Comparison

Fantastical Calendar vs Microsoft Planner

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Fantastical Calendar

This powerful calendar and task management app offers intuitive natural language input for event creation, multiple calendar views, and robust task integration. It provides weather forecasts and advanced features like meeting polls and video conferencing integration for premium users.

Highlights
  • Natural language event and task creation
  • Multiple calendar views (day, week, month, year)
  • Integrated task management (Todoist, Google Tasks)
  • Weather forecasts
  • Meeting scheduling and polls
  • Video conferencing integration
Features
Read full description

Fantastical is the award-winning calendar app with powerful features including intuitive natural language text parsing, beautiful full calendar day, week, month, quarter and year views, tasks, time zone support, and much, much more. TRY FANTASTICAL FOR FREE • Beautiful, clean, and easy to use calendar app allowing you to manage basic events • The DayTicker and calendar makes your schedule look the nicest it ever has • Full screen day, week, month, quarter, and year views • Full task support including Todoist and Google Tasks • 3 day weather forecast (powered by AccuWeather) • 14 day free trial for Flexibits Premium UPGRADE TO FLEXIBITS PREMIUM FOR EVEN MORE (requires subscription) • Includes Fantastical on all devices: Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad • Openings: Schedule events based on your availability • Proposals: Create meeting polls • Add Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, and Microsoft Teams calls • Extended 10 day weather forecast with RealFeel and MinuteCast up-to-the-minute weather data (powered by AccuWeather) • Browse and instantly subscribe to interesting calendars, including sports, TV shows, holidays, and much more (powered by SchedJoules) • Calendar sets - quickly toggle multiple calendars on or off with a simple click or automatically when you leave or arrive, based on location • Event and task templates • Sync calendar sets and templates across devices • Apple Watch app with Up Next and Weather (and works over LTE) • Parser autocomplete recommendations for invitees, locations, and calendars/task lists • Propose multiple times to easily ask people when they can meet • Combine duplicate events across multiple calendars • Invitees and availability lookups • Respond to event invitations • Default alerts • Time zone override • Favorite time zones • Push updates for Google and Exchange • Set event travel time and receive time to leave notifications • Custom event colors • Custom home screen icons • Custom alert sounds • Hide events without deleting them • Add attachments to events on iCloud, Google, and Exchange • Priority email support ADDING NEW EVENTS OR TASKS IS FAST AND FUN • The easiest and fastest way to add new events or tasks • Type in your details or use dictation and watch your words magically turn into an actual event or task! • Powerful parser features, including: - Create tasks by starting your sentence with “task” ”reminder", "todo", or "remind me to" - Powerful and expressive repeating events such as third Thursday of every month, every weekend, last weekday of the month, and more - Create alerts with phrases like "remind me tomorrow at 3PM", "alert 1 hour before", or "alarm 3PM" THE BEST TASKS APP, TOO • See your events and dated tasks together in the main list • Add tasks directly from the Tasks list or new event screen - just flip the switch to toggle between events and tasks • Set dates, times, and geofences (when I arrive/when I leave) • Support for iCloud Reminders, Todoist, and Google Tasks WORKS THE WAY YOU DO • Connects to your favorite calendar services including iCloud, Google, Exchange, Office 365, Todoist, and more • Automatically add alarms to your new events • Fantastical is fully localized in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese • Start typing your event or task in any of these languages and Fantastical will automagically understand! EVEN MORE FANTASTICAL • Lots and lots of iOS and iPadOS widgets • Background app updating enables events, tasks, and alerts to be pushed to Fantastical even if you don't launch the app often • Birthdays and Anniversaries - see your contact’s details or send a quick birthday or anniverary greeting • Handoff support between Fantastical for Mac, iPhone, and iPad • Time zone support including floating time zone support • Dark and light themes • Stickers • Accessibility support • And much, much more!

About

Microsoft Planner

Organize teamwork visually with a simple, interactive board. Assign tasks, track progress, and collaborate with your team through integrated conversations and file sharing. Stay updated on all your tasks across different plans and devices.

