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Considering a Different Calendar App

Posted

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. ?

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4 Comments

  1. I find myself in the same boat and share your sentiment. I was going to try out BusyCal as it’s part of my Setapp subscription. What don’t you like about it?

  2. Honestly, it’s probably just that I haven’t given it a fair chance. But that’s a strong candidate for the same reason: I have Setapp as well.

    I’d love to see BusyCal become available on iOS through Setapp as well. Though I just discovered BusyCal is only $6.99 one time on iOS, so definitely worth a second look.

  3. Cron came across my email inbox this week via Mac Power Users latest episode with Charlie Chapman, the developer behind Dark Noise and the host of the Launched podcast. I requested access but haven’t gotten an invite yet.

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