info from the title is gone. I just wish it would accept what I write and trust the time I enter and not always try to change things.

Sometimes it takes me multiple tries to add a simple event, because it throws it onto the wrong day or year and then I need to use the search function to even find where it put it, or I have to edit the time multiple times because it switches time zones or just doesn’t save my changes.

All of this stuff FantasticalCalendar tries to do might be helpful for some people, but not me. Bye, Fantastical.

Edit: For others that may have this issue. I deleted and reinstalled FantasticalCalendar and it’s working now. Still could be an issue with an app as this has never happened to me in 10 years using iOS with any app. I had to resort to windows tricks. :)

Original: I’m surprised that this has not been fixed yet. I don’t even know if you guys are aware of it. As if 13.1.3 fantastical 2 for iPhone no longer works. It crashes second upon launching (iPhone x). Rebooting didn’t make any difference. Nothing found online on your website. Also your support page doesn’t give us the option to contact you. Help articles say nothing about this. Any suggestions? I’m sure I’m not the only one. In case it matters, I didn’t update the the reminders app to new iOS 13 dB as I’m not running latest version of Mac OS.

I don’t really get the rave reviews - it’s a regular calendar app and it’s missing a lot of features. If you have more than a couple of events/reminders, you’re stuck with an endlessly long list of events and dots on a calendar. No time blocks to see how long or anything, just a list. You can turn your phone to the side, but you only see a couple hours at a time which is also useless. I love Fantastical on my iMac & Macbook Pro, but on the iPhone it’s middling at best. A huge use I have for a calendar on my phone is to coordinate schedules in person when a client asks what time I have free. Using FantasticalCalendar, I have to tap every single date to see if those dots are meetings or reminders or a birthday or whatever. Using any other app that doesn’t have dots on the month view, it takes two seconds to let them know. I don’t get what FantasticalCalendar does that Apple’s built in app doesn’t.

Easily worth 4 stars and the money paid, although $50 for the Mac version is steep.

That said, it’s well made, simple and elegant. The search feature is one of the best I’ve ever used in any type of app. It’s thorough and quick. The duplicate, move and copy with a long tap feature is terrific and should be implemented by every calendar developer.

The only downside (for me) with FantasticalCalendar is the limited calendar views - I’d prefer a day view, and a more focused month view. I’d also like the ability to turn natural speech for event entry off. Sometimes the algorithm gets in the way based on how I type. For instance, sometimes I want to name an event, “Lunch at John’s”. Fantastical names this event “Lunch” and adds “John’s” as the location. That works, but isn’t really what I want, so I either have to change the way I enter information, live with it or do extra work to get it how I want.

I also wish there was a feature to set FantasticalCalendar to switch between light and dark mode at certain times. I like light mode during the day and dark mode at night. Therefore, it would be great to be able to set times for the mode to change - say from 7 am to 8 pm light mode and 8 pm to 7 am dark mode.

An excellent overall app though.