Does not warn of paid upgrade. New subscription option does not fill my needs and is overpriced in my opinion. Managed to downgrade to V2 for now but will switch to a different app. I don't wish to have anything to do with flexibits anymore.
It seems like very time they get the watch version working, they break it in the next version. Now, the watch version no longer gets updated. Totally useless and now Fantastical goes into the trash once and for all. And BTW, the new layout is terrible.
Fantastical is "history" for me. For this price and as a subscription, no thanks.Their discussion to switch to subscription, my discussion to use a different calendar software.
One star for ... hmmm ... not sure.
Fantastical is "history" for me. For this price and as a subscription, no thanks.Their discussion to switch to subscription, my discussion to use a different calendar software.
MacUpdate - how is it that Cookie08's 4-star, 1 week old review that has 1 Like (as of now) appears front and center at the top of the comments list with a big green "Most Helpful" checkbox?? There are literally tons of reviews for the same version with plenty more Likes all panning this software with MUCH lower ratings. This just isn't right. BTW - I'm certainly not arguing with Cookie08 here - he's entitled to his opinion. My beef here is entirely with MacUpdate.
Like (4)
Version 3.0.4
1 answer(s)
claus-in-iceland
12 February 2020
Well, I agree, it is a good question. For me it seems that MacUpDate tries to help Fantastical to get at least not only zero/one stars.
Fantastical 3 Upgrade Violates App Store developer guidelines - is it legit, legal ?
Paid for a great app - Now a Smooth rip off - Just one example that we paid for separately for both iPhone and iPad - Day/week/month/year full screen view now has to be paid for again - taking away functionality! Plus giving us nasty pop ups free! More examples below
Apple App Store Developer Guidelines - iOS iPadOS Mac
3.1.2(a) Permissible uses - “If you are changing your existing app to a subscription-based business model, you should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for.” ?
3.1.2 (b) Upgrades and Downgrades - “Users should have a seamless upgrade/downgrade experience...” ?
2.3.1 - “to make the App Store a trustworthy ecosystem...” ?
Existing Fantastical 2 users who had already paid per device now have to pay (again) subs to access features we previously had paid for
The following features have been removed for fantastical 2 users: (Gone :-(
Day/week/month/year full screen view
Time to leave notifications
Apple watch viewing - you now need to make an account to do this?!
Shared calendar change notifications
Full fledged Push updates
Full fledged Calendar sync
Family sync - previously, one account was needed, however now, each user needs to purchase a subscription. so if you have a family, each one must sub.
Now we constant reminders to upgrade and reduced functionality.
No saying what nasty surprise the developer/company Flexibits Inc will throw at us in future
Really wonder what the Apple iOS ipados App Review Team gets paid for!
I've enjoyed using Fantastical for several years, now. It has a couple of features that make it a little more attractive than Apple's Calendar. But, it's not $40 a year better! I'll try this new update (v. 3) for a while. If I like it, fine. If the expected ads, and other rumored changes, aren't to my liking, I will switch back to Apple's Calendar. I will not pay an annual premium.
Flexibits are on another planet with the new v3.0 update.
Firstly, they think they are being "beyond generous" (their words on Twitter), by allowing paid customers to continue using the features they already paid after auto-updating to the new version!! Wow! Well, thanks very much, I guess...
Secondly, the v3 user experience is hugely reduced for v2 users. Many people have had to jump through numerous hoops just to use the app and sign up for a never-needed-before Flexibits account. Parts of it still aren't working for many even after a couple of bug-fix releases. The nice clean interface of v2 is gone and it's now a minefield of asterisks and popups advertising the premium features. Using the app has gone from being a pleasure to a chore trying to avoid mis-clicks triggering yet another advert, and there's no option to turn these ads off.
Thirdly, the pricing ($40 a year) is ridiculous, especially if you only use it on one platform. They say it's to fund future development and they have a full roadmap of enhancements and new features to implement. However, they haven't published this roadmap, so potential customers have no idea what they're actually paying for going forward. Fantastical already does pretty much everything a calendar app needs to so its difficult to see what 'must-have' features there are left to add. Developers either add very little to subscription apps because they know they've got your money anyway, or start adding more bloat and features nobody wanted to try to justify the cost. Considering Fantastical v2 (for iOS) came out over 6 years ago, the pace of development hasn't exactly been fast.
