Considering a Different Calendar App

My long-time favorite calendar app¹, Fantastic, is raising its prices come January from $40/year to $60/year.

Now, $40/year is already steep for a calendar app, but I love their natural language processor, the calendar sets, the 2-week view, and the widgets.

I’ve also defended charging for good software. But $60/year feels like they are trying to move into a new type of customer. For example, they’ve added scheduling features that are supposed to compete with Calendly (but definitely don’t).

All of this is to say, unless they reverse course, come March, I’ll be using a new calendar app².

My requirements are probably more than what most people need, which is why I’ve happily paid for Fantastical these past several years. They:

1. Natural language input
2. Calendar sets, or an easy way to display specific calendars
3. Focus mode support
4. Widgets on iOS

A 2-week view would be very nice to have, but I can live without it.

The apps I’m going to try out are:

1. Apple’s native Calendar app, though Calendar Sets are a bit of a must-have for me
2. BusyCal, which I’ve tried and didn’t like
3. Outlook, which I’ve heard great things about.

If you’re a macOS/iOS user and have a calendar app you love, sound off in the comments. I’m game for pretty much anything right now.

1. Well, their parent company, Flexibits ?
2. The caveat here is if they create a plan without scheduling, OR if they make their schedule an actual Calendly competitor. ?