Despite their seemingly simple core functionality, calendar apps are an established sector of the app market, each offering a variety of features to set them apart from the competition. Those who need something simple that just shows the current date and a preview of its week are spoiled for choice, as are users looking for something more fleshed out and packed with cool features. Flexibits is a company with a strong reputation, despite its relatively small product portfolio. Their Fantastical calendar app is probably their biggest asset, with a large user base and a long history of satisfied fans. The company has been hard at work releasing app updates and incorporating customer feedback to the best of its ability. Fantastical enjoys a reputation as the calendar app with probably the most responsive developers, and with good reason.
Unfortunately, there is no option to purchase Fantastical on its own (Image credit: Flexibits)
Packages and prices
Fantastical is offered as part of the Flexibits Premium subscription, which is really just a bundle of two apps from the company under one subscription. Unfortunately, there's no option to buy Fantastical separately, so you're stuck with Cardhop even if you're never going to use it. There are two types of premium subscription available, one for individual users and the other for families of up to 5 members. Both have a 14-day free trial available. The company has come under fire for its pricing system after its recent overhaul, as there's currently no way to preview the full yearly cost of a subscription, even when purchasing it for a full year. The site only shows the cost per month, forcing the user to calculate the annual price for himself. Many features are only available in the premium version. This includes the ability to add tasks, full screen view of the current day/week/month/year, Apple Watch compatibility, and all collaboration features. The templates are also only available to premium subscribers.
Fantastical is available for Mac, iPad, iPhone and even Apple Watch (Image credit: Flexibit)
Features
Fantastical offers a large number of features and the overall layout of the app is suitable for advanced users who want to get the most out of their time management. It has simpler display options, but most of the time the interface will be littered with various buttons and tools. As we mentioned in the last section, taking advantage of most of these features requires a premium membership. The free version seems primarily intended to showcase the general functionality of the app, but it lacks some options that you might be used to having for free in other apps. The inability to create new tasks is perhaps the most obvious, but digging deeper into the app's interface, you'll find more stuff you can't use without a premium membership.
Fantastical's Interesting Calendars feature allows you to set up calendars based on your interests so you know when your favorite team is playing or when a new episode of a TV show airs (Image credit: Flexibit) One of the innovative features Fantastical offers are their "interesting" calendars. These are externally synced calendars defined by your interests, which are automatically updated with potentially relevant information. For example, you can set a schedule for your favorite sport schedule. However, users often reported that the feature was a bit lacking and didn't really offer any great information most of the time.
Light mode, dark mode, or a mix of the two (Image credit: Flexibit)
Interface and in use
Fantastical's interface is easily one of its strong points. The app is well known for its detailed approach to presentation and navigation, and it leaves almost nothing to be desired in this regard. Everything is laid out beautifully and logically, there are several customization options to personalize your calendars, and you can enjoy a consistent view between desktop and mobile devices. Creating new events and adjusting them later is as easy as it gets, with plenty of options for each popular use case. Fantastical's interface leaves nothing to be desired. The developers take pride in the work they put into it, so you shouldn't expect anything less than great performance.
Flexibit support section contains FAQ, help book, video tutorials, tips and more (Image credit: Flexibit)
Support
Customer support is reliable and tends to respond quickly. Premium users are given priority, as is the case with many other apps. The company has provided many helpful resources in an attempt to preemptively resolve most issues users may encounter, so it's worth checking these out before submitting a support request. Based on our observations, even free users can generally enjoy fast response times and a personalized touch to their communication.
Competition
Fantastical is pretty isolated in terms of competition, mainly due to its dedicated user base. The features the app offers are relatively unique, at least in this combination and with that fancy UI on top of it, so that's another plus in its favor. However, if you're looking for something more affordable, or even an app with lots of great features, check out Any.do.
Final verdict
The app is ideal for those who are willing to spend some money on a premium membership. It can also be a reasonable replacement for other calendar apps with its free version, but there are better options in this part of the market. If you want something with an established market presence and reliable developer support, look no further: Fantastical should definitely be one of the first things you check out.