I don't understand how Flexibits thinks it's reasonable to expect anyone with common sense to pay $40/year minimum for a "calendar on steroid." It's a solution in need of problems to solve. Most people don't need or want a fancy calendar loaded with bells and whistles. The only type of people who would pay for Fantastical 3 is Flexibits fanboys and productivity porn addicts who would rather spend more time optimizing and tweaking their workflows than doing the actual work.
I'm Not continuing with you Flexibit. I have used Fantastical and then Fantastical 2 on all my devices: Mac, iPhone, and iPad, for ages. If I'm being treated in such disrespect by asking me to pay another 40$ a 'full features" annual subscription, then, I'm jumping off the boat and returning to Apple Calendar. Stopping using Fantastical on all my devices at once!
Like (6)
Version 3.0.1
1 answer(s)
JohnnyFave
31 January 2020
I'm with you. Rule in business: It takes a lot of "energy" to get a customer, it takes a good amount to keep them, it takes a massive amount to win them back after losing them. And, it's impossible to get them all back as a customer - many are gone for good, never to return. Burn me once, shame on you burn me twice, shame on me.
I am abandoning the sinking ship. If after paying full price for Fantastical, and then for Fantastical 2 on all platforms, and still. got to pay 40$ a. year, I'm returning to Apple calendar on all my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I'm very disappointed.
These guys just peed and pooped in their own pool with all of their customers still in it. I'm abandoning Fantastical and just going back to simpler times with Apple's products.
I've been a long term user and paid full price ($70) for the app on all platforms. The fact that we aren't being grandfathered in (beyond the continued use of the Version 2 features we've already paid for), is incredibly frustrating. Now please note, I have nothing against subscription models in principle, and I love supporting devs that make the apps I love, but when the loyal customer base isn't treated with respect that is horrific business planning.
DayOne did this right. Existing paid users got to keep a lifetime discount when they switched to the subscription model, and I love paying it! They respected their customers, and we existing Fantastical 2 users have been disrespected.
I wouldn't mind paying $20/yr. for Fantastical. I really wouldn't. But $40 a year, when I've already spent $70, is absurd. Flexbit has unreal expectations, and until they fix this their reputation will suffer.
Before downloading the 3.0, keep a backup of the old one
Just if you don't want to be pestered by UPGRADE now and loosing features.
I'm really upset that it essentially broke the Mac app: it removed Day, Week, Month, and Year views (all views!) with a message "Day view is only available with Fantastical Premium".
Where is the promise about keeping all the features you had in Fantastical 2?!
If they wanted to go to a subscription method, fine, but do not delete the apps I paid for in full. Other developers have just created a new version of their app and left their old paid apps as "Classic" and left them unsupported.
I'm done with Fantastical as well. I paid for Desktop and iPhone. Today I looked down at my watch and I had a message it lost touch with fantastical. I found out that they updated to this new subscription model and they say you can keep the same features without the subscription. Then why is it gone on my watch? I am not doing another subscription. Everything is a subscription. I paid for the app and now what I paid for no longer works. I don't find it to be all that much better than the apple products that come free with my computer. Good by Fantastical. No longer fantastic.
Went to a subscription model with mandatory account creation - pricing model (for a calendar app, this is a joke) is ridiculous. I deleted the App across all my devices... it was good while it lasted. (before V3)
Did ANYONE commenting on the subscription model even bother to read the blog post on their website? It specifically says, “ All of the features from your prior purchase of Fantastical 2 will continue to work with the new Fantastical.”
Like (1)
Version 3.0
2 answer(s)
JamesHarrisPhoto
29 January 2020
So for those of us who don't want a subscription model are to be stuck at version 2 indefinitely? Yes, I read it. Would like the new premium features for a single upgrade price and not a subscription.
Like (5)
Version 3.0
akeiler
30 January 2020
I honestly didn't care anymore as I could not use the App without creating a flexibits account...
My definite "NO" to this subscription model. I feel cheated as I have purchased it at the full price. They are surely going to neglect those ones who are not paying them regularly. I've deleted the app.
