Thanks for the thought, but I prefer to see the month at a glance and not having to select the specific date to see what’s going on that day. I do use that view when I’m in the Calendar app, but it doesn’t help me grasp what’s happening in my life like a monthly view with details would.
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This is one area that I think BusyCal excels over Fantastical. The month view in BusyCal is actually functional to me. I can see the entire month at a glance and I can tap into each day to get more specific details if needed. Fantasical cuts off the information and there’s no perceivable way to dive in and see the nitty gritty details and then jump back out to the full month view.
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They say podcast apps are tricky to design for because everyone uses them differently and expects different things.
I’d say the same holds true for calendars apps. That month view in any app (on iOS) is WAY too cluttered for my liking and I don’t use views like that. It feels like it’s just information overload that gives me anxiety.
I prefer the Fantastical month cal up top and scrolling list below.
Same goes for David’s love of the quarterly view. Way too busy IMO.
Not saying anyone is wrong, just pointing out how we all see things a little different depending on our use cases.
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Just a heads up, the 20% discount offered for MPU users is stackable on a current subscription. So it reduces the sting of a renewal at the new higher rate. I subscribed Oct/22 so Oct/23 it will renew at the new price - 20%.
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I believe you can stack it up. I went to use it and it seemed to apply, but it’s still like $70 CAD. I had to back out and rethink things over.
It also said I wouldn’t be billed until my sub was up in October.
Thanks I tested it successfully and was updating my post when you replied. It comes out to a $5 increase over the old yearly sub price in the USA so not too bad. I “uncanceled” my subscription. Maybe there will be a black friday sale and I can further push back that price increase. 
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Thanks for the comparison – I’ll check out BusyCal!
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Thanks. I wasn’t going to renew given the price increase, but this softens the blow a good bit as you note. I really like the software, just didn’t want to spend that much money. I’m set for another year.
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Hi @macsorcery, where could a person find the link for the MPU discount for Fantastical? I’ve searched through Google and the forum, can’t find it . Thanks!
shownotes or listen to the episode 
its just /mpu
Thanks 
, that makes sense.
Came in to say this. If you use another service for “Openings,” and you don’t want their ugly ads or feature limitations, you’re going to pay about this much just for that service. Fantastical’s price includes that feature and lots of other nice-to-haves. I think if I didn’t rely on Openings so much it would be a tougher call for the price.
Has openings gotten any better/more reliable?
I first tried it when they released it and ran into a number of issues with it. People not receiving notifications, or not being able to select times. You couldn’t re-send a notification and they just said, “sorry that’s not possible. Try to remove them and re-add them to the opening.” Can I copy a URL to the opening and send it to them outside of Fantastical? “No.” 
Anyway it was just so obscure and opaque that I found the other solutions more “useable”.
Outside of one day when the whole system appeared to be down, I haven’t had any issues in many months of use. At least, I haven’t been hearing complaints.
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I thought Fantastical was priced too high before the price increase. I subscribed about a year ago when they had a special on for a significantly lower price, but won’t be renewing.
I think there are comparatively few people who really have a need for all of the features that Fantastical has. No doubt @MacSparky is one of those few, but not many others. Perhaps Fantastical ought to consider a tiered pricing system, one that makes the basic app attractive to typical users, and another one or two tiers for advanced users. I think with the $57 price tag, they’re going to lose a lot of subscribers.
Fantastical is not the only app featuring natural language input and calendar sets. BusyCal has the same features, with no subscription. You can buy the app for less than a one-month subscription to Fantastical. They also have a good contacts app – better, I think, than CardHop (which I’ve uninstalled). I’ve been using BusyContacts for months, and will likely switch to BusyCal when my Fantastical subscription expires.
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I don’t need the meeting scheduling feature or anything else. Calendar sets would have been a feature I would have subscribed for before Focus Modes. If there was something nominal, I would be tempted just to support fantastical (e.g. about £12 a year)
The developer seems to lean on the fact that the subscription supports two apps, when many users will only use one.
I’m trying out BusyCal now. I’ve been on Fantastical since v1, and I kind of hate to jump off, but subscriptions are adding up for both that and TextExpander (which I realize I’m using less and less and if I could easy export all of that to KBM, I would). I don’t know if I can rationalize about $60/yr right now for Fantastical, and like a dolt, I forgot to take advantage of the discount here!
Anyway, thanks for the tip on Busycal. I could likely make do with the stock Calendar, but I just don’t really like the way it looks, so that may drive me away from BC, too!
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I try and see beauty in its utilitarian design, but you are right, it is not the best looking app out there. 
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I do feel like Fantastical’s language parsing is the best I’ve come across and the appointment scheduling feature is awesome, but for everything else (e.g. look and feel, utility, calendar sets, etc. BusyCal (+ Busy Contacts)) is the best option for me. Also, the fact that the BusyApps are part of SetApp, only makes it a more obvious of a choice.
I can’t say I’ve heard the MPU hosts compare the two, but I’d like to hear them riff on that comparison instead of Fantastical v Calendar.
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