Highlights
  • Visual task boards
  • Task assignment and tracking
  • Team collaboration and chat
  • File sharing
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • My Tasks view
Read full description

Microsoft Planner requires an eligible Office 365 work or school subscription. This app does not support Office 365 personal accounts (for example: name@outlook.com or name@hotmail.com). If you are not sure about your company’s subscription or the services you have access to, please contact your IT department. Planner provides a simple, visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you’re working on, and get updates on progress. -- Organize work visually -- Each plan has its own board, where you can organize tasks into buckets. You can categorize tasks based on their status or on whom they’re assigned to. To update the status or change assignments, just drag and drop tasks between columns. -- Visibility -- The My Tasks view provides a comprehensive list of all your tasks and their status across all your plans. When working together on a plan, team members always know who is working on what. -- Collaborate -- Built for Office 365, Planner lets you work together on the same tasks, attach captured photos directly to them, and even have conversations around tasks without switching between apps. With Planner, all your team’s discussions and deliverables stay with the plan and don’t get locked away across disparate applications. -- Works across devices -- Planner works across all your devices. And with Planner, everyone is always on the same page. Continue conversations and updates tasks while on-the-go or at your desk. Terms of service: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=846830 Privacy policy: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839 To learn more, please visit https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=849067 The Microsoft Planner app will request permission to access your photos and your camera: When you try to attach a photo to a Planner task, the app requests permission to access your Photos app in order to select images. If you choose to take a photo to attach to a Planner task, the app will request permission to access your Camera app.

Screenshots

Fantastical Calendar4 screens
Microsoft Planner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Microsoft Planner at none against Fantastical Calendar's 10. Microsoft Planner also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.2). Fantastical Calendar's advantage is review sentiment (47% vs 29%) and chart position (#132 vs unranked). On price, ratings volume, ads and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Fantastical Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Microsoft Planner asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Microsoft Planner holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 25K and 13K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 47% of Fantastical Calendar's written reviews are positive against 29% of Microsoft Planner's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fantastical Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, Microsoft Planner every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 17, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Fantastical Calendar versus Microsoft Planner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFantastical CalendarMicrosoft Planner
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (25K ratings)4.6 (13K ratings) — better
Positive reviews47.1% of reviews — better29.1% of reviews
Number of ratings25K — better13K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
Best chart rank#132 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size185 MB158 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFlexibits Inc.Microsoft Corporation

Customer experience

Fantastical Calendar

All ratings24,537 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral3.4%
Negative16.6%
Written reviews951 reviews
Positive47.1%
Neutral11.6%
Negative41.3%

Microsoft Planner

All ratings13,168 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews447 reviews
Positive29.1%
Neutral17.7%
Negative53.2%

User reviews

Fantastical Calendar

From 25K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 👍 Excellent natural language input
  • 💡 Helpful calendar integration features
  • 🚀 Smooth syncing across devices
  • 👍 Beautiful and clean UI design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent behavior with reminders and event management
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🤖 Overly aggressive upselling of premium features
  • 🤔 Concerns about forced account creation
  • 🐛 Sync issues between iOS and Mac versions

Microsoft Planner

From 13K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great for team collaboration
  • 👍 Easy to use and intuitive
  • 🚀 Helpful for personal organization
  • 👍 Good integration with Microsoft 365 suite

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and unstable
  • 🔒 Limited to work/school accounts only
  • 🔒 Lack of customization options
  • 🐛 Slow performance and sync issues
  • 🔒 Missing key features like calendar view

Bugs and requests

Fantastical Calendar

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Apple Watch sync problems
  • Events disappearing or changing unexpectedly
  • Freezing and crashing on certain user actions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to disable predictive input features
  • Improved calendar set management
  • Enhanced integration with third-party apps and services
  • Ability to customize app icons and themes

Microsoft Planner

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Freezing on login screen
  • Inability to create or edit plans
  • Tasks disappearing or not syncing properly
  • Compatibility issues on older devices
  • Comments not saving or editable

Requested features

5 requests
  • Recurring tasks and calendar integration
  • Ability to copy/move tasks between plans
  • More flexible labeling and filtering options
  • Offline mode and export/import functionality
  • Deeper integration with Outlook and Teams

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Fantastical Calendar

Subscriptions10
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)$6.991 Month
  • Flexibits Premium14 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)3 Months trial$6.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Premium for Families14 Days trial$10.491 Month
  • Premium Family (2020 Upgrade)$10.491 Month
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)$56.991 Year
  • Flexibits Premium14 Days trial$56.991 Year
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)3 Months trial$56.991 Year
  • Premium for Families14 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Premium Family (2020 Upgrade)$89.991 Year
None

Microsoft Planner

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fantastical Calendar free?
Fantastical Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Microsoft Planner free?
Microsoft Planner is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Fantastical Calendar or Microsoft Planner?
Microsoft Planner is rated higher. Fantastical Calendar averages 4.2 out of 5 from 25K ratings, while Microsoft Planner averages 4.6 from 13K ratings.
Do Fantastical Calendar or Microsoft Planner have ads?
Neither Fantastical Calendar nor Microsoft Planner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fantastical Calendar or Microsoft Planner?
Fantastical Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, and Microsoft Planner every 6 weeks. Most recently, Fantastical Calendar was updated on October 17, 2026 and Microsoft Planner on October 17, 2026.

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