This is continues to be my main daily business calendar. When Apple split Calendar to have Reminders as a separate app, it made no sense to me. Events and tasks should be in the same program. Well Fantastical is a better calendar and reminder app than either of Apple's apps are individually. My only complaint is there's not enough contrast in the light theme mode, so I have to use the dark theme mode. Other than that, it's the best calendar/reminder app I've used on the Mac.
Love it. It's been my default calendar and reminder app on my Mac and iOS devices for years. I do wish completed reminders would sync more quickly (i.e; marking a reminder completed on one device may mark the reminder completed on another device, but you're still presented with an alert for that same reminder on other devices, especially if that reminder is for a recurring event).
Wish I could have used it to bring Google, Apple and Exchange calendars together all in one place. - but it required two factor for Apple (no thx) and wouldn't use my Exchange credentials to sync. Oh well - tried it and deleted it.
Like (1)
Version 2.5.1
1 answer(s)
Big Johnson
26 September 2018
Two-factor authentication is vitally important on any device that supports it.
It may be a PITA, but probably much less so than having your personal data/pics stolen and circulated on the WWW.
Do you recall the iCloud celebrity photo leaks in 2014?
Those accounts were hacked because they used weak passwords and iCloud security was weak - it did NOT use two-factor at the time.
In Sept. 2014 Apple posted the following statement to its website. https://apple.co/2QYbDat
"Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation
We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple's engineers to discover the source. Our customers' privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud® or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.
To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232.
In other words, Apple says this leak wasn't due to any holes in iCloud or Find My iPhone. The celebrity accounts were specifically targeted and likely breached because of weak passwords and a lack of two-step verification."
TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION FOR APPLE ID Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of security for your Apple ID designed to ensure that you're the only person who can access your account, even if someone knows your password. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915
USING APP-SPECIFIC PASSWORDS App-specific passwords allow you to sign in to your account securely when you use third-party apps with your Apple ID. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204397
FOR ANDROID USERS:
TWO-STEP VERIFICATION FOR APPLE ID If you want to improve the security of your account, but don’t have devices that can be updated to iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan, you can set up two-step verification for your Apple ID. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204152
This calendar app does what it says, but the additions are not worth the almost $40 price tag. Apple's native calendar app does everything well enough.
I LOVE this software but LOATHE Apple's mandatory two-factor authentication. So even after investing in the desktop and iOS versions of Fantastical, I never use it. So lame.
Love this app and use it every day. However, I wish the developer would add the option for having a menu bar clock along with the calendar icon. This, for me, would make it perfect.
I am sure the software is good and does all it says, but I can't see me spending USD50 (close to AUD70) on a calendar app. Yes, I use my calendar every day; yes, I use it on ipad and iphone as well as my MB Air, and yes it works out at 50c/day or whatever, but it's just too expensive. No criticism, no hassles, just a comment from someone who has to make ends meet.
7-13-17
I have Fantastical 1.3.19, and wrote Flexibits asking about a Discounted Upgrade price for existing customers, like normal developers do. They replied: "There's no separate upgrade price from Fantastical 1. We had launch pricing when Fantastical 2 was released in March 2015, but that has ended. We have an educational discount available, but there's no separate upgrade price".
They lost my business.
I bought Fantastical v2 about two months ago as a replacement of Calendar.app. Fantastical v2 works just as expected, a simply and easy to use calendar. But it doesn't provide any fantastic feature other than basic calendar event & to do item management.
Fantastical v2 handles iCloud sync with its own built-in procedure; which means you'll need to generate an authentication token from your iCloud account and assign to Fantastical. The problem is, the internet connection of my office is not very stable, especially when connecting to iCloud, and it seems that Fantastical would have trouble handling unstable connections. For the past two months I've got several system warning messages claiming the Fantastical is trying to access iCloud with erroneous or expired HTTPS certificates.
I've no idea why the developers would design their apps this way.
Fantastical does what it claims to do, but there is nothing fantastic about this third-party calendar app.
