The Best Calendar App for Mac
Your Mac comes with a great calendar app, but it lacks advanced features, multiple ways to view your calendar, and integration with external services. However, we love Fantastical.
Fantastic 2
Platform: macOS Price: $ 49.99.
Functions
- Menu bar app for easy access to your daily schedule
- Full calendar view with special days, weeks, months and years
- Today widget for Action Center
- Displays maps with your events
- Reminders are integrated into your calendar events
- Natural language input allows you to enter events in natural language, such as “meet Andy tomorrow for lunch.” Supports English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.
- Dark and light themes
- Keyboard shortcut support for adding events and reminders
- Planning for availability
- Time zone support
- Handover support
- Works with iCloud, Google, Exchange, Yahoo and any other CalDAV account.
- Easily switch between different calendars with calendar sets
- Calendar print options for paper calendar lovers
- Google Hangouts support for one-click meetings
Where is it best
Fantastical’s biggest appeal is its ease of use. For those who like to quickly add an event to their calendar and stay organized, you can do this from your Mac’s menu bar using a shortcut. Natural language input is phenomenal: you can quickly add events by typing something like Dinner with Waluigi next Tuesday or Call Comcast March 4th at 8am. For those who need serious calendar management, you can open the full app to get detailed views for your month, day, or week.
The menu bar app may be my favorite part of Fantastical, but it’s certainly not the only positive feature. Fantastical simplifies everything. You can edit events with one click, sort your calendars into specific sets so you can turn multiple calendars on and off with one click, and enabling tasks from reminders makes it easy to see everything on your plate for the day at once.
Fantastical also fully integrates with a number of Google and Exchange calendar features, which means you can schedule your availability or check employee availability. Fantastical is also updated frequently, which means it supports all of Apple’s latest gadgets and operating system features, including support for Notification Center widgets.
Where it fails
Price is the biggest issue with Fantastical because $ 50 per calendar is a lot. However, it is comparable to other desktop calendars and you end up with an application that the developer has supported well for years. The point is, if you need more power than Apple’s free desktop app, you’re going to have to shell out some money. However, there is good news: you can check Fantastical for free for a 21-day trial before making a purchase.
Competition
Apple’s own Calendar app (Free) is the most obvious alternative here, and as a free option, this is the first app you should try. If you just want a simple calendar that shows you events, Calendar does a great job. The biggest issue with Calendar is the general lack of advanced features, including the quirky lack of reminder integration. There is also no app in the menu bar for Calendar, which is a shame because this is one of Fantastical’s greatest strengths.
BusyCal 3 ($ 49.99) is the most obvious Fantastical alternative, and it definitely gets the job done for some people. BusyCal and Fantastical are similar, but BusyCal’s Info Bar is especially good for those who like to customize the details of their events. BusCal also integrates weather forecasts and travel times, which is great if you travel a lot. BusyCal’s menu bar app bundles a number of the same features, although Fantastical isn’t nearly as well designed. Overall, Fantastical is a little easier to use than BusyCal, but BusyCal also has a trial mode, so it’s worth trying both if you’re curious.
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