Comparison

Fantastical Calendar vs Zical

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

Zical

This app helps families manage their busy lives by combining calendars, tasks, and notes in one place. It offers shared scheduling, task assignment, and smart reminders to keep everyone connected and organized.

Highlights
  • Shared family calendar
  • Task assignment and tracking
  • Event planning (daily, weekly, monthly)
  • Sticky notes for reminders
  • Smart reminders
  • Multi-user access
Read full description

Zical is an all‑in‑one home life management platform. It supports two‑way calendar sync with iCloud, Google, Outlook and more. Unify family schedules, notes, household chores, meal plans, class timetables, photos and more within a single shared space for seamless multi‑member collaboration. Powered by the Zical AI Voice Assistant, you can create events, tasks and recipes hands‑free using only your voice. Customize home screens, themes, and member‑specific alerts, while keeping your family’s privacy well‑protected. Ditch the chaos and bring order to your entire household.

Screenshots

Fantastical Calendar4 screens
Zical4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Zical at none against Fantastical Calendar's 10. Zical also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.2) and review sentiment (71% vs 47%). Fantastical Calendar's advantage is ratings volume (25K vs 144) and chart position (#147 vs unranked). On price, 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. Zical asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Zical holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fantastical Calendar has 25K ratings behind it against 144, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 47% of Fantastical Calendar's written reviews are positive against 71% of Zical's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fantastical Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, Zical every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Fantastical Calendar versus Zical: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFantastical CalendarZical
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (25K ratings)4.7 (144 ratings) — better
Positive reviews47.4% of reviews71.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings25K — better144
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
Best chart rank#147 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size186 MB176 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperFlexibits Inc.HONG KONG EIVON GROUP LIMITED

Customer experience

Fantastical Calendar

All ratings24,689 ratings
Positive80.1%
Neutral3.4%
Negative16.5%
Written reviews958 reviews
Positive47.4%
Neutral11.5%
Negative41.1%

Zical

All ratings144 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral2.8%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive71.1%
Neutral10.5%
Negative18.4%

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

Zical

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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

Zical

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fantastical Calendar free?
Fantastical Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Zical free?
Zical is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Fantastical Calendar or Zical?
Zical is rated higher. Fantastical Calendar averages 4.2 out of 5 from 25K ratings, while Zical averages 4.7 from 144 ratings.
Do Fantastical Calendar or Zical have ads?
Neither Fantastical Calendar nor Zical shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fantastical Calendar or Zical?
Fantastical Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, and Zical every 8 days. Most recently, Fantastical Calendar was updated on October 30, 2026 and Zical on October 28, 2026.

Other comparisons