One of its selling points is natural language input, but Apple’s default Calendar.app does this well enough, if not better. Fantastical might do this better but, after experimenting with this feature in both apps, I can’t help thinking the difference is so negligible that there is no way I could justify paying $39.99.
Furthermore, I don’t add and confirm new appointments without checking whether a particular spot in their calendar is available to begin with. So, I open Calendar.app first to check. At that point, it’s faster to just drag on Calendar.app GUI or click Quick the Quick Event button to create a new event right in Calendar.app.
I sometimes use LaunchBar’s Calendar.app quick entry feature. LaunchBar doesn’t give me natural language input, but I find it much faster to go with LaunchBar’s more formatted approach. I can just type key information and tab away rather than writing a full sentence.
Besides all that, calendar, in general, shouldn’t be such a fancy big part of one's workflow. It’s just a freakin’ calendar. It should just keep my appointments and move out of my way instead of showing off animated dynamic language detection.
Buyers should be aware of the danger of getting used to a novel way of doing things on their Mac. It is a matter of time before the developer finds it either impossible or not worth the trouble to maintain it. The enthusiastic minority Mac fans will always call it “must-have utility, can’t live without.” But the reality is that the vast majority of users, even so-called power/professional users, are content with using Apple’s default Calendar.app or Google Calendar. Here is how it always turns out; You buy a piece of software like this thinking you can miraculously improve the user experiences. Then, you start spending more time tinkering and troubleshooting as you use it more. Soon, you become a volunteer beta tester for the developer while you also become unnecessarily attached to its novel, optional functionality. After a while, you stop seeing updates and bug fixes, and then you painfully realize that the developers of the utility abandoned it for one reason or another. You will be left with a lot of frustration as a result of your novel setup ripped apart only because some developers no longer felt like doing anything with it. Honestly, I’m sick and tired of this classic pattern with indie developers and wasting my time and money in the process.
I found that, in the long run, these “system enhancements” added more complexity, frustration and “needs” to tinker with, and that I was much better off just making good use of all the default features and default apps on my Mac. Any small gains in user experience are not worth the massive trade-off of depending on this type of apps.
Like (10)
Version 2.3.3
5 answer(s)
JamesHarrisPhoto
16 October 2017
Fantastical replaces not only Apple's Calendar app, but also the Reminder app. To me, it's an awesome part of my workflow. You warn buyers to beware because it doesn't fit your workflow, so buyers should also be wary that this is just your opinion, but not everybody else's.
Like
Scott-C-H-
27 October 2017
<quote> You warn buyers to beware because it doesn't fit your workflow, so buyers should also be wary that this is just your opinion, but not everybody else's. </quote>
...And it is why it's called "Review." The potential buyers deserve an opportunity to make an informed decision, not just some sugar-coated collections of "This is KEWL!!! Must have!!! So worth the money!!!" fanboi reviews.
The cold hard truth is that, for most non-geek general users just trying to get things done, so-called "enhancement apps" just don't matter. Tech enthusiasts are so enamored with their apps that they sincerely believe it's normal to spend $50 on a calendar app that does a slightly fancier version of natural language input and spend time fiddling with such app. The reality is that the time you waste fiddling with this type of app very quickly eradicates the very little saving you might get out of this kind of app. That, if it saves time at all.
Like (3)
amutavdzija
27 October 2017
Wow, @Scott-C-H-, why are you so angry at life, man? How about to each their own and whether or not I or anybody use a fancy calendar app or a bare-bones calendar app, none of that materially affects you in any discernable way.
Like
Scott-C-H-
28 October 2017
@amutavdzija
<quote> How about to each their own and whether or not I or anybody use a fancy calendar app or a bare-bones calendar app, none of that materially affects you in any discernable way. </quote>
Then, what's the point of reading reviews? Why are you even reading them? Should nobody share honest observations and thoughts about a particular product?
Like (1)
Odysseus
18 July 2018
I found Scott's review helpful. Like him, I often fall into the trap (or time sieve) of becoming a beta tester for a developer. I do appreciate the fact that reminders and events appear together in Fantastical (although I now mainly use Things 3 for tasks), and Fantastical avoids the annoyance in Calendar where you manually have to accept all changes to shared calendars. The list view of all events and tasks on the left is useful to me. I do wonder often whether I really need it on Mac OS. However, on iOS, I find it essential because Calendar on iOS is really underpowered.
The killer feature of Fantastical for me is the excellent feedback while using natural language input to create an event (or reminder). As I type, the program shows me exactly what the new event will look like, and I can tweak anything by modifying what I type or by directly interacting with the GUI. No wondering what the program thinks of my text.
I found the jump from Fantastical 1 to 2 well worth the $40 (current price) due to improvements in the natural language support. In Fantastical 2 I can easily specify:
- the calendar, using /<name> where the name can be abbreviated (my calendars only require a single letter)
- the alert time ("alert 10" or "alert 1 h"...)
These may seem like simple things but I used Fantastical 1 heavily for a long time and have been wanting these features.
I'm not yet sure how useful I'll find the integrated calendar application, but intend to give it a good try. I appreciate that it shows all events on a given day in Month view, unlike Apple's Calendar. However, I agree with others that is a nuisance that the main application must be running to use the menu bar application. I'd rather they were loosely coupled, like 1Password. Apparently Flexibits is working on this, though no promises if or when it will happen.. It is possible to hide Fantastical 2 in the dock, but then the application has no application-specific menu bar, possibly making some things harder to do.
Fantastical 1 was rock solid for me, and so far 2 is looking good. Support is excellent. I reported one minor GUI glitch and had a patch within a day.
Like (2)
Version 2.3.3
1 answer(s)
Cookie08
17 March 2017
Having the main app open so that it works is the main problem with this app if you have the menubar enabled the main app has to be open for it to work and the app to sync with the cloud???? Every other calendar app runs a background app to handle syncing and the menubar. This has to be the biggest drawback with this app. All the others can manage this BusyCal, iTriumph, Apple Calendar, Informant all the heavy weights can do this with no problems. This is a great app but for this omission I happily go back to using it. Until then I will stick with the others.
Most helpful
Read 224 Fantastical User Reviews
Rate this app:
It may be a PITA, but probably much less so than having your personal data/pics stolen and circulated on the WWW.
Do you recall the iCloud celebrity photo leaks in 2014?
Those accounts were hacked because they used weak passwords and iCloud security was weak - it did NOT use two-factor at the time.
In Sept. 2014 Apple posted the following statement to its website. https://apple.co/2QYbDat
"Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation
We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple's engineers to discover the source. Our customers' privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud® or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.
To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232.
In other words, Apple says this leak wasn't due to any holes in iCloud or Find My iPhone. The celebrity accounts were specifically targeted and likely breached because of weak passwords and a lack of two-step verification."
TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION FOR APPLE ID
Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of security for your Apple ID designed to ensure that you're the only person who can access your account, even if someone knows your password. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915
USING APP-SPECIFIC PASSWORDS
App-specific passwords allow you to sign in to your account securely when you use third-party apps with your Apple ID.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204397
FOR ANDROID USERS:
TWO-STEP VERIFICATION FOR APPLE ID
If you want to improve the security of your account, but don’t have devices that can be updated to iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan, you can set up two-step verification for your Apple ID.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204152
You warn buyers to beware because it doesn't fit your workflow, so buyers should also be wary that this is just your opinion, but not everybody else's.
</quote>
...And it is why it's called "Review." The potential buyers deserve an opportunity to make an informed decision, not just some sugar-coated collections of "This is KEWL!!! Must have!!! So worth the money!!!" fanboi reviews.
The cold hard truth is that, for most non-geek general users just trying to get things done, so-called "enhancement apps" just don't matter. Tech enthusiasts are so enamored with their apps that they sincerely believe it's normal to spend $50 on a calendar app that does a slightly fancier version of natural language input and spend time fiddling with such app. The reality is that the time you waste fiddling with this type of app very quickly eradicates the very little saving you might get out of this kind of app. That, if it saves time at all.
<quote>
How about to each their own and whether or not I or anybody use a fancy calendar app or a bare-bones calendar app, none of that materially affects you in any discernable way.
</quote>
Then, what's the point of reading reviews? Why are you even reading them? Should nobody share honest observations and thoughts about a particular product?